Leading an Autism Friendly School

Our school is a proud Autism Friendly School. On Friday 26^th February we will be holding our annual Wear Blue for Autism Day. The Community and Charity Project Group are raising money for the AEIOU Autism Foundation. We invite the school population to wear BLUE free dress for a GOLD COIN DONATION.  

We actively develop the Department of Education’s Inclusive Education Framework. Many of the inclusion and Autism Friendly best practices are great for all of our students. The Leadership Team, Teachers, Teacher Aides and Ancillary Staff all work together to support this. Over 85% of our staff have completed the Disability Standards in Education online training course.

We have an Inclusion Pillar Committee which meets twice a term, including -

• Judy Loudon, Inclusion Coach
• Sandy Chambers, Support Teacher Literacy and Numeracy
• Gabriel Ramos, junior school teacher
• Natasha Andrews, middle school teacher
• Eliza Horn, upper school teacher
• Sueche Dorante, teacher aid
• Christel Middledorp, parent
• Amber Calvert, parent

We also have a newly developed Gifted Education Mentor group including-

• Judy Loudon, Inclusion Coach
• Gabriel Ramos, year 2 teacher
• Annabel DeBoer, year 1 teacher
• Natalie Foss, teacher aid
• Angela Lamb, library technician

Students may be referred to our Student Services Support Team who meet weekly. We are a ‘think tank’ group to help teachers proactively problem solve supports for their students for a wide range of diverse learners. The SSS Team includes our Deputy Principal, Inclusion Coach, Support Teacher Literacy and Numeracy, Guidance Officer and Speech Language Pathologist. Teachers only refer students after implementing a range of Effective Classroom Practices, and gaining parent consent.

RWI SPELLING

After last year’s successful Synthetic Phonics reading programme introduction, Read Write Inc (RWI) Phonics, we are very excited to introduce RWI Spelling to students in Yr 2 to Yr 6 (students in Yr 2 begin in Term 2).  RWI Spelling is a robust, fast – paced, systematic spelling programme that builds on the phonics knowledge learnt in RWI Phonics and teaches spelling rules. RWI Spelling will provide us with a consistent approach to teaching spelling across our school.

The RWI Spelling programme comprises of

1. Practice books – books that are kept at school for students to work in. They contain partner, group and independent activities to consolidate understanding and practise and monitor student’s spelling.
2. Log Books – books that students write challenging words in to learn at home for homework. Yr 3 and Yr 4 students use the same log book for 2 years and the Yr 5 and Yr 6 students use the same log book for 2 years.
3. Online resources – used for whole class teaching and include short videos to teach new spelling rules.

As this is the first year of RWI Spelling the school has pre purchased all of these resources for our students. These resources come from England and cannot be purchased individually here in Australia. Please ensure your child/ren look after their Log Books very carefully as the only way we can replace them is to purchase more Log Books from England. If this happens the school will invoice you for the replacement cost.

Please look out for your child’s Log Book coming home soon.

Disabling iMessage on and iPad … and how to keep it that way! 

A common question from parents in regards to student iPad use at home is often around the use of the iMessage function.

iMessage is a function that will never be used as a learning tool at school. Please also be aware that iMessages sent outside of school hours certainly have the potential to cause social issues within school.

We strongly encourage you talk to your child about the use of iMessage and also suggest that you regularly check their device to keep abreast of their online activity. 

iMessage is a functionality that is certainly not required for any school/class work at school or home. iMessage allows students to message each other, individually and/or in group ‘chats’. It also provides the functionality to send photo/picture/video messages. How/when your child uses an electronic device at home is of course at the discretion of you as a parent. However, we do encourage you to closely monitor your child’s use of the device to ensure that it is being used appropriately and within your expectations at home. 

You can turn off the iMessage function in Settings (see screenshot below). If the iMessage function is enabled, the button will be green. To disable the function, slide/tap this button to turn grey/white. This can then be easily turned back on without the need for a passcode etc. However, it is possible to ‘lock’ the ability for your child to turn this back on through Restrictions settings.  This will mean that once turned off, iMessage will be locked off on a device so it cannot be turned back on without a Restrictions passcode being entered (set by a parent/carer). This is done in Settings/General/scroll down to Restrictions. You will then be prompted to enter a passcode that you, the parent, will remember, and that your child would not be able to guess. You then scroll down to “Allow Changes” and select “Account” then select “don’t allow changes”. This will mean that the iMessage function cannot be turned back on without the ‘Restrictions’ passcode being entered.

Focus of the week: Be respectful in all areas