I spent 1 and 1/2 days visiting Chapel Hill State School.  There are around 700 students in years Prep to 6 (grades K-6 for us). 







Campus Entrance (Parent Drop Off Loop) with Administration Building in the background.




















I have:

• Observed in Year 6 (Math and Writing) - this is equivalent to our grade 6.
• Observed in Physical Education (Year 3 and 6) - equivalent to our grade 3 and 6.
• Observed in a small (6 kids) supported writing group (Year 4). 
• Meet with Bridget  about PBL (Positive Behavior Leadership) which is like our PBiS system and Profiling (which is peer observation and feedback around classroom management).
• Meet with Rysia (Curriculum Leader) about Assessment and Monitoring.  Specifically about the Australian National Curriculum and Testing System.  Also around classroom assessment.
• Talked with several students in passing - mostly them asking me questions about "America" and if I liked Donald Trump.  
• Talked with several teachers in passing - about local attractions my family should visit, Vermont weather and seasons and assessment as they would allow me to.  The common teacher comment around seemed to be "data driven by the National Test NAPLAN in year 3, 5 and 7).  That this test drives instruction.

Chapel Hill School is located on the outskirts of a rain forest.  In fact, one of the outside play spaces is called the rain forest and it is an actual piece of rain forest.  I saw Cockatoos flying overhead - that was pretty cool, as I have only seen them in a zoo before. The campus is a series of walkways between building groups which they call campuses or houses.  The walkways are covered, but open on the sides.  Each building houses only a small amount of school space.  The entrance building is administration and the teachers lounge.  Other buildings include classrooms (two classrooms/building) and are group together by year (grade level), the gym/hall is one building and includes a stage for performances and a Tea Time Cafe (which was not open the day I was there, and the library and music area is in one building.  The school feels like a tree house canopy community of several buildings joined together with walkways.

Administration Building on the left.  Library and Music Building on the right.  This picture was taken from the gym/hall building.

Walkways between buildings.  

Prep campus (grade K for us).

The school has a school wide behavior program based on the school values of Respect:  Self, Others, Environment.  Signs for this are posed in the gym/hall and in each classroom.  

Gym/hall building and the Tea Time Cafe (which was closed) is just outside the gym/hall entrance.

It was very difficult to talk in detail with teachers, as they were busy teaching.  The few I spoke with specifically about assessment and evaluation were during "tea time" - a time where everyone is free to eat and roam the areas of the campus as they please.  The whole school has a morning tea time between 11:45-noon and an afternoon "tea time" between 1:30-2:00.  The school day is 9:00am-3:00pm a total of six hours.  My next post will talk specifically about what I saw and learned on my visit to Chapel Hill State School.  This post was to help create a vision of the school community.