FROM THE PRINCIPAL

TERM 2 - WEEK 3

I trust our students spoiled their mothers on Sunday. Thank you to all the mothers who were able to join us at school last Friday, providing us with the opportunity to say a very small thank you! The celebrations highlighted once again how beautiful it is to welcome our families back onsite:

The development of Writing at St Nicholas Primary School

As consistently communicated to our school community, the level of sophistication and rigor to the learning and teaching of reading has experienced enormous growth at St Nicholas over the last 18 months. While continuing to embed practices and build on success, the time is also right (2022 Annual Improvement Plan) to develop the same level of rigor and sophistication into the learning and teaching of writing.

In late 2021, professional learning commenced allowing the school to start the year with a clear understanding and united belief of strong pedagogical practices for the teaching and learning of writing. The creation of the agreed practices constitutes effective work “if schools are to support teachers to increase their effectiveness and thereby enable more teachers to work like the best” (Pamela Macklin and Vic Zbar, pg 11).

The bringing to life of these documents in 2022 resulted in the Whole School Agreed Literacy Block now becoming an explicit requirement for both reading and writing . The only point of difference, is that grades are timetabled to complete their Writing or Reading Block at either 9.00am or 10.00am. This has been designed so St Nicholas’ Leaders of Pedagogy are available to be in Year 1, Year 3 and Year 4 learning spaces to support teachers with the implementation of our writing block. In coming terms, grades will have their reading and writing blocks swapped to ensure everyone has the hands-on support of the St Nicholas’ LoPs.

At last Wednesday’s staff meeting every grade presented an aspect of their writing

NAPLAN

On Tuesday our Year 3 and Year 5 students joined approximately 1 million young Australians in sitting NAPLAN. For our students, NAPLAN is just another school day where they are required to sit an assessment in Writing, Reading, Language Conventions (Spelling & Grammar) and Numeracy. 

As with the culture of our school, we set our students up for success by creating an environment that is calm and engaging. A far contrast to the days many of us can relate to where we sat in rows in a large room and/or hall.

Diocesan Cross Country

Congratulations to the St Nicholas Cross Country Team who travelled to Barraba last Friday to compete in the Diocesan Cross Country with Mrs Tyrrell, Mrs Maher and Miss Johnson. The reports I received of beautiful running, great sportsmanship and exemplary manners made me very proud. Congratulations!

PT&F: New Vice President

A huge congratulations and thank you to Hana Skilton who is joining the PT&F executive as the Vice President. St Nicholas is so very fortunate to have a wonderful PT&F who work tirelessly in supporting our children.

School TV

As a result of the global pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift in the amount of time people spend on screen-based devices. Families are transitioning back to pre-COVID routines but many are still struggling to re-establish the boundaries and rules around screen use. The latest research found that 77% of teenagers spend more than five hours on screens per day, but it is important to note that not all screen time is considered equal.

In this edition of SchoolTV, care-givers will be provided with a range of guidelines and strategies to help manage screen time at home:

Click here

Have  a wonderful week

John Clery

Principal