Principal's Welcome

Welcome back to school!

Dear Families, 

We hope that you have all had a great break, ready for all the wonderful experiences that term 2 has in store for you. With an 11 week term ahead of us, we are looking forward to delving into a Science focus with lots of excursions and incursions planned for our students.

Yesterday, staff spent the day unpacking three areas of learning. The first was to start the discussion about the value of Compassion and what it truly means to each of us.  We will be asking the students the same question over the next few weeks and will send out a survey to parents to get your feedback also. Please look out for the survey link in the coming weeks. We then undertook a deep dive into the current reporting structure at SoGS and finally we looked at our Seesaw policy to ensure that there was consistency in the posts that are shared with families. 

School Uniforms

As per our uniform policy, students are able to wear their Summer or Winter uniform all year round depending on the weather. Towards the end of last term, we noticed quite a number of students wearing their sports uniform on incorrect days, or wearing their sneakers with their normal school uniform. Please note that the correct uniform needs to be worn at all times. Sneakers are to be worn with the sport uniform and black school shoes with the normal school uniform.  For reminders about jewellery and other uniform information, please revisit the school uniform policy.

Audiri Live Calendar

Please continue checking the AUDIRI live calendar for all daily events. This is a new feature that we have set up which was advertised throughout last term in our newsletter and via Audiri. All of our event dates are on there. In the event that a date needs to be added or changed, we will notify you via an Audiri notification. Each year MACS allows pupil free days for teachers to conduct professional learning. Please note that we have two pupil free days in Term 2 and then another one in Term 4. At this stage there are no pupil free days scheduled for Term 3.

I have asked EXTEND, our before and after school care providers, if they will be able to provide care for studnts on pupil free days and they said that if we get at least 10-15 students, that they are happy to organise this. Can you please indicate via this form, if you would require care on Friday 26th April.  https://forms.gle/5hskh2UaQnxEe3aS9

Report Structure

Throughout 2023, the staff at School of Good Shepherd audited the current reporting structure against updated reporting guidelines from the Department of Education and MACS. Last year we also ran 5 parent group meetings where we looked through the guidelines and audited the reporting structure from a parent point of view.  As a staff, we will be reporting against this new structure this term. We will be regularly sending out information as to what the new reporting structure will look like, what the general comment will look like, how each area of the curriculum is assessed against a 5 point scale,  progression points and an FAQ section.  We warmly thank the parents who have contributed to this change, offering their open and honest feedback and suggestions. 

Staff Updates

At the end of last term, our school nurse Mallisa, informed that she would be leaving to work once again in a hospital environment. We wish Mallisa all the very best. Caith and I held interviews over the school holidays and we have been able to appoint a First Aid Officer to the position. Mary Calthorpe will be starting with us on Monday 22nd April. She comes to us with a vast range of experiences having worked as the First Aid Officer at Kolbe Catholic College. We look forward to welcoming Mary next Monday.

Have a great week everyone and we look forward to our ATHLETICS day on Friday 19th April. If there are any changes to previously advised pick up arrangements, please email info@sogsgpark.catholic.edu.au Reminders have been sent via seesaw!

Thank you,

Carmela