Term 1 Week 4 2022
From the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
From Friday 4th March at 6pm the Covid restrictions are changing. I’m sure you are all as excited by this as what we are. From this date face masks will no longer be required to be worn at school and we are also able to resume face to face gatherings. We ask that you still observe social distancing protocols and please do not enter the school grounds if you are unwell. We will continue to send students home who are presenting with flu-like symptoms, an elevated temperature or who are unwell. I would like to thank you for your support, patience and understanding over the past 5 weeks as we navigated through the restrictions.
The changing of restrictions means that we are returning to some more normal routines and activities. We are looking forward to welcoming our families back onto our school grounds and moving forward with celebrating our school community. We will gather as a whole school next Monday at 2:15pm for our first assembly for the year. We will be celebrating our Beginning of Year Mass and Year 6 Leadership Badge presentation with Fr Manoj on Friday 18th March at 9am. We look forward to welcoming you to these events.
Just a reminder when dropping off students in the morning at the front gates on Edward Street, this is a Stop, Drop and Go area only from 8am - 9am. We have had families parking in this area and walking students in. This stops people being able to drop their children off in a safe manner. If you are walking your child in then you must park in the proper marked parking zones. Please remember that this area comes under Main Roads and you must be obeying the road rules and signage. This is a safety concern and I ask for your immediate cooperation with this matter.
This Saturday members of our School Board will be gathering for our annual School Board Formation Day. This day is an important part of the work that our School Board conducts. We will be hearing from guest speakers such as Bishop Tim Harris and Professor Br David Hall. I look forward to working with our School Board again in 2022. If you would like more information about joining our School Board, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
I will be away Monday - Wednesday next week at a Principal’s Meeting. If you have any concerns during this time, please contact Mary Ferguson.
Have a wonderful week!
Take care and God Bless
Amanda
Religious Life of the School
The Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent (Luke 4:1-13) offers us a promise. It heralds Christ’s victory, as filled with the Holy Spirit; he resisted temptation in the wilderness. We can begin the journey of Lent with confidence, for this Gospel shows us that we too can change and turn back to God’s love.
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. Each class will celebrate with a liturgy and students will receive a sprinkle of ashes on their foreheads. The ashes are made from the blessed palms used in the Palm Sunday celebration last year. While the ashes symbolize penance and contrition, they are also a reminder that God is gracious and merciful to those who call on Him with repentant hearts. Lent is a time of forgiveness and working to change some of our behaviours causing pain to others. As the Good Samaritan did, let’s reach out to our friends, neighbours and those in need with love, forgiveness and compassion.
Project Compassion Boxes: Today with the newsletter each family will receive a Project Compassion box. We encourage our students to give up some of the simple pleasures they enjoy such as food like MacDonald’s, lollies, soft drink etc. or spend time doing jobs for family and placing the money saved into the boxes to help others in need. Boxes can be returned at the end of Lent. For more information about CARITAS and its work go to https://www.caritas.org.au/
Anatercia's Story (Mozambique): Anatercia 12, was struggling to cope with adult responsibilities after her father died. Then she participated in Caritas Australia- supported training and gained access to psychosocial supports. Now, Anatercia can easily access clean drinking water, community members are able to grow healthy crops all year round, and there is enough nutritious food to eat. Anatercia feels better supported by her community, has more time to study and do her homework, and hopes to fulfil her dream of becoming a nurse.
Please email your Certificate of Completion to ayr@tsv.catholic.edu.au to be entered into the draw.
Aiming for Excellence
READY, SET, WRITE
This week our focus is Ideas and Creativity.
Children will often say, ‘I can’t think of what to write.’
During their ‘Ready, Set, Write’ time children will focus on coming up with as many different ideas as possible and then selecting one that appeals to them as a topic for writing. Children who have listened to or read a wide variety of stories and enjoy reading do not find it difficult to generate ideas due to their wealth of background knowledge of different topics. Children who are not avid readers benefit greatly from hearing the ideas of peers.
Children are to be congratulated on the way they have engaged with their writing and working to improve their standard of writing. When the way a child has expressed an idea is described as excellent and an explanation provided about how and why it was excellent, we often see, rubbers go into action as children improve the sentences they are currently writing, to reach the same level of excellence. Children are developing the attitude that the first idea is not necessarily the best.
How can you help your child develop their ideas and creativity? One way is to list pros and cons or each choice when they need to make a decision such as what to play. I am sure you have all heard the comment: ‘I’m bored! I’ve got nothing to do!’ This is the ideal opportunity to develop their ideas and creativity.
EARLY YEARS TESTING
This week years P-2 are completing the TCE Early Years testing in Literacy and Numeracy. The testing is done online with the responses for Years P-1 recorded by the teachers. The feedback to teachers is immediate. When testing is completed for all children, teachers will meet to analyse the results in order to identify the areas that need to be developed for each student. Children who require extra support will be identified and assistance will be provided by Tegan Golding, our TCE assigned Speech Pathologist, to meet the literacy learning needs of students. The outcomes of this testing will be shared with parents during the Parent Teacher reporting times at the end of this term.
NAPLAN
Students in Years 3 and 5 will begin engaging with the NAPLAN testing process to familiarise them with the layout and tools used in the online test. At the end of March they will participate in the Practice Test. This is to check the capability of the internet and familiarise teachers with the process of administering the test. More information in the coming weeks.
Do ask your child about their successes and challenges of learning.
Rita Cranitch
Learning and Teaching Adviser
Inclusive Practices Teacher
Students of the Week
Community
