Principal's News

Dear Parents, 

I hope you are having a great Term 1 and you enjoyed the extra long weekend last week. It's hard to believe we are at the end of Week 7. 

Over the past month, Stu, Deana and myself have been conducting Learning Walks in each of the classrooms to observe the practice of our teachers as well as identifying any inconsistences across the school. We have been impressed by what we have observed as we embed explicit teaching strategies across the school. These Learning Walks will continue as part of our regular routine. 

On the 4th February, we held our picnic to welcome in the school year. Thank you to our Parent's Association and our many parent volunteers for organising the event including sausages, ice cream and fun activities conducted by Kaboom for the children. It was a very successful event despite the extreme heat. 

Thank you to those parents who volunteered to be videoed for the new school website. The parent testimonials in particular provide essential feedback in helping to attract prospective parents. The videos and photos have now completed and have gone off for editing. It is hope the final version will be live early Term 2. 

After receiving some feedback from a parent whilst on Yard Duty regarding the many platforms we have to communicate to our community, I investigated the idea of moving to the one platform. We have decided to move to nForma as the one platform for all forms of communication including student absences, first aid notifications, medical information, notices, permission forms and end of semester reports. This week you would have received information regarding the rollout of this platform. Details are also below for your reference. 

Planned Timeline: 

Week 8 of Term 1: 

● Notices will be sent out through both Audiri and the nForma Portal. 

● First aid incidents will be submitted on both the nForma Portal and Operoo. Beginning of Term 2: 

● Audiri will no longer be used for parent communication. 

● First aid notifications will no longer be sent home via Operoo. 

● Permission forms will transition over to the nForma Portal from Operoo. 

What You Need to Do as Parents: To ensure a smooth transition, we kindly ask that you: 

1. Download the nForma Parent App and log in using the email address provided to the school. 

2. Update your child’s medical records on the nForma Portal by the end of Term 1.

Recently, we held our Parent Formation Evening for the Year 4 students making their Sacrament of Reconciliation. Thank you to our Parish for organising and for Our Lady's Surrey Hills for hosting. Thank you also to Father Sang for his spiritual guidance. 

In line with the Catholic Liturgical calendar, the season of Lent began last week. We celebrated Shrove Tuesday which is the feasting of rich foods such as pancakes before historically a period of fasting. In preparation for Ash Wednesday, the palms from the last Palm Sunday were burnt performed by Father Hoang together with Father Sang. We then celebrated Ash Wednesday with Father Hoang marking the start of Lent leading up to Easter. 

Friday last week our school staff came together for some professional development on Team Teach which supports the development of positive behaviour culture in our school. This training involved understanding behaviour as communication, with practical de-escalation techniques and strategies to reduce disruption.

This professional development marks the beginning of our journey towards the implementation of Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) which is a evidence based, multi-tiered behavioural framework that supports positive outcomes for all students in their social, emotional and academic development. 

Finally, we are looking forward to our Easter Fair coming up on Saturday 29th March. Please book your tickets by Friday 21st March to go into the draw for a Easter hamper. This event is not only an opportunity for our community to come together to have some fun, but also for the wider community to come in and experience our school. This is essential to attract new enrolments. Please join me in volunteering to make this a great success for our school. 

Kind regards

Robyn Thomson

Principal