Term 1 Week 8 2023

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last Thursday evening we were fortunate to have Amanda Banister (System Adviser - Learning and Teaching Early Years) present a session to our Prep - Year 2 families around literacy and how families can support their child’s literacy development at home. One of Amanda’s tips centred around the importance of parents reading with their children every night. Research shows that reading to your children daily has a direct relationship on school performance outcomes and the development of cognitive skills. The importance of reading to your child doesn’t stop once they finish Year 2.  Think about it this way - as adults, we enjoy listening to audiobooks which is the same as children being read to them! Check out some of these great ideas from Scholastic about finding time to read as a family.

We wish our Year 3 and 5 students all the best as they begin NAPLAN tomorrow. Please keep these students in your thoughts and prayers over the next two weeks. 

As we come close to the end of Term 1, teachers will be organising Parent-Teacher Interviews.  I encourage you to take up this opportunity to discuss your child’s progress with their class teacher.  It is a great way to hear about what areas your child is shining in and where they may need a little extra support.  Bookings can be made directly through Compass (see instructions below) or through the school office.  Bookings will open at 8am tomorrow, Wednesday 15 March.

I look forward to seeing you at our Carnivale Disco on Friday night.  Don’t forget to wear your mask!

Have a great week.

Take care and God Bless

Amanda

Religious Life of the School

Welcome to Week 8, this term will be over before we know it. It is such a busy time for everyone. Lent is a good time for us to try to think about our lives and take time to reflect, even though sometimes finding the time can be difficult. Lent calls us to pray, fast and give. Nurturing our spiritual well-being is definitely worth finding the time for.

We have our Youth Mass this Sunday, please come and be part of celebrating the Eucharist with our school community. If you are able to attend and your children or child would like a role, please let them know as I will be asking around on Thursday and handing out readings.

We will also have our Lenten liturgy on Friday morning of Week 10. This is open for all families to attend as well.

Students from our Mini Vinnies Committee are selling our Easter Raffle tickets, 50c each, every morning and at first play near the tuckshop. All money raised will be donated to Project Compassion to help communities around the world and in our own country become more self sufficient..

Third Week of Lent 
(Week beginning Monday 13^th March)

We are now in the third week of Lent with the Project Compassion story of Priscilla, who lives in the Hwange district in Zimbabwe with her husband, Charles, and two of their grandchildren. Climate change continues to bring unprecedented challenges for people living in the most vulnerable and remote communities in Zimbabwe.

During times of intense drought and food shortages, Priscilla had to commute to the town centre and wait in long queues to collect food.  

With the support of Caritas Hwange, Priscilla learnt conservation farming skills to grow drought-resistant crops and started poultry farming to support her family during the current food crisis. Priscilla was able to produce a bumper harvest in her first year of practising in conservation farming. Priscilla also used the funds from her harvest to start poultry farming, which enabled her to sell eggs to pay for her grandchildren’s school fees, books and stationery. The poultry farming provides a safety net for Priscilla and her family during times of hardship, like the current drought.

While the situation in Zimbabwe and across eastern Africa remains dire, the work of Caritas Hwange means that Priscilla can learn the techniques, tools and resources she needs to build resilience and support her family during this current food crisis.

Remember we are holding our PLP Afternoon this Wednesday from 3-4 pm for students of First Nation Cultures. Afternoon tea will be provided and teachers will be there to assist the students with their Personal Learning Plans. We hope to see you there.

God bless

Nicole

Learning Corner

PROMOTING LITERACY LEARNING (PLD)

Continuing our journey towards reading.

Once children have a strong and consistent phonemic awareness and phonological knowledge, they are able to decode and commence reading by blending sounds to read words on a page. With hours of practice, children reach the stage where they can read words without having to verbally decode (sound out the letters and blend them to read the word).

Knowing the words, they then need to sequence them in a sentence. Being able to read a sentence without using up working memory space to remember the words, children are able to make meaning from the sentence and thus comprehend what they have read. How many times have you heard a parent share the following comment: ‘They read all the words well but can’t tell me what they have read’? To fully comprehend what they have read, children need to be fluent readers who link their knowledge of grammar and punctuation to read in phrases and segments of meaning. What is written then begins to make sense as their working memory is focused on understanding what they have read.

 Fluency comes from repeated reading. As an adult, when faced with a text where the vocabulary and the context is unfamiliar such as a guide for assembling an electrical appliance I have never seen, I often need to read and reread them several times before feeling confident have understood the instructions.

When your child is reading, regardless of year level, encourage them to read and reread until they are reading fluently and then able to fully and easily understand what they have read.

Next week: Where does spelling fit?

NAPLAN

Tomorrow we open our eight day NAPLAN window. All children will commence with the writing task.  The remaining three tests will be completed over the following days. Students who are absent for any of the tests will have the opportunity to complete them during the ‘catch up’ days.

All students have had many opportunities to become familiar with the process of logging in, the format of the tests, the different types of responses they will be asked to provide, how to read the different question types, and the tools such as; rulers, question reading, flagging and text sizing that are available for them to use. This is the most important part of NAPLAN preparation as it allows students to fully access the test.

Practising content for the test is not helpful as the tests are adaptive and the questions change in difficulty based on how students have answered previous questions.

Reassure your child that it is just another school day activity and help them feel comfortable completing the task.

DOES YOUR CHILD HAVE A MOUSE and working HEADPHONES?

Have a great week

Rita Cranitch

Learning and Teaching Adviser

Inclusive Practices Teacher

Class in the Spotlight - PA

Prep A was our Class in the Spotlight this week. Check out what they have been learning.

We started off the week with Circle Time which focused on tattling with the help of Tell-odactyl. We learnt the things we need to tell the teacher and things that we can keep to ourselves.

In English, we have been working hard on identifying letters and sounds with many hands-on learning opportunities. We are also learning to identify individual sounds in words as well as initial sounds as well as onset and rhyme through our fast phonics sessions in the mornings and hands-on learning opportunities. Casey Caterpillar continues to help us with our letter formation with the focus letters of the week.

In Maths, we are focusing on a different number each day and brainstorming the different ways we can represent that number. We have continued to recognise and create patterns, sort in different ways and sequence numbers to 10

.In Religion this week we focused on God’s creation and identified rules to keep us safe.

In HASS we investigated how the students were named. They learnt that they were named in the past when they were a baby.

PA

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P.A.T.H.

Our P.A.T.H. note winners for Week 6 are: Mason Howie, Olivia Barbagallo and Leeson Bevilacqua.

Guidance Counsellor

In this edition of SchoolTV - DIET & NUTRITION

We all know that diet and nutrition is vital to your child’s development and growth, but are you aware of the effects it has on your child’s brain development and how it can impact their academic achievement?

In this era of convenience, it is easy to reach for pre-packaged and processed foods to cope with busy schedules. However, these foods are usually packed full of sugar and salt which can have adverse health effects. Making a habit of reading food labels can help reduce the risks. It can also help to stabilise your child’s energy, improve their mood, maintain a healthy weight and improve their general wellbeing.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will discover practical advice for teaching your kids about the benefits of incorporating a healthy diet and good nutrition.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the school guidance counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to the Diet & Nutrition edition of SchoolTV
https://sfatsv.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/diet-nutrition

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