Issue 8 | 22nd March 2024

A message from Principal Hartley

Mr Brett Hartley Principal

A message from Mrs Bromley

Mrs Leisa Bromley, Deputy Principal & Head of Senior School

A message from Dr Chalwell

The evidence is clear: there should be a strong focus on phonics-based decoding skills in the early years. Students also need a knowledge-rich curriculum to build the vocabulary and background knowledge that are critical for successful reading comprehension all through school. And schools need to track student progress, so they can intervene early to help struggling students to catch-up.

This is very encouraging for the Junior School as it captures the areas we are focusing on in literacy: phonics-cased decoding skills, a knowledge-rich curriculum, tracking student progress for interventions. The report recommends six key steps to improve reading for all school students. While some of them are not applicable to the College, there is a lot to celebrate here as well as to motivate us to continue the work we are doing.

Recommendation 1: Commit to at least 90% of students becoming proficient readers.

While this recommendation is targeting the government sector rather than individual schools, we are committed to ensuring that we provide the necessary support to help our students become proficient readers.

Recommendation 2: Give teachers and school leaders specific guidelines on how to teach reading according to the evidence and Recommendation 5: Ensure teachers have the knowledge and skills they need to teach reading well.

I have put these two recommendations together as understanding the evidence and ensuring that teachers have the knowledge and skills required go hand in hand. This is an ongoing focus of professional learning in the Junior School. Our teachers receive both external and internal training best practice for reading instruction. Our commitment to the RHAC five principles of teaching and learning : explicit instruction, high expectations, effective feedback, data informed practice, relational teaching, are evidence-based teaching practices that have a positive impact on student learning. Our Head of Learning, Mrs Vlok, works closely with teachers to support excellence in reading instruction, and our teachers are committed to this area of the curriculum.

Recommendation 3: Ensure schools have the high-quality curriculum materials and assessments teachers need to teach reading well.

Our use of the InitiaLit program for Kindergarten to Year 2, and Spelling Mastery for Years 3 to 6 are two high-quality programs that enhance our reading instruction. As recommended in the report, we have invested in decodable readers for early reading instruction. I am thankful for the commitment Junior School teachers have to working collaboratively as they develop high quality curriculum materials and assessments to support literacy learning. In addition, the work we are doing on developing knowledge-rich teaching programs in History, Geography and Science will continue as we progress through the NSW Curriculum Reform timeline. We use ongoing formal and informal assessment to support student learning. It is also important to note the work of our library staff as they work on growing our library book collection and encourage students to discover the joy of reading.

Recommendation 4: Require schools to do universal screening of reading skills and help struggling students to catch up.

We use ongoing screening of reading skills, both at the beginning of the year assessments and throughout the year. We are also focusing our learning support where the data indicates is needed. This includes in class support, and small group and individual interventions.

Recommendation 6: Encourage best practice through closer monitoring and strengthened school performance reviews.

While this recommendation focuses on a broader scope than our College, we already use an inhouse screening of phonics and reading fluency.

It is exciting to read a report like this and to acknowledge the work that we are already doing to ensure that every student is provided with the instruction they need to learn to read.

Dr Kaye Chalwell, Head of Junior School

Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely, he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes [ c ] his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life ] and be satisfied ] ;
by his knowledge ] my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great ]
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.