BAYVIEW Newsletter ISSUE 21 Monday 15 July 2013
www.bayview.vic.edu.au
Risen Jesus, gladden our hearts this day.
From the Principal– Dr Michelle Kearney The beginning of a semester is a time for students and staff to set short and long term goals for the educational journey ahead. Our professional learning day this week was devoted to determining the direction of the Bayview Curriculum in light of the Curriculum review that was undertaken in Semester one. The review process affirmed many aspects of our current programs including: • Strong Pastoral Care of students, • Extensive & challenging camps and outdoor education program • Using local beaches and ocean for aquatics, surfing, and life saving • Provision of period 7 to support student learning • A positive student climate with minimal bullying • Small classes which enable individual care of students and their learning • Active engagement with community organisations and events • School Size - “know the students” We were challenged to explore the following areas further: • Developing a whole school overarching framework for teaching and learning, channelled through the school Vision and Mission • Placing a greater emphasis on students learning to learn, and learning to think • Linking our pastoral and wellbeing programs more closely to our school values We are focussing on developing a Culture of Thinking as the overarching framework for our teaching and learning environment. Bayview will increasingly become a home for the active mind, a school that focuses on the promotion of knowledge, thinking, self-understanding, mutual respect, global understanding, adaptability to change and a love for lifelong learning. Our programs will not only focus on providing students with access to key knowledge and skills but will also infuse the teaching of thinking skills with the content. We will assist all our students learn how to think reflectively, critically and creatively, and to employ these skills and techniques in a meaningful curriculum and their life beyond school. Bayview: A thinking school therefore is an educational community in which we all share a common commitment to giving regular, careful thought to everything that takes place. When the mind is thinking it is talking to itself Plato