Assistant Principal's Message

Naplan - Years 3 and 5

Congratulations to our Year 3 and 5 students who completed their NAPLAN assessments over the past two weeks. The students approached these assessments with confidence and dedication. 

Results from these assessments will be sent to parents later in the year. NAPLAN results are reported against proficiency standards with 4 levels of achievement to give teachers, parents and carers clearer information on how students are performing. The four proficiency standards are:

• Exceeding
• Strong
• Developing
• Needs Additional Assistance

We look forward to celebrating these results with our community later this year. 

Learning at StMM’s - Making Reading Irresistible

As we know reading is a skill for life. When kids like reading, they do more of it and this boosts their reading skills and school success. At StMM’s fostering our student’s reading skills, stamina and love of reading is a key focus each and every day. 

There are many things you can do at home to continue build your child’s reading success:

• Read aloud to your child every day - reading aloud not only gives you important quality time with your child, it exposes them to new ideas, concepts and vocabulary.
• Having conversations when reading with children helps them develop higher level thinking and language skills - while reading books aloud, ask your child questions and talk about the content of the story together.
• Have special family reading time - carve out some time each week when family members gather together to read.
• Ask for your child’s opinions about what they are reading - show them that you’re interested in learning more about the books they like.
• Be an irresistible reader yourself - when your child sees you reading, they want to join you.
• Read a wide variety of texts - children improve their reading skills by practising with a wide variety of reading material, including magazines, newspapers, poetry, websites and picture books 
• Make reading FUN, FUN, FUN

Attendance Matters

EVERY MINUTE COUNTS

Over the past few weeks, we have had a number of students who arrive late for the start of the school day. Being late for school has a negative impact on your child’s learning. Being just 10 minutes late every day adds up to an hour a week of lost learning. Over a year this adds up to one week of school missed in a year! 

Being late for class often means important instructions are missed and your child’s learning is interrupted. Children need to arrive on time ready to settle into their school work. Arriving at least 5-10 minutes before the  bell allows your child to interact with their peers and allows them to settle into school routines ready for their busy day. 

We understand on occasions there may be a very good reason why students arrive late to school. On the odd occasion your child is late to school, parents must accompany their child to the office for their safety and to sign them in with our office staff. 

Wishing you all a wonderful week ahead. God Bless

Rochelle Borg

Assistant Principal