Organising for next week

Another scorcher today. At least 40 degrees today and apparently tomorrow as well, and on the anniversary of the Black Saturday bushfires.

It is going to be a hot summer ( There is drought in Queensland and some parts of NSW) for at least the rest of this month. it is very dry around the school ( refer photo) all except for the potato field next door.

I popped up early today to beat the heat and did the cleaning and prepared for the week. I have a trolley being delivered on Monday for all my Prep learning materials so I got those organised. I have prepared a craft activity for Valentines Day, I drew a story map for 'They found a Cave' and with some inspiration from Pinterest  prepared a fun art task for the Winter Olympics. I've also ordered a water play trough with stand which the preps ( and even the grade1 and 2 kids) should love.

Pop up cards

Today the grade 6 kids finished pop-up cards for the scene in They Found a Cave where Pa Pinner nearly catches Nigel when he comes back to Hollow Tree. This weekend I want to draw a story map of the Tasmanian countryside for a sequencing activity next week. ( photo attached)

    

Last night there was a large fire in Ballarat that destroyed 'The Plaster Funhouse'which has been a very popular venue for children's parties for years. ( A photo of the scene this morning is attached.)

    Below is a photo of some of the girls working on their iPads.

X- Ray art

Students from grade 1 to 6 today completed their aboriginal inspired X- Ray art. I drew the outline of a fish and printed it on A3 size brown paper and provided the children with Poska paint pens. I encouraged them to view examples of genuine 'X- Ray' art on their iPads as inspiration. Their efforts were terrific. Some showed a great deal of patience and skill required to paint the detailed, intricate designs.

Apologies to Minister Dixon. According to an AEU ( Australian Education Union) bulletin I read this morning he was actually there with Christopher Pyne when he announced his 'independent school' plan.( refer previous post)  Still no comment from him to his school leaders (the ones who will have to implement this policy) as to how it works and what benefits we should get out of it and what schools will be involved?

Independent Schools 2

The Victorian Education Department and government has still not communicated with teachers ( let alone the general community) about their stance on Christopher Pyne's two man curriculum review and his $70 million independent schools 'thought bubble'. 

The NSW government has come out ( in this morning's Sydney Morning Herald) to reject the proposal and contradict Pyne's assertion that all states are on board.They said  that the NSW government has not signed an agreement with the federal government to introduce independent public schools.they said " We don't believe the research supports creating either charter schools or fully independent public schools."School education program director for the Gattan institute, Ben Jensen said the evidence that independent public schools produce better student outcomes was 'very mixed' and if not carefully implemented, the policy could leave students worse off. " if you just look at autonomy, the evidence on school improvement is, at best, very mixed." he said that "It was too early to tell if $70 million was enough to achieve the government's target of 1500 independent schools by 2017"

15 000 views!

Well, I've notched up 15 000 views on Learning with Literature which is great. I hope people have found something interesting on my blog.

The Foundation students have Wednesday off this month to re- charge their batteries. Yesterday we completed 'pop up cards' for simple Simon Met a Pieman. We always study nursery rhymes in prep and we are looking at the letter 's' this week. We are getting into 'They Found a Cave'  over the last few days. The old fashioned language and slang is a bit of a hoot. 

Below is a photo of some of their efforts. As part of our Australian theme the children designed an aboriginal inspired 3D picture of a turtle (We'll also start on an X- Ray fish bark picture tomorrow) 

Windermere Primary School

I took my daughter out for a driving lesson this evening and we drove out to Windermere  Primary School which closed down in 2012. The school served the community since 1857 and it is sad to now see it empty but strangely still the main building and grounds seem neat and tidy. it looks like it wouldn't take much effort to open it up again. 

Independent Schools?

The Commonwealth Education Minister Christopher Pyne announced today that his government would provide $70 million for 1500 state schools to become 'independent schools' ( presumably that means something like the charter schools in the US) That would be about $ 50 000 per school.

I think this is a good opportunity to remind ourselves about the Gonski reform package which the now government promised to deliver during the election-

* The most comprehensive review of the Australian education system in 40 years.
* Developed over 5 years.
* Consisted of a bipartisan panel of 5 experts, 3 of whom hold the Order of Australia and another the Australia Medal.
* Received over 7000 submissions, visited 39 schools and consulted 71 education groups.

The Pyne Review:

* Will be conducted over 6 months.
* The panel will consist of 2 people. Kevin Donnelly and Ken Wiltshire. 

Pyne said today: "I imagine the Commonwealth's money will mostly be spent on building the skills base for principals and their leadership teams in schools that apply for independent public schooling," he said.

"The more a principal and their leadership teams have control over the destiny of their own school the more that seems to lift that school's performance." What a strange thing to say and strange words to use- 'imagine' and 'seems to' doesn't sound very scientific.

There is no evidence, no data at all to show that this approach makes any impact on student learning. it seems based on the idea that the principal is the font of all knowledge in schools ( I know from experience that this is inaccurate and illogical) and that sufficient parents have the interest and enthusiasm to take on considerably more responsibility in managing schools. ( Victorian parents already have considerable capacity to be involved in supporting their children at school)

Pyne said today on Channel 7 News that all states and territories support this initiative, yet today the Minister of Education from NSW ( a fellow conservative) said that NSW will not be participating in the initiative. As usual no news from the Victorian state minister or Premier. This type of policy will have an impact on already struggling school communities ( refer to the US charter school experience) and in particular rural communities. A contributor to ABC News online wrote: 

'In terms of School Boards and parental participation. I live and work in a small rural community and we already struggle to get enough parents to form a P&C to raise a few dollars for our school. The notion that somehow we can conjure up enough talented and committed people to fill a School Board with roles in hiring and firing, budget and policy development and so on is laughable.' 

Today most of the kids completed their old style Australian houses ( as part of our Australia theme and work inspired by 'They Found a Cave') and they are now on display.