It’s “enrolment season” across the Early Years, with interviews in full swing for placement in 2022. Whilst interviews are scheduled for all year levels across the Early Years, a huge majority of these are for incoming Prep students in 2022. I am always so excited to meet these new students and learn a bit more about them. Many of the children are already participating in our highly regarded transition program, Shooting Stars, with Mrs Morrison and Mrs O’Shea. This forms the first part of a rigorous transition process for our students, allowing them to become familiar with the routines and physical environment of our College, as well as focusing on important early literacy and numeracy skills that give the children a great springboard into formal learning in Prep next year.

The enrolment process is always a terrific time of reflection around “the OLSCC way” of preparing our students to be great learners. Our College learning dispositions are now firmly embedded into the language and mindset of our students as they continue to explore how to be creative, curious, independent, motivated, optimistic, persistent and resilient in learning and in life. These dispositions assist our students as they move through the Learning Pit, facing challenges head on. The Learning Pit acknowledges that students come to new situations with a multitude of different feelings. Some are excited, some are nervous, some are scared, some can’t wait for the challenge, and at some point, all of us need to jump into the pit and get started, children and adults alike! Sometimes, that can require hard work. We don’t avoid that – we embrace it as we strategise ways to get out of the pit, bumping up the learning. I often ask the students why I couldn’t just jump over the pit, after all, it doesn’t look that far. As the students regularly tell me “Well you COULD, Mrs Walton, but no real learning happens if you do that!” What a great culture of learning we are building here at OLSCC.

Preparations are in full swing across the College for our next round of Student Led Conferences that will occur in Week 9. This format aligns with our Visible Learning goal of developing assessment capable learners. What does that mean? Simply, it means that students take greater ownership of their learning and can identify:

• What they are learning
• How they are going in their learning journey
• What they need to do next to continue their learning

Students across the Early Years are busy reflecting on their current learning and choosing evidence to share at the conference to show their ‘glow’ (what I already know) and ‘grow’ (what my next goals are).

If you have a need to discuss something privately with the teacher, please arrange an alternative time to meet as the focus on these conferences is on students leading an explanation of their learning. They can’t wait to share this with you!

Katrina Walton

Assistant Principal Early Years