Extension to Lockdown

Due to the ongoing level of community transmission of COVID-19, the Victorian Government this week announced the current restrictions in place across Victoria will be extended. This means remote and flexible learning will continue in all Victorian schools until the end of Term 3. Any update or change to this will be communicated through the return to onsite learning plan that will be released by the Department of Education next week. This means remote and flexible learning will continue in all Victorian schools until the end of Term 3. I will keep the community updated as soon as further information is received.

Student Voice and Remote Learning

This week we met (online) with students to identify opportunities for increasing ‘student voice’ in our remote learning program. There were lots of great ideas and we look forward to having students lead us in our learning. This week the Student Voice Team (SVT) will decide on the winners of the Gratitude Design a Space and Photo competitions.

Cardboard Challenge, Book Week and Gratitude

Our weekly whole school learning days have been a great success. Student work has revealed the depth and breadth of talent and creativity at YPS, from amazing cardboard game creations to clever book cover depictions and thoughtful expressions of thanks.

 I express my gratitude to our students and families for maintaining their energy levels and giving different kinds of lessons and learning a go. Your persistence and resilience, shown by your capacity to think creatively and with ingenuity, is inspiring.

Buildings and Grounds

Last week the Buildings and Grounds School Council sub-committee met to discuss our ongoing campaign for building works to improve the environment and facilities for our students, teachers, and community. The school has invested in the new playground this year and is also developing a sensory garden adjacent to the kitchen garden. You may have also noticed we are tidying up the front entrance area and we are hopeful we will have new signage by the end of the school year. These investments show our commitment to caring for our school and the important role it plays in the local Richmond community. We are always seeking parent input and participation as your voice makes all the difference. Please contact sub-committee convener and YPS parent Matt Gill at scbuildingsandgrounds@yarraps.vic.edu.au for more information

NAPLAN 2021

The incredible resilience and hard work of Victorian educators, students and families has been reflected in the strong results for this year's NAPLAN tests.

These results showed Victoria also improved on our 2019 results. Reading was a particular highlight, with students in years 3, 5 and 7 demonstrating significant improvement.

More than 62 per cent of Year 3 students are now achieving in the top two bands for Reading, representing an increase of almost ten per cent from 2015.

Since 2015, the number of students in the bottom two bands for Reading has decreased by more than eight percentage points for Year 5 students and more than two percentage points for Year 3 students.

In years 3 and 5, over 13,000 more students are achieving at the highest reading levels compared to 2015.

This is great news. However, despite all that NAPLAN can measure, it only tells part of the story of literacy and numeracy achievement. Results may not show growth of learning for all students because it only measures a skill set on one day of the year. It does not represent student achievements across the year, nor across the breadth of the curriculum which schools use to evaluate their programs. It also does not measure engagement in learning. Engagement can look like students’ enjoying reading, willingness to persist in numeracy tasks or their use of these skills outside a test situation. With this in mind, and for parents with students in Years 3 and 5, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher regarding their results as this conversation may be helpful in contextualising your child’s individual performance.

Looking forward,

Saraid

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This is a reminder that Tuesday 7th September is a National Threatened Species Day!

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World Bee Day 2021



On 20th May 2021, Yarra students celebrated World Bee Day, creating an awareness of the importance of bees in our ecocsystem and the decline in the bee population. It was great to see students dress up as bees and enjoying bee-themed activities throughout the day. We raised $420 on World Bee Day! This money has been used to buy and create a 'pollinator garden' to house our bee hotels within the garden. Our bee hotels offer a safe place for our solitary bees and insects that are beneficial to our garden. When we return, the bee hotels will be up and running!



Fun fact: Australia has over 2000 species of native bees.

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