Principal's News

As we kick off this new term our focus on student engagement and learning is off to an excellent start. It’s been wonderful to see the positive way our students have transitioned from holidays back to learning and we look forward to witnessing the ongoing growth of students throughout the term.

We warmly welcome Ruth Keily and Vicky Smith back to Holy Rosary after their leave. They are now team teaching Year 3/4 White.

Rest in Peace

In the last week of Term Two there was a serious accident involving Paul Hogan, a former MACS principal. Tragically, Paul passed away in hospital following the accident. Paul may be known to some of you as he was principal at St Mary’s Ascot Vale from 2016- 2022.

Our condolences are extended to Paul's family, friends, colleagues and the many members of the MACS extended community who knew Paul over many years in catholic education. I ask that you keep Paul, his family and friends in your prayers.

May perpetual light shine upon Paul and may he rest in peace.

Explicit Teaching

In recent months, there has been some talk in the media about the approach schools use to teach their students. More specifically, there has been a focus on the value of evidence based learning, and specifically, explicit teaching.

As babies and toddlers, your children naturally acquired biologically primary knowledge such as learning to crawl, walk and talk. However, most children need formal teaching to learn biologically secondary learning, such as reading, writing and mathematics, and this is at the core of what we do at Holy Rosary. We are committed to using evidence based practices in assisting our students to learn. The evidence strongly suggests that explicit teaching is the most efficient and effective way to ensure learning takes place, and this is particularly true for the introduction of new concepts.

Explicit instruction is clear and detailed teaching that leaves little room for confusion. It is based on a sequence of explanation, modelling, guided practice, independent practice, formative assessment and review. It is highly interactive with regular questioning and frequent checks for understanding. It has several critical components within each step of the sequence.

MACS introduced their ‘Vision for Instruction’ that outlines an evidence based approach to teaching earlier in the year. Holy Rosary has used explicit teaching as its primary approach for many years now, and this was reinforced in our partnerships with MACS in 2022 and 2023. While we are always working to build teacher capacity, we are proud of our work in this area and you can be sure that we will continue to depth our knowledge and skills in the application of evidence based practices.

This term, along with 90 other MACS schools, Year 3-6 classes at Holy Rosary are piloting units of work developed by Ochre Education. These lessons will serve as the foundation for literacy learning. Year 3/4 students will study the novel ’Kensuke’s Kingdom’ by Michael Morpurgo, while Year 5/6 students will study ‘War Horse’ by the same author. These high-quality, rich texts have already sparked deep discussions among teachers and students. Each lesson includes:

A daily review, focusing on practising previously taught skills
Text reading (student read-aloud, teacher read-aloud, and independent reading for fluency)
Vocabulary instruction (words from the text to support comprehension, spelling patterns, or explicit vocabulary development)
Grammar instruction
Comprehension activities such as summarising, question generating, question answering, and visualisation
Writing (Sentence and text level)
Handwriting and Keyboard Instruction.

Periodic formative assessment is embedded in the units, with regular questioning and frequent checks for understanding. Students and teachers are adapting to this learning cycle. We will maintain regular feedback sessions with MACS and at a local level, adjust our teaching as needed.

We continuously strive to enhance teacher capacity, take pride in our accomplishments and we are dedicated to further deepening our knowledge and skills in implementing evidence-based teaching.

Confirmation Information

Usually at the end of our sacramental Masses, we present certificates to all students who received the sacrament. For Confirmation this year, at the Bishop’s request, certificates will not be presented at Mass. Instead we will present them at assembly on August 12th.

Year 5/6 Sky are rostered on to lead assembly on August 5th (Week 4), however, this assembly will be presented by the students celebrating their Confirmation.

Help Us Plan for 2025

It’s that time of the year when we begin planning for the new school year. An important part of this cycle is the employment of staff. It is critical that we employ the correct number of staff and ensure these teachers are the highest quality candidates. To achieve this goal, we need to accurately estimate our student population in a timely manner. Under employing and then attempting to find quality candidates at the last minute is extremely difficult, especially in this time of teacher shortage. Likewise, overemploying seriously reduces our available funds for day to day operations. It’s like walking a tightrope. The optimal outcome for your children is for us to employ the right number of staff for full classes. Therefore, we ask you to support us in these two ways:

If you are leaving Holy Rosary in 2025, please let us know as soon as you know. Even if you think leaving is a possibility, please tell us to assist with our planning. Please let the office know.
Please promote Holy Rosary in the local community. Classes that have optimal numbers ensure the best learning opportunities across the board.

NAPLAN

The NAPLAN results are in! Parents may collect reports from the school office. Thanks to the parents who have already collect these.

Defibrillator

Did you know that we have a defibrillator in our school office? If a person has an accident or a health episode causing cardiac arrest, a defibrillator may help the heart to start beating again. It’s important for all in our community to know that we have the defibrillator so that in the case of an emergency everyone is aware of its existence. Our staff are First Aid trained and they are also trained in the use of the defibrillator. Please pass on the word about the defibrillator.

Mercy Spirit Award Nominations

We have a number of nominations for this year’s Mercy Spirit recipients. There is a post box in the office and forms for students to recognise their peers. Nominations close on Friday.

Well done Liam in 34S, Zachary in 34N, Ryan in 34G, Natalia in 12N, Ben in PrepS

for completing the challenge.

Challenge ends on 6 September 2024.

Christine