At the beginning of this school year, on 29 and 30 January, all staff at North Perth Primary School participated in two School Development Days. Both teachers and education assistants participated in a range of planning and professional learning sessions. The sessions included…
Language Development Centre (LDC)
Sam and Tina from LDC lead an afternoon session focusing on evidence-based approaches to writing instruction. During the session teachers completed a refresher on evidence-based practice (EBP) in oral to written text and writing instruction. We also covered a range of EBP practical strategies for teaching writing. Teachers spent time in phases of learning to achieve consensus for writing instruction non-negotiables for North Perth Primary School.
Reading Scope and Sequence
Teachers spent time reviewing and providing feedback on the North Perth Primary School Reading Scope and Sequence. Many hours of work was dedicated to completing the detail in this document last year and the expectations and resources were shared with teaching staff during this session.
Curriculum Teams
Each teacher is a member of one Curriculum Team for either English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), or Technologies. These teams are separate to the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) and include teachers from all phases of learning. The purpose of the Curriculum Teams is to develop and implement a whole school approach to the curriculum, including scope and sequences, whole school plans, common moderation and assessment tasks, purchasing and maintaining resources. All teachers are a member of a PLC and a Curriculum Team.
Connect
Adam from the Connect Team at the Department of Education ran a session for staff in how to use Connect and more specifically prepare teachers to use Connect with students and parents.
Connect is an integrated online environment developed by the Department of Education WA for staff, students and parents in public schools. Connect was introduced at North Perth Primary School for staff and students in 2017 and will introduce parents in Term 2, 2018. There will be more information coming soon regarding the roll out to parents.
Staff Expectations
All staff participated in a collaborative session focusing on expectations of staff at North Perth Primary School in 5 key areas; Teaching, Communication, Use of Technology, Duty of Care and Public Image.
Social Emotional Programs
Teachers discussed the current program in use at the school, the You Can Do It program, and decided to launch a new program in 2018. There were discussions of a number of possibilities that staff will look into further with a decision to be made in the near future.
Induction of New Staff
With a number of new teachers joining us this year time was spent addressing practices and procedures outlined in the Staff Handbook.