Thank you

"The Lord says, “People of Israel, you are my servants. Family of Jacob, I have chosen you. You are the children of my friend Abraham.9 I gathered you from one end of the earth to the other. From the farthest places on earth I brought you together. I said, ‘You are my servants.’ I have chosen you. I have not turned my back on you.10 So do not be afraid. I am with you. Do not be terrified. I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. I will hold you safe in my hands. I always do what is right." Isaiah 41: 8-10

God is good, he carries us through everything and continues to bless us, his children. These verses bring comfort to us for all situations and I have drawn strength from them as I reflect on the semester that is just finishing. As a community God has drawn us together and promises to always be with us. All I can say is "wow" and "thank you".

Wow - Term 1 was a whirlwind of learning, flexibility, resilience, grit, perseverance and growth! Term 2 we welcomed all our students back again and have enjoyed a term of more consistent learning and growth.

Thank you - our Good Shepherd community is so special. Thank you for trusting us as we walked through COVID restrictions and now begin to walk 'back out again' in Term 3. To our teachers, thank you for the incredible commitment to learners and their success and growth. Term 1 was like working in a washing machine!! You handled the changes and everything thrown at you with professionalism and calmness.

To our school staff, thanks for the giftings you share to support our learners, families and provide quality education and a positive environment at Good Shepherd.

Thank you to our students who have settled back into school and are continuing to live out our values of love, optimism and creativity.

Reports - These have been uploaded into Edumate. We encourage you to take time to share in your child's learning and the comment made by teacher.

Holidays - take time to enjoy the gift of family and the chance to refresh. While it seems a little strange to be 'back home' again, our students are ready for this break to refresh for another big term of learning in Term 3.

Staff PL week - next week our staff will be involved in a range of professional learning opportunities, planning and time to have fun together in fellowship, an important part of building community.

Every blessing as you enjoy a holiday break and we look forward to an exciting Term 3!

Karen Schoff

Acting Principal

Raising Resilient Problem Solvers

The latest blog from the Parenting Ideas website is called ‘Raising Resilient Problem Solvers’. Michael Grose, the author of this blog and founder of the organisation writes clearly and with practical ideas. You can find his article by clicking here.

The website is another wonderful resource for parents. See how they describe themselves below.

“At Parenting Ideas, we’re here to help people successfully raise confident, happy and resilient kids.

We connect parents and educators to our expert child development knowledge through first class digital channels and accompany it with a genuine human interface to make parenting support more accessible and impactful.

We provide

Regular parenting blogs
Online courses for parents
Parenting guides and resources
Books from our founder and best-selling author, Michael Grose
Memberships for schools to help support effective school and parent relationships
Videos, articles and resources for schools to share in their school website, social media and communications
Professional Learning programs for teachers
Presentations, keynote speaking, workshops and conferences for parents and educators”

Bronwyn Holliday

Director Junior Primary

Staffing news

We celebrate the wonderful news of the birth of 'Louie Johnson' to Lauren and Carl Johnson last week. May God bless and keep you in his care as you grow as a family.

For the first five weeks of Term 3, Bronwyn Holliday, (Director Junior Primary) will be on Long Service Leave. We wish her a refreshing break.

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD)

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

year of schooling
category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au).

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact Anne Carter or Patricia Stewart.

diary dates

Diary Dates