Principal's Message
Welcome back to all our families and welcome to our new families. It has been wonderful to see our students arrive back with their smiling faces. On Monday there were a few anxious moments as we become familiar with our new classrooms and environments. Students have now settled well into their classrooms for 2024.
This year our explicit improvement agenda is Connections and Engagement. Staff commenced this journey last week when they participated in two days professional development which has them excited about shifting our culture at Calliope this year. On Wednesday staff workshopped with Dr Matt Capp (EdD). Matt is the Director of CAPITALISE Education and one of the world's leading inclusive learning designers, specialising in Universal Design for Learning. He has over 23 years of experience in primary and secondary schools, as well as universities, supporting students with disability and diverse learning needs. Matt worked extensively around knowing our students and planning our curriculum to meet all needs through applying the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) Framework.
On Thursday staff worked with Robyn from Kagan Structures. Robyn Cragg currently serves as a Director of Kagan Australia Teacher Professional Learning. Her career in education spans over 40 years and includes being a physical education teacher, Inspector of Schools, Director of Schools and 20 years as a Principal in disadvantaged schools. Staff workshopped on using structures in the classroom to build positive class and team cultures. Staff were able to add to their repertoire of strategies to engage students.
On Thursday are whole staff made connections with Rotary who volunteered to cook a barbecue lunch for staff. They also joined us in the staff room to share lunch and staff were able to chat with them. Rotary support our school in various ways throughout the year. Thank you, Liz Cunningham, Greg Brown and Sue Beale. Lunch was delicious.
This year our school also commences their journey in using the Resilience Project Wellbeing Program as a resource. The program is emotionally engaging, practical, and proven to have impact through evidence-based evaluations. There will be more information on this in the weeks that follow.
School Uniform
As well as seeing the beautiful smiles of our students back at school, it was wonderful to also see all our students in complete uniform. Some of our girls had beautiful matching blue and yellow bows in the hair. Thank you to all parents/caregivers on making this happen. A copy of our Student Dress Code is attached.
We welcome the following new staff to our school
Tracee Ward – Guidance Officer
Debbie Dingle – Instrumental Music