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Ardtornish NewsletterTerm 3 Week 3 - 6th August 2021
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No 13
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In this Issue
Diary Dates August 10th – Dance til you drop 13th – Dance til you drop 17th – Dance til you drop 18th – Bigger, Better, Brighter Play F-4, sports meeting 19th – Grounds Meeting 3.15pm 20th – Dance til you drop, National dance finals 23rd – PUPIL FREE DAY ______________________________ Road Crossing Monitors Wed 18th Aug – Tue 24th Aug Gemma R, Avara E, Lara B Wed 25th Aug – Tue 31st Aug Cody S, Dantae C, Sam K Wed 1st Sep – Tue 7th Sep Jade O, Kaylee R, Tilly-Rose P Please arrive by 8.25am |
Reading Mentors: providing very helpful, cross age learning support
Pictured here is Lacey working with Avara and Nikalas working with Elijah
Learning to read is a complex task and being a member of a community where everyone values reading positively enhances student’s reading development. At Ardtornish we foster a community that values members encouraging and supporting each other, the Reading mentor program is a perfect example of how older students contribute to building across year level relationships in a manner that helps younger students develop confidence and learning skills. Pictured here, enjoying a story together, are students from Rooms 1B, 8, 9 &10 who regularly listen to year F-2 students read. Each week, up to 18 students at a time run sessions after lunch for about 30 minutes. Before taking on the role of a reading mentor the year seven students were taught how to support and encourage beginning readers to be successful by:
Through this process, younger students build both their confidence as ‘readers’ and also their level of comfort in respect to mixing with older students who they view as supportive and friendly. 
On this day all teaching staff will be meeting with other teachers from across the ‘Modbury Partnership’ of schools. This partnership includes Modbury Primary School, Modbury West, Modbury South, Dernancourt and Highbury. In cross school teams we will be moderating student maths achievement. This process is designed to increase the consistency of teacher judgment and foster the sharing of professional expertise in relation to teaching and assessing mathematics in our schools.
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Canteen RosterTuesday 10th Michele S
Wednesday 11th Mary-Anne R Thursday 12th Ling C, Chris G Friday 13th Jenni F, Natasha H, Sonoko F, Wei-Wei R Tuesday 17th Michele S Wednesday 18th Mary-Anne R Thursday 19th Tui M, Deneice P Friday 20th Rhonda P, Stacey C, Emma J 
Year 7 Transition to High School
Feeling comfortable in high school. Starting at a new school is a big step for any student. Many of our current year 6 and 7s will be starting high school in a new school next year, with new adjustments like moving between classrooms for some subjects. We know from our pilot program that our year 7 students are well and truly ready for high school. The pilot has involved three public high schools that started welcoming year 7s in 2019, providing early insights on the move for the rest of the state. Many of the families we spoke to at the start of the pilot initially wondered how their children would find their way around high school. They also wanted to know how their children would fit in with older teenagers and what the workload expectations would be. By the end of Term 1, 90% of parents said their child’s year 7 experience met or exceeded their expectations overall and these factors were no longer concerns. Navigating high school settings. High school campuses are generally larger than primary schools, with higher volumes of students. An initial concern for many students in our pilot program was that they might get lost in high school, but in reality, they quickly found their way around. Your child’s wellbeing is just as important in high school as it is in primary school. Our high schools help all new students to adjust to routines, find their classrooms, get organised and read timetables. For more information on this article please refer to Skoolbag or click on the link below https://www.education.sa.gov.au/year-7-to-high-school RAN Training Update for all Volunteers
As of the 1st of July 2021 all volunteers will need to update their RAN Training, which is now called Responding to Risks of Harm, Abuse and Neglect – Education and Care. It is called RRHAN-EC for short. Click this link Plink account for volunteers - RRHAN-EC training to do the online training update.Once completed please email a copy of certificate to dl.1540.info@schools.sa.edu.au Improving the safe use of the Kiss & Drop & Crossing
The present safety and effectiveness of the Kiss and Drop Area could be greatly improved if parents ensured:
When phoning or messaging your child’s absence please remember to add the child’s room number / teacher’s name.
Expression of Interest for Enrolment 2022
If there are any siblings due to start school next year, please come into the office and fill in an expression of interest form as soon as possible. We are currently in the process of finalising our numbers. Improving the safe use of the Kiss & Drop & Crossing
The present safety and effectiveness of the Kiss and Drop Area could be greatly improved if parents ensured:
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The Ardtornish Children Centre core Family and Community programs are continuing as conditions allow with reduced numbers and strict Covid precautions. Updates are available on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/ArdtornishCC/ with additional material of interest to local families with young children.
If your family requires any additional assistance, call and we will do what we can to find the services for you. The ASK website https://adultssupportingkids.com.au/ is a useful starting point. We appreciate your understanding and patience. All the best to our friends, families and communities. Regards John Buckell Community Development Coordinator 
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Developing students’ Information Report Writing Skills
One of our school’s improvement goals is to develop all students’ writing skills. To do this we explicitly teach them to write in a range of genres. Last term classes across the school, focussed on teaching students’ to write information reports. Students were shown how to take notes about a topic of their choice in readiness to write a report.
In Room 5B many children did a report on an animal. They read reference material about their animal and made notes that were then used to construct information reports about them.
These texts consisted of an introductory paragraph, that generally described the creature, followed by a series of paragraphs that gave further information about its particular features e.g. its diet, habitat, behaviour, appearance etc. Diagrams could also be produced and labelled.
When a student produced their first draft of a text they then compared it to graded samples on the class “Bump it Up Wall” and self-assessed how well their text met the requirements on an information report. Students were then challenged to ‘Bump’ their work to the next level by taking their draft work and adding additional elements to it from the higher level they aspired to reach. For example, they might add subheadings or insert clear paragraph breaks to improve their first draft.
After learning a great deal about how to write information reports all students produced a text in a test situation as a part of our Brightpath Assessment Procedures. These texts were written using notes the students had already produced and the final written work was scanned, assessed and stored for future reference.
Brightpath software allows us to compare a child’s writing results against a range of samples from other children to determine the skills they presently possess and what their next learning challenges should be.
The software supports teachers to make assessment judgements, track student growth over time and compare performances across year levels.
Reports produced by the software also provides students with positive feedback about what they already can do well and what improvement goals they could work towards.
Pictured here are some students, from Room 5B, undertaking their writing, checking their texts against the class “Bump It Up Wall” and proudly showing their finished Brightpath Information Report Assessments.
One of our school’s improvement goals is to develop all students’ writing skills. To do this we explicitly teach them to write in a range of genres. Last term classes across the school, focussed on teaching students’ to write information reports. Students were shown how to take notes about a topic of their choice in readiness to write a report.
In Room 5B many children did a report on an animal. They read reference material about their animal and made notes that were then used to construct information reports about them.
These texts consisted of an introductory paragraph, that generally described the creature, followed by a series of paragraphs that gave further information about its particular features e.g. its diet, habitat, behaviour, appearance etc. Diagrams could also be produced and labelled.
When a student produced their first draft of a text they then compared it to graded samples on the class “Bump it Up Wall” and self-assessed how well their text met the requirements on an information report. Students were then challenged to ‘Bump’ their work to the next level by taking their draft work and adding additional elements to it from the higher level they aspired to reach. For example, they might add subheadings or insert clear paragraph breaks to improve their first draft.
After learning a great deal about how to write information reports all students produced a text in a test situation as a part of our Brightpath Assessment Procedures. These texts were written using notes the students had already produced and the final written work was scanned, assessed and stored for future reference.
Brightpath software allows us to compare a child’s writing results against a range of samples from other children to determine the skills they presently possess and what their next learning challenges should be.
The software supports teachers to make assessment judgements, track student growth over time and compare performances across year levels.
Reports produced by the software also provides students with positive feedback about what they already can do well and what improvement goals they could work towards.
Pictured here are some students, from Room 5B, undertaking their writing, checking their texts against the class “Bump It Up Wall” and proudly showing their finished Brightpath Information Report Assessments.
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