Dear Macgregor Community

I would like to welcome back our returning families and extend a very special welcome to those who are new to Macgregor Primary School. It has been fabulous welcoming the community back into the school building. It has been a fun and productive first week with lots of smiling faces and challenging learning experiences happening across the school. Please read on to learn more about initiatives in and around the school.

Teacher Professional Learning

Over the past couple of weeks our talented and dedicated teaching team have been busily planning for another fantastic year of learning. At Macgregor Primary School, we are all learners, so teachers kicked off the year by participating in a range of professional learning, strengthening our learning and teaching practices. Staff learnt about our new Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) structures that aim to improve our consistency of practice across teaching teams. We also worked on updating our whole school planning documents and teams updated their planning to reflect the new Australian Curriculum 9.0. Thank you to our staff for their high level engagement throughout all professional learning sessions.

PBL (Positive Behaviours for Learning)

At the end of last year, we invited students to participate in a design input opportunity, to create a new mascot for our school. We had over one hundred entries that were grouped into common themes by our SL@M (Student Leaders At Macgregor) representatives. After discussions between staff and students we took elements of several designs to create our new mascot, Mags (short for ‘Magic’) the Macgregor Magpie! Mags has elemental powers linked to our four expectations: Safe (water) Respectful (fire) Responsible (lightning) and Learners (earth). The prototype design was put together by our very own Maddie Mielens and you will see the final product on our posters and branding across the school. Over the first few weeks of school, students will be learning about our new ‘On Track’ classroom management system and our whole school positive recognition system. These new initiatives are designed to promote positive student behaviour and make our approach consistent across the school. Please speak to your child’s teacher for more information about how this works in practice.

The Science of Reading

Our whole school reading initiative is being led by our Deputy Principal, Jodie Rowell. In order to read we need to be able to do two basic processes – translate or decode the marks on the page or screen into words and make sense of those words. This is known as the Simple View of Reading.

Within the Simple View of Reading there are five big ideas, which scientific research has shown to be essential in learning to read – phonemic awareness (the ability to recognise and manipulate the spoken part of words), phonics (linking sounds to letters and using them in reading and spelling), fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The five big ideas rest on a foundation of oral language. If you want to learn more about these, Reading Rockets is a great source of information.

Reading is the most researched aspect of education. The empirical evidence from this research is commonly referred to as the Science of Reading and it is this evidence that guides how we go about teaching reading and writing at Macgregor Primary School. This year, teachers in K-3 will be implementing Initialit, starting in the next few weeks. Initialit is an evidence-based, whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers.

InitiaLit provides:

• a synthetic approach to the teaching of phonics alongside a rich literature and vocabulary component

• thorough and consistent instruction across classrooms in a year level, and a reduction in the number of children needing support in higher grades

• an evidence-based approach to reading and spelling that is aligned with the Australian National Curriculum.

In years 4-6 we will be exploring how the Science of Reading applies to the senior years of primary school. We will look at delivery of explicit teaching, sequencing of learning, assessment and monitoring.

Many classes will do their explicit teaching of English in the morning session which makes it even more important for students to be at school on time and ready for learning. Having breakfast, a set routine for getting ready and being up early enough not to rush helps students come to school learning ready. Please speak to your child’s teacher if you would like more information about our approach to teaching literacy. 

New Timetable

This year, we have updated our play breaks. This gives students three 90 minute Learning Sessions each day and supports the school to implement recommendations outlined in the new teaching staff enterprise agreement.

New times are as follows:

9:00-10:30am Learning Session 1

10:30-11:00am Recess

11:00-12:30pm Learning Session 2

12:30-1:30pm Lunch

1:30-3:00pm Learning Session 3

Lunch orders are now delivered to classrooms at 12:20pm each day. Teachers will continue to support students, by encouraging regular fruit breaks and monitoring students’ eating. Support will look different in each cohort (E.G Junior School students generally require more assistance) and additional support will be offered based on students’ individual needs. Please see your child’s teacher if you have any questions or concerns.

Welcome BBQ

The school and our fabulous P&C are joining forces to host a community event for all Macgregor families on Monday 19 February (Week 4) 4:00pm - 6:00pm. This is an opportunity for you to meet your child/ren’s teacher(s) and mingle with other families in our school community (while enjoying a free sausage sizzle). Click here to access a Google Form survey where you can provide classroom teachers with valuable ‘Get to know you’ information about your child/ren (before the BBQ). Please fill the survey out for each of your children attending Macgregor Primary School. There will be time for informal chats at the BBQ, but feel free to book in a time with your child’s teacher (at a later date) if you require a more formal discussion. We look forward to seeing you in and around the school.

Thanks for a great start to the year!

Bye for now,

Chris Shaddock

Principal

Our 1 LG class have been very creative in creating their family portraits.

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