PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

A Message from the Principal

Lachlan Foott

Dear Parents/Carers,

Over the past week, we have seen some great work being done in our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 classrooms as part of the Junior School Learning Blitz. We have had additional teachers Jess Casey, Simon Kost, Anna Gugliucciello, Kate Sorensen, Marie Talarico and Learning Support Officers Deb Smith and Holly Martello in classrooms supporting learning. There has been significant amounts of assessment completed to gauge progress during remote learning and inform teaching moving forward. Our Senior Teachers John Whitten, Aggie Gorski and Matt Cherry have also joined the blitz this week, ensuring all students are part of some small group teaching and learning throughout Literacy and Numeracy. At any stage during the Literacy and Numeracy block this week, there are three staff members in each class working in small groups with the children. With our class sizes, this is significant.

It has been a unique situation that has enabled us to place additional staffing resources into the Junior School during this time, but it hasn’t happened by accident. It has been a deliberate action of the school, which has been made possible by making further adjustments to our staffing arrangements during these weeks. I wish to thank the staff for their continued flexibility and commitment to enable this to happen and also for their professionalism and creativity in making it work. Of all of our students, the learning of the Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students was most at risk during remote learning, as they are not yet independent learners and their ability to self manage is not as well developed as our older students.

As the Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 students return to school next week, they too will be completing a raft of assessments to gain an authentic understanding of how their learning has progressed during remote learning. Again, the focus for the Senior teachers and students will be about getting back into routine quickly, to ensure we have a productive period of learning from Tuesday 9th June until the end of term.

2021 St Agnes School Fete

The St Agnes’ School Fete is a critical part of our school’s culture. As well as being a significant community event for our local area, it is a great opportunity for our parents to work together for the benefit of all children at St Agnes’ School. We need to establish a sub-committee NOW to drive the organisation of the Fete, with a diverse mix of 'experienced, fete-wise' parents and some 'newer' parents to the school. Pre-existing knowledge of the inner workings of our school fete is not required.

I believe we need one person to head up the sub-committee, with three or four others sharing the workload, delegating tasks and whipping up support within the broader community. The idea of having a sub-committee is to lessen the workload placed on individuals which enables shared responsibility and ‘future proofs’ our fete. Previous Fete organiser, parent and staff member Shannon Shine has agreed to be available to 'lend an ear' to everyone on the 2021 Fete Subcommittee. Without significant parent involvement, this event simply cannot proceed, so if you or a group of your friends are interested please get in touch. There is great reward in working together with others to benefit the education of our children. Please contact me or P&F President Fleur Luke (Fleur.Luke@countryroadgroup.com.au) if you wish to be involved.

Assessment and Reporting

Semester One Student Reports

As mentioned in the newsletter a couple of weeks ago, the Semester One Student Report that is prepared for your child will be very different from previous reports. This is because of the difficulty of attaining accurate assessment data while the children have been undertaking remote learning. The state government has acknowledged this and changed the requirements for schools for this semester only. 

Recognising that schools have adopted revised teaching and learning plans for Term Two, schools are required to provide:

• a description of the areas of the Victorian Curriculum F–10 taught
• a succinct descriptive assessment of student learning achievement, based on the Achievement Standards in the Victorian Curriculum F–10
• a comment on how the student has adjusted to the remote and flexible learning environment, with reference to the ‘Personal and Social Capability’ curriculum.

Given these guidelines, our reports will be very simple. It will be a two page document, with a detailed Learning Overview, which will be the same for every student in your child’s class. Following this will be a ‘General Comment’ from your child’s teacher, which will make reference to achievements in Term One and Term Two, including achievements during remote learning.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

As scheduled, we will be holding Parent/Teacher Interviews on Tuesday 23rd June. All students will finish at 1pm on this day to ensure classroom teachers can meet with each family. These meetings will be facilitated using Google Meet for the safety of staff and parents. Parent/Teacher Interviews for parents of children in Year 1K will be held in the first week of Term Three, on Wednesday 15th July, from 2.30pm - 8.00pm. Additional staff who were involved in supporting your child during the remote learning phase will also be present in these meetings, depending on availability. Once appointments have been made using schoolinterviews.com.au, classroom teachers will send out calendar invitations via email, with a unique meeting code, to ensure meetings are uninterrupted. By the final week of term, all of our teachers will have had sufficient time to complete assessments in Reading, Writing and Mathematics and will be able to provide parents with a further update about your child’s progress in these key areas, to supplement the Semester One Report. I therefore encourage all parents to make an appointment. Bookings can be made through the following link  https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code?code=ucrj5 (Booking code ucrj5)

PSG Meetings

PSG Meetings will be taking place in Week 10 this term, not Week 11 as was incorrectly communicated in the newsletter two weeks ago. For families who usually have PSG meetings with Mrs Janine Moulton and their relevant teacher, Janine and our office staff will contact you directly to organise these. These meetings will be conducted using Google Meet and will replace Parent/Teacher Interviews.

Winter Uniform

As all students return to school, we are expecting them to be in the correct Winter Uniform. Please note, there is one minor change from last year regarding Winter Uniform and it is regarding socks. If boys choose to wear shorts during winter, they must now wear long, navy blue school socks with their shorts. By the beginning of Term Three, it is expected those wearing shorts will need to wear long socks. These socks, along with all of our uniform items, are available for purchase from Noone Imagewear on Hampton Street, Hampton. It is also important to note that the boys will now be required to tuck their long sleeved shirt into the trousers/shorts. Short sleeve shirts are not permitted to be worn during periods of Winter uniform.

The second hand uniform shop will be open under restricted conditions from 8.30am-9.30am on Tuesday 9th June 2020. Parents will be required to make an appointment through schoolinterviews.com, see link below. Parents must enter the Hall via the Parish office door at 1 Locinda Street. 

Bookings can be made through the following link https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code?code=uddqd (Booking code uddqd)

Staff news

As we welcome our Year 4 students back to school on Tuesday 9th June, we also welcome Mrs Jessica Bloxham to our Year 4 Classroom. Jess will be working in Year 4 Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the rest of the year; job sharing with Matt Cherry. I taught alongside Jess for a number of years and she is an excellent teacher, with terrific energy and she will be an asset to our staff and school. I know all parents and children will make her feel welcome.

We also send our warm congratulations to Sarah Heath, who taught our Year Six students during Term One. Sarah and her husband Zac recently welcomed their first child, a baby boy called Hudson. Everyone is well.

Footy tipping - Starting Thursday 11th June

St Agnes’ School Footy Tipping Competition will get going again next week, when the Tigers play the Pies on Thursday night. For all those who registered, make sure you get your tips in before the first bounce. Any questions or problems, get in touch with Mr Cherry.

Stay well and stay safe.

Lachie