Principals News
Dear Parents,
On Saturday 20th July, the school will be holding the Centenary Ball to celebrate a hundred years of schooling here at St Mary’s. This is an occasion that needs to be celebrated and I would ask that all families think about purchasing tickets to celebrate the occasion. Schools are only strong as their parent community and we are asking that the parent community support this important event. The school has a long history of parental and community involvement. Details around the purchasing of tickets have been forwarded to parents. I look forward to joining many of our parents on this important night.
Year 4 First Eucharist
This Saturday our Year 4 children will receive the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time. We wish all the children all the best on this important occasion in their faith journey as they receive one of the sacraments of initiation. Thank you to our Religious Education Leader, Sam Sullivan and our Year 4 teachers for the preparation of the children.
Teaching and Learning
In recent weeks in the media there have been news stories on how Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS) has changed its focus in the Teaching and Learning area with an emphasis on getting back to basics. It is interesting to note that some of what MACS is introducing has already been in place at St Mary’s but we will need to continue to make some changes to how we teach these important areas. This is quite a change from the previous model and it is not an approach being adopted by the education department just Catholic schools and I feel it will give sour schools a big advantage over other schools.
The MACS Flourishing Learners position statement, Vision for Instruction, is a key document aligned with the MACS 2030 strategic plan. It has been developed to communicate MACS’ preferred system-wide approach to achieving teaching and learning excellence. The Vision for Instruction is firmly grounded in the evidence of how students learn most effectively and efficiently, offering explicit guidance for MACS schools on instructional best practice.
Following is the link to a story that Channel Seven ran last week:
Following are the three areas MACS are currently focussing on:
Vision for reading instruction
Reading is the gateway to meaning and knowledge. Yet, teaching children to read is complex. Fortunately, reading instruction is one of the mostly widely researched topics in education, and hundreds of studies have refined and consolidated a strong evidence base for reading instruction (Moats 2020).
When classroom teaching includes a range of research-based components and practices, it can prevent and mitigate reading difficulties. Classroom environments should be motivating and supportive, where reading and effective reading instruction is highly valued. The MACS vision for reading instruction is for every student to commence school with access to a high-quality, evidence-based literacy program, made up of the following core areas:
- Phonetic Awareness
- Phonics
- Vocabulary
- Fluency
- Comprehension
Vision for writing instruction
One of the most fundamental responsibilities of schools is teaching students to read and write. Reading and writing are foundational literacy skills, and foundational to all other learning areas. Implementing evidence-based instructional practices enhances students’ writing skills and confidence while fostering a deeper understanding, enjoyment of, and
appreciation for the writing process.
The following recommendations are based on evidence-based practices for writing across all years of schooling:
Create supportive writing environments
• Establish writing instruction as a priority across all learning areas and year levels.
• Create motivating and supporting writing environments where writing is explicitly taught and valued.
• Ensure students write frequently for a range of meaningful audiences and purposes.
• Integrate instruction across the curriculum, recognising the reciprocity of reading and writing to support learning.
• Provide additional scaffolding and instruction for students with learning difficulties and additional needs.
Develop essential writing skills
• Explicitly teach handwriting and keyboarding skills and give students opportunities to compose using digital and handwriting tools.
• Prioritise explicit instruction in spelling and orthography (encompassing morphology, etymology and phonology).
• Utilise explicit word, sentence, and paragraph analysis to enhance student writing.
• Embed grammar and punctuation instruction in meaningful tasks.
• Ensure adequate instruction in planning, drafting, evaluating and revision of writing, and embed formative assessment to provide explicit feedback to progress students.
Build knowledge for writing
• Explicitly teach genre macrostructure and microstructure through modelling, guided practice and exemplars, providing subject-specific instruction as required.
• Build knowledge that includes rich content knowledge and language for expressing and developing ideas, such as knowledge of linguistic and rhetorical features, and opportunities to build and extend vocabulary.
Vision for mathematics instruction
Mathematics involves developing an understanding of numbers and quantity, operations, patterns, space, measurement, and shapes. It builds in complexity, which means that early performance in mathematics relates to future performance. Access to high-quality mathematics instruction can improve student attitudes towards mathematics and change trajectories of student outcomes and pathways (The Meadows Center 2017). High-quality mathematics instruction is essential.
The following recommendations are based on evidence-based practices for mathematics:
• Develop number sense: Teach students what quantities and numbers mean and how to represent them with objects and numerals. For example, use number lines, get students to count fluently, and compare amounts.
• Build fluency: Ensure that students have fluency with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
• Teach mathematics concepts: Help students to understand mathematics concepts. Teach the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of mathematics in combination with procedures and rules.
• Use concrete materials: Get students to use hands-on materials and visual representations to show concepts and procedures.
• Use problem-solving strategies: Explicitly teach problem-solving and reasoning strategies. Teach students how to read problems and organise work according to the structure of the problem.
• Use explicit instruction: Use explicit instruction when introducing new mathematics content and then gradually release responsibility to students. Model mathematics problems step-by-step and use guided practice, then independent practice with teacher feedback. Provide opportunities for students to explain their work and thinking in oral and written forms.
• Use precise mathematics language: Encourage students to use correct mathematics language when verbalising explanations and steps for solving problems.
Semester One Reports and Parent -Teacher Interviews
The teachers have now completed assessment for this semester and are now completing Semester One reports. Each classroom teacher will be given a day out of their classroom to assist them completing their reports. The specialist teachers will cover the classes while the classroom teachers are out. Semester One reports will go home on Wednesday 19th June. Parent-Teacher Interviews will take place on Thursday 20th June. School will conclude at 1pm on the day, with interviews taking place between 1:30pm and 8:00pm. Interviews will be for fifteen minutes each. Parents will be able to book an interview through schoolinterviews.com.au.
Bayside Cluster Day
Our Year Five and Six students will be participating in the second cluster day on Wednesday 5th June. This was a great opportunity to mix with students from the two other schools in our cluster; St. Joan of Arc Brighton and St. Finbars Brighton. The students engage in games that foster teamwork, school spirit, and friendships, and it is an opportunity to get to know students that will likely be attending similar secondary schools in 2025 or 2026.
Year 6 Camp to Canberra
Since our last newsletter the Year 6 students have returned from their camp to Canberra. I would like to congratulate the children on the way they behaved while away and the way they participated in all activities. The Year 6 children have supplied reflections on their time away and these are attached to the newsletter. A special thank you to the staff who gave up their family time to accompany the children on camp.
Year 5 Staffing
Kelly Moxon was due to return to work next week but this will not happen at this stage due to her illness. I must report that Kelly is making pleasing progress and will know more when she sees the surgeon in the middle of June. For the remainder of the term Angela and Catherine will continue to teach the Year 5 class. I will have an update on what will happen next term towards the end of term. Kelly has asked me to thank all the members of the school community who have reached out to her during this difficult time for her and her family.
Division Cross Country
Congratulations to the children who competed in the Division Cross Country Championships this week. As always this level of competition is a step up from the district level. None of the children qualified for the Regional Championships but it was a great effort to reach this level. The following are the results for our children:
Age 11 Boys Elliot. 30th
Age 12/13 Girls Lucy 21st
Age 12/13 Girls Matilda 47th
Age 12/13 Boys Angus A 34th
Maths Hoops
We are excited to announce that two past St Mary’s students, Caitlin Lees and Alice Nagle will be off to New York in just under a month's time to compete in the Global NBA Math Hoops tournament. Last Year, our Year 6 Students participated in the Victorian Regional NBA Maths Hoops tournament hosted by the North Melbourne Football Club. With Caitlin and Alice being crowned champions that day it was proposed that they should apply for the Global championships in 2024. After submitting an excellent application, the girls were lucky enough to be selected to attend on behalf of The Huddle, NMFC education organisation. We wish the girls the best of luck as they head off to the big apple! Great job girls, this is well deserved!
Book Fair News
A HUGE thank you to the school community for supporting our recent Book Fair. We raised $2,219.00 in total sales – a wonderful effort! This now means we can select $726.00 worth of books for our library and classrooms.
Thank you to the LSO team for all their help and a special thank you to Helena for her organisation with this event. Our next Book Fair will be held in November.
Tony McMahon
Principal