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Dear Parents, Carers and Friends,
Over the last fortnight we have worked hard to ensure our classrooms have been settled, focused and back on track with their learning. I've been really impressed with the professional learning our teachers have engaged with in Staff and Stage meetings to improve their practice, and ultimately student engagement and achievement. It is a privilege to be part of the learning journey that I'm sure will have a positive impact on students over the coming months.
Part of my work this week has been to focus on enrolments. As the Catholic Schools Office has started investigating enrolment numbers for 2021, I've realised how important it is for any families considering enrolling their child into Kindergarten for next year to complete and return the forms to school as soon as possible. Today, I sent out the first of the enrolment acceptance letters to families who have returned forms, and am hoping that we receive more applications to secure the second class for 2021. Please prompt friends and families to return their enrolment forms if they have them.
With the gradual easing of restrictions next week, allied health workers and specialists will be allowed back to school. We will therefore also now start to offer tours of the school on Monday afternoons for any interested new families. Please pass on this message through our community and ask interested families to contact the office to arrange a time. The Kinder teachers, our Learning Support Teacher and myself will be available to meet with new families.
The first 2 days of Term 2 will be Pupil Free days. At next week's staff meeting, we will begin a process of reviewing our Vision and Mission Statements to align with our current strategic agenda. There have been many changes in our school over the last few years and we need to check that these statements align with our areas of focus. We love to hear from our parents and will certainly involve you in this process along the way.
Over the next week, you will receive a Compass Newsfeed Item called Insights Survey or something similar. Through this survey, we are hoping to capture feedback from students, parents and staff about the period of home learning. We ask that parents and carers complete the short survey based on their experience. We may also ask parents and carers to sit with their children and respond to the questions about home learning from their perspective. This information will also support the parent conversations with teachers early next term after the Student Reports go home on Monday of Week 3.
During home learning, our school loaned devices to families to ensure that students had access to learning while at home. Although this was extremely successful, we have one of our newer laptops that has not returned. It is a Dell Latitude 5490 laptop D2-01 with serial number D858PN2. If you happen to come across the laptop at home, please return it to the school office or your child's class. It's important for Yr 6 to have their allocated number of computers back in action.
A reminder to all parents and carers that if you would like to volunteer at any time for any reason in our school, you must complete the attached information in the Volunteer Handbook and return it to our school office. Further advice can be obtained through the office.
Next week, I'm looking forward to joining other members of our Leadership Team over at the Community Kitchen to work through a practice run of preparing a meal. Once the kitchen is up and running, our staff and senior students will volunteer to prepare meals on a roster basis. If you're interested in getting involved, please contact the Parish or our school and we can support you to make that happen.
Have a great fortnight,
Brooke Stephens
Some of our families may not be aware that our Diocese has a specialist school in Mayfield supporting students who have a primary diagnosis of deaf or hard
of hearing, as well as students with Moderate Cognitive Disability. The attached brochure is worth passing on to anyone you know who is looking for specialised support for their child.
Every now and then I think it is worthwhile taking a look at what is going on at our feeder high school, St Clare's. This week's newsletter highlights some of their student's thinking about the changes and impact of home learning. It also includes important information for families about courses and events that occur in the lives of older students. Knowing how St Clare's navigates the later years of our graduating students education is one way that you can be confident in your decision to continue your child's education in a Catholic School. You can read this week's newsletter here.
BEHAVIOUR
As the Assistant Principal of Holy Name School one of my roles is that of Behaviour Management. With all the students now back at school full time, I have seen a rise in the number of poor behaviour choices across the grades and have had several conversations with students and parents over the past fortnight.
We are currently setting up processes for a new Behaviour Management/Social and Emotional Skills Teaching and reward systems but until that is ratified we are still using the current Behaviour management policy. The policy is shaped about the premise that we all have the right to feel safe, the right to teach and learn and the right to be treated with respect. There is a process to follow involving friendly and official reminders, time out in the classroom or a buddy classroom and ultimately the children may be asked to attend the Reflection Room or be placed in Time Out.
If a child is placed in Time Out, a letter will be sent home to parents which they need to sign and return to me. If this is a regular occurrence the class teacher and/or myself would contact parents and organise a meeting.
The Reflection Room is a place for children to talk through and issues with a teacher. Mrs Russell and I are the Reflection Room teachers each day and children may be sent there by their classroom teacher or playground duty teacher if poor choices are made. Mrs Russell and I spend time with the children helping them to understand their choices and how to do better next time.
Another reason a children may be asked to come to the Reflection Room is to sort out a problem that needs lots of investigation and information from children. Often many children can be involved in an incident and it can’t be sorted out in the short time we have to get back to our class so the children will be asked to attend the Reflection Room at the next available time so the teacher has time to devote to helping them.
Another problem that is becoming more apparent is children attempting to be the school “police” and taking it upon themselves to sort out problems on the playground. This causes no end of problems for students and teachers alike. The children must get a teacher to help them if it is a big problem so that it can be dealt with in a timely matter.
In my experience, the best outcomes for students who have trouble making good choices is to work with your child’s teacher and myself to come up with strategies that will help your child navigate school life and the challenges that come with friendships and relationships.
Please contact me at school if you have any questions or suggestions.
SPORT
This week we took the children in Years 2-6 down to Lake street to run off the 200m and 800m Athletics events. There is no inter school or representative sport for the remaining of 2020 and by running these races and doing the field events at school we can gather points for our Houses and Sport Champions. We will run a Cross Country event next term so the children have had a chance at all three “carnival” sports – swimming, athletics and cross country.
Thanks to the staff for their flexibility and to the Sport Captains for their assistance with setting up and time keeping.
GARDEN PROJECT
Next Wednesday Mrs Stephens, Mrs Maloney and I will be attending the Forster Tuncurry Community Kitchen “Dry Run” at the Parish Hall. This is a chance for the coordinator, Sue Abdoo, to walk us through a morning of tasks in the kitchen before it opens to the public the week after.
Next term we will have groups of children working in that space under the supervision of a teacher. This will be a great opportunity for the children to put their Catholicism into Action by supporting those in need within the local community.
Classes have planted out all their beds and we are now waiting for everything to grow. Sadly our lettuces are being eaten by snails and I will find a natural repellent for Year 3 to use when the replant their crops next week. If you have knowledge or experience in this area, please let me know.
SRC
I am currently working with Mrs Williamson on a plan for the future for our student leaders. We are looking at a model of developing young Catholic Leaders involving all the senior students.
A survey was sent out yesterday to all parents and it would be great if you could take the time to complete it so we can move forward with our planning. Now that we are all back at school, we will resume regular SRC meetings from next week.