Dear Families,

Thank you to everyone who dropped into the community session held on Monday 15 February. Over 34 parents, staff and neighbours popped into the session to view the detailed plans of the three learning centres, meet the contractors and EDU project manager, and learn more about how the learning spaces will support the delivery of future focussed learning.

Detailed plans for each learning centre have been posted to the school website along with an updated site establishment map. 

Visitors to the pop in session asked some great questions about the project and the Directorate is now working to answer these. As questions are resolved, updates will be provided through the school newsletter.  

What is the timeline for the project?

Construction on the new buildings will commence shortly.  The target is that students and staff will move into the new buildings for the start of the 2022 school year. If there are any changes to the timeline, the Directorate will provide updates to the school community.

The junior wing will be demolished once everyone has moved across to the new buildings.  This work will occur during a holiday period, when no one is on the school campus. Landscaping of the outdoor area between the new buildings and the transportable classrooms will also be undertaken as a part of this project. 

The removal of the transportables and remediation of this area will be completed as part of a future business case. The timing of this work has not been finalised and the Directorate will inform us about the details once funding has been appropriated. 

Pedagogies

With the buzz of excitement around the new build a few questions have been raised around teacher pedagogies and what they involve/look like.  In each newsletter I will be providing a snapshot of different approaches to teaching and learning that we use across the school every day and will continue to use once we move into our learning communities. Each pedagogy highlighted over the coming weeks are taken from the ACT Education Directorate’s Enabling Pedagogies resource of evidence-based, high impact strategies for improving student learning and align with the ACT Public School Pedagogical Framework.

Snapshot 1: Explicit teaching

"Explicit Instruction is a structured, systematic and effective methodology for teaching academic skills. It is called explicit because it is an unambiguous and direct approach to teaching that includes both instructional design and delivery procedures. Explicit instruction is characterised by a series of supports or scaffolds, whereby students are guided through the learning process with clear statements about the purpose and rationale for learning the new skill, clear explanations and demonstrations of the instructional target, and supported practice with feedback until independent mastery has been achieved." (Archer & Hughes, 2011).

Explicit instruction refers to intentional, planned, teacher-directed interactions that purposefully target student knowledge and skills to maximise student academic growth. Explicit instruction is most successful when the teacher has strong pedagogical practices and content knowledge to guide students through a structured lesson.

It involves transparent learning intentions and success criteria, and evaluation and checking of understanding. Explicit instruction as a pedagogy is often associated with basic skills in literacy and numeracy teaching but can be used with a wide range of cognitive, social and behavioural goals and outcomes. Explicit instruction can be found in a range of teaching models including scaffolding, visible thinking strategies and the gradual release of responsibility model. As the teacher purposefully moves from assuming sole responsibility for performing the task to the students doing so, students become competent independent learners (Fisher and Frey, 2014).

Gradual Release of Responsibility Model​​​​​​​

The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model utilises explicit instruction in two of the phases of the instructional framework, Focused Instruction and Guided Instruction. As the teacher purposefully moves from assuming sole responsibility for performing a task to the students doing so, students become competent independent learners (Fisher and Frey, 2014). Through systematic and considered planning, teachers can determine the level of responsibility required for each task, and the order in which the model is used. For example, teachers may reorder the phases and begin with an independent writing task, move on to collaborative peer editing, and back to teacher modelling as a recap for the lesson. What is important in encountering new content is that students experience all phases of the model (Fisher and Frey, 2014).

For those who may be new or unfamiliar with my role, I am the Defence Transition Mentor (DTM) for Campbell Primary School. I am employed by CPS and funded by the Department of Defence to support students from active service Australian Defence Force (ADF) families, particularly through the challenges of frequent relocation and parental absence. My role also includes connecting families to local community and defence support and opportunities. As such my position is primarily for social and emotional support for our families and students – more akin to a chaplaincy type role than formal counselling or learning support. I am privileged to form part of the CPS support team that also includes (among others) our wonderful admin staff, dedicated LSA’s and our school psychologist. Together we work to provide the best possible support to all of our CPS community. It’s a role I have filled for 6 years across 3 different schools and one I am passionate about.

Most of our new students have started to really find their feet here at Campbell, and I was particularly thrilled to see some of our newest year 6 students put their hand up for leadership positions last week. Other new students have been going out of their way to support peers and our school SCARFFF values every day; a true testament to their resilience given that they have been here less than 20 days! Defence Club has returned with a bang, with the new timetable to fit with our amended breaks proving a real hit. For the remainder of this term junior students (yr 1 and 2) can access Defence Club in the BER at recess while senior students (yr3 – 6) can do the same at lunch on Mondays and Wednesdays. Friday sessions will pause to allow for junior taekwondo sporting school sessions to take place but will return in term 2. Kindergarten students from ADF families will be invited to join Defence Club in term 2 also.

For those ADF families that have come to us on posting from interstate please be aware of the ability to access education support via DCO’s Education Assistance Scheme. This allows those impacted by relocation to access reimbursement for tutoring support in areas identified as requiring extra tuition or where a subject wasn’t previously offered (for example Japanese). Additional information is available via the link here. The application form AD301 is available via webforms for the serving member, or via the DCO helpline on 1800 624 608 at any time. Recent changes mean you will require a supporting letter from CPS which I am happy to arrange, as well as a report card from your previous school. Kindergarten students are ineligible unless posting occurred in the middle of the year. Please let me know if you have any questions.

I am at CPS full time this year from 9am until 4pm and can usually be found either in the playground or supporting within classrooms. I am always happy to meet with parents to answer any questions you may have; please check in with the front office and they will locate me for you. I am also available via email at any time on Karyn.heitmann@ed.act.edu.au . I encourage families to communicate often as a collaborative approach is always the most successful.

Campbell Primary School is fortunate to be supported by our wonderful Parents & Citizens Association who run the Outside School Hours Care (CASAC), the Canteen, After School Clubs and the Uniform shop.

These services are managed separately to the Campbell Primary School front office. For enquiries relating to any of these services please contact:

CASAC – casac@campbellpandc.com

Clubs – clubs@campbellpandc.com

Canteen – canteen@campbellpandc.com

Uniform – uniform.shop@campbellpandc.com

P&C related enquiries can be directed to anna.woodhouse@campbellpandc.com.

For additional updates, feel free to join the Campell Primary School (ACT) P&C Association Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/campbellprimarypc).

Please make sure Friday 5 March is in your calendar, as our Swimming Carnival is fast approaching!

Thank you to all of those families who have returned notes and offered support as volunteers. We have contacted all volunteers who will be required on the day.

Unfortunately, family members are not permitted to attend as spectators or unregistered volunteers this year, due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Please keep in mind that canteen lunch orders will only be available for Kindergarten and Year 1 students. Recess orders will not be available at all. If you require another note or list of what students need to bring on the day, please contact the front office.

For information on COVID-19 restrictions and how this will impact our competitive swimmers, please read the following:

Students turning 8 and 9 this year can still compete in races at our Campbell Primary School Swimming Carnival, however, School Sport ACT (SSACT) has reminded us that these students will not be able to race at Regional Carnivals and ACT Championships this year due to ACT Govt COVID-19 attendance restrictions. In addition, parents and other spectators of Campbell Primary qualifiers will be unable to attend the regional and ACT swimming events later in April.

Thank you for your understanding as we navigate these changes!

This year we have introduced a lot of exciting activities and equipment into our play spaces.   Our most recent introduction are some table tennis tables in the Handfuls of Happiness courtyard.  Students have demonstrated so much interest in these that we may need to think about adding some more. Students have also been very busy using the play equipment, playing games of soccer with our new soccer nets, playing basketball, skipping with jump ropes and accessing the Sensory Garden to play in the sandpit or to find somewhere nice, quiet and shady to just chat to friends.  A massive thankyou to Mrs Penny for all her work in efficiently coordinating equipment set up and pack up. 

Don’t forget we also have the Library as a lovely quiet space to read, write, draw or play chess and our clubs are back up and running, including senior and junior choir and defence club.  This term we have introduced a newspaper club which will be publishing “The Campbell Times”.  We look forward to reading their first issue which will be hot off the press soon.  Students who have not expressed interest in joining this club but would like to do so next term will be given the opportunity to do so later in coming weeks.  Thanks to Miss Ebbage for volunteering to lead this club.  How exciting!

Hi Campbell PS Families!

Last newsletter I told you about PBL and why we are using it here at Campbell Primary School.

This week I am going to break it down and tell you about how we go about promoting our vision for each member of our school community to be a Safe Respectful Learner. 

It all starts with our mascot Stanley the Stag. This is him. 

He represents what we are trying to achieve. I’m sure many of you have seen big blue posters around our school. Well he is all over them! You may have even seen his cut out in the front office. He loves hanging out with the lovely Dani in the front office!  

On each poster, Stanley outlines what we need to do to ensure we are Safe Respectful Learners. All of our classroom teachers have taken their class on a tour of the school to ensure they are made aware of the different posters which outline the different expectations in different settings. 

Classes were asked to mark off a checklist in the front office so it was clear everyone was aware of how to be a Safe Respectful Learner throughout our school. 

The use of these posters and completing the checklist, is a sure-fire way to ensure all our teachers and students are on the same page. They are using the same language and demonstrating the same expectations throughout our school. There is no room for confusion as it is the same message for all. 

Now I know that our students and staff will try their absolute best to be a Safe Respectful Learner all of the time. But what happens when we are having trouble doing that? It is bound to happen; no one is perfect. 

Well that's where our STEPS process comes in.

Each classroom teacher and specialist teacher has broken these steps down for their students. This consistency is to once again ensure we are all on the same page. We don’t want our students to be confused by mixed messages.

Now it is natural we may have some students who require further support to better meet their needs.  Modifications will be made for them specifically and detailed in personal behavioural learning plans. These plans will be discussed with parents before put in place. But no matter the adjustments, the same language and expectations will be used. 

We have also created supporting documents for relief teachers, so they too can remain consistent with the Positive Behaviour for Learning expectations. 

So this is how we have a clear and shared vision for our students, school and community. Including a clear and consistent approach to getting students back on track.

But what do we do to acknowledge positive choices?

Tune in next newsletter to find out more.

Or better yet, ask your child/ren about Stags and what happens with them.

Social Emotional Learning as part of our PBL

Week 3 saw the start of our Social Emotional Learning program kick off at Campbell Primary School.

The first topic we are exploring is Emotional Literacy. Emotional literacy can be defined as the ability to understand ourselves and other people. It includes the ability to understand, express and manage our own emotions, build empathy, and to respond appropriately to the emotions of others. Building a large vocabulary for emotions helps to increase emotional literacy and build self-awareness and empathy for others.

Evidence Base

Research shows that students who participate in rigorously designed and well taught social and emotional learning programs demonstrate more positive social behaviour, are less likely to engage in risky and disruptive behaviour, and show improved academic outcomes.

Collaborative learning activities help students to build their social skills. Building a large vocabulary for emotions helps to increase emotional literacy and build self-awareness and empathy for others.

Through the next few weeks, each activity aims to assist students to:

Kindergarten

• Recognise and identify their own emotions
• Describe situations that may evoke these emotions.

Year 1 & 2

• Recognise and identify their own emotions
• Describe situations that may evoke these emotions
• Compare their emotional responses with those of their peers.

Year 3 & 4

• Describe the influence that people, situations and events have on their emotions
• Investigate how emotional responses vary in depth and strength
• Understand how to interact positively with others in different situations
• Examine how success, challenge and failure strengthen personal identities.

Year 5 & 6

• Explain how emotional responses influence behaviour
• Explain the influence of emotions on behaviour, learning and relationships
• Analyse factors that influence their ability to regulate emotions.

Next Newsletter I will discuss some of the activities we have been doing in class and give some ideas of how you can support this at home.

Dropping or picking your kids up from school?

Parents and carers – please keep our kids safe by parking safely and legally around schools especially at school drop offs and pick ups.

It’s illegal and not OK to double park or park across pedestrian crossings, corners or nature strips as this reduces pedestrian visibility and blocks the ability for kids to see the road clearly.  The consequences can be fatal.

You can also expect to be fined for parking in no stopping zones, bus zones, or in front of driveways.

For drop offs in the morning, why not park a little further away from the school and walk with your kids the rest of the way?

For pick ups at the end of the school day, have a pre-determined meeting spot that’s nearby. This helps if you’re running late so your kids know where to wait and you don’t need to rush.

Walking part of the way to school is also a simple way to reduce congestion and increase safety around schools. Part way points help make the school drop off and collection run easier and faster for parents and reduces congestion at the school gate. For more options on getting your kids to and from school visit https://www.transport.act.gov.au/about-us/schools/active-travel-toolkit

Access Canberra inspectors including License Plate Recognition vans will be on patrol, so let’s work together to keep our kids safe.

For more safety tips visit https://youtu.be/AslMVXpA9Zc and www.act.gov.au/safeparking

Are you interested in signing up for SC-ORE again this year?

SC-ORE is a 4 week orienteering challenge for ACT Primary School kids. A team consists of 2 boys and 2 girls. Find yourself some teammates and register yourself asap, as registrations close in Week 4, and the competition starts on Thursday morning of Week 5. 

Unfortunately, due to the shortened lunch break, Libby Sensei will not be able to run any training at the moment, but she can answer any questions that you may have (libby.gerner@ed.act.edu.au).