HEAD OF JUNIOR SCHOOL

Parent Partnerships - College Events

The last few weeks have presented the College with some wonderful opportunities to connect with our families. As the middle of 2021 approaches, it remains very difficult to measure the true impact of an ongoing pandemic. In talking to a group of Mum’s and Dad’s at playgroup, I was reminded of the difficulty of starting a new school and moving to a new community during these times. With a number of schools and preschools closed throughout 2020, many families struggled to provide opportunities for their children to socialise. One mother raised how isolated she and her family felt moving to Australia and being unable to meet new friends. Thankfully, our Mum’s, Dad’s and Carer’s have recently joined us for the Athletics Carnival, Parents' breakfast, assemblies and playgroup. At these events, it gave me great joy to see our parents engaged in conversation and being able to exchange details for future catch-ups. 

National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

NAPLAN tests are held for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 during May each year.  The NAPLAN tests are designed to provide a summative, nationally comparable understanding of student performance in writing, reading, language conversations and numeracy. Congratulations to our Year 3 and Year 5 team for completing the NAPLAN assessments. I am very proud of the way that our students conducted themselves throughout this assessment period. I would like to thank their teachers Mr King and Mrs Baxter who ensured that a nurturing and stress-free learning environment was provided for our students across the three days. 

Commendations and Awards

College Wellbeing provides a proactive, strengths-based approach that nurtures quality relationships that minimise the occurrence of inappropriate behaviour. In the College’s daily and routine life and the ways in which people interact with one another are a significant determinant of each person’s sense of self-worth, belonging and wellbeing.

The Riverina Anglican College acknowledges and promotes the reinforcement of positive behaviour through the following means:

• Praise and positive reinforcement directed at the student in the classroom and during break times.
• Wellbeing commendations entered on Compass.
• Service commendations entered on Compass.
• Public acknowledgement of the positive behaviour or positive changes in behaviour through recognition awards during key school activities, such as at Assembly or during House time.
• Extrinsic rewards during Class community time and College House days.

You may have received a commendation notification for your child/children from the College recently. Students can receive commendations from teachers across the campus. Once students have received five commendations a recognition award is generated and presented at Assembly. Parents are notified when their child is receiving a recognition award at Assembly so that they can attend if available.

Junior School Sports Report Coming Soon

The next edition of the College Newsletter will include a section dedicated to Junior School sport. Our Head of Junior School PDHPE, Ms Rachael Addison will write a fortnightly article updating our families on Junior School sporting activities and events. Recently, Ms Addison coordinated the Junior School Athletics carnival. It was a wonderful day of student participation and personal bests. Next week’s Assembly will be dedicated to the presentation of Athletics awards from this event.

I look forward to meeting with our families at the Junior School Assembly and playgroup over the coming weeks.

Upcoming events

Weekly events

Kylie Chacon | Head of Junior School