Assistant Principal

What additional programs are offered at St Margaret Mary’s? 

I thought I might take this opportunity to clarify some of the queries that we have had over the past few weeks in regards to the additional programs offered here at St MM’s. We are very fortunate that for a small school, we have access to various programs to support and extend the learning of our students. Some of the programs are “informal”, meaning that they are not mandated by the NSW Curriculum but are helpful additions to the child’s learning and school experience. This also means that they do not need to be administered by a teacher as they are specifically designed to be administered by a trained adult or Learning Support Officer. 

If your child is selected for a program, your child’s classroom teacher will make contact with you either via email, phone or in person. If your child is not selected, we generally do not make contact but if you require discussion around that please make contact with us.  

Programs such as JEMM, MiniLit, MultiLit and Toe by Toe can also be referred to as interventions. An intervention program is not designed to be long term. They have specific entry and exit requirements and student progress is monitored throughout the program. This also means that multiple students will benefit from these programs throughout the year. 

Please be assured that determining who is included into programs is something that we give time, discussion and consideration to.  We do this through professional conversation and judgement as well as looking at students' aptitude through data analysis. We also take into consideration students' attitude and their learning style. This is so we can ensure that participation in the program or learning will be beneficial for the student. 

I have put together the table below to help answer some of the FAQs around the various types of learning we have at St MM’s. This list is not exhaustive as there are other programs that we have available such as Passive Play at lunch times and Peer Support that happens as a whole school in Term 3 but the programs below may be things that your child comes home and talks about or attends regularly -