Principal's Message

From the Principal

Thank you to everyone for making Tuesday’s Presentation Night such a wonderful evening. Congratulations to the award winners on their efforts this year and to all the students who performed on the night, they did themselves and the school proud.

On Monday our Year 6 students attended McCarthy Catholic College for their Orientation Day. There were a lot of excited students who are now realising that the next phase of their educational journey into the big world of high school is not far away.

A big thank you to Nigel Robertson and his team for organising another great Eddie’s Golf Day. Everyone had a fun filled day, despite some of the shots being rather forgettable.

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a time of waiting and wondering, looking back and looking forward; it is a time of hoping and searching; the time of light shining in the darkness, peace overcoming conflict and war, and warmth entering the cold of the world we live in; a chance of new beginnings – often small, but almost always significant.

Last Thursday and Friday I attended the Term 4 Diocesan Principals’ Meeting in Armidale. We continued to explore the concept of Catholic Professional Learning Communities (CPLCs). The four big ideas for CPLCS are that we focus on our Catholic Faith, we focus on student and teacher learning, we work in collaboration and that there is a focus on results.

Student reports will be sent home next week. As you will be aware the reports are a reference point for students, parents and teachers to see how a student is performing against a standards framework. Reports provide valuable feedback to parents and students on areas of academic study that the student is mastering and, skills, concepts and understanding that require further development. I continue to reinforce to parents that a C grade is a very sound result and one that indicates a student is performing well in that discipline. A good reference point for parents is the NESA website. The Assessment Resources Centre link provides samples of student work and the grading such work would receive.