The Principal's Desk

Dear parents, families and friends,

To all existing families - Welcome Back!!

To all our new families - Welcome to St. Augustine's Primary School.

Yesterday we had our whole school mass to celebrate the beginning of the school year. This is the first whole school mass we have been able to have in nearly a year. It was such a joy being able to share in the experience of celebrating mass together. In his homily, Fr. John spoke about the special nature of a Catholic school. Learning is a gift from God who created us to be independent thinkers, to be curious and creative. God wants us to grow, to develop, to change, to become the best possible person that we can be, that God created us to be. Through learning we discover the mystery of God. When we are learning, God is revealing himself, his many different natures to us. At school we learn about ourselves, we learn about others, we learn about the world and through all this we learn about the love and will of God.

As we begin the new school year, I take this opportunity to remind you of the staffing for this year. Your first point of contact should always be the classroom teacher. The Learning Conversations on the 22nd and 23rd February are the perfect opportunity for developing the important partnership between parents and teachers as we begin the learning journey for this year.

Each newsletter I will be devoting some time to explaining policies, practices and procedures here at St. Augustine's Primary School so that you can better understand the internal workings of the school.

Assessment and Data:

Assessment is ongoing and is used to inform teaching and learning. Assessment occurs before, during, at the end of and after a unit of work or sequence of lessons. Assessment shows where a student is in their learning journey, what their strengths and weaknesses are and what they need to learn next. Assessment also shows what a student has learnt, the progress they have made. At any time parents can request to discuss assessments with the classroom teacher. My policy is that teachers discuss the results with you in person so that they can show and explain what the assessment reveals, what the strengths, challenges and future learnings are. There is no value in teachers just providing raw scores, as the numbers on their own don't mean anything or reveal any information. The upcoming Learning Conversations will be an opportunity for you to meet the teachers, share important information about your child and discuss the strengths and challenges revealed through the start of year testing and the goals for your child over this term and semester.

Reading

Take home books and readers are used to support and develop the students' reading skills. There is nothing particularly special about these texts compared with other books except that they are leveled. When assigning take home books to students, teachers will assign texts that are at their instructional level, that is they are able to read comfortably with minimal errors and comprehend what they are reading. Level 28 is the highest bench marked reading level which is typically reached by the end of Year 2, however, some students achieve this earlier and some take a little longer. There are two parts to being a competent reader; decoding and comprehending. Decoding is the process of putting the letter symbols together to determine the sounds they make and the words they represent. Comprehending is the process of putting the words together to determine what the the meaning is. The best thing for developing reading skills (decoding and comprehending) is lots of reading. The more a student reads, the better they become. This includes reading a variety of texts, both fiction and non-fiction from a variety of genres. It also includes discussing texts read.

Behaviour Management

Positive discipline is the key to effective teaching and learning. It is the responsibility of all staff to work at it and provide a consistent approach.

This covers areas such as personal behaviour, language and task completion.

Teachers need to be setting the example in positive, character building ways.

All staff need to be aware of the Behaviour Management Policy and adhere to the policy so  a consistent approach can be achieved. Problems can be shared with other staff and brought to the attention of the Principal.

Should it be necessary to have a child take “Time Out” they must first do so in the classroom, secondly in another nearby classroom and thirdly at the office with a school leader (Deputy Principal or Principal). Teachers must follow up with the Principal to discuss the situation.

Hierarchy of Consequences

Covid 19 Restrictions 2021

As we begin a new school year there are still Covid 19 Restrictions in place:

• Normal School hours will resume:
  • 8.30am - Gates open - Parents can now enter the school yard
  • 8.45am - Bell -Morning Assembly in Courtyard
  • 8.55am - Bell - Classes Begin
  • 3.15pm - Dismissal
• All visitors to the school site must wear a mask, sanitise their hands and maintain 1.5m social distancing
• Any visitors remaining longer than 15 minutes must sign in at administration which includes completing and complete Covid Contact Tracing Form
• Drink taps may now be used for drinking

Birmingham Street Pocket Park

Council has released the draft plans for the Birmingham Street Pocket Park, the link is provided below:

www.yourcityyourvoice.com.au

I encourage you all to have a look and provide your feedback. On Tuesday 16 February 2021 from 2.30 - 4.30 pm there will be a Listening Post where you can view the draft concept design and provide feedback to the City Design Team.

Wednesday Morning Coffee Van

Every Wednesday morning between 8am and 9am there will be a coffee van from The Angry Mug Mobile Coffee in the school yard in between the main gates and the admin building. Coffees, hot chocolates, shakes, iced drinks and slices will be available for staff, parents, students and families to purchase.

So bring your money or your card, grab a hot or cold drink and hang around for a chat and a cuppa.

Camps 2021

This year we hope to run an uninterrupted camping program. The Year 5/6 camp will be at Harrietville in the Victorian high country. It will include a day at Mount Hotham with snow activities such as skiing and tobogganing. The Year 3/4 camp will be at Maldon. Besides the usual camp activities there is also a particular focus on bike riding.

Reminders

• Hair that is longer than shoulder length needs to be tied up at all times.
• Coloured nail polish, fake nails, fake eyelashes and makeup are not part of school uniform.
• Runners are only to be worn on sports days and Fridays. No students need to be nor should be wearing runners on Mondays and Thursdays.
• All students riding bikes or scooters to school must wear a helmet.
• All items of school uniform and stationery need to be clearly labelled.

Please ensure you view each page of the newsletter. 

Quote of the Week:

“God is always trying to give good things to us, but our hands are too full to receive them.”    St. Augustine

Kind regards,

Matthew Stead

Principal