School News
Dear parents, families and friends,
What a whirlwind of a fortnight. You may have noticed my absence over the past couple of weeks. Besides the normal commitments here at St. Augustine's and my commitments to the Western Zone Principal Network and three Principal Reference Panels for MACS, I have also been dealing with some health issues/scares. Two weeks ago I had a mole removed from my right shoulder. The results came back that it was a melanoma. Monday of this week I had surgery to remove extra skin from the site to ensure no traces of the melanoma were left. They also had to track and locate which of my lymph nodes the melanoma was draining into. Luckily they were are to do this and so they removed the lymph node from my right armpit. For the past few days I have been sore, swollen and blue from the tracking dye in the area where they performed the surgery. I will get the results next week of how successful the surgery was it catching the melanoma before it spread to the lymphatic system.
The Year of Jubilee - Pilgrims of Hope
As part of the celebrations for the Year of Jubilee, each school has be asked to select teacher and student ambassadors. Our student ambassadors are Aleksandra and Gabriel. Our staff ambassador is Miss Marissa. They will be blessed and commissioned at St. Patrick's Cathedral during the Catholic Education Week Mass on Friday 21st March.
Lent
We began the season of Lent this week on Ash Wednesday. Lent is a time for us to grow closer to God by becoming more like Jesus by following his example through acts of prayer, fasting and helping others. Lent lasts for 40 days (not counting Sundays) which represents the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness/desert, praying, fasting, reflecting, facing challenges and being tempted by the devil. Jesus was not spared the hardships and challenges of life just because he is the Son of God. Infact, he probably endured the absolute worse of human suffering during his passion on Good Friday.
The ashes in the form of a cross are a sign to others and a reminder to ourselves of our sins, however it also shows that we are making an effort to have a change of heart, to make a brand new start as we journey with Jesus during Lent, to die to our old selves in Holy Week and to be reborn into our new selves through the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.
I encourage all families to enter into the season of Lent through acts of prayer, fasting and service.
Junior Literacy Block
For about two years we have been adapting our Literacy program from Prep to Year 6 to align with the science of learning, through the Instructional Approach to Teaching Reading, which involves the explicit and targeted teaching of phonics, grammar and reading comprehension.
The Literacy Block runs for nearly 2 hours each day from 9.00am to 10.50am and includes a Reading Block and a Writing Block.
From 9.00am to 9.30am the students will be involved in any of the following, Explicit Instruction of phonics, grammar and reading comprehension.
From 9.30am to 10.00am the students will be involved in Independent Tasks. These tasks will allow them to practise and apply what they were learning during their Explicit Instruction session. During this time the classroom teacher will facilitate Teacher Focus Groups (Guided Reading) and one to one workshops.
From 10.00am to 10.10am the students will have their Fruit Break.
From 10.10am to 10.50am the students will be involved in the Explicit Instruction of writing. This will include modelled, guided and independent practice of writing text, handwriting and typing. They will be explicitly taught how to write different text types based on the genre approach.
In Year 1/2 the first hour of the Literacy Block looks a little bit different.
From 9.00am to 9.30am the students will be involved in any of the following, Explicit Instruction of phonics, grammar and reading comprehension. The students will be grouped according to their learning needs. During this time the children may not be with their classroom, but with one of the other two Year 1/2 classroom teachers. This is the major change to the structure of the program.
From 9.30am to 10.00am the students will be involved in Independent Tasks back in their own classrooms. These tasks will allow them to practise and apply what they were learning during their Explicit Instruction session. During this time the classroom teacher will facilitate Teacher Focus Groups (Guided Reading) and one to one workshops.
Respectful Relationships
Last Friday on our school closure day, the staff had a professional development day learning about the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships Program.
The Respectful Relationships program supports schools and early childhood settings to promote and model respect, positive attitudes and behaviours. It teaches our children how to build healthy relationships, resilience and confidence through age appropriate content and activities. The learning materials cover eight topics of Social and Emotional Learning across all levels of primary education.
The topics are:
Topic 1: Emotional Literacy
Topic 2: Personal Strengths
Topic 3: Positive Coping
Topic 4: Problem Solving
Topic 5: Stress Management
Topic 6: Help-seeking
Topic 7: Gender and Identity
Topic 8: Positive Gender Relations
The most important part of the curriculum is that we are explicitly teaching and modelling respect towards all through our words, actions and attitudes. We are following the teachings of Jesus, showing mutual respect, acceptance and understanding toward each and every person who is created in the image and likeness of God.
Further information about the Resilence, Rights and Respectful Relationships Curriculum can be found with this link:
Support Annunciation Primary School through Grill'd
Annunciation Primary School has be lucky to secure a doantion jar at Grill'd Yarraville. During the month of March I encouraged any of our families visiting Grill'd to drop a coin or two in the donation jar.
School Photos
On Tuesday we had our school photos. Thank you to all parents for dressing their children in the full school uniform. Thank you to all students for remembering to brush their hair and teeth. This year we assembled in the Birmingham St. Park space for the whole school photo. It is a beautiful area and a highlight for our school and I wanted to be able to showcase this in our whole school photo. I eagerly await now, just like you, the arrival of the printed photos.
Colour Run
A reminder to register for the Colour Run if you haven't already done so. Students need to be registered to participate in the Colour Run and to be eligible for any of the prizes. Remember, the grand prize is being able to slime me at the end of the Colour Run!!
Please keep Pope Francis in your prayers as he struggles through this time of illness.
Kinde regards,
Matthew Stead
