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Speaker 1: Now first day of school was made all the more chaotic,

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Speaker 1: I think for a lot of the young kids or

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Speaker 1: a lot of young older whatever age they are given

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Speaker 1: that crazy wet weather this morning. But a lot of

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Speaker 1: relief I think for parents today and also for the

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Speaker 1: kids going back to school, lots of excitement, maybe some nervousness.

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Speaker 1: But joining us on the line to tell us a

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Speaker 1: little bit more about how things went at the Leanna

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Speaker 1: Primary School, or joining us on the line is Leah Crawford,

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Speaker 1: who is indeed the school principal. Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Leah, Good morning Katie. How are you?

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Speaker 1: I am very well. How did things go at your

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Speaker 1: school this morning? That wet weather struck at just the

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Speaker 1: wrong time.

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Speaker 2: Well, it certainly did. Surprisingly the school has come. Oh

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Speaker 2: you know, I think we have a little bit over

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Speaker 2: six hundred children enrolled and we had under five that

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Speaker 2: really needed to be supported with changing into dry clothes.

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Speaker 1: Oh that is good. So it was all pretty calm

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Speaker 1: for you guys.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it was fabulous, wonderful. I certainly was doing

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Speaker 2: a lot of running around with it. I looked at

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Speaker 2: my watch at about eight twenty five and nearly four

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Speaker 2: thousand steps, so meeting quickly.

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Speaker 1: Love it. No extra exercise required for you today, that's for.

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Speaker 2: Sure, not at all.

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Speaker 1: Oh good on you. Now tell me, was there lots

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Speaker 1: of excitement at your school this morning or were there

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Speaker 1: some mixed emotions. I know it's hard when the little

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Speaker 1: eas are going into transition for the first time.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely certainly. You know, you do have some children that

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Speaker 2: find that that attachment's a little bit tricky to move

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Speaker 2: away from. But generally the parents were really calm, teachers

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Speaker 2: a copy, the environments are beautiful, so I didn't notice

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Speaker 2: too many children that were upset. A couple in preschool,

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Speaker 2: and in the main just really really calm environment, really welcoming,

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Speaker 2: not just by the teachers, but the students were sort

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Speaker 2: of like putting arms around each other and patting children

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Speaker 2: on the back and you know, making sure that their

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Speaker 2: little friends were fine. So you know, there's that really

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Speaker 2: lovely community spirit there too.

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Speaker 1: That's beautiful to hear, and it's and it's a lot

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Speaker 1: of one of those times I think where sometimes the

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Speaker 1: kids think, oh, I'm not ready to go back to school.

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Speaker 1: I wish it was still holidays. But then once they

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Speaker 1: see all their friends and they're able to sort of

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Speaker 1: socialize again and learn. It's a it's you know, it's

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Speaker 1: a lovely environment for them.

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Speaker 2: Ah, they're all waving at each other and hello across

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Speaker 2: the across the rain and the hallway. So they were fine.

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Speaker 1: Oh, wonderful stuff. Now, have you got any big plans

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Speaker 1: for your school for this year?

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Speaker 2: I think always, you know, our biggest focus obviously is

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Speaker 2: to make sure that our curriculum is delivered in a

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Speaker 2: creative way, that we emphasize that innovation and leadership right

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Speaker 2: from you know, students through that everyone's a leader in

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Speaker 2: some capacity, and that our teaching philosophy, if you like,

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Speaker 2: pillars of successes around making sure that the way we

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Speaker 2: deliver the curriculum is age appropriate, futures focused. And then

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Speaker 2: of course that power of collaboration and learning, you know,

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Speaker 2: and the explicit teaching is absolutely critical along with that

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Speaker 2: play based inquiry, project based learning. So we've got a

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Speaker 2: real strong focus on the four different ways that we

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Speaker 2: deliver the curriculum, and our focus is to make sure

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Speaker 2: that teachers are team teaching so that children have another

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Speaker 2: teacher in their room that they can identify with and

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Speaker 2: build relationships with, because as we know, there is a

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Speaker 2: change in the way the workforce is moving, so we're

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Speaker 2: putting in strategies in place that children can more or

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Speaker 2: less build relationships with people that there can be consistency

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Speaker 2: if there's any change, if that may right, So not.

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Speaker 1: Just sort of having your one classroom teacher, but having

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Speaker 1: other teach around. So that should maybe that classroom teacher

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Speaker 1: go on maternity leave or you know, or long service

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Speaker 1: leavel something. It's not a huge disruption, not at all.

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Speaker 2: So we have what we call team teacher, So two

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Speaker 2: classes that have their individual class teacher. Yeah, so everyone

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Speaker 2: has their own class teacher, but they work with a

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Speaker 2: team teacher. They don't work all day every day with

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Speaker 2: each other, but throughout the week. There's some whole school

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Speaker 2: approaches around literacy and numeracy, particularly where teachers work together,

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Speaker 2: they assess and they group children according to where they

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Speaker 2: need to be so that we can cater for where

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Speaker 2: the children are at.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good idea and just you know,

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Speaker 1: I guess it provides that consistency for the kids too.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Relationship relationship relationship, Yeah, that.

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Speaker 1: Is is now. Tell me, I also understand that your

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Speaker 1: school's teaching Osland. Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Yes, it is, So we started Oslan as a whole

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Speaker 2: school from near one years sick at the beginning of

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Speaker 2: last year. So we have a teacher that comes in

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Speaker 2: that takes every single one of those classes. So we

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Speaker 2: have about twenty twenty five primary classes and that teacher

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Speaker 2: takes them for a period of time each week. Their

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Speaker 2: classroom teachers and support staff are in there as well,

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Speaker 2: so it's not just having one adult in the room

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Speaker 2: and they're all learning together.

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Speaker 1: So what exactly is involved, Well.

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Speaker 2: We have obviously an expert teacher that he teaches the

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Speaker 2: Osland because he's the Osland teacher through the Northern Territory

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Speaker 2: School of Languages, and so what that involves is him

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Speaker 2: actually teaching content, whether it be you know, the general

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Speaker 2: sign just with the alphabet or whether it be conversational

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Speaker 2: depending on the children and their age and where they're

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Speaker 2: at as to what he'd be he is doing. And

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Speaker 2: then of course the teachers are in the room just

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Speaker 2: to support the students and maybe have some immersion in

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Speaker 2: the language as well.

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Speaker 1: And do the kids enjoy it? What's their reaction of it?

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Speaker 2: They're fantastically. We've really seen a really high uptake of

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Speaker 2: more children than what I've seen learning a language in

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Speaker 2: schools than maybe in prior years that really use it,

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Speaker 2: enjoy it and communicate. It's fantastic. Yeah, that's one of

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Speaker 2: the san which to have at school.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, how I said, that's really interesting. I reckon it's

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Speaker 1: a really cool thing to do. What are you sort

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Speaker 1: of hoping comes out of that program?

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Speaker 2: I think it's multifaceted. So the first thing that we

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Speaker 2: want is for children to be able to communicate with

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Speaker 2: that language with each other, and particularly if there are

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Speaker 2: children in the school that may need that that's their

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Speaker 2: first language if you like, yep, that they have other

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Speaker 2: people that can but peers that can communicate with them.

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Speaker 2: That's a really big one. But I think also to

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Speaker 2: given the way the world works and you know, our children,

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Speaker 2: if they're interested, there's future job opportunities for them. You know,

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Speaker 2: they can work on television, or they can work in schools,

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Speaker 2: or they can work in really in any workplace that

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Speaker 2: requires that skill, and I'd imagine that will grow.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, there was such a shortage do you remember during

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Speaker 1: COVID when you'd have the Prime minist in doing their

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Speaker 1: press conference and then you would have someone signing. But

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Speaker 1: some you know, some states couldn't do it because they

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Speaker 1: didn't have anyone that could actually sign. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: No, no, it's absolutely a gift to be able to

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Speaker 2: have that opportunity here at the school. Oh good stuff.

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Speaker 1: Well, I like it because you know, it's so inclusive

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Speaker 1: and you know, something a bit different, and if the

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Speaker 1: kids are enjoying it, I reckon, that's a really good thing.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like it's been a fun day for you guys.

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Speaker 1: It's going to continue to be a fun day. Let's

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Speaker 1: hope pick up is smooth as drop off was this morning.

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Speaker 2: Leah, I'm sure it will be.

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Speaker 1: I was so worried that there'd be a lot of

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Speaker 1: traffic around the school that my son was riding his

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Speaker 1: bike to school at seven thirty this morning.

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Speaker 2: He was keen.

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Speaker 1: He missed the storm, which was excellent. He was already

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Speaker 1: there and I know lots of the kids were keen

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Speaker 1: to get back into the classroom. So it is great

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Speaker 1: to see. Now, just finally, what's your step goal going

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Speaker 1: to be for the day. If you've already done four

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Speaker 1: thousand steps, what do you think you're going to get

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Speaker 1: up to.

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Speaker 2: I've reached my bell for Katie, I'll probably double it.

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Speaker 1: I reckon, You'll be at ten thousand by three.

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Speaker 2: O'clock, I'm sure I will be.

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Speaker 1: Oh good stuff, Leah Crockford. Lovely to speak to you

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Speaker 1: this morning. Thank you so much for taking the time

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Speaker 1: out of your busy day, first day of school to

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Speaker 1: have a chat with us.

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Speaker 2: That's great. Have a lovely day you too.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Thanks so much.