Principal's Message

This week as I sought inspiration for my prayer, I came across 40 prayers for Lent. There were lots that would have be great, but I came across this one, so on behalf of all our students and staff, we pray this prayer for our parents and carers.

“God, thank you for my parents. Please draw them close to yourself today. Give them peace, joy, strength and wisdom in decision making. Help them to know You, love You and want to serve You more.”

Our Professional Learning Community

Our vision at St Joseph’s is to grow in excellence within a Christ-centred community. We certainly aspire to keep this front and centre when working with and supporting our students. To be able to do this, as a staff we continue to challenge what we are doing and seek ways to improve and to learn. We aim to grow in excellence, so your children experience great teaching and learning.

This year our Annual Improvement Plan has three key goals –

Key Improvement Goal 1	To implement the principles of instruction for High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) to improve student outcomes.
Key Improvement Goal 2	To improve student outcomes in Literacy through school and system agreed pedagogical practices and using critically reviewed resourcing.
Key Improvement Goal 3	To improve student outcomes in Numeracy through school and system agreed pedagogical practices and using critically reviewed resourcing.

Each week in some way, teachers meet in grade teams, TLCs (Teaching and Learning Communities) or as a whole staff to specifically work on these three goals. What it currently looks like in practice -

Key Improvement Goal 1	Every teacher and classroom support assistant across our system engaged in a shared professional learning day on 28 January, learning about cognitive load and the Science of Learning. Each teacher in our school has identified ways to apply considered ‘questioning’ strategies within the classroom to better engage students and to identify student understanding. Each teacher in our school will complete the next online learning module on the Science of Learning in a staff meeting this term. All staff will engage in a system-wide professional learning session on Monday 19 April (pupil free day) to deepen our understanding of High Impact Teaching Practices.
Key Improvement Goal 2	All teachers in Foundation to Year 2, plus Amy Doszpot, Jo Krippner, Zoe Cawdron and Cameron Tarrant completed 2 days of professional learning in 2020 around the introduction of the InitiaLit phonics program. InitiaLit phonics program has been introduced in Foundation to Year 2, providing a consistent and structured approach to teaching reading and spelling. All teachers working in grade teams, led by Michele Vuli, to review the current literacy programs and working as a whole staff to develop an agreed practice by the end of 2021.
Key Improvement Goal 3	All teachers undertook professional learning in January 2020 looking at developing the students’ ability to explain their mathematical thinking through make, say, write, do prompts. All teachers continuing to work with Esther Coghlan on applying these strategies, but also incorporating the above questioning focus and also grade specific review of numeracy program, to develop an agreed practice by the end of 2021.

As a learning community, our staff continually strive to reflect on their practice and work collaboratively to find ways to improve and to provide a dynamic learning experience for the students. I thank all the staff for their commitment to what we do and know that as a school, we are growing in excellence within and Christ-centred community.

Catalyst

The above school-wide goals are also part of a systemic Catholic Education initiative called Catalyst. The underpinning belief behind Catalyst is that through providing targeted professional learning for our teachers, that improved student outcomes for all students in our schools will be the result. Catalyst has two bold goals –

Catalyst Bold Goal 1	Every student is a competent reader.
Catalyst Bold Goal 2	High Impact Teaching Practice is evident in every classroom.

At St Joseph’s we are confident that through our ongoing efforts to build professional capacity in our teachers, that we will be an example to others.

For the remainder of this week, I am attending a Principal’s Retreat where we will be continuing to learn more about these system-wide goals and how as a school we can engage fully in this professional learning opportunity.

Please feel free to speak to me at any stage if you would like to find out more about what we are working towards this year and beyond.

Have a great end to the week.

Yours in Christ,

Cameron Tarrant

Principal

cameron.tarrant@cg.catholic.edu.au