JS News: 11 May 2022

Happy Mother’s Day

It was lovely to spend last Friday morning as a community celebrating Mother’s Day. The morning allowed our students to spend time with the significant females in their lives as we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and were entertained by the musical talents of our students. As a school, we have worked hard throughout the COVID-impacted years to maintain our connection with families. Friday’s event reinforced the importance of human connection and I know there was a collective sense of gratitude as we mingled and chatted with each other. These important events take a considerable amount of planning, so thank you to the staff and students who were involved in the organisation of the day.

PYP Exhibition in full swing!

Our Year 6 students have dived into their Exhibition process at full speed over the first few weeks of this term. For those who are not familiar with Exhibition, it is an important culminating experience within the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP). The Exhibition is an extended, collaborative inquiry that allows students to demonstrate their learning from throughout the PYP programme.

The Exhibition has a strong tradition here at Radford and has become a powerful way for students to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skill with a broad audience.

This year students will be engaging in the Exhibition process for the duration of Term 2. The overarching theme for this year's Exhibition is 'The Power of Now'. This theme hopes to reinforce for our students the importance of ‘acting’ now, for now is the only time that we can make a difference.

This Friday, the students will be engaging in a full-day student conference. They will hear from some keynote speakers who will share stories of how they are embracing the ‘power of now’ to make a difference in the world. They will also be involved in a series of practical workshops to develop important skills, such as communicating professionally through email, finding relevant sources when researching, managing conflict in group situations, recording interviews using Garageband, looking after your wellbeing throughout the process, using data to enhance research, creative thinking through a design process, strategies to support executive function, and communicating a message through a visual medium. It should be a wonderful day of inspiration and learning. We look forward to seeing where our Year 6 students take their inquiries throughout the term.

Accessing your child’s learning in Toddle

A reminder that our teachers are sharing information about your child’s learning through Toddle. The idea is that this learning information is ‘drip fed’ throughout the year. Our hope is that this approach will keep parents informed and engaged with what is happening in our classrooms.

There are also some tasks where the teacher provides feedback about an aspect of learning that is specific to your child. This information supports parents to understand what their child is doing well and where they can improve.

If you are not yet accessing Toddle, you can find instructions for how to log in through this previous Nexus post.