Well we have certainly hit the Week 9 slump with lots of tired children struggling to make it to the end of term. We have one week to go with our Athletics Carnival on Friday bringing the term to a close. 

This week, our leadership team was away from school to participate in a High Performing Leadership Team professional development along with three other schools in our diocese. We found the two days very affirming and an opportunity to acknowledge some of the good things we have in place in terms of leading our school to become the community we aspire to be as detailed in our school Mission and Vision Statements. We also found the two days an opportunity to challenge our thinking and to think even more strategically about our school. As part of this professional development, we have had to identify a specific area for improvement for our team and create a short term project around how to address it. Part of our project will be around developing a team charter that details our expectations of each other as a leadership team and that identifies what our community can expect from us. We look forward to sharing our journey with this project and highlighting how it will then lead to creating more high performing teams within our school.

Over the last couple of days, I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to get into some classrooms, talking to our students about their learning and generally observing some very positive practice.

Next week, we are hosting our very first leadership retreat where our Year 6 students will engage in some activities to understand what it is to be a role model and a school leader. While we don’t have official school captains, we do have an expectation that our senior students model appropriate behaviours and are responsible for a number of regular duties as well as show care and consideration for other members of the school community. We hope that our Year 6 students will grow from this experience in understanding the value and joy of leadership along with the sense of duty and responsibility.

See you all next week.

Cheers

Penny Collins