Dear Parents and Carers,

This week has been a week of visitors to support learning and engagement. On Tuesday we had our CogLearn coach Andrew Pirie visit. On Wednesday we welcomed Callie Bolitho, Beatrice Hannah and Megan Livingstone from the Inclusion, Wellbeing and Diversity team. On Thursday we welcomed Dominic Braybon from the Performance and Improvement team. And, today we welcomed our Director, Ross Fox, for another visit to St Pat's.

During his visit Ross toured the school and enjoyed the opportunity to see first hand the great work of our teachers in every classroom. 

Staff at St Patrick's are proudly implementing the system wide approach to teaching and learning.

As you may have read in past communications, over the last 2 years at St Patrick's we have been more fully implementing a particular way of delivering instruction. This instructional approach is called Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI). It is a researched and evidenced based approach used by teachers to deliver the curriculum at the lesson level. 

At St Patrick's we have implemented specific programs in English that utilise direct instruction, these include InitiaLit and other MulitLit programs and the Sound Waves spelling program. In Mathematics, the direct instruction program is Connecting Maths Concepts (CMC).

Explicit Direct Instruction pedagogy is being delivered in every classroom. 

Why are we using EDI at St Pat's?

* EDI is based on the Science of Learning.

* EDI  breaks down complex skills and knowledge into smaller instructional steps.

* Worked examples are used to demonstrate what students need to learn, and as they become proficient the scaffolds can be removed.

* EDI provides explicit opportunities for students to practice what they have already learned. Students retain knowledge and skills when practice is deliberate and purposeful.

* Pacing keeps students focused.

* Learning becomes more efficient by reducing cognitive (memory) overload.

* IT WORKS!

Narooma Swimming Representatives congratulations to our swim team who competed at Narooma this week, lots of great achievements were noted! We are pleased to have a big contingent of swimmers now heading to Queanbeyan for the next level of competition.

Blessings, 

Jo