FROM THE PRINCIPAL

To the St Nicholas School Community

TERM 3 - WEEK 10

Last Thursday’s announcement by the NSW State Government to lift the Tamworth LGA Stay at Home Orders transpired into enormous smiles and laughter at St Nicholas School on Monday. It was truly inspiring to witness the sheer joy of our children returning onsite. It also reminded me how fortunate we are as educators to be surrounded by such positive little minds.

I hope the easing of restrictions has brought some relief to your family. While times are certainly still challenging, I trust your children returning to learn at St Nicholas School has offered some light in what has been a dark tunnel. 

As outlined in our Continuity Plan, we were extremely prepared to ensure every minute of this week was used to its potential. Every minute of schooling is crucial, though with our children having to learn through a different platform for 5 weeks, it is more important than ever to utilise Week 10 of Term 3 as a week to check in with and assess every student.

This week $15,000 of staffing has been employed to support the wellbeing and assessment of students. To provide the best quality teaching and learning, we have to know where each child is after learning remotely. We need to ask many questions. What support will each child require? Where are the gaps? What are the next steps this child needs?

Resourcing has also been directed towards quality ‘guided learning’ in Term 4. ‘Guided learning’ has the greatest impact on the learning growth of our students. Each guided session has up to 6 students present.

Below is an example of how we are supporting additional Guided Reading in Term 4 2021. 

I pray the recent positivity surrounding COVID-19 and Tamworth continues and life can return to what we once considered normal as quickly as possible for all.

Take care and please reach out for support if you believe we can be of assistance to your family.

John Clery

PRINCIPAL