Principal's Report

School Newsletter Term 2

A Prayer for our Year 6 Confirmation Candidates

Holy Spirit, strengthen our students with your gifts of Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and Fear of the Lord, and serve as a disciple of Christ. 

Grant that they may grow into the fullness of the stature of Christ. Fill them with the joy of your presence. Increase in them the fruit of your Spirit. 

Help them to experience and trust your dwelling within so that they can count on your guidance today and every day. Show us the way to help one another become better disciples of Jesus Christ, sharing your love with our world and with each person we meet. 

Come, Holy Spirit! Come!

Dear Parents and Carers,

As we approach the end of Semester one, we are excited to extend you an invitation to meet with your child’s teacher to discuss their academic progress over the past two terms. Miss Frost has provided valuable information on the reporting process and has addressed several frequently asked questions in her assistant principals report this fortnight.

Before our parent-teacher conferences begin, I want to stress the significant role parents play in their children's education and highlight the numerous benefits that arise when the school and parent community collaborate effectively.

This week I read an interesting article published on the AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) website entitled - Strengthening parent engagement to improve student outcomes. Although this article’s intended audience was educational leaders, it had some excellent, research based, key messages for parents.  

An important part of the teacher and school leader role is engaging with parents. In turn, parents play a key role in the education of their children. Decades of research has shown that when parents engage in their child’s learning, both at home and at school, student achievement and wellbeing are increased.

This simple infographic clearly highlights the shared responsibility between families and schools in order to best support a student's education. 

Obviously when teachers and school leaders engage with parents to provide a positive, collaborative environment, it supports parents' engagement with their child’s learning. This in turn helps teachers better understand the needs of their students.

In addition to academic progress, research has consistently found parental engagement positively affects children’s classroom behaviour, school attendance, completion and socio-emotional development

Parental engagement involves partnerships between schools and parents, recognising shared responsibilities, and can be divided into two core domains (Fox & Olsen, 2014):

• Family‑led learning (at-home engagement) focusing on high aspirations for children, shared reading, a positive environment for homework, parent‑child conversation, a cognitively stimulating home environment and support for social and emotional wellbeing. 
• Family‑school partnerships (school-based engagement) encouraging positive parent‑teacher relationships, communication about children’s progress, and engagement in the school community, while equipping parents to effectively support and encourage their children’s learning and wellbeing. 

During Week 10, we invite parents and carers to participate in conversations with their child's class teachers. These conversations are crucial in establishing collaborative partnerships between home and school. Not only do they provide you with the opportunity to discuss your child's progress, t enable teachers to gain insights into each student's strengths and help develop goals from the family’s perspective.

I encourage everyone to schedule a time to meet with your child’s teacher before the term concludes. Your participation in these discussions plays an important role in supporting your child’s academic journey.