Term 3, Week 1 Bulletin
Dear Parents & Guardians,
I am a strong believer that schools should engage in practices that are clearly based on research; that is,
that they use strategies that have been proven to work. When you are unwell, you would go to a doctor,
and would reasonably hope to be prescribed a treatment for your condition based on evidence. Schools
and education should be no different.
There is a range of strategies we have embedded or are working to implement at St Lawrence of Brindisi
that are based on research. One of these is a strategy called the Bump it up Wall. This strategy that can be
used in many curriculum areas, however, it is commonly used to support the development of children’s
writing.
A bump it up wall is a series of writing samples created by real, but anonymous children, that reflect the
different levels of development in a curriculum area, in our case the Victorian Curriculum writing domain.
They provide a set of, ‘I can’ statements, that is, outcomes that need to be achieved in each level written in
language the children can understand.
The purpose of the bump it up wall is to empower teachers and students to work together to review a
child’s progress. They help the student and teacher identify the skills the child has been able to show in
their writing and those they have not yet been able to demonstrate.
Renowned UK educational academic, Dylan William, (who ironically, our leadership team is working with in
Melbourne on Friday) has shown in his research that assessment is critical to enable teachers to identify
and support the progress of every child. For assessment to be effective, children need to have a clear and
visible understanding of their learning targets. This is exactly what the bump it up wall does. It provides
children with specific examples of evidence of what a good writing sample looks like and empowers them
to identify how they can improve their writing to move towards the next standard.
I have been fortunate enough over time to see, both in my previous schools and in many I have visited, the
positive impact the bump it up wall can have on the progress of students in writing; how it empowers them
to reflect on their progress and improve their writing skills. Likewise, it helps build teacher capacity and
supports them as they work with individual children to develop their specific writing skills.
Over the next few weeks, you will see the bump it up wall displayed in each of our classrooms, with levels
relevant to the needs of the children in that Learning Community. We will also be working on providing
each child with an individual bump it up wall booklet that they will keep throughout their time at St
Lawrence of Brindisi so that they can have a record of their progress in writing.
The implementation of the bump it up wall is something the staff are very excited about, and we believe
this will make a real difference in supporting them in their writing development. The teachers are going to
work hard to implement this approach in their classrooms over the next few weeks, having spent the first
part of the year developing a better understanding of this strategy. We are hopeful that as part of Book
Week in Week 7 of this term, we can organise an information night for our parents and guardians to
demonstrate the bump it up wall and how this supports the children at St Lawrence of Brindisi. I know that
this is something the staff are keen to share with you and show you how the bump it up wall supports your
child and how this can be something that you can refer to when discussing your child’s learning at home.
This term is a very busy term so please refer to the reminders below:
NAIDOC WEEK COLOURS DAY AND ASSEMBLY
Just a reminder that we are holding a NAIDOC week assembly on Friday to celebrate this important event in
the year and to show what the children have been investigating this week in class. Our assembly will be at
2.40pm on Friday. Please come along if you can.
Also, a reminder that Friday is a colours day, and all the children are encouraged to come to school wearing
red, black and yellow to represent the colours of the Aboriginal flag. This is not a gold coin donation event.
ST LAWRENCE OF BRINDISI FEAST DAY: JULY 21
Next Friday, July 21, is our annual St Lawrence of Brindisi Feast day celebration. We will start the day with
mass at 9.30am in the new Stage 2 building, our first mass that will be celebrated with our new parish
priest, Fr Alex. It would be lovely for our parents and guardians to come along to celebrate with us and to
meet Fr Alex (if you haven’t already).
Caroline is working with the staff to organise a range of activities for the children throughout the day to
help them reflect on the life of St Lawrence but also our Vision and our motto. This is an important part of
our Catholic identity and honours our patron saint.
GRANDPARENTS DAY
Following close behind St Lawrence of Brindisi’s feast day is St Joachim and St Anne, the earthly
grandparents of Jesus Christ and traditionally honoured in the Catholic Church as the celebration of
grandparents. With this in mind, we will organise a special liturgy for our children’s grandparents on Friday, July 28 at 2.30pm.
We would like to encourage our grandparents and special friends to come along to
celebrate with us. Caroline will send out more information next week.
BOOK WEEK
As stated above, Book Week is in Week 7 of this term from Monday 21 August. This is an event the children
really look forward to with lots of exciting activities throughout the week. This year, we will have a very
special guest on the last day of book week, Thursday, August 24, as the new Director of Melbourne
Archdiocese Catholic Schools, Dr Ed Simons, is coming to visit us (I’m not sure what he will think of his
Principal if this is a dress up day and I meet him dressed in fancy dress!).
The Friday of that week (August 25) is a student-free day for all students as our staff will be working with an
external curriculum consultant to further review and develop our implementation of the bump it up wall.
Lots of exciting things happening at St Lawrence of Brindisi!! I hope that lots of our parents and guardians
can participate in these events – this is something we have worked hard to build our school around and we
value your place and role in the life of our school.
God bless,
Bill Hill.
PRINCIPAL