Day 8 Change

Commencing the 2021 school term we have experienced some positive growth in our Early Year’s classes. The admin team have been closely monitoring the growth particularly in Year 2. Now the 8^th day of school has passed we are able to account for all our children and make adjustments if required. After considering all options, we have made the decision to create a Year 1/2 composite, which will result in all of our early year’s classes having numbers lower than the recommended 25 students per class. Mrs Laurel Insch will be the teacher of this new class. On Wednesday new students moved into the room and have settled in very well. Thank you to the parents for your support with this change and looking forward to great outcomes from all our Year 1 and Year 2 students this year.

Leadership Parade

On Friday morning we acknowledged the tremendous achievements of all our new school leaders and held the official ceremony of induction to their new roles. The morning was attended by many special guests including the Mayor. Families of selected students enjoyed a special VIP Morning Tea after the event. Can I congratulate students on their extemporary behaviour during the event.  This parade is a tradition at our school and instils the pride and determination of our applicants each year. Well done and congratulations!

Classroom Walk throughs and observations

From the beginning of the year staff have been engaging in weekly professional development aligned to the school strategic direction in improving outcomes for all students in Reading and Writing. We have placed a huge focus around building teacher capacity to create the “expert teaching team” and providing specific feedback to students.

 As part of our action plan the leadership team have been conducting “classroom walkthroughs” into every classroom to view the visuals and posters aligned to Positive Behaviour for Learning PBL.  We received positive feedback from the team from what they saw in classes around effective use of classroom visuals, positively stated classroom rules and classroom reward systems. We have seen a great lift in consistency across our school this year which is very pleasing. The leadership team are currently engaging in “classroom observations” in the delivery of the beginning of a lesson. Staff have been upskilled in the “Bowen Way” of explicit teaching around this. Staff and the leadership are working to an agreed template and check list of what we are looking to see as best practice. Teachers will receive individual feedback and their next steps in the teaching. This is a collaborative and positive process at Bowen State School to ensure a consistent approach to best practices in teaching. We want to design great teachers here at Bowen State!

Looking forward to sharing more great stories around the teaching and learning this term. Until next fortnight have a great couple of weeks.

Christien Payne

Principal

I believe in: Hard Work Honesty Transparency