Ian Filer
Outlined below is information of a general nature, that was discussed at Governing Council on Monday night. In essence my Principal’s report.
Reconciliation Week Art Display
Melani and Stephanie are this year’s two newly appointed Performing Arts teachers (one year contracts with Rachel’s temporary relocation to Yorke Peninsula). With the lead up to Reconciliation week, both Mel and Steph focused on our students presenting pieces of art, that reflected our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. This has been put on display in the break out spaces of LA1/STEM room and are truly remarkable. These beautiful expressions of our student’s creative capabilities are genuinely impressive. Due to COVID-19 we are unable to share these with our wider community but Mel is creating a video post to share with our wider community. Take a look- a great lead up to our upcoming Art Show, to be held in the hall later in term three.
Student Behaviour
Student behaviour at our school continues to impress me, with very clear procedures in place and high expectations of students. Inappropriate student behaviour continues to decline. Well done to all our students and particularly to our staff for promoting the notion of a safe and sensible school environment. Keep it up students.
Term Two Reports
Our term two modified reports, will be distributed to parents in week 10 of the term. Staff are currently engaged in producing a quality report for all students. It should be remembered that this has been a challenging task considering COVID-19, but I know all class / specialist teachers have done their best to provide accurate information to parents, albeit with somewhat limited / reduced evidence of student learning. We have also introduced a specialist teachers report for any student who achieves either an A or an E for this semester’s learning. Written by special teachers, they produce a comment that qualifies either an A or an E grade. A challenge for Jeff, Sally and Jody has been aggregating a Health/PE grade/comment. A child may receive a B in PE and a D in Health which results in an overall C grade. We have separated Performing Arts and Music as separate subject areas.
Policy Review
Led by Christie Evans and Kim Lauwrens (Ian’s assistant), we have been undertaking a review of all policies at our school. This is a long overdue but necessary process that we will continue to undertake every two years. At Governing Council on Monday night, our Mobile Phone policy and our Reporting policy were approved by Council. These will appear later on our Blog.
Performance Discussions
Over the past four weeks all leadership staff have been undertaking performance discussions with all staff (81 on total), where we review each employees’ performance development plan. This is conducted twice a year where staff reflect on their performance and feedback is provided. We focus on highlights / successes, challenges, moving forward, personal goals and in this difficult time, what COVID-19 means for each individual. I have been very impressed with our staff and their engagement with this professional task.
SSO2 Panel
Kim and I are currently involved in a panel process to appoint a front office receptionist/administrator to work in tandem with Sarah as the face of our school. The process has completed and the successful candidate announced once the appeal period is over-later this week.
New Build Tender
The tender for our new build has been finalised and details regarding budget / progress / timeline will be announced in the very near future. Grove, a Victorian based company, has been awarded the contract. Simon Froude, Steward Watson and I flew to Melbourne late last year to visit a range of new build sites. One site we visited South Yarra Primary was a build undertaken by Grove. We were very impressed by the quality and finish of their three story building.