Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Strategy

Last Thursday, Mrs Colussi and I engaged and consulted within our Aboriginal families in implementing our 2025 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Action Plan. We are excited in the journey ahead in learning and growing together, in true reconciliation, about Aboriginal culture and the exciting events planned ahead.

On 26th May our school will recognise National Sorry Day, which then leads into Reconciliation Week. National Sorry Day is held each year to acknowledge and recognise members of the Stolen Generations. National Reconciliation Week (NRW) is celebrated across Australia each year between 27 May and 3 June. The dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey—the anniversaries of the successful 1967 referendum and the High Court Mabo decision. The week is a time to reflect on achievements so far and the things which must still be done to achieve reconciliation. National Reconciliation Week offers people across Australia the opportunity to focus on reconciliation, to hear about the cultures and histories of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to explore new and better ways of meeting challenges in our communities. 

In the coming weeks, our Aboriginal students will be involved in learning about, and selecting native plant species, including Aboriginal bush tucker species, in beautifying our school Yalunga Garden space. All students within our school will then engage in activities which will further enhance this special place within our school. 

NAPLAN Digital Technologies Trial

On Tuesday 6th May, 20 randomly selected Year 6 students participated in a trial NAPLAN Digital Technologies test. While the school, students and parents don’t receive any individual test results, the test enables schools, education ministers and the community about levels of achievement in ICT education among Year 6 and Year 10 students across Australia.

Learning Engagement

As a school, we are encouraging our students to become aware of their own learning behaviours. One particular aspect of this is students being aware of how they are going, and challenging themselves, even when they might make a mistake. Healthy risk-taking, and learning how to overcome failure and adversity, is an important element of learning. In supporting the learning process, you could ask your child “What is something that challenged you today?” You could also share your own challenges at work and how you persevered to overcome them. We are continuing on to examine ways in which we can ensure all students are challenged and engaged, and encouraging students to have agency in making choices to challenge themselves. Examples of some strategies teachers are using are tiered tasks, where students can select from various difficulty levels when completing a task, and enabling (to make tasks easier like hints) and extending (making a task more difficult) prompts for students to access if they are finding a task too easy or difficult. 

“"I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying." ― Michael Jordan

School Representative Council

Our SRC continues to implement improvement initiatives, based on student voice data. This week, our SRC have introduced a soccer timetable to ensure equitable access to the school fields for playing at lunchtimes, and the introduction of four new lunchtime clubs in our library space. Students are excited about the new clubs including Lego and Games, Dance, Chess and the Deadly Club (Aboriginal focus). The SRC are also in the process of detailing 3 new school Positive Behaviours for Learning mascots, including a Kookaburra, Whale and Echidna. More exciting announcements to be made very soon.

Lindsay Burns
Assistant Principal