Sharing Best Practice – Literacy and Numeracy at Bentleigh West Primary School July 1st 2019.

300 educators, health professionals and parents travelled from around Australia to partake. Every presenter and exhibitor donated their time and expertise, as well as paid for their own travel arrangements to attend. Bentleigh West hosted the day.

Keynote speakers included Prof Pam Snow , Prof Stephen Dinham and Dr Jennifer Buckingham.

Some quotes from the day –

Opening remarks by MP Nick Staikos:“We do defer to the experts and the experts are in this room.” “Congratulations to StevenCapp, SarahAsome & BWPS for your NAPLAN results”

“Oral language skills on their own do NOT get children across the bridge to literacy” Professor Pamela Snow

“It’s not about blaming teachers but being aware that our teachers haven’t been trained to teach reading.” Steven Capp, Bentleigh West PS Principal

“Focus is on improving outcomes for all our students. How can we make ourselves better?” Steven Capp

“SUMMARY OF SUCCESS: Looking at our instruction and our data. Emphasis on teacher knowledge and training” Steven Capp

Emeritus Professor Stephen Dinham 4 Fundamentals of Student Success:
✅ Focus on the student (learner, person)
✅ Leadership
✅ Professional Learning
✅ Quality Teachers

Closing remarks by Dr Sandra Marshall – “If we could put all of this collective knowledge into a blender, then pour it into bottles, and get every Australian educator to have a sip, Aussie kids would finally be literate and numerate. The research to practice gap is so large . We know it’s an action gap and that’s why Code REaD was established. We are agitating for action, today! There is no time for complacency. These are individual children we are failing terribly”.

A huge thanks to Principal Steve Capp and Assistant Principal (& Code Read Director) Sarah Asome for hosting this fantastic event! Over $1400 was raised for Code Read by a raffle held on the day.