From the School Leadership Team,
From Mr. Chant.
Principal
This week we held our first transition session for our Prep classes who are commencing their learning journey in 2022. We had a really successful start with our very excited students engaging in a range of play based activities, they met their teachers and made acquaintance with their new classmates. Thanks to our staff who made the event possible, to our parents who sent their children through the gates and to our students who took on the challenge of transition and made the most of the session. We have three more sessions planned and we will make adjustments and changes as the DET directions allow.
We are planning for our annual transition day for current CJC students to proceed on December 7th, when students will move to new classes, meet their teachers and their classmates for the 2022 school year.
Our junior school swimming program has commenced and watching our students at the pool highlights the importance of these programs, the imperative around water safety and the certainty of having adults supervise children around water at all times. We have had a one day pause to the program as a staff member at GSAC had been identified as a positive COVID case and the pool has had to undergo a tracing process. They were unable to provide a program yesterday. This information was communicated via COMPASS and refunds will be made for the missed lesson.
This week we have had plumbers making repairs to the roof of the main building and we hope the next heavy rain event doesn’t end up with water making its way inside. Fingers crossed. Repairs are still underway in the SLC to repair a damaged ventilation housing and some water damage to the lights in the staff toilet area.
At our most recent Principal Forum there was clear message around the expectation that wellbeing becomes an even more important cornerstone of future work in schools. At CJC this will be reflected in the development of the 2022 Annual Implementation Plan (AIP) and there will still be a continued focus on the Teaching and Learning of Literacy and Numeracy as part of this work. Preliminary work in this area is underway and the AIP will be formalised early into the new school year.
Parent Payment update - Last week we sent out the Parent payment arrangements for the 2022 school year. There are some changes to the process, structure and parent payment expectations and responsibilities. We are very pleased at the level of parent response and COMPASS activity has been very reassuring and extremely positive. A reminder to families to look at the new arrangements and make sure they meet timelines etc. so your child can start 2022 with all required items. The support of the community in this Parent payment space ensures our school can continue to improve and deliver quality learning programs and opportunities for our students.
Please ensure all property is clearly named. Please come to the school to check out the items when we place them out for inspection on Tuesday afternoon at back of the school from 3.30pm. QR code sign in and proof of vaccination will be required for entry to the school grounds.
Changes to the COVID restrictions seem to arrive everyday. We can now welcome everyone to an outdoor end of year gathering planned for Wednesday December 8th. Please add this important date to you calendar and we welcome everyone back on site to this special event. More details will follow regarding this important return to school site event.
Please return any school owned devices from the Remote and Flexible learning program to the office this coming Monday, 22nd November. We would like to get these devices back to school, reconfigured and back into our classrooms. We have some NAPLAN online trials in early December and require these devices for students to access. Please come into the office and complete the return process.
From Mr. Borg.
Assistant Principal
Dear parents, carers and families,
This week I attended my first Regional Principals Forum, this half day event provided the opportunity for school leaders to collaborate, share best practise and hear from experts in the fields of teaching, learning and wellbeing.
Two things that resonated strongly with me from the forum were around teaching excellence in numeracy and wellbeing.
Numeracy
While listening to Peter Sullivan, a highly regarded mathematician and author of many mathematics books, I made many connections to the work we are already doing at CJC. While walking around the classrooms you can evidence quality learning and teaching. Students are engaged in a wide range of activities that stimulate discussion and critical thinking while using hands on material to scaffold student learning. It is always encouraging when an expert in a field is highlighting practises that we are employing at our school.
Wellbeing
The Department of Education provides a myriad of resources to support student learning and wellbeing. One framework that we use as a tool is the Framework for Improving Student Outcomes (FISO), which, as its name suggest, is to improve student outcomes. As part of that framework, wellbeing is going to be prioritised as much as learning. We know as a community that we can only fully engage in anything we put our minds to by being healthy, happy, motivated and connected, the very same is true for our young learners. We look forward to continuing our work in this area to ensure our students have the very best opportunities for personal success.
COVID Update
As a school, we are still adhering to the guidelines around being COVID compliant and ensuring that we are doing everything we can at our school to minimise the risk. This will continue into the first semester of next year and we will still have guidelines that we will need to follow. As a school, we are still required to wear masks, can I again encourage everyone to invest in a sustainable mask and bring spares to school to change them throughout the day and ensure your child has a back up in case they lose theirs. Thank you to our school community for being supportive and understanding while we manage throughout the logistics throughout this time.
From Mme. Pommier,
French Director.
Chers parents et tuteurs,
Cette semaine, nos élèves ont réalisé l’entretien de la célèbre autrice de romans jeunesse, Evelyne Brisou-Pellen. Angélique Beauvais, qui a organisé l’événement, avait préparé des questions avec les élèves avant leur rencontre avec cette célèbre romancière bretonne. Les élèves ont pu découvrir les conditions du métier d’écrivain. Ils ont découvert que, même un adulte, révise son texte plus de 10 fois avant de le publier et qu’un auteur ne choisit pas forcément ses illustrations. La semaine prochaine, vous découvrirez l’article des élèves dans la Newsletter. Encore merci à Angélique Beauvais, à Oscar, Celestine, Siena, Juliette, Jules et Eléa pour leur contribution à ce temps fort de littérature.
Berthe Mouchette Competition Awards
Date: 23 Nov 2021, 7:00pm - 9:00pm
Mardi prochain, nos finalistes de la Compétition Berthe Mouchette se retrouveront à la cérémonie de remise des prix qui se déroulera en ligne, le 23 novembre, à partir de 19h00. Encore bravo à nos glorieux finalistes.
Journée de Transition pour les Grande Section 2022
Mercredi dernier, nous avons accueilli nos futurs élèves de Grande Section 2022. Leur premier jour s’est extrêmement bien déroulé et nous avons pu répondre à leurs sourires et apprécié leur joie d’enfin découvrir l’école des grands. Ces journées se déroulent le mercredi (24 novembre et 1er décembre) et se termineront le mardi 7 décembre.
*****
Dear parents and guardians,
This week, our students interviewed the famous children's novel author, Evelyne Brisou-Pellen. Angélique Beauvais, who organized the event, had prepared questions with the students before their meeting with this famous Breton novelist. The pupils were able to learn about the writing profession. They discovered that even an adult writer reviews what they have written more than 10 times before it is published and that an author does not necessarily choose their illustrations. Next week, we will include a student article about this interview in the newlsetter. Thank you again to Angélique Beauvais, to Oscar, Celestine, Siena, Juliette, Jules and Eléa for their contribution to this high point in our learning about literature.
Berthe Mouchette Competition Awards
Date: 23 Nov 2021, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Next Tuesday, our finalists of the Berthe Mouchette Competition will attend the awards ceremony which will take place online, on November 23, from 7:00 p.m. Congratulations again to our glorious finalists.
Transition Day for Preps 2022
Last Wednesday, we welcomed our future Prep 2022 students. Their first day went extremely well and we were able to respond to their smiles and appreciate their joy at finally discovering primary school. These days run Wednesday (24th, November and 1st, December) and will end on Tuesday 7th, December.