Dear families,

As this newsletter is delivered to you, we have Grade 3-6 students from Oatlands District High School here for a school exchange. Supported by our student leaders and staff, they are engaging with our students in a variety of activities including AFL, basketball, art activities, knitting and crocheting with Mayor Knowles and Taiko Drumming with the PCYC!

This morning, we welcomed many families in for a big breakfast and World’s Greatest Shave event. I thank Ms Bennett, Mr Hodge and Kevin Stagg (Grade 10) for their participation in this event and for their important fundraising. Student leaders will share the total figure at a future date but I know at least $1000 was raised for the Leukaemia Foundation.

Furthermore, I want to acknowledge all of our other staff and students for their participation in our ‘Crazy Hair Day’. These events, as well as raising funds for important causes, have provided a welcome mid-winter ‘pick me up’ for staff and students and I thank you for either being present at our breakfast this morning or for supporting your young person to participate in Crazy Hair Day!

I am pleased to report to you that our students have demonstrated remarkable academic growth across the first two terms. I know that teachers were able to share individual achievements with you at our Learning Conversations last week, but today I want to share one piece of whole-school data.

Early in Term 1, all students from Prep to Grade 8 participated in what we call DIBELS testing. DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills) is a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of literacy skills. They are designed to be short (one minute) fluency measures that can be used to regularly detect risk and monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills. Teachers have been using the results of these tests in their team meetings each week to monitor student progress and put in place extra support where necessary. Furthermore, it allows for intensive tracking of our higher-achieving students so we can be sure that they continue to make good progress.

Students have just undertaken the second round of testing for the year and I am thrilled to report that 10% fewer students are now identified as being ‘at risk’ and 11% more of our students are now assessed as being at no or minimal risk!

These stunning results affirm that when it comes to literacy instruction, we are doing the right work in the right way. I acknowledge students for their hard work and celebrate our expert teachers and TAs for their impactful work.

Celebration Assembly

Yesterday we held a wonderful mid-year celebration assembly where students were acknowledged for their academic achievements as well as demonstration of the school’s values of Connection, Courage, Growth, Respect and Responsibility.

I want to particularly acknowledge Emilia L for her stirring rendition of the National Anthem and our lovely prep class for their presentation too.

It is important to recognise students for their effort and growth and I shared with our school community a quote I saw in one of our classrooms earlier this week: Don’t wait until you reach your goal to the proud of yourself, be proud of every step you take. I’m sure you would agree that this is advice adults could use sometimes too!

I congratulate all students on their effort and growth in the first half of the year and acknowledge our recent award recipients, as listed in this newsletter.

The Campbell Town Way

At the assembly I was also able to launch The Campbell Town Way – a statement of the expected behaviours in our learning community. This statement is something we will reference often. It is a clear statement on the way we are at our school when we are at our best. The way we do things at Campbell Town.

It is the result of an extensive consultative process and represents an aspirational statement. We know that young people who meet these expected behaviours build and maintain stronger relationships and learn more. Please take a few minutes to become familiar with the Campbell Town Way:

Staffing Changes

I congratulate Mrs Erin Unsworth on her appointment to Youngtown Primary School until the end of the year. Mrs Unsworth is an exceptional educator and leader and someone we will sorely miss. I know all of you will have had some interaction with Erin over the past ten years she has worked here and will have admired her passion and commitment, just as I have. Mrs Unsworth will finish with us at the end of the first week back after holidays and we have commenced a recruitment process to fill this important leadership role for terms three and four. I have communicated separately with families involved in our LiL and pre-kindergarten program.

Finally, thank you to our parents/carers and community for your ongoing support of our school. Let me share with you some examples of this support just in the past few weeks:

• Mayor Mary Knowles, Clinton Burn and Lauren Klomp volunteered to provide unique opportunities to students in our school exchange with Oatlands DHS
• A keen group of parent volunteers have not been deterred by the depths of winter and continue to work in our school veggie patch each Thursday afternoon
• Michael Campbell brought their barbecue in for us to use at our Big Breakfast, to make cooking run more smoothly
• Melissa Darke gave up her time this morning on the clippers and scissors for our World’s Greatest Shave
• Jane Mitchell continues to volunteer her time each Tuesday and Thursday to support our School Lunch Program
• Our local families on the land who, without hesitation, have generously agreed to support with feed for our school wethers
• Another parent who has had a conversation with me regarding their kind offer to volunteer their time to academic extension programs
• The Bursary Committee continues to receive generous offers to support scholarships and end of year awards
• Craig Loosmore supported our students to prepare and compete in the Wool Handling competition at the Campbell Town Show – generously giving up many hours.

We really do have a remarkable school community!

David Bryant,

Acting Principal