Principals' Message

From the Principals - Alison & Lisa

It has been impressive to observe how quickly our students have returned to school and settled back into their classes and routines. After the extended break you could be forgiven for thinking that the start of the year would be reasonably unsettled. However, we are very pleased to report that the opposite has occurred, with all classes quickly establishing class expectations and approaching each day with enthusiasm and a commitment to learning. 

ACER PAT TESTING

Over the coming weeks all children in Year 2 to Year 6 will undertake online testing in Literacy and Numeracy. These tests will be administered by ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research). The data collected from these assessments provide the school with a standardised reference point that  helps with meeting the educational needs of our students. They are nothing to stress over, but obviously we will be encouraging the students to try their best. 

SWIMMING CARNIVAL THANK YOU

A big thank you to all the parents who supported our selection trials for Swimming last Thursday. Thank you to Heidi Hardaker for all her organisation, it ran very smoothly.  Congratulations to all the students who:  participated, cheered and displayed wonderful sportsmanship.  A special mention to the students who will be representing the school at Diocesan level.

CONGRATULATIONS MRS HARDAKER

We would like to congratulate Mrs Heidi Hardaker on her appointment to the Catholic School Office position of Coordinator: Sport (K-6) & CAPA (K-12).  Heidi has very successfully held the role of Sports Coordinator at St Edward’s for six years and is very deserving of this promotion.  While we wish Heidi every success and happiness in her new role at the CSO and look forward to catching up with her at Diocesan Sporting events. Mrs Natasha Gippel has been appointed as our Coordinator: Sport & PD/H/PE for 2020, congratulations Mrs Gippel.

MEET AND GREET

Mrs Hatton and Mrs McSweeney warmly invite all our parents and carers to a "Meet and Greet" evening tonight at  6.30pm in the Year 6 Rooms at the Primary Campus. This will be an opportunity to meet the new leadership team for 2020 including Assistant Principal Mr Greg O'Toole in a relaxed and informal setting over a cuppa. It will also provide the chance to put names to faces and to hear about our goals and expectations for St Edward's School in 2020. If you are free to come along, we would love to see you there.

COMPASS PARENT PORTAL LAUNCH

Please mark Thursday 19th March in your diary as this is the night we will be inviting parents and carers to come along and become informed on how to access the Parent Portal of Compass. More details to come!

ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN

On Tuesday the School Leadership team joined St Nicholas School, St Mary's School Armidale and St Xavier's School Gunnedah for our AIP meeting. Here, we presented the School’s Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) to members of the Catholic School’s Office. Our AIP for this year focuses on 4 priority areas: Nurture our Catholic Identity, Lead Learning, Improve Learning and Wellbeing. Our 'big rocks' this year are:

to improve the delivery of the Religious Education Curriculum

ensure consistency in our approach to improve our Whole School English Block

to improve knowledge of curriculum and pedagogical practices in Mathematics 

to create a culture where the wellbeing of staff and students is a priority

We look forward to discussing our improvement agenda in more detail during the year.

PARENT ASSOCIATION MEETING

Our first Parent Association Meeting will be held in the Primary Campus Staffroom on Tuesday 3rd March at 6.30pm. Once again, we warmly welcome all parents and carers to come along and become involved in this important facet of school life, especially our new Kindy parents! We look forward to seeing you there.

OPENING SCHOOL MASS

We look forward to celebrating the start of our new school year as a Catholic Community with our Opening School Mass, tomorrow, Friday 14th February at 10.00am at Mary Help of Christians Church. We look forward to sharing this special event with our parents and carers. Please see more details in the Religious Education section of this Newsletter.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

As you would be well aware, the Coronavirus has been a very prominent topic in the media in these past few weeks. The Catholic Schools Office in Armidale has sent through a directive on how this needs to be managed in our schools should there be cases of students, staff or families who have travelled to Asia (in particular China) in the recent holidays.

In short, the most current and up to date directive is as follows:

Based on the new Federal Government advice (attached) the following applies to travellers from China:

Travellers who arrive after 1st February 2020   

Any student or staff member who has returned to Australia after 1 February 2020, and has over the last 14 days visited or transited through mainland China, is excluded from school and should not return to school or child care services for a period of 14 days after leaving China. These students or staff members are also required to self-isolate from the community, as the coronavirus’ incubation period can be as long as two weeks.

Travellers who arrived before the 1st February 2020

Any student or staff member who over who arrived in Australia before 1 February 2020 and in the previous 14 days had visited the province of Hubei in central China is excluded from school and should not return to school or child care services for a period of 14 days after leaving China, as the coronavirus’ incubation period can be as long as two weeks. Returned travellers who have been in Hubei Province of China must be isolated in their home for 14 days after leaving Hubei Province, other than for seeking individual medical care.

Travellers from Hong Kong

Any staff member or student who is currently not attending school due to being in Hong Kong should not return to school until the 14 period has expired. As of the 2 February CSNSW working with NSW Health is recommending that people who have travelled in Hong Kong and not mainland China are able to attend school. 

 Transiting Travellers

The current advice does include those who only passed through airports in mainland China. Any student or staff member who has returned to Australia after 1 February 2020 and has transited through mainland China is excluded from school and required to self-isolate from the community.

NSW Health has information available on its website.

Factsheet: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/alerts/Pages/coronavirus.aspx

FAQs: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/alerts/Pages/coronavirus-faqs.aspx