Principal's Message

I hope you are all doing well this week and finding your groove. Each day you continue to demonstrate courage, resourcefulness, patience, resilience and love, as you face the daily challenges that are compounded by the current lockdown.

With the extension of the Greater Sydney lockdown restrictions for at least another four weeks, we are continuing to have our Galilee Remote Learning Plan in place until the end of Week 7 (Friday 27 August).

Thank you very much for your great support and participation in the Remote Learning Plan to date, as together we navigate these “unusual times” for primary school education in the midst of this next wave of the pandemic to impact NSW.

Galilee staff members were keen to adjust and enhance our Remote Learning Plan and Zoom sessions timetable with the aims of increasing class “connection” and student engagement in learning tasks, within the personnel “resources” available to us in a Sydney Catholic Schools (SCS) systemic primary school.

With an increased number of “essential worker” students onsite each day in the school, plus the important need for the school to comply with the current Public Health Orders, it is a real “juggling act” to provide necessary supervision for the multi-age groups in classrooms onsite and “timetable” Year level/individual class staff members availability to facilitate the increased number of Zoom sessions each week.

With the inclusion of staff members our Instructional Specialist Siobhan Carey, REC Ms Mutwicka and Diverse Learning teacher Ms Gretchen, we are able to provide some additional small group literacy support for students – which is so important to maintain the learning “confidence” and literacy skills in this age-group of students.

Thank you very much to those parents and carers who have made contact with us to give feedback on the operation of the Remote Learning plans and Zoom sessions so far in Term 3. We sincerely appreciate your input and suggestions which staff members evaluate very carefully to see how we can “tweak” aspects of the Galilee provision of a comprehensive Remote Learning.

Again this week we have been making “well-being” check-in phone calls to all families in our Galilee school community. We are very fortunate to have a range of pastoral care and other mental health support services available to us.

However, please be aware that if you or your family are experiencing any challenges or difficulties that you think we can help with, please don’t hesitate to contact the Galilee front office, at any time.

Sydney Catholic Schools Family Forum

STUDENT WELLBEING WEBINAR: Register NOW for Sydney Catholic Schools’ next online and interactive Family Forum on Monday 23 August at 6.30pm. 

Hosted by our Executive Director Tony Farley. The interactive forum will focus on Student Wellbeing and explore initiatives to support our students. 

To register, visit: https://fal.cn/3h4sA

Feedback on Remote Learning 

We would like to get some feedback about how remote learning has been going for you this week. This will help the teachers to plan the learning for the next week. 

Please take the time to complete thisshortRemote Learning Survey Form Feedback Week 5 by Friday 13 August - for each of your children at Galilee. 

Your responses will assist staff to improve the way in which Remote Learning can better meet the needs of your family.

ICAS Update

Due to the extended lockdown, ICAS has provided NSW with alternate test sitting dates. The following table shows the new test sitting date for each ICAS exam at Galilee. If you have already enrolled your child in the 2021 ICAS tests (and paid via the ICAS parent portal), you do not need to enrol again.

These exams provide additional opportunities to assess your child’s strengths and higher order thinking in English and Mathematics compared to other children outside the school. ICAS is a series of competition assessments, set at a challenging level, which focuses on problem solving skills. Students who sit ICAS are asked to demonstrate a deeper, integrated, and thorough level of learning. The assessments are suitable for students wishing to extend themselves academically and take up the personal challenge of competing in an international assessment.

If you haven’t registered your child and would like your child to participate in ICAS this year, please call Elyse in the office. 

Regards

Anna Novak

Principal