From the Principal

Dear families,

Building Works Update

It's been a very busy time at St Patrick's! We are so close to making our biggest move for the entire project - everyone has been so eager to help out which is an amazing part of our school community. It is anticipated that we will gain occupancy of the new Grade 1/2 classrooms, administration and office spaces next week. There are a few photos below that show the work as of today. Further painting, installation of bench tops and some upholstery is really all that is left to do to complete the 2nd stage.

The new multi-purpose hall continue to progress concurrently with the rest of the project. The structural work of assembly and welding frames continues with the roofing scheduled to commence in the coming weeks. 

The next stage will see:

• Our Gr 1/2's enter their new learning spaces
• The main administration area reopened with access via Drummond St (thank you for your patience with our limited access to this point!)
• Gr 5/6F will move to Healthy Living
• Healthy Living & Art will join Library & Indonesian as mobile subjects (thank you to the specialist teachers for your flexibility and innovation!)
• Gr 3/4R will move to Rm 10 (we will have all our 3/4 classes together still)
• The learning common, learning hubs, ramp area and Rooms 3, 4, 5 & 6 will be refurbished.

Structured Synthetic Phonics

Currently, we are in the process of shifting our practice in the junior years (F-2) to a synthetic phonics based approach. Our spelling focus across the Gr 3-6 learning areas, through our Spelling Mastery program, is already firmly underpinned by sound research in the Science of Reading. To better align our school wide practices between our explicit classroom focuses and interventions we have commenced the implementation of a structured synthetic phonics. But why? 

Learning to read and spell is essentially learning a code. The letters we use are simply symbols or written code for the speech sounds of English. Learning about the relationship between the letters of the alphabet and the speech sounds they represent allows us to “crack the code” and learn to both read (decode) and spell (encode). 

Synthetic Phonics is a way of teaching children to read and spell. It has been identified both here and overseas as the most successful approach to the teaching of reading and spelling. The ‘synthetic’ means blending together. The ‘phonic’ part means linking individual speech sounds to written symbols. When a child learns to read they learn to link letters to speech sounds and then blend these sounds together to read words. They also learn to separate (segment) words into their sounds and link these sounds to letters to spell them.

There is much much more to share, but as a starting point we're keen to share our learning journey and offer some further updates and strategies to enhance our school/home partnership as we progress.

Important: Before School Supervision

A friendly reminder that students should not be on the school grounds prior to 8:30am. Access to the grounds is from 8:30am with supervision commencing at this time.

Upcoming 3-Way Chats

Bookings for our 3-Way Chats are now available via PAM. The 3-Way Chats the 7th & 8th August. Our booking system will close on Friday 4th August.

School Closure Day

Monday 21st August is a school closure day as our staff engage in professional development. Looking ahead to term 4, we also have Friday 17th November for a curriculum/planning closure day. 

Wishing you all the very best for the week ahead.

Kind regards,

Ben Shields