Principals 

Message

Dear families,  

I trust that you are all enjoying the lovely weather that we are currently experiencing. It is hard to believe that we are already at this point into Term 4. It really has been an amazing year so far and an enjoyable one as a first year principal. 

Magnify Sandhurst 

Each fortnight, I have been giving a snippet of information regarding Magnify Sandhurst. A framework from Catholic Education Sandhurst and a vision for all schools in our diocese. As you know, as a system, CES have been able to work as a collective of schools and secure amazing opportunities for Learning and Teaching, behaviour curriculum and staff professional development that would have otherwise been inaccessible for schools individually.  

Magnify offers a low-variance curriculum that is heavily backed by the latest research and is further strengthened by evidence collected through other education systems worldwide. These changes to our practice and programs will make a difference for ALL learners. 

As such, CES have booked all Professional Learning days for every school in the diocese. We will all be learning and collaborating together on set days in 2025. These days are integral for training staff to embed the new programs and pedagogies into our school. Please find attached a letter with more information and all planned pupil free days and public holidays for 2025. 

Staffing and structures 2025 

Today, we have interviewed potential candidates who will fill the shoes of Mrs. Parry for 2025 while she is on maternity leave. Mrs. Parry will work the majority of Term 1, something that is very exciting and supportive of our new Senior Leader for Learning and Teaching.  

We are also finalising our class groups and education staff for 2025 and will be prepared to share on our transition day (possibly sooner). 

Pupil Free next Monday 

On Monday, we have a pupil free days for our staff to write their end of year reports and undertake personal professional learning. As such, there will not be any staff on site next Monday. Tuesday is also the Melbourne Cup public holiday.  

Progressive Achievement Test (PAT) 

Over the past week or so, our students have been undertaking their PAT testing for Reading, Maths and Spelling. We have had a chance to have an initial look at the data and we are very impressed as it is indicitive of some good growth as a school. As staff, we will unpack this data much more thoroughly in the next couple of weeks and use it to inform teaching programs for our classes to ensure that we meet each child at their point of need. 

Child Safe 

Tonight, our staff will welcome a member of Child Safeguarding from CESL to provide us with further training as Child Safety Officers. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring the safety of all children. Most schools have selected staff trained in this but we have decided to train all teaching staff.  

Attendance

As you know, our school strives for 95% attendance for all of our students. If a child misses just 10 minutes of school per day, that equates to nearly 6 days per year. Through SIMON Everywhere, we have set up monthly reminder percentages to be generated and sent to families to enable you to monitor your child's attendance. 

In my experience, families often do not realise how much their children have missed unless it is continually monitored.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact or come and see me if you have any questions or queries.  

God bless you all, 

Vin Ryan