PRINCIPAL'S REPORT
Term 2 - Week 9
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I trust that all families had a wonderful long weekend and managed to find some time to recharge for the remaining three weeks of Term Two. We are starting to see some fatigue in the students as we edge closer to the end of an eleven-week Term Two. This week, I have the privilege of reading all of our end-of-semester reports, due to be sent home to families at the end of next week. There is certainly a sense of pride when reading about all of the meaningful achievements from our children in the first semester of 2024. Whether it be improvements in reading fluency or social skills; all of our students have made terrific progress across the first two terms. We know that a child’s academic achievement is not linear and there will be ebbs and flows as they progress through the continuum of learning. As parents, it’s important that we understand and expect that. There is more information later on in this newsletter about some of the specifics regarding the reports, including some tips on how to read and interpret the content.
Celebrate Cyber Safety
Last Wednesday evening, we had over 50 of our Year Three, Four, Five and Six families present at the St Agnes’ Cybersafety Night. The parents gathered in the hall and the children in classrooms for student workshops. Firstly, let’s celebrate our Year Sixes for leading the Year 3-6 student sessions in the classrooms. These workshops were led by Danny, Sasha, Eleanor, Chloe, Daisy, Callan, Logan and Arabella. These sessions were well planned, engaging and covered critical content. Importantly, the students began drafting a Family Online Safety Agreement, which is downloadable here. We have also attached the slides from the student sessions.
The parent session was facilitated by Marty and Carley from Inform and Empower and was received incredibly well by those in attendance. As we know, parents of our school are collectively ‘on the journey’ of raising children in a digital world, so it was terrific to see such a high level of engagement from our senior school families. One of the key takeaways from me was their message of ‘Not yet’ for primary school students having a personal device (smart-phone) and ‘Not yet’ for social media use. The parent session complimented the Inform and Empower interactive online sessions being run by Marty on a regular basis for our students. Below is a link to further resources.
Raising Kids in a Digital World - Parent Resources for St Agnes
Celebrate Growth
Recently, our school was invited to present at the South Central Principal’s Network about explicit teaching. There were 45 principals and curriculum leaders present from 17 schools across our zone. Our current Deputy Principal and Literacy guru Mrs Amanda Baker led our presentation about St Agnes’ ‘Structured Literacy’ journey.
To be part of this was very affirming for our curriculum leaders such as Amanda and Louisa and while we are always looking to improve, it was nice to ‘stop and smell the roses’. Our school has come a long way in a short time. In a little over two years, we have seen the introduction of Spelling Mastery, MSL, Heggerty Phonemic Awareness, Reading Fluency development and the implementation of a Knowledge Rich Curriculum. This growth in teaching and learning is starting to be reflected in our enrolment enquiries too, as we continue to experience a steady request for school tours, enabling prospective families to see and hear about what we do and why we do it. While our leaders have been busy leading, the bulk of our staff have been busy doing; happily learning and developing their practice to ensure our classrooms are 'best practice' environments.
Celebrate new Preps
We can now confirm that in 2025, we will be having two Prep classes. This is the first time this has happened in our school for the best part of 10 years, so we are very excited! Most pleasingly, this cohort contains only 5 siblings, meaning we have a significant number of new families joining our school in 2025 at the Prep year level. This decision is an investment in the future of our school, as it will give us the capacity to grow in the coming years. We are challenged at the moment with a number of year levels from Prep to Year Six being full or very close to full. We do have the capacity to accept further enrolment applications for Prep 2025, so please continue to spread the good word, especially amongst kinder chat groups!
School Review - Your contribution is valued!
As mentioned in the previous edition of the newsletter, our school is currently preparing for a whole school review which will take place in Term Three. Yesterday our staff concluded a series of after-school meetings to reflect on current practice in our school, using a self-reflection rubric consisting of five domains (Religious Dimension, Learning and Teaching, Student Wellbeing, Leadership and Management and School Community). This again has been a positive process for our staff to participate in, as we look back on all that has been achieved in our school since 2020.
On Monday 12th and Tuesday 13th August, the reviewer will come into the school and is looking to meet with some groups of parents to learn more about the school from a family perspective. We are looking for around 15 parents in mixed groups to meet with the reviewer at 8am, 9am or 2.45pm on Tuesday 13th August. If you are available and keen to be involved, please let me know as soon as possible.
Semester One Reports
Your child’s written Semester One Report will be sent home as a hard copy and will also be made available online on Friday 21st June. This will be followed by Parent/Teacher Interviews, where you have the opportunity to discuss the written report with your child’s teacher(s). The teaching staff at St Agnes’ put a significant amount of work into assessing and writing the reports to ensure they are personalised and accurate. The children have undertaken a suite of assessments over the past few weeks; our staff use a range of testing data and teacher judgment to arrive at decisions regarding your child’s achievements. It is important to note that on your child’s report, their achievements are measured against the Victorian Curriculum Standards. Your child is not measured against other individual children or the class.
The written report has a number of features to look out for. Achievement Indicators or ‘dots’, indicate the achievement against the curriculum and display whether your child is above, at or below the expected curriculum standard for this time of year in English, Mathematics, Religion and other areas. Indicators for ‘Work Habits’ display teacher judgements regarding effort, behaviour, presentation of work and organisation, exhibited by your child in the classroom this semester. Finally and most importantly, are the teacher comments. All aspects of the report should be viewed in conjunction with the teacher comments. There will be an Achievement comment and an Areas for Improvement comment. As a staff, we are proud of the achievements of the children and as parents, you should be too. There will be some though that are challenged by what you see and read, as your child has areas that they need to work on. This might be academic, social, emotional or behavioural. It is important to view the areas for improvement with a growth mindset, because it is unrealistic to expect that our children are perfect. We all have things we are working on and we aim to instill a mindset of lifelong learning with the children. I would like to take the opportunity to thank our staff for the countless hours they have put into these reports. With assessments, report writing and parent teacher interviews, this is a very busy and at times stressful time for our staff. As always though, they have gone about it a very professional manner.
Parent-Teacher Interviews-Tuesday 25th June.
Last week, communication was sent via Operoo regarding Parent-Teacher Interviews in the final week of this term. These interviews will take place on Tuesday 25th June. Parents will have the opportunity to either attend in person or to have their appointment online via Google Meet. Our preference is to meet with parents face to face. The interviews will run from from 1:30 pm until 9:00pm and school will conclude at 1:00 pm on this day. Parents will need to book interviews online. All parents are expected to attend an interview for your child, as it is a great chance to discuss your child’s report. The link for the interviews is schoolinterviews.com.auand the school booking code is 9yzsw . The link below can be used to book an interview time .
https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/9yzsw
Year 1/2 Family Faith Night - Wednesday 12th June at 7pm
Our Year 1/2 children and parents are asked to come along to our Family Faith Night tonight, where we will talk and learn about storytelling in RE. This session follows on from the Prep Prayer in PJs night will be led by our RE Leader Mrs Gorski and Year 1/2 classroom teachers.
Class Liturgies - Invitations incoming!
In the coming week, you will receive an invitation to join your child for their end of Term Two Class Liturgy. This is a faith filled celebration of the term’s learning in Religious Education and a great opportunity for you to connect with your child in this space. The liturgies are planned and led by the children.
Netball and Football Lightning Premierships
St Agnes’ will send its best teams to compete at the Netball and Football Lightning Premierships this Thursday and Friday. All of our Year 5 and 6 students will compete in one or the other, with some Year 6's needed to compete in both for numbers. More information has been communicated via Operoo for those children involved.
School Disco
The St Agnes’ Parents and Friends Committee is hosting it’s annual disco this Friday 14th June in the school hall. There are two disco times - one for Prep to Year 2 (6.00-7.30pm) and another for Year 3 to 6 (7.45-9.00pm). It is vital we have enough parents for supervision. Parents also need to understand that children are to be signed in and out. No child will be allowed to leave the school without a parent. Please head across to the P&F page of this newsletter for more information. Bookings CLOSE today at 5pm
Parents and Friends Committee Meeting - Tuesday 18th June at 7.30pm
The Parents and Friends Committee will meet for the second time in Term Two at school on Tuesday 18th June at 7.30pm in the Staffroom. All parents are welcome to attend and we ask our Class Reps to please make a special effort to be there.
Year 5 and 6 Girls Football Day - Thursday 20th June
Four local Catholic primary schools are coming together for a first ever event - A girls football day. This event is to promote participation and fun in Australia’s greatest national football code! All from Year 5 and 6 girls are welcome and encouraged to participate. The day will be held at Peterson Street Reserve Highett. More information has been sent via Operoo.
Shine the Light - Social Justice Day
Our school motto is Light in Darkness and back in 2020, our Year 6 students were asked to name our social justice day. The name they came up with was Shine the Light - Social Justice Day! On Friday 28th June, our students are welcome to dress in (warm) casual clothes for a day of action and bring a gold coin donation. The day will start with a presentation from our Year Six Social Justice Captains and then the children will move back to classrooms to complete a range of activities. There will be more information forthcoming about the actions taking place and how your family can get involved.
Head Lice - Year 2
Parents are to be advised that there have been head lice in the school recently, specifically in the Year 2 cohort. It is good practice to check your children’s hair periodically. A gentle reminder that if eggs or live lice are found, children are not to return to school until a thorough treatment has been completed.
Reporting Absences
While some days are busier than others, often the office phone is running hot first thing in the morning with phone notifications for student absences. The most efficient way to report your child's absence is via email to their classroom teacher. Please also cc absences@sahighett.catholic.edu.au and our office staff can update the roll on the teacher’s behalf.
Parking in Staff/Parish car park
This is a friendly reminder for all parents (and grandparents/helpers) that the Staff/Parish Car park is not for use before and after school. There is a significant amount of foot traffic through this space before and after school, so for the safety of all children, parents are asked to park elsewhere at the start and end of day. Parents are also reminded not to stop in the middle of the road to pick up children, holding up traffic behind.
Term Two School Fees
Term Two School Fees are now overdue. Please ensure prompt payment and contact Shannon Shine (sshine@sahighett.catholic.edu.au) if you would like to set up a direct debit or payment plan.
Assembly
Assemblies are in the Hall on Wednesday afternoons at 2.40pm. Parents are welcome to attend. At assembly, there will be presentations from classes, student awards, birthday acknowledgements and special announcements from student leaders.
Wed 12th June - Year 4
Wed 19th June - Year 2
Wednesday 26th June - No class item
Enjoy the rest of your week. Hopefully more of this sunshine to come.
Kind regards,
Lachie.To subscribe to future newsletters, click here.