Another amazing community turn out at the Ski for Life event last Friday. Thank you Mr Clinton Griffiths for providing extra entertainment by winning and wearing the pink tutu. Well done to our SRC who raised and donated funds to the ‘Walkers-On-the-Water’ team and also to our School Captains on making their first community public speech. Many thanks to our staff who organised, supervised and assisted to make the event for all our students, preschool to year 12.

The Ski for Life speaker, Ben , once again spoke well about how mental ill-health can, and does afflict any of us. He consistently encourages all that when experiencing such difficulties, it is more important than ever to talk to a trusted person about it.

The Ski for Life priority, to raise awareness and understanding of mental health issues, closely aligns with SRAS’s WeMatter focus. Through events like this, we continue to take further steps in building our positive school community. This helps children (and adults) feel that the school and community is a safe place where needs can be met. Research shows that when children and families are connected to school and community that children (and adults) are less likely to develop mental health problems and succeed better at school and in the community.

Furthermore, positive school communities create opportunities for children, families and staff to feel included. They build bridges to help everyone benefit. Well done SRAS and local communities on a successful joint venture.

Coming soon will be the media release from Mid Murray Our Town (MMOT), whose team submission won $100,000 to raise mental health in the Mid Murray Council area, with a focus on Swan Reach Community. The decision to focus on Swan Reach rather than the whole Mid Murray Area was made after careful consideration by the MMOT team; taking aboard feedback from the Fay Fuller Foundation that our community has activated members (such as Ski-for-Life), and to concentrate on a smaller region as a blue print for the future. SRAS will ensure a copy of the release is included with our next newsletter.

SPORTS DAY

Congratulations to all students for their participation in this year's Athletics Day. Well done, and thank you to Mr Coleman who did an excellent job in organising the event which was fun and inclusive for all.

DAYMAP

SRAS apologises that Daymap won’t be accessible to our community until the start of term 2. We are highly frustrated with the slow and inadequate ICT support we are receiving, as most of the faults can only be rectified by them. Mr Troy Cowland is highly persistent and is outsourcing what support he can to an expert in another Area School. We are beginning to open access to students, so hopefully by the start of term 2 they’ll be able to assist families at home. We are also looking at organising a support sessions for families ASAP after term 2 begins. Thank you for your patience.

3 WAY CONFERENCE

Parents, Carers and students are strongly encouraged and invited to book in for these conferences in week 8 (Monday 15^th Mar, Tuesday 16^th Mar & Wednesday 17^th Mar).  The format will be the same providing you with the opportunity to meet with a core team (where possible) of your child(ren)’s teachers and SSOs to set relevant learning goals using the Individual Learning Plan(ILP) template. Data about your child(ren)’s achievement against national and state standards will be viewed on the ILP form and Education Dashboard application on the smart board.

NOTE WELL:

• The school will close early on Tuesday the 16^th March at 2:20pm to allow for parents and carers to access earlier time slots
• Buses will depart at 2:30pm
• Conferences will begin at 2:40pm
• Early Learning Centre (ELC) conferences will be offered on preschool days over the course of this term. Mrs Trish Horstmann will organise these separately.

 TEACHER PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

This week SRAS has staff engaging in two major professional learning workshops:

1. The Berry Street Education Model is a progressive training program that enables teachers to increase engagement with challenging students and successfully improve all students’ self-regulation, growth, and academic achievement.
2. Sheena Cameron’s reading comprehension strategies. This workshop takes this research and turns it into classroom practice. It is based on Sheena’s experience of teaching strategies in a real classroom. It answers questions such as, ‘Are the strategies hierarchical? How long should I spend teaching each strategy? and ‘Do I teach them to the whole class or in groups?

Professor John Hattie places significant emphasis on the importance of evidence-based professional learning for teachers. Both of the programs above are highly endorsed by the Department for Education and will be crucial learning for staff to further embed wellbeing for learning through the Berry Street program and further skills and knowledge to continue embedding our Literacy Site Improvement Goal to improve students’ reading achievements.

Professor Helen Timperley supports this understanding and advocates that:

“Teachers who are engaged in cycles of effective professional learning take greater responsibility for the learning of all students; they do not dismiss learning difficulties as an inevitable consequence of the home or community environment. As they take more responsibility, and as they discover that their new professional knowledge and practice are having a positive impact on their students, they begin to feel more effective as teachers.” Teacher professional learning and development (page 9). https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.524.3566&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Our recent positive School Review is testiment to the impact of effective teacher training by SRAS staff in the past 4 years that have improved Literacy and Numeracy outcomes for our learners – evidenced by our PAT data.

PAT READING

2018 - Year 3-10 at SEA = 74% 37 out of 50 students

2019 - Year 3-10 at SEA = 82.9% 34 out of 41 students

2020 - Year 3-10 at SEA = 90% 28 out of 31 students

PAT MATHS

2018 - Year 3-10 at SEA = 64% 32 out of 50 students

2019 - Year 3-10 at SEA = 60.9% 25 out of 41 students

2020 - Year 3-10 at SEA = 70.6% 24 out of 34 students

Mr John Robertson