Greetings all in the IEPS community. I would like to thank everyone for their support over the last week, especially with the pick up and drop off arrangements that are in place. Although not what most people would choose; anything that prevents us going back to lockdown is most likely the right way to go.

Annual Implementation Plan 

Part Two of our Annual Implementation Plan report focusses on Student Learning and largely the work done by the Evidence team.

 

Term 2 Goals  

The Term 2 goal was for our evidence team to ensure that practice is consistent across the school in the first instance. We engaged in Learning Walks to follow up on this and reported back to the School Improvement Team. We have developed a consistent approach to the development of data walls across the school (these are a big step in helping students learn new and challenging work).

 

Term 2 Outcomes 

It would be correct to say that we have data walls in evidence in all year levels across the school. Each classroom has visible learning goals; there has been work undertaken to ensure that this is an expected protocol. Learning walks have been implemented and feedback has been provided to teachers around critical areas of practice. All teachers have had the opportunity to get feedback from senior staff on their professional practice and have growth plans in place.

Future Planning  

The following actions have been scheduled for Semester 2 and the Data team feels on task with the following core strategies: 

• Creating a deeper understanding of the Reading and Viewing Curriculum by updating our Reading GVC and 'I can' statement 
• Update the Assessment Schedule so that it more targeted and relates more to a formative assessment that provides the teacher with a better understanding of the needs of the individual
• Explore opportunities to develop teacher skill providing feedback to students - students to teachers - and student to students. This may require us to stretch beyond the expertise already within the school.

The wrap

Remote learning 5.0 is over (phew) and I just wanted to sum up a couple of thoughts. Firstly, thank you for all of the feedback we received over the journey. It was great to hear about all of the effort and resilience shown by staff, families and students during this time. In between our on-line lessons our staff were heavily tasked with having learning and well-being conversations with students. This level of support made a great contribution to the way in which our students have returned to school; enthusiastic and focused.

We did get some questions and feedback about the first day of lockdown and why the on-line learning program didn’t commence straight away. As mentioned previously, DET communicated to all Principals via the Statewide briefing that for July 16^th the focus was to be on well-being and planning for the following week.

As we mentioned last week, every family has different circumstances that make their home learning situation unique - I’ve learnt that both this year and last year (both completely different schools) and some conversations I have had with people recently. Will any approach to remote learning suit everybody? Probably not; but we will always continue to do the best we can.

Over coming weeks, we will be looking to get the students back in to classroom routine as soon and as much as possible. We will also be tapping in to the approaches we implement through the Smiling Minds program to strengthen the connectedness between our students and their teachers.

Brett Millott.

brett.millott@education.vic.gov.au