By Callum Ludwig
The excited buzz of Yarra Junction Primary School (YJPS) students filled the hallways of the school as students returned for their first week of the year.
Among them were 19 new Prep students, altogether in a class set to begin their school journey.
YJPS Principal Lisa Rankin said students need to feel safe and have a connection to the school to learn, which the school’s transition program allows to develop before the first day.
“It is essential to build these first, we build lots of opportunities for them to be in different spaces around the school so they’re familiar but they also to connect with lots of staff throughout the school as well,” she said.
“Come day one, they’re ready, prepared and wanting to learn.”
YJPS conducts pre-prep assessments to gauge students’ abilities as well as to introduce them to their classroom and their teacher, who they get valuable time one-on-one with during the transition. The school also holds a transition program at the end of each year throughout the whole cohort so students can dive into learning upon their return from the summer holidays.
Ms Rankin said the assessments give them a really clear understanding of each child.
“We understand what they’re able to do but we can also delve a bit deeper into how that child learns and they are really important skills for us so that we can use different strategies, use different metacognition to make sure that the students can learn their way,” she said.
“All of our students know who’s exactly in their classroom, know where their bag goes, know who their teacher is, know the setup and they have an input and some student voice around their classroom rules and things like that so that there’s real ownership.”
On their second day, the new prep students were practising sign language with their teacher Tania Scott.
Ms Scott said the first week of prep is all about getting to know routines.
“We go on a little treasure hunt for the ‘Green Sheep’ so they get to know where the library is, and the stadium is and become comfortable and their buddies eat with them for their first break,” she said.
“We all go out, as many teachers as we can, and get outside to make sure that they’ve all got someone to play with and they’re having fun and they get to know what a school day looks like, with a soft start before we start our learning.”
On their first day, prep students had already learnt seven signs in sign language, worked on their literacy with the Jolly Phonics program, did multiple activities in maths rotations, established some classroom ‘occupations and practised reflection and some mindfulness techniques to conclude the day.
