Annesley News, Issue 181

Friday 25 February 2022

New Members of the Annesley College Council

We received a large number of applications from outstanding professionals wanting to join the Annesley College Council. We thank Mr. Andrew Reed, General Manager of Hender Consulting, and his team who facilitated the recruitment process for our School. Late last year Kym Lawrence and I facilitated interviews with the very impressive, shortlisted candidates. Kym is an Annesley Junior School parent, Annesley College old scholar and current Annesley College Council and Association of Independent Schools in SA Board Member.

We are pleased to inform you that the following professionals have been appointed to the Annesley College Council, effective February 15, 2022.

  • Benjamin Adams
  • David Yeates
  • Georgina Bradshaw
  • Gill Hicks AM MBE

Detailed information about our Council’s newest members can be found here on our website.

We are grateful for each of our Council members who bring vast professional experience and passion for the Annesley Community.

Mr Bruce Spangler AM
Annesley College Council Chair

Principal's News

Student Growth Team

I am excited! We have started a new, high-powered Team at Annesley. It is known as the Student Growth Team (SGT) and its purpose is to ensure systems are in place for rich, evidence based conversations about student growth and the allocation of resourcing and supports so that we meet the academic, social and emotional developmental needs of every Annesley student. We are focused on every child at Annesley flourishing and the addition of this Team is another level of significant support in this regard. When you are a small school with a ‘handful of staff’, it’s easy to have these conversations ‘in passing’ and the offering of programs and support is often limited. When a school increases in size and capacity, as Annesley continues to do, programs, structures and systems are added, and that is why the SGT is now in place. As Principal, I chair the SGT which meets weekly. The group includes Annesley’s Deputy Principal and Head of Primary Years Donna Nicolle, Head of Primary Years Jo Rossiter, full-time Coordinator of Personalised Learning Gail Millar-Luke, our newly appointed, full-time Coordinator of Early Years Alicia Claire and our full-time Chaplain and Counsellor, the Rev Peter Morton.

Luke Ritchie
Principal

Curriculum Update

Partnering with the AISSA (Association of Independent Schools of South Australia) 

Our Year level teaching teams enjoy regular scheduled time for planning together each week. As Head of Learning and Teaching I work with the teams at all these meetings. This ongoing collaborative approach is a key means by which we develop consistency of practice and ensure our curriculum continues to be significant, engaging, relevant and challenging. 

This semester Desiree Gilbert, Senior Educational Consultant at AISSA, is joining a series of our meetings to work with our teachers on the further development of our mathematics curriculum.  The key focus of this planning is to help our students to develop strong conceptual understanding of number and fluency in their use of number. With Desiree we will be exploring the effective sequencing of learning, along with additional strategies to support the further development of understanding, skills, and different ways to monitor student progress. 

The AISSA is the peak body for South Australia’s 106 Independent Schools. Annesley is a member of the AISSA and our Principal, Luke Ritchie, is a long standing AISSA Board Member and the current elected Board Chair of the Association.  We benefit from the ongoing consultation, and regular professional learning opportunities that the AISSA provide.  Through AISSA we connect and work with other schools, sharing best practice and learning from one another. Our engagement in the ‘Rudolph’ project, in partnership with Professor Yong Zhao from the University of Kansas and other AISSA schools, for instance, was the catalyst for establishing Enterprise at Annesley.  

At Annesley we encourage our students to look outwardly as well as inwardly for inspiration and as an organisation, Annesley actively does the same. We value the benefits partnerships such as the AISSA can bring

David Taylor
Head of Learning and Teaching
 

Student Leaders

An interview with Annesley’s 2022 Student Leaders, Abby & Eamon:

How does it feel to be Student Leaders for 2022 at Annesley?

  • Abby – I am very exited and happy to be the head of the school this year.
  • Eamon – Awesome I’m so happy and excited.

As Student Leaders what are you most looking forward to this year?

  • Abby – To organise cool things and have fun whilst learning new things.
  • Eamon -To organise cool things and being the leaders of the school.

You have created a couple of games for Annesley Students at the start of this year…can you tell us about these?

  • Abby – The beach ball ice breaker game is a fun game for kids reception to year 2. Its a game where kids get to know each other because we all started in home schooling and we didn’t really get to know the new students in our class. Its a fun way for kids to have fun and get to know other people well.
  • Eamon – I created a Kahoot about animals for year three up, which is quite successful so far and is questions that everyone answers in groups through there iPad about animals.

Why did you create these games for Annesley Students?

  • Abby – We all started in home schooling so is a good way to get to kids to know each other more in a fun way.

When will Annesley students be able to interact with these games?

  • Eamon – Donna has given us a roster and we are going around to each class.

What advice would you give younger Annesley students aspiring to be Student Leaders in their senior year?

  • Abby – Be kind; Be you; Believe
  • Eamon – Not to stress just have faith in yourself.

La base de balance

In 2022 Annesley has introduced two brand new spaces for students to access when needing to self-regulate supported by one of Annesley’s caring, trained staff. Our love of French has drawn us to call these spaces, ‘La base de balance’.

La base de balance for Reception to Year 2 students is located in the Early Years Building and for Year 3 to 7 students in the Primary Years Courtyard. These rooms have been designed as ‘interoception spaces’ to support in the well-being of our students.

The why of La base de balance:
Interoceptive awareness is the ability to identify, access, understand, and respond appropriately to the patterns of internal signals. It is a sense that helps you understand and feel what’s going on inside your body.

These new spaces in our School allow students to:

  • Self‐manage and self‐regulate with the support of an adult that cares for them
  • Develop an enhanced sense of belonging within our school
  • Learn to understand their bodies, feelings and emotions
  • Recognise and respond to the physical and emotional state of the body
  • Develop a range of ‘tools’ to better control reactions and responses
  • Enhance their awareness of ‘themselves’ and those around them

Research has shown that children and young people with well-developed interoception skills are able to use both logic and emotions to respond to their environment and learning. These spaces are being created in many schools and we are grateful to have two new spaces at Annesley. They are calming, inviting and open for our students to use throughout the school day, with adult supervision.

Alicia and Gail
Personalised Learning Team

Annesley Masterplan Stage 1 Works Update

Progress of Stage 1 of the Master Plan is moving forward, and the demolition phase is nearing completion. Students have been fascinated by the brick muncher ‘eating away’ the wall on the eastern boundary.

Additional fencing is now in place along the lawn side of the Primary Years building in readiness for some trenching to take place later this week. This additional fencing is scheduled to come down at some point next week.

Swanbury Penglase continue to partner with us on plans for future stages of the Master Plan and we look forward to sharing more updates with you soon.

Bouncing Bean Cafe

Late last year, we recruited new Bouncing Bean Café staff for 2022 to serve our community in the Bouncing Bean Café. Our senior students submitted an application with resumes and participated in an interview process. We are passionate about providing work-related, leadership opportunities for our students at Annesley and this is a key part of their experience in the senior year at Annesley.  

Due to current COVID restrictions, we are currently unable to serve our parent community but these eager, capable young people are currently in training, serving our hard-working staff each morning break time. Next week, they will receive Barista training from our partner coffee company, Segafredo ensuring they are well-trained to serve high quality coffee and drinks to our parent community soon when restrictions allow! 

Primary Years Learning

Year 1 (Laura)

Play Video

Technologies

Play Video

Assembly & Chapel

Due to COVID-19 restrictions Assembly & Chapel will continue to be for Students only until further notice.

Previous Issues

Back to Top