Welcome to my Week 8 Blog.
I am sorry for any confusion I may have caused by calling last week’s blog by the incorrect name. My last blog should have been labelled Week 7. Phew, very confusing. We can put it down to wedding mayhem.
Phonics Instruction, Visible Learning and Collective Efficacy
A lot has been going on at our school over the past week. Our teachers and education assistants have been looking at how we teach children to read at Woodland Grove. We have a big focus on phonics instruction and in particular we have been looking at how we ensure children know the phonemes (speech sounds) that make up the English language. We are using a strategy called THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading and Spelling Skills). Over the next few weeks you can expect your children to start talking about phonemes and graphemes and to be singing the rap. If you would like to know more about THRASS feel free to talk to your class teacher and look at the THRASS website https://www.thrass.com.au/for-parents/
As you would know we have a Visible Learning focus as described by researcher John Hattie at Woodland Grove. Hattie says one of the most effective ways to help children learn is to ensure that we have collective efficacy. Collective efficacy is when everyone in a school believes that together they can make a difference. Our educators at Woodland Grove have been exploring what collective efficacy means for our school and ways to ensure we are as effective as possible. Follow the website link to find out more. http://visiblelearningplus.com/about-us
Our work on THRASS is a good example of collective efficacy. By working together as a staff we believe we can ensure all children at Woodland Grove Primary School are provided with a sound phonics program that will benefit them for life.
Cross Country
We had a highly successful Cross Country day last Friday. I am sure you will all join me in congratulating Clayton Bird, our Physical Education teacher on a very smooth carnival. Thank you to the P&C sausage sizzle for providing welcome sustenance on the day. Most importantly all children who entered the cross country event finished. Well done.
Our inaugural House champions for Cross Country were Belmont followed by Flemington, Ascot and Gloucester. Our Year 6 Belmont students were presented with the shield kindly donated by our P&C.
A BIG thank you to our school community – children, teachers, education assistants, parents and carers for your help and support. The day had a really lovely atmosphere and bodes well for future events.
Congratulations to all our champions and runners up:
Uniform
Lastly we approved the rugby jumper prototype for Permapleat to provide for our uniform. The jumper should be available in September.
