PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Term 3, Week 5 Newsletter

It’s hard to believe that we are already halfway through Term Three. The first five weeks have flown by, but it has been pleasing to see such a settled, positive and hardworking start to the term from everyone across the school. While today marks our big Book Week celebration, it has been fantastic to see reading and literature celebrated throughout the school this week, building towards what promises to be a wonderful day today.

Connect in the Field

It has also been a particularly reaffirming and positive fortnight at St Agnes’, with an opportunity to reflect on and share some of the exceptional teaching and learning practices taking place across our school. This week, we welcomed more than 50 educators, school leaders, principals and MACS staff to St Agnes’ for a Connect in the Field morning. Connect in the Field is a MACS initiative where schools are chosen to showcase effective teaching and learning practices, allowing visiting educators to observe these practices in action and learn more about the thinking, evidence and work that sits behind them. It’s a massive feather in the cap of every single educator in this school that we have been chosen to host this event as only three schools are chosen per year.

Our visitors were treated to an exceptional display of teaching and student learning across the school. In our junior classrooms, they observed Heggerty phonemic awareness sessions, MSL, paired reading fluency and handwriting instruction. In Year Three, visitors observed a writing lesson incorporating the Seven Steps to Writing Success alongside our Elastik writing assessment platform, which allows teachers and students to identify strengths and areas for continued growth.

In Year Four, our students demonstrated our approach to novel studies through their work on Kensuke’s Kingdom. Visitors saw the explicit teaching of vocabulary prior to reading, questioning and discussion throughout the text, and purposeful reading response tasks following the reading. Our Year Five and Six students showcased our approach to Mathematics, including flexible groupings, Number Fact Fluency and Daily Review. Across these lessons, visitors were also able to see many of the practices that underpin teaching throughout St Agnes’, including the ‘I do, we do, you do’ model, frequent opportunities for students to respond and regular checking for understanding.

Following the classroom visits, Amanda Baker shared the story of St Agnes’ teaching and learning journey and the strategic, systematic approach that has underpinned the continual improvement of practice across our school over many years.

Our guests were incredibly impressed by the expertise and knowledge shared by our teachers and leaders throughout the day. One senior MACS consultant summed up what they observed by describing St Agnes’ as:

“The best example of strong and consistent instructional practices I have seen in 40 years of education.”

It was an incredibly affirming reflection of the work our staff have undertaken and the consistency of teaching and learning practices across our school.

Below is a follow-up email from Madeleine Kelly, a MACS consultant who leads school effectiveness across the Southern Region:

Dear the St Agnes Staff,

On behalf of the Southern region, I want to take a moment to express my deepest gratitude and admiration for each one of you. Your willingness to open your learning spaces for Connect in the Field to share your VFI implementation journey with other leaders was inspiring. You really do demonstrate what it truly means to place students at the heart of everything you do.

Thank you for the care you show, the relationships you build, and the high expectations you hold because you believe every student deserves the very best. Your efforts continue to shape not only academic success but also confidence, wellbeing, and a lifelong love of learning: excellence and equity.

Please know how deeply appreciated you are. Your passion, expertise, and dedication inspired all leaders and teachers from around the region, who were lucky enough to join the Learning Walk this morning.  You are all making an extraordinary difference in the lives of the students, families, and the community you serve.

Thank you for all that you do, and for continuing to lead with purpose, heart, and an unwavering focus on what matters most: your students.

While I am only beginning my time at St Agnes’, it is clear to me that the success we are experiencing in teaching, learning and academic growth has not happened by chance. It has been built through:

• Setting the conditions for learning and making these a clear priority across every classroom.
• Systematic implementation over time, ensuring new practices are introduced, embedded and continually refined.
• Consistency of approach, with a focus on getting the basics right, day after day and lesson after lesson.
• 100% buy-in from our staff, with everyone committed to our shared approach to teaching and learning.
• Prioritising academic learning in English and Maths within our school structures, routines and timetables.

• Leadership on the ground, with our leaders regularly in classrooms and planning sessions, modelling, coaching, guiding and supporting our teachers and LSOs.

   

Most importantly, it comes down to our people. From our curriculum leaders and classroom teachers through to our LSOs, I see each day the commitment our staff have to making St Agnes’ an exceptional place for our students to learn and grow. Seeing their dedication to their craft, their willingness to continually improve and their genuine excitement when students experience growth and success is one of the great privileges of my role.

Tuesday was a wonderful celebration of how far St Agnes’ has come and, importantly, the quality of teaching and learning our students experience every day. To have educators from across MACS come into our classrooms and see this work firsthand was a fantastic affirmation of our staff, our students and the direction of our school. It is something our entire St Agnes’ community should be incredibly proud of.

SRC and Mini Vinnies Leaders

At our assembly last week, we were delighted to present our Semester Two SRC and Mini Vinnies representatives with their leadership badges. These roles provide our students with a wonderful opportunity to have a voice in our school, contribute to our community and develop their leadership skills.

Our SRC (Student Representative Council) members, supported by our Learning Diversity and Wellbeing Leader Mrs Phyland, will meet throughout the semester to share ideas and feedback from their classmates, contribute to school initiatives and help ensure student voice continues to play an important role in life at St Agnes’.

Our Mini Vinnies, led by Mrs Gorski, have a particular focus on social justice and putting our faith into action. Students will learn about issues affecting people locally and globally, identify ways they can make a difference and help lead initiatives that support those within our school and wider community.

Congratulations to all of our Semester Two representatives. We look forward to seeing what they bring to their roles over the remainder of the year.

SRC and Mini Vinnies - Class Representatives (Semester Two 2026) 

Family Maths Evening: Tuesday 25th August: 6pm

In Week Seven, we will host our annual Family Maths Evening, providing families with an insight into how Mathematics is taught at St Agnes' and the evidence-informed practices that underpin our approach.

This year's evening will explore the Science of Learning and how it shapes our Mathematics lessons, while also showcasing the Rich Learning Tasks that are becoming an increasingly important part of our weekly teaching and learning sequences. Families will have the opportunity to experience the kinds of learning our students engage in every day and gain practical ideas to support mathematical thinking at home.

This is an evening for both students and families, and we encourage everyone to make every effort to attend.

The evening has been thoughtfully planned and organised by our Mathematics leader, Mr Levi Otto. We thank Levi for his passion, expertise and leadership in these important areas of school life, and for providing such valuable learning opportunities for our entire community.

Maths - Number Fact Fluency

Throughout this year, students from Prep to Year 6 have continued to build their number fact fluency as an important part of our Mathematics learning. When students can recall key number facts automatically, such as addition facts and times tables, they don’t need to use valuable thinking space working out basic calculations when completing more complex tasks. This allows them to focus their attention on understanding the problem, selecting an appropriate strategy and applying their mathematical thinking with greater confidence.

To support this work, we have been using NumBots and Maths Fact Lab in our classrooms. Maths Fact Lab is a new implementation at St Agnes' this year and provides targeted fluency practice at each student's point of need. It focuses not only on recalling number facts, but also on helping students recognise number patterns and visualise relationships between numbers. Research tells us this is important for ensuring students develop strong fluency skills. These programs provide students with regular, targeted opportunities to practise and strengthen their number fact fluency, with learning tailored to their current level and needs.

Our Prep and Year One students have also been working hard to develop their number fact fluency. While we don’t yet have relevant benchmarks to compare their progress against, it has been fantastic to see the commitment and effort they are putting into building these important foundational skills.

Well done to all of our students for the hard work and enthusiasm they continue to show towards this essential aspect of their Mathematics learning.

Closure Day

On Monday, we welcomed Dr Stewart D’Silva to St Agnes’ for our Term Three School Closure Day, where our staff engaged in professional learning focused on supporting neurodivergent learners and strengthening our understanding of student behaviour and self-regulation. Stewart shared the science behind how neurodivergent brains work, with a particular focus on ADHD, helping staff understand the relationship between the demands we place on students and their capacity to regulate their attention, emotions and behaviour.

Throughout the day, staff explored practical, evidence-informed strategies that can be applied in our classrooms, including effective movement breaks, supporting transitions, reducing cognitive overload, establishing predictable routines and responding when students become dysregulated or overwhelmed. A key theme throughout the day was taking a strengths-based approach and maintaining unconditional positive regard for every child, particularly when behaviour can be challenging.

It was particularly reaffirming to hear that many of the strategies and approaches shared by Dr D’Silva are already embedded in the work of our teachers and LSOs across the school. Each day, I have the privilege of seeing our staff put these approaches into practice, continually adapting and responding to the needs of individual students while ensuring all children benefit from high-quality, evidence-informed practice. The day was also an important opportunity to challenge our thinking, add new strategies to our toolkit and continue strengthening the way we support every student to feel successful, included and ready to learn.

HOLT Athletics Practice

It was fantastic to see more than 40 students turn up for our first two HOLT District Athletics training sessions over the past fortnight. Kicking off bright and early at 8.00am on Wednesday mornings, our students have shown great enthusiasm and commitment as they prepare for the upcoming carnival. Even when wet weather threatened to cancel our first session, we made the most of the morning with a skills session in the hall! A big thank you to Mr Kost for coordinating our training program and to the staff who have come along each week to support our students. We look forward to seeing our students represent St Agnes’ and give their best at the HOLT District Athletics Carnival.

Our Year 3-6 Athletics team will compete in the District Athletics on Monday 24th August. Students have been notified if they are participating in this event. It is held at Duncan Mackinnon Reserve in Murrumbeena and parents are welcome to attend in support. Please note, all children are expected to be in their correct St Agnes’ Sports Uniform for this event.

Year 5/6 Hoop Time

Last Friday, all of our Year 5/6 students made the trek to MSAC in Albert Park to take part in the Hoop Time Basketball Tournament. Our students had a fantastic day and were a credit to themselves and St Agnes’ in the way they conducted themselves, supported one another and represented our school throughout the tournament. A big thank you to Mr Kost for organising the day and to our coaches, Mrs Phyland, Amanda Moloney, Mrs Miller and Lynn Miller, for giving their time and supporting our students throughout the tournament.

Supporting our staff while planning for the future

Currently, all Catholic schools are working through planning and budgeting activities for 2027 to ensure we are well placed to support our staff, students and school communities in the coming year. This includes looking at how we can accommodate the changes likely to flow from a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) with school staff.

We recognise the significant financial pressures many households are facing, and we are making a conscious effort to ensure these costs are not passed on through significant fee increases.

We will continue to keep our parent community informed throughout this process. As always, our focus remains on maintaining strong school communities and continuing to deliver a high-quality Catholic education for every student.

3D Printer at St Agnes’

We have been incredibly fortunate to recently receive a 3D printer, generously donated to the school by parent Andrew Piksikalis. Andrew is a great supporter of St Agnes’ and we are very grateful for his generous contribution of this exciting piece of technology for our students to use.

It has already been fantastic to see some of our senior Coding Club students trialling the 3D printer, learning how it works and exploring what they can design and create. Later this term, some of our senior students will also have the opportunity to use it to develop prototypes as part of their business stalls, giving them a great opportunity to take an idea from the design stage through to a physical product.

A huge thank you to Andrew for this extremely generous gift to our school. We look forward to seeing the creativity, problem-solving and innovation it inspires and, most importantly, what our students are able to create with it!

Father's Day Breakfast

Father's Day is creeping up, and I know Mrs Gorski is quietly working away on a few clever ideas to make this year's celebrations one to remember. A few important reminders as we get closer to the big day:

Father's Day Stall: On Wednesday 26th August we have our Father’s and Special Friends’ Day stall. Students will have the opportunity to purchase gifts for their dad or special someone at our stall, with prices ranging between $1 - $12. Students can bring along up to $15 each. Alternatively, we will have EFTPOS available too. A huge thank you to Jenny Cummings for once again organising the stall and the volunteers who have offered to help with sales! 

Father's Day Breakfast: A huge thank you to our amazing team of mums who will once again be putting on our annual Father's Day Breakfast on Thursday, 3 September, kicking off at 7:30am. We hope to see as many of our fathers, grandfathers and special men in our students' lives there as possible for what is always a wonderful morning together. Tickets to go out next week via the WhatsApp

Father's Day Liturgy: Mrs Gorski and our Year Six Social Justice Leaders are also about to begin preparing another special Father's Day liturgy. We anticipate this will begin at approximately 8:15am and conclude around 9:00am. We would love as many of our dads, grandfathers and special guests as possible to stay on after breakfast and join us for this special celebration.

Italian Day

Italian Day is coming up! Signora Talarico has been working hard behind the scenes to plan and prepare what promises to be a memorable day for our students.

Over the past week, all students will have received a brown paper bag for their pizza order. Please ensure these are completed and returned by the designated date so orders can be finalised.

On the day, students are encouraged to come dressed in an Italian-themed costume and will take part in a range of fun and engaging cultural activities designed to deepen their knowledge and appreciation of Italy and Italian culture.

A big thank you to Signora Talarico for all the time, energy and creativity she has been putting into preparing the day. We’re looking forward to a fantastic celebration of all things Italian!

Tennis Coaching

It’s been great to see our tennis sessions back up and running on Tuesday and Thursday mornings over the past fortnight, with junior school parent Brad Crosher taking the reins. It’s been a welcome addition back into our school community, and we’re very grateful to Brad for stepping in while Michael is away.

If you have any questions about the program or would like to find out how your child can take part, you can contact Brad via www.bgctennis.comor brad@bgctennis.com.

Year Six Graduation Meeting - Thursday 20th August at 8am

Next week we will hold the first meeting in preparation for the Year Six Graduation. This meeting will be held at school in the meeting room above reception. It is hard to believe that we are ‘there’ already, but it is exciting for the children and families. All Year Six parents are invited/encouraged to attend, as we rely on parent input for this event to be successful. Traditionally at St Agnes’, the Year 5 parent cohort has assisted with the organisation of the food and drink, as well as serving this on the night.

Business and Economics: Years 5/6

It’s been great to see our senior students out and about at lunchtime conducting surveys of our younger studnets and collecting data to inform their business proposals and products later in the term. This is a great opportunity for students to gather data and use it to make decisions about the businesses they are developing.

This week, I also had the chance to see Mrs Gugliucciello working with our senior students in Performing Arts, where they have begun learning about advertising. Throughout the term, students will script, develop and film their own advertisements to promote their businesses and products.

It’s been fantastic to see our students so engaged in their Topic learning and to see their learning being connected across different areas of the curriculum.

School Illness

As we make our way through the middle of winter, we continue to see the usual seasonal illnesses circulating throughout our school and wider community. A gentle reminder that if your child is unwell, particularly with a contagious illness, please keep them at home until they are well enough to return to school and have met any relevant exclusion requirements.

We know that winter can be a challenging time for illness, particularly in a busy school environment. Keeping children home when they are unwell is a small but important way we can help minimise the spread of illness and look after the health and wellbeing of our students and staff. Thank you for your continued support in helping us keep our school community healthy throughout the remainder of winter.

Thanks to everyone in our community for a great past fortnight. I really hope to see as many of you as possible tonight for our P&F social evening. Have a great evening, a lovely weekend and see you Monday on the gate!

Tom