Dear Families,

Happy St. Patrick's Day! It was great to see everyone decked out in their finest green today! It's not often I'm able to get away with wearing a green top hat but today was the day. Year Fives had two guest speaker parents speak to them about the meaning and history behind St. Patrick's Day and we even had an Irish casual replacement teacher for Mr A in Grade One today, as a stroke of Irish luck!

Last Friday I led a group of Prep parents on a one-hour Guided Learning Walk of three classrooms across Prep, Year Four and Year Six. The Guided Learning Walk was an opportunity to strengthen parent engagement in their children’s learning and for parents to observe learning in action. The focus of this structured and facilitated walk was for parents to witness what learning looks like at St Mary’s, not only in Prep but across different levels of the school. Before heading off on the walk, parents considered and shared what they were interested in finding out during the walk. In visiting the three classrooms, parents were able to observe each classroom in action and then share with each other what they noticed. After visiting the classrooms the group shared what they found out in relation to their question. In summing up, I asked the parents how they would describe learning at St Mary's. Their feedback was as follows:

"Learning at St. Mary’s is:

Supportive
Engaging
Collaborative
Catering for all
Balanced autonomy
Positive mindset
Open and inclusive
Flow and consistency
Visibly part of a community"

Over the coming weeks and months I will be offering further learning walks to parents around different topics, so keep an eye out in the newsletter. I encourage you to register and come along!

Last week we also held a Literacy and Maths Family Night for Prep families. Parents had the opportunity to find out what literacy and mathematics learning looks like at St Mary's through fun and interactive games and activities with their children. Thank you to Mrs Moxon, Miss Walker, Miss Pogorska and Allison Werrappah for leading and supporting the night and to all the families who attended. Further parent engagement nights are coming up in the area of Wellbeing, which you can find out about on the Student Wellbeing page of this newsletter.

We have had a terrific response from our first Open Day last week, with Prep enrolments coming in already as a result. Congratulations to our Year Six students for the impressive and authentic way they led tours of the school to prospective families. We are very proud of these fine leaders! Our next Open Day is coming up on Tuesday 28th March. Please continue to spread the word and also share our Open Day posts on Instagram and Facebook. So many prospective families have named "word of mouth" from parents in out school community as one of the key reasons they came along to the Open Day. Your advocacy makes a big difference!

NAPLAN

This week and next week, students in Years 3 and 5 are participating in the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests, along with all students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 across all Australian states and territories. The NAPLAN tests are used by the federal government to measure student achievement in English and Mathematics. NAPLAN consists of four tests that occur over four days within a two-week period. All the tests, other than the Year 3 writing test, take place online.

NAPLAN is a snapshot of data on one particular day, under particular testing conditions. Many things can come into play that impact on an individual student’s results. It is important to remember that these tests are just one method of assessment used by the school to assess student progress. Other forms of ongoing assessment are used on a regular basis, providing a much broader picture of student learning. The NAPLAN tests complement these assessments.

Similarly, as a school, we use NAPLAN as one piece of data amongst many others to measure strengths and areas for improvement as a school. It’s true that some elements of NAPLAN feel like they matter a lot because we want to see children succeed and because it often receives such a huge profile in the media. However please remember that a child’s NAPLAN score is not an indicator of the child’s value, potential, or worthiness. It’s just a number. And it’s more meaningful to the school system than it is to the individual child.

Year Six Canberra Camp

Good luck to our Year Six students and staff who are heading off to Canberra on Monday for their four-night camp. As part of their Unit of Inquiry on Community, students have been learning about Australian Democracy and system of government. They will visit a number of key sites and institutions in our nation's capital.

Matthew Sweeney

Principal

principal@smhampton.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing News