GENERAL NEWS

PARENT INFORMATION EVENING

Next Wednesday 22nd February, our annual Parent Information Evening will be held at St Nicholas School. 

The details of the evening are as follows: 

The evening will begin in the HUB at 6pm. There will be a short introduction to the night where Mr Clery will address everyone. From there we will hold two sessions. 

First session: 6.15pm - 6:45pm.

Second session: 6:55pm - 7:25pm (the second session is a repeat of the first for families who have more than 1 child at school)

To ensure everyone’s safety, we ask parents to please not attend the evening if you are feeling unwell or have any COVID like symptoms. We will be hosting a creche in the Library if alternative arrangements cannot be made for children. We look forward to seeing some familiar faces and meeting new ones as we start our 2023 school year. Here is an outline of where each grade will meet. 

Grade Meeting Areas

KINDERGARTEN ENROLMENTS FOR 2024

NAPLAN Information for Year 3 and 5

The National Assessment Program- Literacy And Numeracy (NAPLAN) for Year 3 and 5 students will be held earlier this year than previous years, starting Wednesday 15th March. All assessments will be online except for Year 3 writing, which will be a pencil and paper test. Being online allows for tailored (or adaptive) testing, where the test presents questions which may be more or less difficult depending on a student’s responses. All students will require their own set of headphones for NAPLAN. The Year 3 and 5 teachers are continuing to work with our students to ensure that they are familiar and at ease with the testing process.

Writing assessment-  Wednesday 15th March

Reading assessment- Thursday 16th March

Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and puntuctation)- Monday 20th March

Numeracy assessment- Tuesday 21st March

If parents have any concerns/ further questions or wish their child to withdraw from NAPLAN please phone or email Amanda Doyle adoyle@arm.catholic.edu.au or Shelly O'Sullivan sosullivan@arm.catholic.edu.au before Friday 24th February.

Further information about NAPLAN can be found at  

https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/for-parents-carers

SCHOOL UNIFORM - We wear it with pride!

At St Nicholas School we have high expectations with wearing our uniform with pride. We therefore seek parent and student support with wearing our uniform correctly each day. Each week for every student our sports uniform is to be worn Monday, Wednesday and Friday and our formal uniform is to be worn on Tuesday and Thursday.

We understand that at times students may need to wear an alternate piece of attire because of an unforeseen circumstance. If this is the case please email your child's class teacher to let them know.

SRC

Congratualtions to the following children who have been elected by their peers to be their class SRC member for Term 1 2023

3T - Sophie Labrooy

3I - Mia MacCarthy

3W - Ruby Heywood

4M - Layla Sumner

4P - Mason Knox

4B - William Gardiner

5W - Brody Hill

5H - Oscar McMurtrie

5M - Thomas McDougall

PLAYGROUND FUN.......DONATIONS WELCOME

Our daily break-times at St Nicholas not only allow our students time to re-fuel from their lunchboxes, but they also provide important opportunities for fun, connection, creativity, down-time or activity. On any given day you will see students enjoying table tennis, sand-pit fun, chess, soccer, the play equipment, cricket, hopscotch, library games, car track games, garden time, reading, lego, oz-tag, hoola hoops, basketball, handball, dancing, skipping.....the list goes on. Perhaps you have had a recent clean out and would like to donate some items for us to re-purpose and enjoy. Our car track is currently a huge hit, so we would certainly appreciate any pre-loved match-box or small cars to boost our supplies. We would also be grateful for any saucepans, cake tins or large serving spoons for our sandpit! And as you can see from the photos below, tiny toys such as farm animals, fairies/mini dolls, McDonalds trinkets etc are always a huge source of joy at our mini picnic tables. If you are in a position to donate, simply have your items dropped to the front office at school. Many thanks in advance.

VERITAS

Our Veritas Awards stem from our school motto - ‘Veritas’ - meaning truth. The Veritas Award is awarded to students who have been consistently displaying citizenship, leadership and/or Christian Living. Students receiving a Veritas Award are those students who have displayed our ‘Rules for Living’ in their everyday interactions. This term our focus is on ‘Valuing, respecting and caring for others’. 

Congratulations to the following children who received Veritas Awards last week;

Liv Coutts, Mia Greening, Philomena Smith, Olivia Scott, Kobi Wadwell, Sophia Shanahan, Hayley Lye, Sarah Nguyen, Callum Buckman, Charlie Nguyen, Flynn Dodson and Xavier Graf.

STUDENT LEARNING

Minimum Interruptions to Student Learning

Could we please ask that we have minimum interruptions to the students learning. This includes trying to avoid making medical appointments etc in school hours. 

For afternoon arrangements in regards to your child getting home, we ask that you make these with your child before school. (Kindergarten students require the correct bag tag attahed to their bag) We have many students coming up during the day to find out their afternoon routine. This disrupts the flow of their learning as well as making the office an even busier place.

If you are collecting your child during the day, come to the office to sign your child out. There is no need for a phone call to the school.

We thank you for your understanding in these matters, and look forward to a fabulous year with your children.

PUPIL FREE DAYS 2023

Thank you for your support and understanding with having two Pupil Free Days at the beginning of this year. The following are the Pupil Free Days for the remainder of 2023.

Please mark in your diary....

Thursday 6th April

Friday 26th May

Monday 18th December

Tuesday 19th December

STUDENT ABSENCE

All student absences need to be lodged on the Compass Parent Portal.  Due to government legislation, notification of your child's absence must be received no later than 7 days after your child's last day of absence. 

COMMUNICATION WITH SCHOOL

Our office is open between 8.00am and 4.00pm each day.  For any queries, the most efficient way of contacting our staff during this time is via email or calling the office on 6766 1500.  

admin@stnicholastamworth.catholic.edu.au

CHANGE OF DETAILS

We ask all parents to please use the Compass portal or contact the school office to advise us of an any changes to phone numbers, addresses or student medical details.

SUPERVISION OF STUDENTS

All parents need to be aware, our supervision of students

does not begin until 8.15am each day.

If your child/ren require supervision and care before 8.15am please contact Esteem Kids for before school care.  Currently, students are expected to come in and sit in the Holy Family Courtyard unsupervised and wait. We cannot be responsible for any accident or potentially harmful incidents occurring. Please organise alternative care for your child if your child requires supervision before 8.15am.

COMPASS

This year, our main form of communication will be via Compass. It is essential that all families are logged into Compass so that they can perform tasks such as: consent to events, receive fee statements, view their child's reports and mark their child absent. If you are unsure how to access Compass or are having difficulties, please see our friendly office staff who will be able to assist you. 

SCHOOL FEES

St Nicholas School has transitioned to a new finance system.  These changes will include new ways in which you can make payments to the school, this will include Bpay, CompassPay and EFTPOS.  

Soon you will receive your new fee statement via Compass which will indicate your fees due for the entire 2023 school year. Included on the statement will be your new Bpay payment details.  You can easily set up regular payments from your bank account to the new school Bpay account.

You can also make payments for School Fees and Events via the Compass App.  Please contact the School if you require assistance with the Compass App.

Our school will also have EFTPOS facilities available.  This means you will be able to make payments or purchases over the counter at the school rather than relying on cash.

COVID INFORMATION

At the end of 2022, National Cabinet announced that people who test positive to COVID-19 do not need to isolate. In line with this announcement, schools will continue to follow guidance issued by NSW Health to support the safety and wellbeing of our school communities. 

Staff and students with COVID-19 symptoms

If a student or staff member is unwell and has any symptoms they should always test for COVID-19 and not attend school until they are symptom free. 

Positive COVID-19 cases

If a student or staff member receives a positive result with a RAT or PCR test they should:

1.Record the positive result through the Services NSW website or app

2. Notify the school of the positive results as soon as possible