Yesterday was the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Mary was an Australian woman, of Scottish descent, born in Melbourne in 1842.

As a young woman she became concerned that so many children in rural Australia could not afford to be educated. Mary knew that education was a key to freedom and that it was unfair that so many children should be denied access to education.

She also knew that God's love was the greatest freedom of all, and that through the right sort of education children could come to learn about God's love.

Together with her friend, Fr Julian Tennison Woods, she developed a plan for starting up schools for children caught in the poverty trap. Her dream was to tap their human potential and draw them closer to Jesus Christ.

She gathered other like-minded girls and young women and put her plan into action. These women became the community of religious sisters known as the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Their work had marvellous results. But it also aroused opposition. Like Jesus, Mary was persecuted and criticised. Sometimes by malicious gossip in the press. Sometimes by her own friends.

Sometimes by people in high places. At one point, a bishop wrongfully excommunicated her! Mary and her companions were shattered. But they patiently endured the ordeal and after six months the bishop realised his mistake and withdrew the excommunication.

We honour Mary MacKillop because she was a courageous Australian who, at great cost to herself, followed her dream to spread the Good News to the children of Australia.

Source: Antioch youth leaders' outlines (National Antioch 1995)

Dear families,

This term marks an important time in our school year as we focus our attention on the performing arts and the importance that public performance plays in our culture. The students are practising and preparing for our big school concert to be held in September and I am sure that you will be hearing stories about concert items, costumes, rehearsals and all elements of performance.

Over their seven years at primary school your children will experience a focus on either the visual arts or the performing arts on a rotational basis. While these subjects are taught each year and assessed accordingly, we highlight one area annually so that we can celebrate our learning by sharing with a public audience. This year our Performing Arts night will be held at Civic Hall on Tuesday 12th September and not only will the children be able to showcase their great skills but they will also get to experience performing under the spotlights on the big stage with an audience of several hundred people. A big task for a little person!

We hope that all children will participate in the concert and that they will be supported by family and friends in the audience. With the change of venue from previous concerts we are finalising the ticketing details and overall arrangements with haste. Tickets will soon be available for purchase through MajesTix with an anticipated cost of $15 per person. Stay tuned in this regard to avoid disappointment.

3 Way Chats

Thank you to all families who made use of the opportunity to catch up with teachers for our 3-Way chats. This is always a great chance for the students, parents and teachers to engage in discussion about learning goals over the second semester. Special thanks to our teachers for giving of your time to meet with our families.

As you can understand, the staff spend many hours preparing and conducting the 3-Way chats, and I am grateful to them for their dedication to the task. If you chose not to take part in the 3-Way chats you can still talk at home with your child about their learning goals for second semester. In this way, you will continue to show your support for your child’s learning without having to ask the classroom teachers to make more time available beyond the days allocated to the task.

NAPLAN (Year 3 and 5 students)

We hope families have had the opportunity to have a look at the NAPLAN information that was sent home. NAPLAN will continue to measure student achievement in numeracy, reading, writing, spelling, and grammar and punctuation but the results will now be presented in 4 proficiency levels:

These are:

· exceeding

· strong

· developing

· needs additional support

This change will give schools, parents and carers clearer information that details student achievement against new proficiency levels. Students’ NAPLAN reports will continue to show how they are tracking against their peers and provide an indication of their skill levels against national averages and where we would expect them to be in order to get the most out of schooling. This provides valuable information to teachers about how we can continue to support your child. Each set of NAPLAN results is an important milestone but it’s also important that students know that one result does not define them – these results are about making sure every student gets the support they need so they can continue to get the best from their learning.

School Closure Day

Monday 21st August is a school closure day as our staff engage in professional development. Looking ahead to term 4, we also have Friday 17th November for a curriculum/planning closure day.

Wishing you all the very best for the week ahead.

Kind regards,

Ben Shields

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