Woy Woy school invited onto State early learning team

Woy Woy Public School has been invited to be part of a statewide "pedagogical leadership team" for the early learning unit of the Department of Education.

"Our school is on a journey of innovation to discover the best possible ways to connect with 21st Century students and their learning to achieve improved engagement and improved overall results," school principals Ms Ona Buckley and Mr Dan Betts said in the school newsletter.

"Our preschool has been through a huge overhaul both physically and educationally to focus on the Early Years Learning Framework, play-based exploration and self-discovery learning.

"At our last assessment and rating process, our preschool exceeded in all seven National Quality Standards and our goal is now to achieve an overall rating of Excellence."

As a result, Ms Buckley said: "We have also been invited to present what we do around play-based learning in a statewide staff meeting forum."

The principals said the school had implemented Language Learning and Literacy (L3) and Targeted Early Numeracy (TEN) into the K-2 stages and Focus on Reading (FoR) in the 3-6 stages.

"Years 3-6 are now implementing Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) strategies across their curriculum learning.

"We have improved student engagement and results in some areas but we are striving to better this still.

"In 2020 we have introduced a different daily routine with more frequent shorter breaks, blocks for Literacy and Maths across the school allowing also for ability groupings.

"In Years 3-6, we have rotational curriculum groups using an expert teacher with a passion for teaching their curriculum area.

"In K-2, we have made a seamless transition for students coming from the play-based, child-centred world of early learning into Kindergarten and beyond.

"We are in the process of overlaying STEM metalanguage across the curriculum in our intentional play based environments to enhance student skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, higher-order thinking skills and risk-taking."

Ms Buckley said the school was a part of the Central Coast Academy of STEM Excellence.

So many great things happening for our school.

"Like all other schools this year we have become experts in online learning from home for our students - such a huge learning curve for everyone but everyone embraced and got on with so positively.

"As we go into the phase of planning for the 2021-2024 School Improvement Plan, we can reflect on the many innovations we have implemented and what works best to improve student results and engagement in learning."

SOURCE:

Newsletter, 17 Aug 2020

Ona Buckley and Dan Betts, Woy Woy Public School