Six weeks in and all is well

Dave excitedly announced this afternoon that he had seen some significant shifts in the school over the last week. 'Since Tuesday', he said. 'There's purpose, everyone is positive, things are moving'.

And my reply... 'It's the end of Week 6'.

It's six weeks into the new school year. I always say it takes six weeks, give or take a week, for teachers to get their know the students in their class really well. It takes six weeks to set routines and for things to become automatic in a classroom. It takes six weeks to build relationships with parents, set the homework routines and iron out the kinks. It takes Preps six weeks to realise that school is every day, from 8.37am to 3.30pm.

And Dave's right - there is purpose, staff are positive and optimistic about student achievement, plans are in place for the semester and the hum of innovation across our classrooms has set in.

Things are definitely moving - the Year 6 curriculum is on fire, the Prep teachers can't keep up with their students, the Year 3s and 5s are focused on building their skills for NAPLAN next term, the Year 1 and 2 rooms are humming with the sound of kids reading, writing and practising their number skills and the Year 4s are stretching their wings in the senior school, Sofia (the Performing Arts teacher) is jumping for joy about her new sound system and its capability of individualising music choices for groups, Maree (our Teacher-Librarian) has kids clamouring to borrow books, Cam (our PE teacher) keeps rushing into my office to inform me of the latest sporting achievement of one or more of our students and Alex (our Japanese teacher) is looking ahead to our excursion to Tokyo in November.

It's six weeks in and again we are shaping up as an impressive place to come to every day!