From the Deputy Principal, Secondary

From the Deputy Principal, Secondary

NAPLAN

Next week our Year 7 and 9 students will be involved in NAPLAN assessment during Lessons 1 and 2 from 14 – 17 May 2019. NAPLAN is one of a variety of assessments that tests essential skills such as reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation and numeracy.

All Australian schools are required by the Australian Education Act 2013 (Commonwealth) to participate in NAPLAN and to collect data about student background. Blackfriars’ 2018 NAPLAN data can be viewed on the My School website by following this link: https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/49693/naplan/numbers

Year 12 Formal and Compulsory Parent Information Session (Catch Up Sessions)

At the beginning of 2019 we discussed the future viability of the Year 12 Formal with our Prefects. 

It was agreed that one condition for the Formal continuing would be a compulsory parent evening. Attendance at this evening by a family representative was compulsory for boys to be invited to the Formal. A follow up session occurred to coincide with Parent/Teacher Evening to enable attendance for those parents who missed the first session. It was great to see that 90% of our families attended one of the two evenings. From this list, the Formal invitations were generated and information regarding purchasing tickets was emailed to students last week. This same information was sent to parents/guardians of those students invited via SEQTA direqt message.

As a final opportunity to attend the 2019 Blackfriars Year 12 Formal, a third catch-up will be made available on either:

• Wednesday 5 June at 7:15pm

OR

• Friday 7 June at 9:00am

Please book in with Ms Mandy Goodfellow: mgoodfellow@bps.sa.edu.au with the name of the family representative who will be attending.

 In the interim, boys who have not received an invitation can purchase ‘pending’ Formal tickets. Ms Goodfellow will send out ‘pending’ invitations. These will be formalised once attendance at either catch up session is confirmed. Thank you for your cooperation in supporting the students in their aim to create a safe and enjoyable 2019 Blackfriars Formal.

Trinity Term

Trinity captures the essence of relationships. We are relational beings and Trinity reminds us of our yearning to be in relationship with God as communion. As a school, we see positive relationships with our families as imperative to the success of our students. Please make sure you check your son’s progress through the SEQTA app and make contact with your son’s teachers regularly. Staff will be contacting you via direqt message as our preferred method of communication, so it is important to have the app installed on your phone.

Three Weeks in July

This year we have introduced a three week break in July with Trinity Term concluding on Friday 28 June at 3:15pm. Staff will be involved in a week of professional development with a focus on mental health and wellbeing.

Mental Health

The Age published an article this week that highlighted the stress facing young people completing their final year of school. Dr Charlotte Keating, a Melbourne-based psychologist and neuroscientist, said young people were completing their final year at a time when their brains were most vulnerable to stress.

Our Prefects are leading a whole school mental health initiative. Checking in on your mates is a vital starting point. To complement the work undertaken in the Pastoral Care Program, the Prefects have organised a mental health and wellbeing student evening on Friday 31 May 2019 in the James O’Doherty Performing Arts Centre. More information about the evening will be disseminated by the Prefects.

Staffing

Please keep Miss Valerie Frost in your thoughts and prayers as she is due to undergo heart surgery this week. As a result, we have shuffled a number of classes to accommodate Miss Frost’s absence this term. I would like to thank Mr Chris Packer and Mr David Delaney for increasing their teaching loads and Mr Michael Parrella for taking on more mathematics classes. I have the utmost confidence that these equally qualified teachers will minimise any disruption to students during Miss Frost’s recovery period.

Finally, it has been great to see our boys in full winter uniform. If your son is missing some aspects of their uniform, please visit the Uniform Shop. I understand that some items are on back order and I thank you for your patience.

God Bless,

Mr David Ruggiero

DEPUTY PRINCIPAL, SECONDARY