Assistant Principal

Thank you! 

Thank you to our parents and staff who attended our English and Math workshop on Monday or Tuesday. We know it can be difficult to juggle busy schedules, so we appreciate working in partnership. 

As we know, developing English and Maths knowledge and skills are vital skills of life as they underpin everything we do both at school and in life. During the session, parents picked up tools, tips and games they can utilise at home to support their child’s learning. We look forward to welcoming more parents at our next parent workshop. 

Semester One Reports 

The teachers are in the final stages of writing report comments for each student based on their learning throughout the first semester. When writing student reports, our teachers use data from many assessments, daily work samples, participation and student responses during class activities and daily observations, in accordance with the outcomes and standards outlined in the NSW curriculum. 

Each grade introduces different concepts, content units and skills which can increase in difficulty from the year before. It is therefore possible that your child’s achievement level in a particular Key Learning Area may change. 

Semester One Reports will be sent home to parents on Friday 28 June 2024. It is extremely important for all families to have acted upon our recent email invitation to sign into the Compass Parent Portal. Semester One Reports will only be available for parents via the Compass Parent Portal app. 

Parent, Student and Teacher Conferences

In the week beginning the 1 July 2024 parents,  students and teachers will be able to meet regarding your child’s strengths and on-going learning goals.   

We would like to remind parents to ensure their child accompanies them to this meeting. True partnership between school and home means that common goals can be established and developed more effectively and efficiently. Working together assists the children’s development and learning.

Parents will need to log on to the Compass Parent Portal App to book an individual 10 minute time slot to meet their child’s teacher. Bookings will open shortly. Further details and information will be sent to parents next week. 

Lost Property

With the cooler weather I am conscious of the need for students to wear jumpers and jackets. However, we are noticing that quite often these clothing items are being left outside on the playground. Whilst many of these are returned to students as they were labelled, there are still a larger number of clothing items remaining without names. These items, if unclaimed, are sent to the second hand uniform shop. Can you please ensure that your child’s clothes are fully labelled and remind your child to place their jumpers and jackets in their bag if they take them off.

Your opinion is important to us!

Thank you to the parents who recently completed the  ‘Tell Them From Me’ survey. If you haven’t completed the survey, there is still time.  The survey closes, on Friday the 7 June. Follow the link below to access and complete the survey. 

http://tellthemfromme.com/stmms24

The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Margaret Mary’s. We look forward to seeing the data generated from this survey.

Building Maths fluency through puzzles!

Over the past few weeks, it has been wonderful to see our teachers and students working to develop what it means to be a learner in Mathematics. Being curious and open to new ideas, preserving with challenging tasks, demonstrating a ‘have-a-go’ attitude, learning from mistakes, asking clarifying questions and doing your best are just a few of the learning dispositions we are focusing on weey strive to achieve Maths learning goals. 

Mathematics is not only about seeking the answer, it is about how students reason, explain and justify their thinking and the strategies applied to the problem. When solving the problems below, reflect and discuss as a family:

• Did everyone solve the problem the same way?
• Which strategy was more efficient and/or effective?
• What mathematical concepts did you use to solve the problem?
• What have you learnt from another member of the family that you would like to apply to the next challenge?

Good luck with the maths challenges and I look forward to hearing how you solved each puzzle with your family. 

God Bless

Rochelle

Rochelle Borg

Assistant Principal