Dear Teachers,

Most staff of our ECE and Primary teachers have been trained in one or both of the two ESL courses offered for staff – Teaching Young Children in English in a Multilingual Context (ECE and Lower Primary) & ESL in the Mainstream Class (Middle – Upper Primary).  These courses are designed to provide opportunities for all teachers to develop an understanding of how better to support the needs of second language learners in their teaching.

Over time, we would like as many of our staff to be trained as possible.  It is a big commitment as it involves 7-10 lessons with tasks and readings to complete at the end of each module. Some tasks require you to reflect on your teaching and/or the reading(s) provided, while other tasks involve you trialing strategies learned with your students in class.  More importantly, it is an excellent course for teachers who teach second language children in their classrooms, which are all teachers at YCIS.  The good news is that the course costs, including course booklets and snacks, are covered by the school. Now, all you need to do is sign up and participate. This is a priority and all teachers are expected to have this course completed after two years of employment at YCIS.

The course has been taken by a number of Chinese teachers in the past and the concepts and strategies taught are relevant for any language.  We would encourage Chinese teachers to also take the course and use this for their own professional learning.

If you are interested in signing up, please inform Melissa or Andrea.  The deadline to inform them of your interest in attending a course will be Friday, December 7th.  Please see the attached overview of the 2 courses being offered –

Teaching Young Children in English in a Multilingual Context (ECE and Lower Primary)

Teaching Young Children in English in Multilingual Contexts Course Outline

ESL in the Mainstream Class (Middle – Upper Primary) –

Teaching ESL in The Mainstream Class Course Outline

The classes will begin on Thursday, January 10th and the remaining classes will be on Mondays. Please see the dates of the classes below:

January 10, 2019

January 28, 2019

February 11, 2019

February 25, 2019

March 11, 2019

March 18, 2019 (Early Years Course only)

March 25, 2019

April 8, 2019

April 15, 2019 (Early Years Course only)

April 22, 2019

April 29, 2019 (Early Years Course only)

Once registered a more detailed schedule will be sent out that will include times, venue and module titles. Please note that dates can change but we will aim to keep to the listed calendar.

Regency Park – Supervision Duty Roster 2018-19

As of Monday, August 20

Morning Supervision Duties

Lunch Supervision Duties

Afternoon Supervision Duties

• Please note the students may go to lunch recess at 11.55/12:20/12:50, although one of the cafeteria duty teachers will need to stay until the children have finished eating.
• The underlined teacher indicates the Cafeteria Duty Leader

Please note the following Points:

• Teachers have been assigned five duties per week
• A few teachers have a reduced duty schedule if they fall into one of the categories below:
  • Team Leaders
  • Teachers who travel between campuses
  • Teachers who undertake additional lunch/recess activities
• Please note those who have been given one less duty may be asked to cover a duty if another staff member is absent

Dear all,

Over the past semester, more and more co-curricular activities have been organised to place after school and on weekends. This of course is fantastic for the students, but it has brought some other associated challenges…namely the supervision of students after normal school hours.

Increasingly, we are finding that students are playing around the Courtyard, Play Structure/Field and Hallways without adult supervision. Whilst it is great to see the students playing and socialising after school, there is a need to ensure that they do so safely.

We will therefore be communicating to parents the following points (starting from Monday).

• RP Courtyard: Students should be accompanied by an adult where in the courtyard after school. The RP Courtyard will close at 4.45pm.
• Library: Parents/Guardians must supervise their children at all times in the Library after school. If a Primary child is waiting for a MultiSports activity or IIIP lesson to begin (e.g. Football or Gymnastics), then they may stay in the Library to finish their homework/read if they are accompanied by their parents/guardian. The Library will close at 4.30pm.
• ECE & Primary Hallways: Students should not be running around the hallways, or should always be accompanied.
• Outdoor Play Structure/Field: Parents/Guardians must supervise their children at all times if their child is playing outside after school. At this time of year, it gets dark quite early. To ensure that students are safe, the Field and Play Structure will close by 5pm. (For Multisports football, the field will close straight after the final session)

For this to work, we will need all staff on-board and vigilant after school to ensure that students are being adequately supervised by the parents/guardians. Therefore if staff see students running around the hallways or playing unsupervised, please take their name and ask them to find their parents. A member of the CLT will then follow-up the next day with that child. If this is repeated behaviour, we will contact the parents.

Please take time this week to speak to your classes about these expectations.

Please let me know if you have any questions,

Rob

Dear all,

This year, to make wet recess times a little more manageable for ClassTeachers, we have set up supervision ‘buddies’ for inside recesses. Often during wet or red-air days, co-teachers have to miss out on recess times as they need to look after their own class.

It will be up to the 3 teachers to informally communicate with each other, and find a fair and workable solution on occasions when it is inside recess. There will of course be quite a few times when the supervision ‘buddy’ cannot cover, due to their own duties/teaching schedule, but hopefully it will help on some occasions, particularly when there have been a number of indoor recesses within a week…where a 5-10 minute break can make all the difference.

For Y6, Zaid will be able to communicate with the Y6 teachers directly.

Please see list below (click to enlarge).

Thanks for your help with this,

Rob