Kay Bradley

Deadly Choices

We are lucky enough to have secured the Deadly Choices program to work with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

The Deadly Choices program encourages two-way and peer-to-peer collaboration as a successful way of learning how to make Deadly Choices every day. Leadership is used as a tool to direct good health and education practices, and throughout the program our leader Kirilla, continuously reflects on leadership as a cornerstone of healthy lifestyle behaviours and encourage our friends, family and community to do the same.

In Aboriginal slang, if something is ‘deadly’ it is great. As such, a Deadly Choice is a good choice.  The students are really enjoying these sessions.

GarageBand

It was wonderful to listen to some music that year 3 - 6 students have created using the GarageBand app. Ms Davis has been very innovative in utilising this technology, to enable students to compose their own music. I’ve had this app on all my Apple devices and had no idea how creative you could be with it.  Well done Ms Davis!

 Faces of New Farm Art Show

In week 10, parents of year 2 and year 3 are invited to view the visual art work their child has created.  This display will be open at 8.15 – 8.45 a.m. and 3 p.m. – 3.15 p.m. Monday to Friday.  A gold coin donation is welcome.

Drop off Zone

I have to commend the students using the drop off zone, in the morning, for their lovely manners.  The supervision of this area is a voluntary service and it now has become my favourite way to start the day.  It’s lovely to hear so many children saying ‘thank you’, ‘have a good day’ and others taking the time to stop for a quick chat.

Moderation

Last week all our teachers took part in Cluster Moderation Sessions after school.   These sessions involve nearly 400 teachers, from all across Brisbane, meeting at different venues, in year level groups to moderate samples of student writing.

The aims of moderation, amongst others, are:

• To cultivate open and rich professional dialogue amongst teachers.
• To foster a better understanding of assessment, and overall judgements.

In addition, New Farm teachers will meet this week, in year level teams, to compare assessments and refer to samples provided by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority.

We value these moderation opportunities, both at a school and Cluster level, to ensure the validity of our teacher judgements. 

Thanks to Ms Norman and Ms Navarro for facilitating the New Farm moderation session.