Principal's Welcome

Dear Families, 

May is always such a beautiful month when we, as Catholics, dedicate the whole month to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  During the month of May, we are asked to pray the Holy Rosary regularly, remembering that Mother Mary is there for each and every one of us. Pope Francis says, “To celebrate Mary is to celebrate the closeness and tenderness of God who is with His people, who does not leave us alone, who has given us a Mother who cares for us and accompanies us.”  Pope Francis has called this year the year of prayer, therefore let us try and make this month, the month of the Rosary where we pray the Hail Mary at least once a day, keeping in our hearts and minds our special intentions for ourselves and each other.  

During this beautiful month, we also celebrate our earthly mothers, or mother-like figures. Please keep Friday 10th May free for a day of celebrations, to celebrate all that our mothers do for us on a daily basis. We also pray for all of those families whose mums have left this earth.

The Parent Association has organised a wonderful raffle to be held on this day. Tickets can be purchased from the front office or on the day of our celebration. 

Report Structure

As mentioned in the last newsletter, 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, how parents will receive the report  and an FAQ section.  We warmly thank the parents who have contributed to this change, offering their open and honest feedback and suggestions. 

Week 3 Info: What is nForma?

The new platform that we will be using to publish our school reports is called nForma. "nForma™ is a comprehensive student assessment and reporting package for Primary and Secondary schools. It caters for teachers’ needs in data collection, analysis and reporting, keeping teachers informed regarding students and their performance." Although the way in which our reports look will change, the process by which teachers assess our students will not.  

As a process, teachers:

• use the Victorian Curriculum to gauge what needs to be taught at each year level
• assess what students already know
• plan for lessons that include  explicitly taught concepts as well as opportunities for practice and revision 
• assess the content and concepts that have been taught
• collaboratively moderate this assessment to make a decision as to what progression point to give the student.  

At the beginning of the school year, our staff, along with the staff of St Carlo Borromeo and Mary Queen of Heaven had the opportunity to participate in a workshop presented by Psychologist Maria Ruperto. Maria has over 30 years of clinical experience, consultant to hellodriven.com, research partner to Southern Cross University and Swinburne University, consulted to Beyond Blue & reachout.com, and co-designer of Resilience First Aid – nationally accredited resilience program.  She is now offering parent workshops, so please see the attached flier with information about the sessions. 

END OF DAY REMINDERS

At the end of the school day please help yourself to our overflowing garden! It is full of herbs so please take them home. We also remind parents to not come into classrooms or shared spaces at the end of the day but to please wait in the outside areas for you children to be dismissed.  Students will be dismissed from the external doors of the classroom.  If you need to speak to the classroom teacher about a specific issue, please make an appointment to see the classroom teacher. 

Please stay tuned to upcoming School events via our live Calendar on Audiri.

Have a wonderful week ahead.

Carmela D'Amato