Principal's Report

Dear St FX Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 7! It’s hard to believe we’re into the back half of Term 1 already. 

Annual Improvement Plan Review

Just after the previous newsletter was posted, our St FX Leadership Team travelled to Walgett for our Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) Review Meeting. It was hosted by Donna Fiechtner and her team at St Joseph’s Primary, and was attended by the Armidale Catholic Schools School Performance Leaders (SPLs) and leadership staff from St Michael’s Manilla, St Joseph’s Mungindi and St Joseph’s Wee Waa. Each school took turns to deliver their AIP to the other schools and SPLs, which was a tremendously affirming process as it became evident we are all identifying similar visions for our schools which will be measured against similar metrics - all despite our varied contexts.

This year, we are working towards two goals; the first, based on creating a christ-centred inclusive learning community that supports our young people to realise a hope-filled future, and the second based around continuing to promote a culture of strong teams. We want our staff to be able to confidently and effectively support students with complex trauma and/or social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (goal one), whilst effectively planning, implementing and evaluating the impact of differentiation using the new English and Maths syllabus documents (goal two). 

Our trip to St Joseph’s Walgett was a wonderful opportunity to visit another Western school and witness how their various rich school practices, specifically in their classrooms, reflected their AIP work for 2024. 

NAPLAN dates

Across the next two weeks, students in Years 3 and 5 will be undertaking four NAPLAN assessments. The schedule for the assessments is as follows:

Wednesday 13th March - Writing

Thursday 14th March - Reading

Tuesday 19th March - Conventions of Language

Wednesday 20th March - Numeracy

If your child is absent for one of these assessments, there is only a small window of opportunity of a couple of days for them to complete the assessment, particularly the writing assessment. If you would like more information, please contact the school about this. 

St Francis Xavier's Religious Life

Next Monday, the 18th March, St Francis Xavier's staff and students will be attending Mass at St Francis Xavier’s Church to celebrate the Feast of St Patrick. Mass will start at 10am and families are more than welcome to join us. For the cost of a gold coin, and in the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, students are invited to wear green on Monday, with all money collected contributing to our Lenten almsgiving for Project Compassion. 

I hope you all have a lovely, smooth week.

Kind regards, 

Mal Frend