Our Barbreck girls commenced Term 3 happy to return to School, catch up with their friends and teachers, and find out what the term has in store!  

Our teachers have been busy during the break preparing for the term and the many events and activities on our calendar. It’s going to be a fabulous term!  

Staff Arrangements

During our extensive and thorough recruitment process to appoint a new Deputy Head of Junior School we are pleased to announce Ms Taleah Pecchiar will step into the role of Acting Deputy Head of Junior School. 

Our Barbreck community already know Ms Pecchiar well in her role as a Year 3 classroom teacher. During her Acting Deputy role, Ms Pecchiar will continue to teach her Year 3 class in English. Mathematics, HASS, and Wellbeing will be taught by Ms Vanessa Hall, an experienced teacher we have employed previously. 

I know you will join me in congratulating Ms Pecchiar on her acting position and in welcoming Ms Hall to Year 3. 

French 

I would like to thank our students and parents from Prep to Year 4 for your patience and understanding while we secured a French teacher for our language program.  

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Ms Natacha Muller will be joining the Barbreck team for French. Natacha has a different approach to teaching French than held in previous years. Her approach is the explicit teaching of vocabulary and phrases, then using a range of games and drama-based activities to consolidate their learning. 

Mrs Susan Duffy will teach Years 5 and 6 French. 

Art 

Due to a family emergency, Ms Kate Martin returned to Ireland. We have engaged Ms Alice Krause to take her classes. Alice is an experienced Art Teacher and I know the girls are going to love her lessons. 

Engaged Learning

Throughout Term 3, our teachers will focus on several strategies to ensure all our girls are engaged with their learning. 

A key strategy they will be using is ‘cold calling.’ This strategy engages students and encourages active participation from everyone in the class. 

Cold calling requires teachers to call on students for a response without asking the class to put up their hands. This approach creates a more inclusive and participatory learning environment and holds students accountable for their understanding and participation.    

Benefits: 

• Everyone is actively engaged in the learning process 
• Time is given for thinking before asking for responses, giving students the opportunity to think the question through, connect with their knowledge base, and formulate a response in case they are called upon. 
• Promotes hard thinking, prepares all students to contribute, and prevents small groups from dominating interactions. 

Term 3: Important Dates