WEEK 4 – Assembly

WEEK 3 HIGH SCHOOL ONLAND LEARNING

Dear All,

I trust everyone is enjoying their break.  We have been very active in the office.  Last Saturday, we had our professional development day for teachers.  This is a regular event at the end of every term.  It allows us to refocus, refine and evolve.

Our KeyStone from last term was Identity.  Our teachers all celebrated the term, and they outlined the following areas as successes.  These were the words of trusting relationships.  I, personally, felt such warmth: what an incredible cluster of adults with whom your children will grow.

Celebrations presented from our teachers

• Gelling of new students – relationships and unifying old with new.
• New staff – gelling old and new. Fun!
• New workplace which is very vibrant and interesting – happy to be part of a really good team.
• Celebrate – “Student” coming along so well.  Formed a band.  Really experimenting and linking with others.
• Music – how many have taken up music.
• High school – how they have shifted in attitude and bonding.  A love.
• Getting children out to different places and variety and diversity of experiences.
• Number of children who ask of others’ welfare – asking about other children’s injuries.
• Swimming – amazing how we focus on teaching kids to swim.
• Sense of belonging – feeling they are in a safe place.  In seven weeks, children feel this is where they belong.
• Everything – kindness of kids to others.  In Kindy they are already empathetic and thinking of others
• A girl who was home-schooled, came in terrified and is now thriving.  Collegiality and so beautiful to see a butterfly blossom.
• Team – and support…. Everyone.
• Team – what she said. Y4 and aha moment – everything gelled and they came together as an ensemble.  Made me all warm inside – it’s working!  Norpa space has been really nice.
• These kids and conversations with them – makes my day.  Always someone you talk to and you go – ah, you’re amazing.  Share something and they always respond.  Also feels like we can do anything here.  Allow to run with things.
• Circles – the shape of the circle has been really important.  When we are in a circular shape the conversations build a culture where they really like being together with a level of honesty that is pretty amazing.  Kids telling stories of past experiences of schooling saying – this is the safest school they have ever been in.  The space from where we get insights to ‘read’ children “everyone let’s their walls down and we all share”.

Seven weeks ago, we drew together so many new individuals.  The term did have a plethora of experiences – and when you reflect on what we achieved, I do find our commitment incredible.

Celebrations of Learning this past term

• Learning Families created and operating successfully – thank you Sara!
• Programs for all stages published based on our Holistic Learning Lens
• University of Melbourne – New Metrics – supported by Katie
• Photography dark room completed and operational – with Em’s support.
• School Gatherings with key messaging.
• Swimming Programme every Wednesday – thank you Johann, Sherri and Mimi.
• Water Carnival – rather than a school swimming carnival.
• 2 Competitive NCIS swimming carnivals (Primary and Secondary).
• Competitive NCIS soccer carnival at Coffs Harbour.
• Creation of chess team – and first competition against Richmond River College (we won on count back and our players are into the next round) – thank you, Karen.
• Excursions, Incursions and Activities
  • Murwillumbah – to gallery to see Archibalds
  • Murwillumbah – to see film
  • Boat trip from Ballina to Lismore in stages
  • Waterfall excursion
  • Killen Falls excursion
  • Boat trip for littlies
  • Local area trips – Lennox Head, Ballina, Minyon Falls, Evans Head
  • Bangalow with Aunty Delta
  • Beach and farm
  • Sex ed presentation and workshops with Jane McGowan
  • Lecture by Angus McDonald re Art
  • Lecture by forensic scientist – Mal’s mate
  • Guest speaker on neural science on metacognition – thank you, Brad.
  • Guest speaker – Australian icon of theatre, Reg Cribb
  • Parent Book club – Flourish by Martin Seligman
  • Parent Boat trip – Ballina to Wardell; Wardell to Woodburn
  • Parent bamboo harvest on a Saturday – thank you, Jason et al
  • Mural support by Carlee (artist)
  • Book publishing and writing with author Zanni Louise (5/6)
• Selectives on Friday (electives with placements based on class)

I know I have missed out many more!!

We have looked at next term’s programme.  Our KeyStone is Nature.  This is one of my favourites.  Next term, we have some great things planned.

Some organisational refinements are set in play:

ORGANISATION

Start of Each Day

We are going to settle all our learners into the pattern of the day with Circle Time every morning from 9:00-9:30am.  As students arrive after 9:00, they will settle into their learning group, get themselves organised, review what is planned for the day, prepare diaries and journals, and calm their minds.  Parents/Carers can support us by ensuring all children are ready for the day by checking bags, making sure they have all their equipment and food.

Karen is going to step back in with Year 7 as their learning guardian.  Every morning, apart from Wednesdays, Karen will settle our learners, calm emotions by organising them all for the day ahead, and guide open conversations via circle time.

Rhythms for the Week

We did achieve so much last term.  But it is important we establish rhythms that are intentional, calming, while still offering excitement and a love of learning.  To this end, we have been working hard over the holiday break to strengthen our administration, communication channels, and our organisation.  These modifications will be noticed:

• There will be more consistency by all teachers to communicate learning celebrations.
• We have now completed class communication lists – this was a huge task (thank you, Gabi).
• We are advancing some administration and online systems to better manage emails, requests, calendar dates, risk assessments, incident reports and accident reports.
• The timetable is now more consistent – especially in the upper years.
• We are consolidating electives and project based learning activities to Fridays.
• We are soon to announce an After School Care programme based on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.

Jabay – now on Tuesday and Wednesday

Owing to changes we have planned for Thursday, we are now looking to offer Jabay on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  Please continue to support this nutritious food offering by volunteering your time with Kate in the kitchen.  It is a great way to meet people and feel connected with our community.  And you do get to see our school in action – with the multitude of characters.

1. We could continue with the route adding Belongil BP Truckstop 7:55am (60mins TT) onto Suffolk Park 8:13am (45mins TT) to Ross Lane 8:25am (30minsTT) and then up to the school – no other pickups.

2. Our route could go Belongil BP Truck Stop 7:55am (53mins TT) to Red Devil Park 8:08am (40mins TT)  pickup and then straight over Hayter’s Hill to Lismore – at the odd time picking up in Bangalow and/or Eltham if needed.

I am leaning towards the second option – to take ten minutes off Belongil times and five minutes off Suffolk.  I would like everyone to have a go at this trial.  Then we can see whether it is working.  It would mean families driving to the Red Devil pickup – sorry!

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ROSA Bus 3 – Mick’s Bus:

We would like to welcome Mick Graham (Marley and Ben’s Dad) to our bus driver crew!

Sharpe’s Beach Bus stop (8:00am), Lennox Head transit centre (8:05am), Ross Lane (8:15am), West Ballina BP (8:25am) then along to Lismore.

 

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While we trial these routes please feel free to let us know what you think.

ACTIONS NEEDED

1. Every family please confirm before Monday:
   • the days you would like your child/ren on the buses and 
   • from what stop. 
2. And please let us know if the Red Devil drop off won’t work for you. We can consider adjustments.

 

PLEASE TAKE OUR SURVEY – CLICK HERE

CLICK HERE TO TAKE A SURVEY

Note, we will try our best to accommodate all requests.

Once again we thank you very much for your understanding while we have been juggling the best way to organise the buses and deliver your children safely to school and home again.

 

We also are trialling a new bus app: Safe Bus https://www.getsafebus.com (APPLE)

Learning and Play Spaces

We have been busy – again – over the break to create more play spaces.  This has resulted in a new handball area.  The space is safely protected by a new fence, which will become another growing space.

We have reset the front fence into Jabay, too.  This is where we will place the coffee cart from now on.  It means you can grab a coffee as you walk past.  Remember, you can book in ahead of time so Veryln can have your coffee ready for you on arrival.

Learning areas have been redefined as well.  We have created a staff workspace, moved out some sofas so we can target our learning areas, cleared space for sitting in circles, and moved some tables for more group work.  Added to this is the university’s space for our senior learners.

We have been blessed to gain access to a lecture theatre at Southern Cross University every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  We also have the boat, which will be a major focus for Science experiments this term.  The boat will also be used by our Stage 4 students as they explore local history and geography.

Academic Program

Student Agency

One of the reasons for establishing Living School was to engage learners in their schooling.  There is a concerning trend around the world: half of the students at school are disengaged. What a waste!  I don’t like waste, so it is important we address this issue.  I feel the challenge is not teacher-owned.  Too often we find the pressure applied on teachers to address disengagement by ‘edutaining’: entertain, make more fun, use more tech, more stuff!  Disengagement must be owned by the learner, too. I have come to the conclusion disengagement is really a loss of, or a lack of acceptance of, a student’s ownership of learning.  In pedagogic terms it is called student agency.

Assessing Universal Qualities for Success

As part of our work with the University of Melbourne, we are looking at designing new metrics for learning.  Our focus is on adapting the VAST model to celebrate what we deem to be the Universal Qualities for Success – and to explicitly teach them.  There will be a trial of an online assessment tool we are building, which will give us information on your child’s perceived capacity in learning attitudes and skill sets.  Learners from Year 3 – Year 10 will rate themselves on a sliding scale – like a survey.  Parents and teachers will also subjectively assess a student’s attitudinal capacity and skill-based competence.  This information will then be used to set termly goals.

Goal Setting

All our learners will set goals next term.  These goals for Years 3-10 will be based on their capacity levels as guided by the survey findings.  The goals will be SMART goals: Short, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound.

As highlighted in research, simply writing down goals leads to a 45% more chance of attaining them (research here).

We want you to support our focus, too.  Once we have established goals for every student, we would like you to have your child discuss them, draw them, add them to your fridge, behind the loo door, on the ceiling above their bed!  We want them to focus on these goals for all of Term Two. And then we will review them.

Agility Groups in the Concept Frame

As we pioneered last year, we will continue to evolve our agility groups in the Concept Frame for Maths under the leadership of Brad.  In short, Brad is designing the term’s program around the key mathematical Number understandings needed to thrive. There will be a lecture outlining every concept in short succession.  Students will be assessed – quizzed and tested using an online system (Smarter Maths) – around all of the concepts we are looking to teach in Years 5-8.  We will then group students for the next six weeks to better address their level of competence.  And we will assess their development at the conclusion of the term to celebrate progress.  This is assessment of and for learning.  It is a key element of our Concept frame.  We are also looking to establish a group for ‘applied’ maths during the concept frame. This group will be taught in a more hands-on way by Mal and/or Johann.

English

On Monday next week, all our learners from Kindergarten to Year 10, will undertake a creative writing piece. There will be a picture stimulus so it will be expressive writing.  From this piece, we will look at developmental stages, technique and technical skills.  All the teachers will moderate – which means we will all bring three selected stories, discuss the writing from each group, and plan our whole school approach to writing.  We will repeat the process at the beginning of next term, as well as celebrate growth and development by review at the end of this term.

POSITIVE LEARNING BEHAVIOURS – SOCIAL EMOTIONAL GROWTH

Wednesday Learning Families and School Gathering

As we are introducing our Friday Onland Learning for Kindy – Year 6, we are moving our Learning Families to Wednesday.  On Wednesday morning, we will have extended Circle Time, then we will have a whole-school gathering, and then all children will move to their Learning Families.  The Wednesday is a way of communicating important information for Onland Learning and to establish greater interconnectedness across all ages, while explicitly teaching positive attitudes for learning and being (developed from the VAST framework).

Cross Country Training on Wednesday morning before school

We will be offering cross country running training before school on Wednesdays. Annie with Sophie (our tutor who is an amazing long-distance runner) will meet any interested learners at the Scout Hall oval.  Time is 8:15am.  This is great preparation for the NCIS competitive cross country carnival.  At 10:00am, Graham Lees will be joining us to take a Learning Family or a training session each week.

Sport for Kindy-Y6 on Wednesday

We will continue teaching swimming to our K-2 students.  Swimming is a life skill and our focus is to ensure every one of our younger children knows how to swim.  For our Years 3-6 students, we will be offering touch football (with Graham Lees) and soccer (with Zac).

Friday Onland Learning for Kindergarten to Year Six

Every Friday we will be holding our special Onland Learning program at the Stewart Farm.  Families can drop their children off at the farm from 10:00am.  Or they can attend a training session at 9:00am with Graham Lees at Skennar’s Head soccer fields.  We are also looking at offering an advanced surfing program, starting at 8:30am, at Flat Rock (there will be an additional charge for this option and interested students will need to make their own way there – no buses from Lismore).

Buses will be leaving Living School campus from Lismore.

• At 8:00am a bus will leave to take students down for Graham Lees, training session.
• At 9:00am buses will leave to take students down to the Stewart farm for Onland Learning.
• Older students travelling to Lismore, will take the bus from Suffolk Park/Lennox, or Bangalow as per normal but the pickup time will be earlier to ensure the connections work correctly.

Our program will be

• Kindy – Year 2: Cubby Building and Exploring Mini Beasts
• Year 3 – Birds, Gardens, herds and shells with John and Lel
• Year 4 – Sailing and Fishing with Charlotte, Taylor, Ant
• Year 5 – Snorkelling and Rock Hopping with Joe / Sailing w
• Year 6 – Cooking with Ant and Shannon Bennett

Thursday Onland Learning for high school students

We are ready to roll out a new additional onland learning component.  Our Years 7-10 students will be going out to nature-based learning sites.  There will be three different sites.  Each site will offer a different program based on a subject area:

Each week there will be a rotation.   Every group will cycle through the three areas.  Stage 5 will be in a designated group – as there is a specific program starting on the last Friday (see more by reading about the YES program).  But we will mix social groups.  The learning will be subject specific, based on the Concept Frame, but it will be focused on contextual learning in nature with reduced learning group sizes.

Friday Electives and Project Based Learning for high school

Friday will be a consolidated day of project based learning and electives for the two groups not attending the overnight camp.  These groups will be focused on the Tech Mandatory syllabus for Years 7 and 8, and on a range of creative activities aligned with electives for Stage 5.  There will be:

• Drama – with Tamaya
• Music – with Nick Williams (joining our school on Tuesday in Week 3)
• Multimedia and Technology – with Jonny
• Visual Arts – with Karen

The afternoon on Fridays (from 2:30pm onwards) will be open to our community.  We envision a gathering of our community, to have a coffee, share some time and listen to our students perform, play and express while you await the return of our primary students after their Friday Onland Learning.

TAFE YES Program for vocational courses

Students in Years 9-10 will be able to enrol in the TAFE YES program on the last Friday of Term Two.  There are a range of classes in pharmacy, aviation (ground crew), allied health, business and social profiling, plumbing, droning, metal fabrication, innovative engineering, hair and beauty.

At this stage, courses are being offered at the Wollongbar and Ballina campuses. We hope to see courses offered from the Lismore campus across the road, too.

Classes commence on Friday 30th April, 2021 from 9.30am – 2.30pm and run for 7 weeks, finishing Friday 11th June.