Welcome Back

Welcome back to week 2 and a brand-new year. I hope families all had a wonderful rest and lots of quality family time over the Christmas break. Welcome to all our new and existing families this year. Teachers have been actively engaged in professional learning leading up to the start of school. This is an important time to share the key messages from our region and commence the learnings around the strategic focus for 2023.

It was great to see many new faces in our teaching team and we are looking forward to sharing the profiles of our new staff shortly. This year our number one priority is Differentiation for all diverse learners in English. This aligns well to the new State School Roadmap launched last week to all schools. The three key focus areas within this document are Educational Achievement, Wellbeing and Engagement, Culture and Inclusion. This important document will support our school and where we sit in part of the larger system. We are looking forward this year to refining our key work and how this reflects back to the new road map.

New staff

Due to our significant growth in student numbers (of around 70 students) we have recruited heavily over the Christmas Holiday period and welcome some new staff to Bowen State. Last week we acknowledged the new staff on parade and look forward to their time here at our school and in the community. As we are in the week of Day 8 we will be tracking the numbers carefully looking for the right place to make changes to classes. Families will be notified early next week of this required adjustment. We envision all students will be in new classes by Wednesday.

Curriculum focus

One of our key areas for action as per the 2022 full school review was around tightening our curriculum delivery and knowledge. This year we are embarking on external moderation with Queens Beach State School and are looking for to this opportunity to ensure the consistent judgement of marking of student work right across the community. Later in the year teachers will have the opportunity to partake in moderation sessions with their cluster colleagues. In closing looking forward to a productive year ensuring that all students at Bowen State School reach their full potential.

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