Annesley News Issue 199

Friday 24th February 2023

Principal's News

Literacy and Numeracy Skills

Annesley’s approach to learning is different to what many of us would recognise from our own schooling. Quite simply, it is our responsibility to ensure that schooling is different to a generation past and that it is in line with the resources, knowledge and ever-changing world our children are living in. Our contemporary approach to learning could at times, be questioned about the rigour of our teaching of the traditional skills of literacy and numeracy.

This week, Annesley was placed 34th in the list of 550 South Australian schools in our average NAPLAN score in 2022. NAPLAN assesses writing, reading, spelling, grammar and numeracy.

I don’t advocate for the ranking of schools based on NAPLAN results, as it is only one measure of school achievement and there are much broader outcomes for schools with ever-increasing importance. However, this is wonderful affirmation for our team and community that our expert approach to teaching and learning is making significant impact on the development of the Foundational Skills of Literacy and Numeracy in our learners.

That said, our teaching team are always seeking out new approaches to teaching of Foundational Skills to increase our impact on all our students. Our Reception to Year 2 teachers in January completed four days of training in the Sounds Write program, the first school in Adelaide to do so. Yesterday, the British founder of Sounds Write program John Walker visited Annesley and taught a demonstration lesson with Year 2 Jodie/Katie students, while our R-2 teachers observed. More information about Sounds Write is included below.

Over the last 12 months, our teaching team have been working with AISSA consultant Desiree Gilbert on Additive and Multiplicative strategies to build greater consistency in our approach to teaching Maths across our school. We have just appointed Joe Paton (Base 3 Mentor) to a new leadership position as Lead Teacher in Mathematics to coach our team and further develop our Maths program at Annesley.

Literacy and Numeracy skills are no longer the sole focus of achievement in schools. At Annesley, we call them Foundational Skills as they are a crucial foundation for our students to be the active inquirers and engaged, empowered learners we want them to be.

Jo

Sounds Write

A couple of years ago, we identified Sounds Write as a new, innovative approach to teaching literacy to our Reception to Year 2 students. In January this year, our R-2 teachers, Personalised Learning team and English as an Additional Language teacher undertook 4 days of intensive training in order to implement the program at Annesley. We are the first school in Adelaide to do this. This week John Walker, a co-author and CEO of Sounds Write visited Annesley from the UK and taught a demonstration lesson to a class of Year 2 students with our teachers observing. We have already begun implementing Sounds Write into our Reception to Year 2 learning programs this term. For more information about Sounds Write,  PLEASE READ HERE. We look forward to sharing more about Sounds Write with our parent community in coming weeks.

Wattle Room Teacher

This year we welcome Dayna Hall as Wattle Room Teacher:

Hello, I am Dayna, I have been working with children for 15 years. I am passionate about educating children and spending time getting to know them. Having two small children myself, I adore getting out into nature, going to the beach, spending time playing and engaging with my children. I also love spending time with family and friends when I am not at work.  I look forward to seeing you around the school, feel free to come up and say hello.

Dayna

Wattle Room Teacher

 

LAUNCHING – THE NEW ANNESLEY DRESS!

We are proud to launch the new Annesley Dress!

Edie in Base 3 last year worked with our Uniform Supplier Silverfleece to design and manufacture a new uniform item as her Enterprise project. After a long process over many months, we have just received delivery of our first stock!

The design process has been responsive to stakeholder research and our new Annesley Dress features:

  • Longer sleeves for sun protection
  • Natural fibre for comfort
  • Pleats for active children to run, climb and play
  • Quick dry, no iron for parent convenience

These dresses are now on sale through the Uniform form on School Stream. We ask that families only order one dress per student at this stage due to some limitation on available stock currently. Sizes are available in Size 4-12.

Staffing Update: Lead Teacher - Focus Mathematics

We are excited to announce that Joseph Paton, one of our Base 3 mentors, has been appointed as our Lead Teacher for Mathematics at Annesley. The ‘Lead Teacher – Focus Mathematics’ is a new Position of Responsibility at Annesley, which we have introduced to help drive the ongoing development of our mathematics program and support the professional growth of all our year level teachers/mentors across R-6.

Joe brings a wealth of experience to this role, having previously held the position of ‘Head of Mathematics’ at Claremont College in Sydney, where he helped to embed a high level of problem-solving and real-world application to their lessons. At Annesley we are committed to building leadership capacity in all our staff, and are delighted that Joseph’s passion, strength, and skills in teaching mathematics can support a wider impact on learning across the Primary school.

Reception Leanne News

New educators to our ELC teams

Hannah

Hannah is currently studying a Bachelor in Early Childhood Education, she has joined the Eucalypt team supporting with the afternoon program. Hannah is a keen sports player and is a sports coach for young children.

Jasmine

Jasmine is nearing completion of a Bachelor in Early Childhood Education, she has joined the Wattle team supporting with the afternoon programs. Throughout her studies she has worked in several child centres as an educator and lead educator.

Alexandra

Alexandra is currently studying a Bachelor in Early Childhood Education, she has joined the Grevillea and Wattle teams, a day per room each, supporting with the afternoon programs. When not studying she is a keen baker and enjoys swimming and being outdoors.

Quest News

What an action-packed fortnight it has been for The Quest. Base 4 students continued with their Surf Ed program and have enjoyed the fine weather that our great state has had on offer. Student discussed beach safety, honed their skills on the paddle boards and tried their hand at land and water rescues.

Late last year Base 6 students visited the Forktree Project at Carrickalinga and amongst other things, harvested a variety of native seeds. These seeds have made their way to Annesley and on Monday, week 4, Base 6 students linked in with Liz Blumer from The Forktree Project and planted their seeds. These seeds will now be cared at Annesley in preparation for next term, where they will be planted at the Forktree Project.

Kin

Coordinator of Sport and Experiential Learning

Science News

Board of Directors - Türkiye-Syria Earthquakes Appeal

Thousands of people have been killed and tens of thousands injured after two major earthquakes struck Türkiye and northern Syria on Monday 6 February.

Our student Board of Directors are raising money to donate to the Red Cross. These donations will help provide immediate and longer-term relief to communities affected by the earthquakes.

Including:

  • emergency relief assistance such as search and rescue and first aid services, health, shelter and non-food items
  • specialist aid workers to assist local teams to respond to the crisis
  • helping people to restore contact with family members separated by the earthquakes

How to get involved:

We will be raising money on Thursday 2nd March next week.

  • Gold Coin donation

Students who bring a gold coin donation can wear a wristband made by the Board of Directors as a symbol of hope and unity with the people of Türkiye and Syria

  • Turkish Coffee and Turkish delight

Members of the local Turkish community will be joining us between 8:00am and 9:00am to sell Turkish Coffee and Turkish delight at the Bouncing Bean Café

  • All profits from the Bouncing Bean for Week 5 will be donated to the cause

Mother Tongue Day

Student Leader Inductions

This week at Assembly we held a special ceremony to induct our 2023 School Leaders. We look forward to working in collaboration with these students and for them to create belonging and impact with our school community.

School Leaders – Aria and Logan

Service Leaders – Deakin and Nate

Environmental Leaders – Alice and Alex

Corinth House Leaders – Astrid and Keanu

Delphi House Leaders – Pascha and Joel

Nemea House Leaders – Isla and Tobias

Olympia House Leaders – Fynn and Talia

Shrove Tuesday

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