From the Principal
Dear St. Liborius Community,
What a wonderful fortnight we have had at St Liborius!
Dahlia and Arts Parade
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Dahlia and Arts Relay and Parade on Saturday. It was wonderful to see how creative our students, parents, and staff were with their costumes – what a wonderfully vibrant fiesta of colour!! We hope that all those who joined in the fun had a terrific time with our local community and managed to cool off when they got home.
NAPLAN
A huge congratulations to each of our students in Years 3 and 5 for their work during NAPLAN. We are incredibly proud of their efforts and hope they had the chance to rest over the break. Students who were absent last week will have the opportunity to undertake a “catch-up” test next week. While NAPLAN is just one marker of student achievement in Literacy and Numeracy, at St Liborius, we celebrate achievement in all its forms!
Regional Swimming Success
Speaking of achievement, last week two of our Year 6 students, Bailey and Alex, had great success in the Regional Swimming Carnival. Bailey received first place in both Freestyle and Butterfly, while Alex took first place in Breaststroke! Congratulations, Alex and Bailey!
Community Morning Tea
Last Friday, we came together with the parents of our Year 4 students to celebrate Mass and our Community Morning Tea. What a wonderful celebration of our faith community it was! Our students actively participated in the Mass, taking part in the reading, procession, and singing with joy. After Mass, the community gathered in the Mackillop Room to enjoy a “fancy” morning tea, featuring Mrs. B’s famous scones!
Thank you to everyone who joined us. Please keep an eye on the newsletter and upcoming communications for specific dates for your children’s year level. I know they’d love to see you there!
School Improvement Review
As you may remember, we recently undertook a School Improvement Review, led by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and supported by members of the Catholic Education Sandhurst team. This review covered all aspects of school life known to impact student performance. It was an extremely beneficial process that will support the creation of our new Strategic Plan. There was much to celebrate, and many affirmations arose from this review, some of which included:
- The strength of our school community.
- Our commitment to celebrating the strengths of individual students and working to differentiate the curriculum accordingly.
- Our effective use of resources.
- Our use of data to inform our decision making.
The benefit of the review lies not only in the affirmations but also in the recommendations and encouragement for further growth. Many of these areas are tied to the work we are currently doing to embed new practices in line with Magnify, such as:
- Consolidating our new School Data Plan to provide what, why, where, when, and how of student data collection, aligned with Magnify.
- Embedding the revised staff coaching processes and utilising the new practices to enhance professional learning.
- Continuing the development of a comprehensive plan for the implementation of curriculum that incorporates our ‘distinctly St Liborius approach’ to student engagement and differentiated learning and teaching.
Over coming weeks, we will be exploring the review report in detail as we outline our plans for the continued growth of our community. We wish to thank all members of our community who participated in this review process.
Our Student Voice - Persuasive Writing
Another absolute highlight of the past fortnight has been receiving a collection of letters from a group of Year 2 students, sharing their thoughts on things they would like to see take place at school. These letters were so convincing that next week, a discussion will be held with the school leadership team to review their ideas and see if any of them might be implemented!
I look forward to meeting with the Year 2 students later this week to share the outcome of this conversation. Congratulations to our students for expressing their opinions so respectfully and articulately. We may have some future members of parliament in the making at St. Liborius!
Wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead.
With many blessings,
Alannah