Dear Families,

Kings Birthday Public Holiday - Monday 10th June

As we approach the first King’s Birthday public holiday we remind families that the school will be closed on Monday 10th June.

2025 PREP ENROLMENTS

HAVE YOU ENROLLED YOUR CHILD FOR PREP 2025?

If you have a child ready for Prep 2025, we encourage you to please put in an enrolment form as soon as possible. This will help us with organisation purposes. To access an enrolment form:

Visit the enrolment section of our school website and download an enrolment form

Drop into the school office to collect and enrolment pack
Email office@saclaytonsth.catholic.edu.au

First Communion – Congratulations & Thank You

We congratulate our First Eucharist candidates who participated in the Sacrament of Eucharist at the weekend masses. We thank all families for your support of your children. We also thank Father Joe, Nicole Black (REL Leader) and our Year 3 and 4 team for the superb manner in which the children were presented for the weekend masses.

We thank all families for their ongoing support of their children as they participate in the Sacramental Program.

Desktop Computers - Option for families

At St Andrew's school, we promote a culture of sharing and giving through our outreach/social justice programs, including within our community. We also recognise the current cost of living pressures and how important it is for our children and their family members to have access to technology.

As such, we have a number of Dell Desktops that are fully functional but no longer required at St Andrew's School. Given that we have limited use for desktop computers at St Andrew’s School, due to the staff use of laptops and student access to chrome books and iPads, and the timeline of this batch of laptops being purchased over 7 years ago, they are now redundant.

If you would like to be considered to receive one of these desktops for free, please email ecooper@saclaytonsth.catholic.edu.au by Wednesday 12th June and you will be added to the list.

Whilst they are old in technology terms they are still fully functional.

Leadership will then draw names out of a hat once this list has been compiled.

Specifications: Dell Desktop 9I4BJ0C - Intel (R) Core (TM) i5-3470S - 8G RAM - 58cm screen

Crazy Hair Day

Semester 1 Parent/Child/Interviews

Prep C - Interviews will be held on Wednesday 19th June

Due to Holly being on leave, the Prep C Parent/Child interviews will be held on Wednesday 19th June between 3pm and 6.30pm.

To streamline the booking process, you can click on the direct link below.

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/uwtag

OR use this QR code

Parent/Child/Teacher Interviews on Monday 24th June - All grades except Prep C

Please make your booking now for the Semester 1 Parent/Child/Teacher Interviews. Interviews will be 10 minutes and held in the School Hall on Monday 24th June between 2.30pm and 7.00pm.

To streamline the booking process you can click on the direct link below

https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/m8pkt

OR scan the booking QR code

We encourage all children to be active participants in the 10 minute interviews. This provides an opportunity for children to share their learning journey and successes with their family and to also be active responsible participants in their own learning.

Semester 1 Student Reports will be distributed to families on Friday 21st June.

Semester 1 Reports - Online access Nforma Parent Portal

The Semester 1, 2024 reports will be distributed on Friday 21st June via the nForma Parent Portal. Student reports are one of the valuable links between school and home to allow you to gain an insight of how your child is progressing with their learning at St Andrew’s.

To access the Semester 1 Report:

You will receive an email from no-reply@nforma.com.au providing you with a direct link to access the parent portal, as well as a temporary password that you will need to access the portal.
Click on the link provided.
If your username appears, just enter the temporary password.
If your username doesn’t appear, enter the email address you received via email from nForma and then enter the temporary password.
The reports will be accessible from the Parent Portal on Friday 21st June at 4:00pm.

If you have not received the email in your inbox, please check your junk/spam folders. If you experience any further difficulties accessing your child’s report, you are encouraged to contact Emma Cooper on ecooper@saclaytonsth.catholic.edu.au

Parking on Ester Crescent - Parking Illegally

We request that all families are aware of the parking restrictions on Ester Crescent, a street located directly across Springs Road from the school. Neighbours have made the school aware that parents are parking illegally and as a result restrict the view of children and families as they cross the road. Please observe parking signs as a matter of safety for our children.

Prep 2024 Family Evening

REMINDER - On Wednesday 12th June at 6.00pm till 7.30pm

We look forward to welcoming our current Prep parents and children to this event. A new Operoo form has been sent to families. Child minding will be available on the evening.

Reading with your child and reading to your child

Parents may be aware that we employ a Speech Pathologist, Evelyn Wee, at St Andrew’s School to support our students and to provide support and professional development strategies for school staff. Evelyn is employed each Monday and Wednesday and works with individual children, small groups, in classrooms with classes and with staff members. Evelyn also provides professional development sessions to staff teams after school and on school closure days. Evelyn has worked with the school for the past 18 months and is employed through SPS - Speech Pathology for Schools.

SPS has shared with us an article on reading strategies they may further inform you of positive reading habits at home.

Please refer below -

Positive Reading Strategies for Parents

The reading practice your child gains from reading the books they bring home from school every night is invaluable for their reading development. Some strategies that you can implement at home to support your child’s reading while they read to you include:

Encourage your child to sound out letters. For example, for the word 'dog', the child should say each sound individually: d-o-g. If they struggle to blend the sounds together, provide assistance by saying: "d-o-g. That's right, that makes the word 'dog'!" If a sound is incorrect or unknown, point to the letters and provide the correct sounds.
Encourage your child to focus on letters and sounds rather than solely relying on pictures. Relying on pictures may encourage your child to ‘guess’ the word instead of actually read the word on the page (Hempenstall, 2016).
Not only can you support your child with the reading process (lifting the word off the page to read it and understand it’s meaning) but you can also have discussions about the book they are reading.

Discussion ideas when you are reading with your child:

Discuss the cover, the author, and the illustrator.
Ask questions about the book. Questions such as, “What do you think will happen next?” and “Why do you think that will happen?” can build inferencing and reasoning skills.
Discuss the storyline and the pictures. This can help develop your child’s critical thinking and comprehension skills. It encourages them to think about the narrative and make connections to their own experiences.
Talk about new and unfamiliar words. This will enhance their understanding of new words and may support their ability to use a wider range when they are speaking or writing.

Along with reading with your child, it is also good practice to read to your child. Researchers Mol and Bus (2011) found that shared book reading can “Facilitate children's language, reading, and spelling achievement throughout their development”. Bedtime stories, where a book or part of a book is read each night, encourage children to engage with books and build vocabulary and language skills.

Prep - Year 6 Learning Celebration on Thursday 27th June (2.45pm - 3.15pm)

We warmly invite all families to our end of term Learning Celebration to be held next Thursday 27th June. The children look forward to welcoming you to their classrooms and demonstrating to you the fabulous learning that they have undertaken throughout Term 2.

The children invite family & friends into their rooms between 2.45pm - 3.30pm on Thursday 22nd June.

Our Learning Celebrations will take place at the end of each term of the school year.

School Crossings

We ask that all students and parents are use the School Crossings that are clearly marked and manned as these are safe ways to cross the road. The Crossing Supervisor have also notified us that this is a concern and have asked that parents and students use the designated crossings when crossing Bunney or Springs Road.

Student Attendance

Our classes start at 8.45am, students are expected to be at school and ready to start instruction at 8.45am.

Any students coming after the bell are impacted as they can miss vital instruction and the beginning of Specialist subjects.

Any student arriving late must be signed in by a parent or carer via the office. This is a legal requirement and we have noticed many more students arriving after 8.45 am. Classroom doors open at 8.30 am.

2024 School Calendar

The 2024 School Calendar is available on the School Website. It can be found mid-way down on the front page under the heading ‘WHAT’S ON’. We will endeavour, where possible, to remain true to the dates on the 2024 calendar. We would recommend that parents make a regular visit to the school website to see updates on all school events.

Paul Wakeling

(Principal)

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