A Message from the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Improving Learning and Teaching

At St Joey’s we are continually trying to improve our teaching practices and the learning opportunities we provide to your children. Yesterday, many of our teachers and educational assistants attended professional learning, in Tamworth, with staff from Gunnedah, Barraba and Manilla. Days such as this are important to ensure consistent practices across diocesan schools and to give staff the opportunity to share ideas and learn from one another.

In the first session staff were able to explore the data ecosystem created by the CSO. This is an online platform for storing all student data ranging from attendance, to results in school based assessments and nation wide assessments such as NAPLAN. This is an important initiative because it allows us as a school to analyse this information to make informed decisions about the next steps in learning and teaching for each of our students. 

The next two sessions were presented via zoom by Carmel Small (an educator from South Australia) who explained the processes involved in helping students to become ‘balanced readers’. A balanced reader is a student who can decode words, read with fluency and phrasing and comprehend what is read. 

As parents, you can help by having a variety of books available at home and encouraging your child to read every day. The Infants students particularly, need to practise reading aloud. The books sent home should reinforce the skills learnt at school and they should be easy for your child to read! Please talk to your child’s teacher if you are concerned about your child’s progress. 

Mini Olympics

We are all excited to have our very own mini Olympics competition this Friday. We will have an opening ceremony including the Olympic Oath, a March Past, and War Cries. Each team has been researching a country and will present this information to the school. We have team events such as bubble soccer, relays, gladiator challenges and synchronised swimming! Individual skill events will include skipping, hula hoop and 'keepy-uppy' challenges. We have organised yummy food samples from each of the countries we are representing. The students will be able to choose what they would like to eat. Please pay the $6 by Qkr by tomorrow. 

Students are invited to wear mufti clothes on Friday, preferably in the colours of their country.  They must wear joggers on their feet and of course a suitable hat. 

We will have a great day as we aim to be faster, higher and stronger, together!

Have a wonderful week

Pauline Long

Principal