Penguin students are AWESOME!  As staff at PDS we are reminded of this on a daily basis.  This week there has been some amazing feedback about our students that I would love to share with you.  We often recognise  that “respectful students always do the right thing when no one is watching them,”  however this is sometimes easier said than done.  So, this week I am going to start with some shout outs for students (and others) who have been doing exactly that and doing our school proud. 

Shout Out’s

Thankyou to our bus 1 students (primary and secondary) who have been taking some of our younger students “under their wings” to make sure they are feeling safe and supported when lining up and getting seated on the bus.  A big shout out to Chloe (parent) for sharing that feedback with us. We really appreciate you not only sharing this with us at school, but also via the PDS Parents Facebook page.

We have had our little environmental warriors quietly cleaning up our garden beds over the last few weeks during their break times.  These students approached me and asked if they could have some buckets, tongs and gloves to help clean up the rubbish so that our wildlife have safe and well looked after nature spaces in which to thrive.  They have done this from a place of care and compassion and certainly not with the aim of being recognised.  Thankyou to this little crew, you know who you are!

We have a number of new families moving into the area who have been in for school tours in recent weeks.  One family had visited a number of schools in the region before making a final decision as to where they would like to move.  After a walk-through last week their feedback was that the level of learning engagement from our students was as good as they had seen across the coast.  We certainly thank them for their feedback and look forward to welcoming them into the school community next term.

We are really pleased to announce that our whole school attendance is sitting at 91.5% which is well above our School Improvement Goal of 90%.  This is a shout out to all our parents for ensuring that your children are getting to school and “ready to learn.”  We know this doesn’t happen by accident, so thankyou for support with this.  Every day at school helps improve not only academic outcomes, but helps ensure students develop a strong sense of connectedness and belonging.

Thankyou to our Secondary Student Board and Mrs Popowski for all your hard work in organising today’s sausage sizzle.  Cooking over 400 sausages in no mean feat!

Finally, my last shout out is to all our staff and students for the time and effort you have put into making PDS such an amazing place.  Have a terrific break and we can’t wait to see what Term 2 has in store for us.

Reading at Home in the Early Years (Prep-2)

Starting on day 1 of next term we will begin our “Reading at Home” program that focussed on the use of Decodable Texts in the Prep-2 space.  These texts are specifically written for beginning readers as they develop their blending and segmenting skills, and develop their knowledge of the alphabetic code.  The purpose of these texts is to provide our students with the opportunity to practice and reinforce what is being taught during our explicit Literacy block.  These texts are designed to be “read by the student,” however they may still need some support from parents.  It is important to note that we want students using their letter/sound knowledge to decode words rather than guessing based on the pictures.

Our “Reading at Home” borrowing will take place in the kitchenette in the Early Years building every morning between 8.20am and 8.45am and is available for all of our P-2 students.  There will be a member of our Literacy Support Team in the space every day to support this process.  Students are welcome to take a book from the tub that their teacher has identified.  Students must have a book bag (that they will receive from their teacher) to help protect the texts. 

Please be patient as we begin our journey with a new system that ensures we have books easily accessible to students/parents and that they are using texts that will help develop their reading skills already taught in the classroom.

Students may also borrow picture books from their classroom tub.  These picture books are designed to be read by parents to students.  We also have home readers and library books that are available from the library as they always have been.  Sonya is always willing to have students changing books prior to school and during library classes.  Some students may choose Decodable texts whilst others may prefer to read picture books and library books. Ultimately, we want our students to be reading regularly and choosing texts that interest them and will further develop their reading skills.

In conclusion, we now have 3 ways that students can access books.

1).  Decodable texts from the kitchenette in Early Years Building– Texts designed to be read by students

2).  Picture Books that can be borrowed from classroom – Texts designed to be read to your child, however some students love to help with the reading.

3).  Books from the library – Texts that students can choose based on interest.  Texts that can be shared together

Please reach out to our teaching staff if you have any further questions.  We look forward to starting this program next term.

Thankyou to Ms Green (Instructional Specialist) and the Literacy Support team for getting this program up and running.