Principal
Dear Parents & Carers
It's hard to believe but welcome to Week 8 of Term 2. Although COVID-19 continues to present us all with challenges throughout term 2, its wonderful to identify that some things at St Philomena's remains unchanged and unwavering. Learning data collected by our dedicated Leaders of Learning over the past couple of weeks (since returning back to full-time face to face instruction) have clearly identified that not only have our students continued to learn using our Remote Learning Platform, in the majority of our year groups (K-10), our students have demonstrated growth in our core learning areas of reading, writing and mathematics.
When designing our Remote Learning Platform, we strongly believed that if we continued to provide students with learning opportunities that were aligned to the familiar structures and routines of their "physical" classroom (Continued learning through a "Digital" Gradual Release Model) our students (and parents) would not only survive the learning quarantined time, but felt most would actually thrive. That being said, the level of learning growth experienced by our students hasn't happened by accident. The success of our Remote Learning Platform has come as a result of a strong and authentic partnership between home and school. While it was our dedicated Leaders of Learning (and support staff) that critically and strategically designed and prepared the remote learning packages, it was our incredible parent community that continued to facilitate the learning of our students at home. I remember reading somewhere, that it takes a strong community to grow a child. I honestly believe that the St Philomena's Catholic Learning Community is a testament to that statement. Congratulations St Philomena's!
It has been truly wonderful welcoming students back to school (seeing all their beautiful smiling faces as they walk through the gate) as we navigate what the new normal looks, feels and sounds like while COVID-19 restrictions are still in place. Parents would have no doubt noticed the increased COVID-19 signage reminding us all of our responsibilities regarding social distancing, hand sanitising and general health and wellness. Parents, if your child is displaying cold or flu symptoms, please keep them at home. All these precautions are in place for all of our safety, and I ask that parents continue to be vigilant in this area.
On Tuesday (of this week) the school hosted its first of two 2021 Kindergarten Information Session to approximately 20 prospective families. This new initiative for St Philomena's in 2020, provided an opportunity for new (and current parents) to experience first hand the rich and diverse learning opportunities that are available at our beautiful school. Our next Kindergarten Information Session will be held on Tuesday 23rd June from 10am-11am in our Learning Centre.
Throughout our remote learning time, parents were provided with a daily insight into what learning looked, felt and sounded like from kindergarten to year 10. With students returning to "normal" face to face instruction, we have decided to continue to provide families with regular communication regarding student's weekly learning experiences. As you are no doubt aware, each Monday an email is sent out to families providing you with a weekly learning summary that identifies the learning intentions for key learning areas for each year group. Our hope in sending out these weekly emails is to provide parents with an opportunity to have deeper conversations with their children regarding their learning during that week.
The P&F met last night for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began, to strategically plan what the remaining year could look like with the loosening of social distancing restrictions. Thank you to all the parents that were able to attend last nights meeting. I would like to extend an invite to all our families to attend these meetings, as without parent support, the invaluable function of the P&F cannot exist. I encourage all our families to follow the St Philomena's Facebook page for details of up coming events and meetings. I look forward to seeing more of our parents in attendance at the next meeting which will be held on Wednesday 22nd July in the Learning Centre from 6pm.
Enjoy the rest of your week and more importantly have a wonderful weekend.
God bless
Jamie McDowall
Principal