Principal's Report

Dear St FX Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 7, St FX families. I trust you all enjoyed the long weekend and made the most of the sunshine that finally poked its way out! 

Staff Development Day

On Tuesday, our staff engaged in professional learning around Lyn Sharratt’s CLARITY work. The session involved teachers and education assistants exploring the impact a growth mindset has on learning before starting to unpack Lyn Sharratt’s Assessment Waterfall Chart. The Assessment Waterfall Chart is a tool educators can use to make learning rich and accessible for every student through regular and ongoing assessment before, during and after learning, and using essential questions to ensure learning is student-centred. The Assessment Waterfall Chart encompasses the ongoing cycle of developing Learning Intentions, co-constructing Success Criteria, providing descriptive feedback, providing opportunities for peer- and self-assessment and students to take ownership of their learning through individual goal setting.

On Tuesday, staff started with the first element of the Assessment Waterfall Chart by unpacking Learning Intentions. These are ‘We are learning to…’ statements that are developed from the curriculum and then deconstructed by educators so the statements use student-friendly language. We learnt about the importance of these statements including a ‘Why?’ so students can see the relevance of their studies. Our staff then conducted a learning walk through the St FX classrooms to observe how we’re currently using Learning Intentions to provide our students with guidance on what learning they’re currently undertaking. 

We will be continuing our work on The Assessment Waterfall Chart in upcoming Professional Development. 

Online Safety

It has recently come to our attention that a number of students are accessing social media apps/websites, particularly Snapchat. Most social media apps/websites have an age limit of 13+, which means no St FX student should be accessing them. Your child’s safety is of utmost importance to us and by allowing your child to access these sites, you are opening them up to risk of harm. We are finding that, even though issues are arising from the use of social media (or even other online platforms like chat functions on video games) outside of school, students are bringing these issues into their interactions with peers at school. This is often occurring without parents knowing the true extent of what is occurring on devices at home.

I strongly encourage you to carefully monitor, and take an active interest in, all screen time your children are accessing, particularly if they are using their own devices. 

Please see the 'Community News' section of this newsletter for information regarding how to access the Digital Child Safety Handbook.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Please keep in your prayers, the candidates who will be celebrating their Sacrament of Confirmation at Mass on the evening of Saturday 22nd June. Since our diocese is still without a bishop, Fr Sabu has been allocated the responsibility of confirming our candidates. We congratulate these candidates on taking part in their final Sacrament of Initiation!

Pupil-Free Days

As listed in previous newsletters, our Pupil-Free Day for Tuesday 15th October was awaiting confirmation. I can now confirm that this day will be a Pupil-Free Day, meaning that St FX students won’t return to school in Term 4 until Wednesday 16th October.

Please see the complete list of upcoming Pupil-Free Days remaining in 2024 below:

• Mon 22nd July (Monday Week 1, Term 3) 
• Fri 27 Sept (Friday Week 10, Term 3) 
• Mon 14th Oct (Monday Week 1, Term 4)
• Tues 15th Oct (Tuesday Week 1, Term 4 - now confirmed!)

Kind regards, 

Mal Frend