Learning
and Teaching
This fortnight, students are focusing on “We follow school routines” to support a safe, calm and positive learning environment. At Friday’s Student SRC meeting, students will select the next expectation to spotlight for the following fortnight.
Many wonderful things continue to happen across St Mary’s in the areas of learning and teaching, with our students engaging in rich learning experiences across all areas of the curriculum.
Our dedicated teachers continue to provide engaging and purposeful learning opportunities, while maintaining a strong focus on supporting every student to grow and achieve. It is wonderful to see the enthusiasm, curiosity and confidence our students bring to their learning each day.
Assessment and Learning Growth
As part of our ongoing commitment to understanding and supporting student achievement, we have some important assessments coming up in Term 4.
At the beginning of Term 4, all students in Years 2–10 will complete the PAT Reading (PAT-R) and PAT Mathematics (PAT-M) assessments. In addition, students in Years 5 and 6 will complete the PAT Science assessment.
These assessments provide consistent and comparable information about student achievement and growth. The data gathered assists our teachers in identifying student strengths, areas for further development and appropriate next steps in teaching and learning. Assessment is an important part of our teaching practice, allowing us to continually reflect on what our students know and can do and how we can best support their continued progress.
Book Week – Celebrating the Joy of Reading
We are also very excited to celebrate Book Week from Monday 24 August to Friday 28 August. This is always a wonderful opportunity to celebrate books, authors, characters and, most importantly, the joy and adventure that can be found within the pages of a great book.
Our celebrations will begin on Monday 24 August at 8:50am with our Book Week Dress-Up Parade in the quadrangle. Students are invited to come dressed as their favourite character from a book. We are delighted that our Playgroup children will also join us for the parade, making this a wonderful community celebration.
At 9:00am, Story Time will commence in the Staff Room. I will have the pleasure of reading a story to the children, who will also enjoy a special hot chocolate. Warm Milo will be distributed to classrooms for all students to enjoy as we begin our Book Week celebrations together.
Our Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 students will visit the library on Monday to explore the library centre and participate in stories and activities. Our Years 3–6 students will have their library session on Thursday 27 August.
Throughout the week, students will also participate in a range of engaging book-related activities and classroom rotations. Further details regarding the timing of these activities will be confirmed shortly.
Book Week provides a wonderful opportunity to reinforce the importance of reading and to remind our students that books can take us anywhere. Through reading, children can discover new worlds, meet fascinating characters, develop their imaginations and experience adventures that can stay with them for a lifetime.
We look forward to a wonderful week of celebrating books, reading and the joy of learning together at St Mary’s.