From the Deputy Principal 

Dear families,

“Meet The Teacher” Interviews

Thank you to all the families for making time either online or face-to-face to discuss their children with the classroom teacher last week.  Your presence truly fosters a strong partnership between home and school, so that we can ensure that every child receives the support and encouragement they need to flourish academically, socially and emotionally.

If there is ever anything on your mind, or you just need a check in with one of our staff, please don’t hesitate to drop us an email, a message on seesaw, or catch us in the afternoon on the school grounds at dismissal.

Families may start to notice posts commencing on their children’s Seesaw journal, which not only provides students with an opportunity to reflect and celebrate on their learning, but also give families insight into their children’s development. Comments from parents are always welcome. All comments are moderated, and please be mindful of modelling positive statements as they may be reviewed as a class.

Inform & Empower Parent Webinar

Marty and Carly hosted a fantastic webinar last Thursday on Raising Kids in a Digital World. Thank you to the many parents who approached me the next day, affirming how useful the content of the webinar was.

A recording of the webinar is available for the next 30 days: https://youtu.be/kkP96QD-9RE?feature=shared

0:00 Introduction & Overview

UNDERSTANDING RISKS & CHALLENGES

8:01 Consuming -Social Media, Gaming, Adult Content

24:18 Interacting -Peers, AI, Predators

MANAGING RISKS & CHALLENGES

37:47 Mentor Parenting

45:04 Conversations

1:08:51 Supervision

1:16:56 Boundaries

There were many great takeaways and “eye-openers” from this webinar, and I urge all families to take the time so that they are informed as to the risks and challenges of technology, and empowered to make decisions that are in the best interest of their children. Like Marty and Carly, the school shares the position that technology at home should be supervised in shared spaces, avoiding closed spaces such as bedrooms wherever possible. Parents should discern the websites and social media that children use, as many are not age appropriate for minors left unsupervised.

Slides, links and resources that were mentioned from the webinar can also be viewed here:

Inform & Empower Student Webinars

Over the last fortnight the students from Years 1 to 6 have also been participating in webinars hosted by Marty and Carly, but developed specifically with children in mind. You can find the tip sheets relevant to each year level below. Parents may wish to use these as conversation starters with their children.

The annual ICT Policy and User Agreement will be circulated on Operoo next week and is required to be signed by all families.

Healthy Tracks and Ride2School Day

As mentioned in the last newsletter, our school is partnering with the City of Port Phillip council and the Healthy Tracks program. The program will assist the school to develop an action plan to promote active travel to school.

All parents are invited to complete the short survey, which will assist Council and the Healthy Tracks consultants understand current travel patterns, overcome barriers, and develop recommendations for creating safer and more connected routes to school. Parent insights are crucial to making walking and cycling a safe, convenient option for getting to St Mary’s!

In return for completing the survey, the council is shouting all parents a free coffee on Ride2School Day! The survey is now open via the

 link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/STZ5SDJ or QR code below:

Ride2School Day takes place on Friday 22nd March and is a great opportunity to ride, walk or scoot to school. Part of the way is also ok! Students wear school uniform on this day however are encouraged to decorate their helmet, wear a fun accessory or bring a colourful item of clothing. On this morning we will be having:

• A class parade with prizes
• Blend-your-own smoothies using pedal power
• Free healthy breakfast for students
• Free coffee for parents for completing the survey
• Other fun games and activities.

Gates open at 8:20am and the parade commences at 8:50am

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy)

for Year 3 and Year 5

Coming up in March the annual NAPLAN national assessment that tests students' ability in three domains of literacy - reading, writing and language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and in numeracy takes place. There are a variety of tests that the school will schedule between the testing window of Wednesday 13th March and Tuesday 25th March. If your child is absent on a particular day of a scheduled assessment, the school does have the ability to allow the student to complete a “catch-up” assessment. Further information will be posted in the next newsletter.