Thrive & Flourish
Welcome to Week 6 of Term 1.
For those currently unwell, we hope for a speedy recovery for you.
For those who’ve welcomed a new addition to the family, we extend our warmest congratulations on this happy occasion.
For those families who’ve experienced a recent bereavement, please know you are in the prayers and thoughts of all in our community.
Secret Agent Society 2025 (SAS)
SAS is an award-winning, evidence-based program that teaches children how to detect the thoughts and feelings of themselves and others. Through SAS, children can be empowered to:
Understand the social needs and preferences of a wide range of people,
Explore their own range of needs, and
Communicate their needs more comfortably with others.
These life skills are important for children to navigate social conflicts and also develop the confidence to create and maintain friendships at different stages in their life development.
For more information go to https://www.secretagentsociety.com/
Thank you to those families that have shown interest in being involved in the SAS program this year. If you are interested in your family being involved in SAS this year and have not registered your interest please contact myself, Felicity Bryant or Tony McDonald ASAP.
An information session will be held on Tuesday March 18th at 9am at the school.
Please let Debbie, Felicity or Tony know if you’ll be in attendance. If you’re still wanting to be involved, please contact us and further information will be sent to you.
In 2023, NAPLAN moved from May to March. This change means NAPLAN will take place in schools Australia wide starting next week.
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) involves students in Years 3 and 5 from all states and territories in Australia. Students will be assessed on their skills in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, punctuation and grammar) and numeracy. These national test results provide information on how your child is progressing and performing in the key areas of literacy and numeracy and help to support improvements in teaching to benefit your child.
The language we use with our children is important in creating self-assurance in approaching this testing schedule. It’s important your child knows that you will remain incredibly proud of them no matter the test results, as long as they tried their best, and they were able to draw upon a series of strategies to help them manage the testing space. Any assessment should be seen as a celebration of what your child knows, understands and how they can demonstrate their thinking.
NAPLAN is a demonstration of this knowledge. The mindset needs to be one of, ‘I tried my best’, ‘This is what I knew and understood on that day’, and ‘With each and every day I will learn more and I will be able to do more’.
While many children will take this in their stride, some will find the process overwhelming and stressful despite how well prepared they may be. Here are some practical ways that you can ensure that they feel supported and acknowledged during this time.
1. Let them lead the conversation. Sometimes as parents we ask lots of questions about how our child is feeling in regard to these tests, however children often need emotional and mental space to process their thoughts and feelings. Let your child guide the conversation IF they feel like talking about it. Perhaps it’s not even a big deal to them, but if we are constantly talking about NAPLAN and how they should approach it we can create anxiety where it isn’t.
2. Acknowledge their feelings. IF your child is feeling overwhelmed or stressed and has openly shared this with you – then you need to listen and acknowledge their ideas. It can be very tempting to offer our advice or opinions when our child is feeling upset or anxious – however by jumping in to try and solve this for them we are taking away their sense of autonomy. Allow children to deal with their emotions the way they need to. Instead of asking lots of questions and offering advice, try a statement like ‘You’re really putting lots of thought into NAPLAN’ and allow them to do what they wish with that statement. Some children will simply agree, while others will take this as an invitation to tell you more.
3. Keep it light. Be conscious of how YOU are feeling about your child doing NAPLAN and ensure you keep your anxieties separate from your child’s. While you may be dying to find out how they went or how they felt, often kids will not go into great detail and might not even want to talk about it. If this is the case – let it be. Follow their cues and change the subject if that’s the vibe you are getting.
4. Keep it in perspective. Try not to make a huge deal of it. A much more accurate indicator of your child’s ability and learning progress is on their ongoing assessment tasks, reports and regular discussions with their classroom teacher, such as parent/teacher interviews.
5. What Can I Do? You can support your child/ren to be ready to participate in these assessments by making a smooth, calm start to each day. Simple tasks such as ensuring that your child has breakfast before coming to school, and that children arrive at school on time, can make a big difference.
Remember NAPLAN is a snapshot of a moment in time. Two correct answers can be the difference between medium growth and high growth. There's no NAPLAN assessment for the child who excels at football or playing a musical instrument, or the child who builds intricate robotic Lego, or folds complicated origami structures. NAPLAN is a measure of literacy and numeracy, on four assessment tasks, over four days. Please remember that.
Student Attendance
At Sacred Heart, most students come to school regularly and as a result are learning new skills socially, academically and emotionally. This is an expectation and a right that we would like to see enacted for every student.
We know that coming to school on time every day is a necessary condition for learning to occur. Students who attend school every day benefit from all of the support and teacher assistance that is available and are much more likely to go ahead in their learning.
Being ready to begin the day's learning with the rest of the class is also very important and we ask for your support in ensuring that students are in their classes by the beginning of day bell. Being prepared for the day, and starting with peers, encourages a great day of learning and helps with organisational details of the day.
Parents/guardians are responsible for making sure that all children attend school every day unless they are too unwell, in which case the school must be advised.
We welcome any emails or calls if families wish to seek support and can be contacted via email at any time or a phone call to school.
Email:
Tony McDonald: tmcdonald@shtatura.catholic.edu.au
Felicity Bryant: fbryant@shtatura.catholic.edu.au
Deb Turvey: dturvey@shtatura.catholic.edu.au
If ever you need help sorting out personal or family issues, give CatholicCare Victoria a call. They offer many services to all members of our community – ALL FREE.
Wishing everyone a safe and happy fortnight ahead.
Tony, Felicity and Deb.