Principal's Report
Manuela Watson
We Love to Learn
St Fidelis is about learning.
Learning about who we are our God and our World.
We learn best when we are safe active and independent, make connections, work with other and understand how we learn.
Together we try new things, value others, share our learning and reflect on what we have learnt.
We are guided by the teachings of Jesus and St Fidelis.
We are always and everywhere faithful.
To all the families and carers of St Fidelis,
It is hard to believe that we are at the beginning of Week 4. I want to congratulate all the children, teachers, and parents for making the start of the school year a happy and smooth one.
Last week I started my “Lunch with the Principal’ sessions with the Year 5/6 students to discuss and listen to their thoughts and ideas about the following questions: What is great about St Fidelis? What would your Dream school look like, sound like, feel like? & What advice do you have for me (Mrs Watson)? While listening to student's voice is important, research has shown that the benefits for students don’t come from just hearing their own voices, its more about how other people (students, teachers, school) respond to the student's voices and work with them to make ideas come to life. I look forward to sharing with you some of the student's voice in the coming weeks and how we as a school will work with them to make the ideas come to life.
Professional Learning:
Last Friday, Saturday and Monday the level leaders, Mrs Turville and myself were provided with a unique opportunity to undertake professional learning within a team environment , working with Ron Ritchart (A Senior Research Associate at Harvard Project Zero) His work focuses on teaching for understanding, creative teaching and making students’ thinking visible.
These three days have provided us with a platform to begin to use some the new strategies of learning to enrich our students’ experience and develop thinking skills for their lives both within and beyond school.
I want to thank the teachers for their dedication giving up their Saturday so they can continue to deliver the best teaching and learning for your children.
Parent Teacher Conversations:
A special thank you to all who attended the parent teacher conversations last week. It is always nice to put a face to a name for those parents or carers who may find it difficult to see the teacher during school hours. The teachers appreciate your attendance and your insights about your child further assists the teacher with understanding your child as a learner. Thank you again for this time.
Congratulations to our School Leaders:
Congratulations to all the student leaders who were presented with the school badges at last weeks assembly. It is a great honor for them and their families as this is an opportunity for the children to exhibit their leadership within the school community and beyond.
A message from Jim Seymour Parade College Community Liaison officer:
“You should be very proud of Julian Favero, Jack McArdle and Daniel Barca (3 of your old boys) who were among the top 22 of our graduating class of 2018 to score above 90 for their ATAR!”
Congratulations the community of St Fidelis are very proud.
Family Picnic
As mentioned at assembly last week
St Fidelis Whole School Picnic
Thursday 28th February
5:00pm-6:30pm
Tabloid Sports on Benny Courts (parents can join in also)
Free Zooper Dooper for the children
GELATI TRUCK PRICES $3:50-$7:00
Bring your own food, chairs and drinks
LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL
Annual General meeting –Parents and Friends
When: March 5th
Where; Staff Room
Time : 7:00pm
Purpose: Election of a new Committee
Dear Parents and carers, I look forward to seeing as many people, mums, dads and carers, at the Annual General Parent and Friends meeting. The more people we have the less work you need to do. As they say “Many hands make light work”
The purpose of the Parents and Friends Association is two fold;
- To provide a way for parents to connect with each other and foster relationships and a true sense of belonging to our school and Parish community.
- To act on behalf of the wider school community to help raise funds for investment in school initiative, social activities and approved charitable donations as requested/required.
National Day of Action Against Bullying
On March 4th the students and the teachers will be engaging with the BULLY ZERO organization. These experienced teachers will spend the day facilitating workshops with all the children and a parent only information session (6:30-8:00pm) that evening. (Babysitting will be provided). This evening is a great opportunity to further our understanding as a community about: What is Bullying? What is not Bullying? What is Cyberbullying? How can you support your child and encourage your child? Parent control tools, Resource-organizations and supports. It is also an opportunity for us as a staff to review our Bully Policy.
A note will be sent home tomorrow and it would be appreciated if you can return it to school no later than MONDAY 25TH MARCH in order for us to know how many teachers we need to have as babysitters.
Foundation families, New families and all staff
A reminder that on March the 3rd there will be a Mass at 11:00am for all New families, Foundation families and the St Fidelis staff. It is the launch of Project Compassion as well as a welcoming mass for families and commissioning mass for the Staff.
All of St Fidelis families are welcome to join us and stay for a cup of tea after Mass. Looking forward to seeing you all.
