Acting Principal's Report

Dear members of the St. Cecilia’s School community,

Since I last wrote to you two weeks ago we have again seen some very exciting and significant school and community events take place. Some of these include:

• The Year 1/2 Family Mass and Pizza Night
• Senior Hooptime Day
• Whole School House Athletics Carnival
• Year 5/6 Victorian Space Science Education Centre Excursion
• Staff Professional Learning (TIMS - See below)

In addition to these notable events, all of which you can read about in more detail throughout the newsletter, our core business and our reason for existence continues daily. That core business is described in our school vision which you will find on the front of your child's school report this week;

To be an inclusive community

that inspires courageous learners

to make a difference

by living Christ’s love for others.

In moving around the school this week, it was very evident to me just how alive this vision is in our school. Later in the newsletter on the "What's Been Happening" page there are a number of examples of this vision in action. From the support students receive from teachers and learning support officers at all levels to achieve to the best of their ability, to the fantastic daily literacy and numeracy activities students are challenged with. Our courageous learners have also been making a difference for others in lots of little ways. At assembly this week our 'gotcha' ticket containers were overflowing the the good deeds of the students from across the term as recognised by our teachers daily.

We look forward to recharging and preparing to continue the daily work of learning, growing and serving others after a well earned break in semester two. 

Work on The Vision For Instruction Continues

As you have read in previous issues of the newsletter this year, St Cecilia's is engaging in significant work as part of the Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS) 2030 Flourishing Learners and Vision for Instruction statements. We are currently at the stage of exploring and experiementing with a range of new resources and teaching strategies to enhance teacher practice and student learning. 

The most recent work staff have been engaged in is the Teacher for Impact in Mathematics Series (TIMS). Throughout the term our staff have been attending professional learning days designed around increasing the impact of our teaching in mathematics. We are very pleased to have been able to facilitate virtually all classroom teachers now attending this learning.

Teachers are now bringing the new resources and strategies into the classrooms and working collaboratively to consolidate this new learning. You may hear your children start to learn about the OCHRE resources or daily reviews. The videos below may be helpful in giving a brief overview of what these terms mean.

Our whole staff school closure day at the beginning of next term will be another opportunity for our staff to continue this work and bring together much of the individual and level learning that has taken place over the past term.

School Reports and Parent Teacher Interviews 

School reports will be sent out online on Monday June 24. 

Instructions on how to access the nForma Parent Portal will be sent out to the email addresses that have been previously supplied to the school. 

It is very important that you have updated your email addresses with the school, as an automated email containing instructions and login details will come from no-reply@nforma.com.au and not the school. Please ensure that you check your junk/spam folder for an email from that address.

It is highly recommended that you use a computer to access your child’s reports for the first time. Subsequent logins can be made on a mobile device if preferred. 

Once you have followed the instructions, you will be able to view your child’s report online.

Once in the portal you will need to choose your child (if you have more than one at our school) and then choose the reporting component. 

Forgotten passwords:

If you have forgotten your password, please follow the 'forgotten password' link. Please note that your new password needs to be at least 7 characters long and must include at least one non alpha-numeric character, e.g. *, - / or similar.

If you have requested a password reset and the email does not appear, please look in your junk/spam folder for an email from no-reply@nforma.com.au. 

If you have any questions or issues, please contact the school office. 

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School on Wednesday June 26 will finish at 1:20pm to facilitate our interviews. Requests for supervision via the google form already distributed, will close on Monday.

A reminder that the last day of term, Friday June 28 also concludes at 1:20pm, with afterschool care available from this time.

Confirmation Candidates Begin their Preparation

Commitment Masses - Sunday June 23, 10am or 5:30pm

Tomorrow the Confirmation candidates from Year 5/6 will mark the beginning of final stages of their preparation for the Sacrament of Confirmation by attending a commitment Mass with the members of the St Cecilia's parish. We all pray for the candidates as they embark on this journey towards reccommiting to being a member of the Catholic faith and pledging to accept the gifts of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

We ask that you all pray for these young people over the coming weeks.

Rationale For Winter Athletics

The timing of this event allowed us to use the event to give the students the oppotunity to demonstrate their capabilities at a purpose built athletics track. Bringing the event forward in the year, and having the addition of the timing gates means that as a school we were able to much more efficiently determine the strongest students in the various events which will help determine the the Senior Interschool Athletics Team that will compete later in Term 3.

A huge thank you also to Katherine, Teresa and all the staff who put in so much effort to preparing and running the day.

Important Dates for our Sacramental Years

New Extra Curricular Offering - Stage Left (Repeat)

We are very pleased to have formed a new relationship with Stage Left Performing Arts School. The arts are an integral and highly valued part of our curriculum at St Cecilia's. In order to extend the range of extra curricula activities we offer, we have partnered with Stage Left who will run after school Performing Arts classes here at school.

For more information click on the links below.

Thank you everyone for your support throughout the first semester. We wish you all a safe and happy holiday break, and look forward to returning in term 3, re-energised and ready for a great second half of the year.

Matthew Mooney

Acting Principal

St Cecilia’s Primary School