Dear Parents and Carers,

There have been many excited students to hear that an option for ordering food for Lunch 1 and Lunch 2 is now available. Gordon and Niki Cooper are accepting orders from the menu through the Qkr! App and through the office the old fashion way by recording your order onto a paper bag with money and dropping it into the office. If you plan to order lunch for your child, please be sure to have the order in by 8.45am online or dropped into the office by this time so that Gordon and Niki know what to expect. For anyone who accidently forgets to get their order in by 8:45am, you can phone through an order to Gordon directly on 0415925318.

We have also welcomed the easing of some of the restrictions and the return to some of our normal ways of operating within the school environment. We are looking forward to having parents attend events and be included in the day to day life of the school.

Due to the improvements we have experienced in the safety of students during the adapted form of our departure procedures, we have decided to continue to dismiss our students in this way and ask that parents continue to wait outside of the gates at the end of the day unless they need to pick up students early. We also encourage parents to continue to say goodbye to their children at the gate in the mornning as a way of continuing to build their confidence and encourage their resilience. On any day, if you feel that your child needs you to walk them in, we are more than happy for you to be the judge of that.

As always, parents and carers are welcome into school but must report to the office if attending school for any reason outside of the morning drop-off, to sign in and let the Clerical Officers know of their needs. We cannot have parents enter the school at any time outside of the regualr drop-off or pick-up times, without signing in at the office and communicating with our clerical officers. 

Student Led Conferences - Tuesday 30th March

We are looking forward to having as many parents as possible attend the new version of our Term 1 Parent Teacher Interviews, called 'Student Led Conferences'. For Years 2-6, this will mean that parents can bring their child into the classroom anytime between 3.30-5.30pm on Tuesday 30th March. During this time, the children will walk their parents through a process and conversation about their learning this term across different areas. Parents will see samples of student work and listen to their child describe what they were learning, the purpose of their learning, how they went and where they could improve. This may lead to a conversation about what your child's goals are for the term ahead. Teachers will be present in the room and available for a conversation, however, we believe parents will be impressed by what their children are able to share about their learning. 

The Kinder and Year 1 schedule will be slightly different. Samples of work will be available and certainly students will be encouraged to share a bit about their learning, however, Kindergarten parents will be allocated a 10min time to meet with the teachers and the Year 1 teachers will provide parents with a set of questions to ask their children as they work through samples of their child's work with them. Both of these options are ways of transitioning the students to the more formal Student Led Conference process.

Leading Learning at Holy Name

The Student Led Conferences are a nice example of how our learning focus has shifted at Holy Name. Each class is focusing on unpacking what we call 'Learning Intentions' with students to develop a clear understanding of the focus and goal of each lesson or a series of lessons. Together with bigger discussions about how the learning fits in with real life needs, the students begin to connect the purpose of what they are doing with their own lives or future. This is one way that we are engaging students in the learning process because when there is a purpose to what we do, we are more motivated to participate.

Within each lesson, teachers use what we call the Gradual Release of Responsibility model as they move from modelling what the students need to do to achieve the 'A' level goal of the lesson, to guiding the students to have a go using a similar example with a partner, group or on their own, and then students will be asked to apply their learning independently in a new task or in a creative way. As teachers do this, they discuss with students what success would look like for students and make a list of what we call 'Success Criteria'. The success criteria become the benchmark for assessment and a checklist for teachers to provide 'Descriptive Feedback' and for students to 'peer or self-assess'. 

To support this new way of working with students, we are developing our classroom spaces to reflect opportunities that capture student ideas and work samples that demonstrate the success criteria at different leevls of achievement. The walls within a classroom become what is termed 'The Third Teacher', as they support children to build connections between their work and real life, and provide an opportunity for students to reflect on their learning against the standards and take greater ownership of their learning.

This week, our Leadership Team and the Pedagogical Mentors will work with teams of teachers in Newcastle to deepen our understanding of this process and look for ways that we can improve what we are doing at Holy Name. 

Over the last two weeks, both the Principal Coach, Mrs Sidonie Coffey, and Director of Education, Mr Gerard Mowbray, visited our school, joined in our professional learning team meetings and visited the classrooms. The positive feedback about the work we are doing here at Holy Name focused on student learning outcomes has been really affirming for our staff. I am looking forward to your engagement with the Student Led Conferences so that you too can see for yourself some of the changes and witness the engagement of your child in the learning process. 

Wishing you well,

Brooke Stephens