Dear Parents, Carers, Boys and Girls,

Staff Professional Learning
Teachers are always striving to improve what they do and they hold high expectations for themselves and their students. Over the past two years our staff have been engaged in a series of professional learning opportunities with a focus on embedding High Impact Teaching Practices (HITP) into their daily teaching. HITP are instructional practices that reliably increase student learning.

During the September/October break, a large number of our teaching staff will be attending a 3 day professional learning intensive program in Canberra called HITP in Action. The program is grounded in the Science of Learning and will continue to explore what we know about how students learn and what that means for how we teach. There will be a focus on daily review and explicit teaching, two strategies our staff have been working on with Dr Lorraine Hammond and her team this year. Dr Lorraine Hammond and her team will lead the learning and our teachers will be involved in a combination of theory, demonstration, practice and coaching sessions.

As a system of schools, we are committed to build our knowledge and learn together to transform students’ lives through learning. At the centre of our learning is the achievement of our two system goals:

• Every child is a competent reader
• High Impact Teaching Practice is visible in every classroom

On the first day of Term 4, the whole teaching team will be attending another day of professional learning in Braidwood along with a number of other schools from our system. This day will focus on the principles of explicit instruction to teach writing and vocabulary, the impact on student learning when teaching this way, and opportunities to work collaboratively with colleagues across the system to plan writing and vocabulary daily reviews and lessons. 

It is exciting work and we are fortunate to have such dedicated staff that are committed to being their best. 

Wishing you and your families a safe and enjoyable break.

God bless and take care.

Sue Heffernan
Assistant Principal