PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents/Carers,

As you may have read in your Term Two Class Newsletter from your child’s teacher, this term we are commencing a transition in the way we are teaching Phonics and Spelling at St Agnes’. It starts next week for the Year 2-6 students with the introduction of Spelling Mastery. We have made this decision because we believe the achievement of our students in Spelling should be better than what it currently is. Spelling Mastery is founded in educational research and is considered one of the top approaches in the teaching and learning of Spelling. It will ensure a high level of consistency in the way our teachers teach and our students learn to spell.

Spelling Mastery builds dependable spelling skills for students through a highly structured method that blends the following approaches:

Phonemic approach - helps beginning spellers learn the relationships between spoken sounds and written letters and then apply them to spelling
Morphemic approach - exposes advanced spellers to prefixes, bases, and suffixes
Whole-word approach - gives spellers at all levels the meaning and root of a word and shows how the word's spelling is influenced

Spelling Mastery interweaves these three approaches according to students' skill development and provides straightforward lessons to help efficiently and effectively teach the spelling skills students need to become proficient readers and writers. Explicit instruction, careful selection of spelling words, and repeated and cumulative practice help students master each concept and reinforce and retain key information.

Our Year 3-6 students will work in groups based on their learning needs in Spelling, as indicated from the Spelling Mastery placement test. These targeted spelling groups will take place four days per week (Mon-Thur) from 11.35am-12.00pm. Our Year 2 students will work all together on the same level of Spelling Mastery this year, to build foundational understandings in order to move to targeted groups from Year 3 onwards.

In Prep and Year 1, we are working towards the implementation of Multisensory Language (MSL) from the beginning of Term Three. As the name suggests, MSL is a multisensory, highly structured, explicit approach to teaching the relationships between letters and sounds, spelling rules (orthography), and morphology (meaning of word parts). There will be more about MSL in the newsletter in Term Three, but we expect these changes to have a significant impact on our students' achievement in Reading, Writing and Spelling.

Winter Uniform

This is a gentle reminder that our students should now be in full Winter Uniform. This includes navy tights or long navy socks for the girls and should the boys wear shorts, it is expected they also wear long navy socks. We also ask that the boys tuck their long sleeved shirts in. As we a transitioning the blue Bomber Jacket to the sports uniform by the end of this year, I encourage all families to get down to Noone and grab a v-neck school jumper for your children! They look great, are really warm and by all reports, not itchy! See below, some of our students wearing their school uniform with pride!

Refurbishment Project

Our refurbishment project continues to move forward, with the architects currently preparing documentation for it to go to tender. Expressions of Interest were advertised in The Age newspaper on Wednesday 4th May, for construction companies to indicate their interest in our project. Exciting times at St Agnes’ - spread the good news!

Sick Children

This time of year, it is quite common that students start to experience a variety of ailments and illnesses. After two years of restricted movement, we are now seeing a number of viruses that are making children quite sick. We ask that if your child is unwell, that you keep them at home please. It is not fair on other families or to our staff to send sick children to school. As per our normal practice, if children are unwell, parents will be called to come and collect them.

Classroom Helper Training

We are excited to be welcoming parent helpers back into classrooms from the beginning of Term Three. Our classroom programs rely on the support of Classroom Helpers. You will enjoy participating in your children’s education – we are in partnership with you and your support is invaluable. All parents are welcome to help. We require that all helpers assisting in the classrooms are fully trained and have current a Working with Children Check which must be uploaded to your child's Operoo profile prior to the commencement of the training sessions. The minimum would be one hour a fortnight. We need helpers from 9 – 11am each day. There will be one compulsory training session (approximately 1 hour) for all new Prep Parent Helpers and any new helpers in Year One. The training session will be run by Amanda Baker (Junior School Leader) in the Hall, where we will meet on:

Monday 30th May 9.00 – 10.00 am

For those people already trained, lists for you to place your names on will be posted outside the classrooms closer to the 30th May. We welcome as much help as you can give.

District Cross Country

This Friday, we have 40 students from Year 3-6 heading to Bald Hill Park in Clarinda for the Holt District Cross Country. Our students have been training hard on Tuesday mornings for about six weeks and are well prepared for their events. Thank you to Simon Kost and Anthea Georgiou for helping the children with the training. We wish all of the students well for their run. Events start at 10am and finish at approximately 12.30pm - Parents are more than welcome to attend.

9/10y.o Girls - Daisy R, Rosie R, Isabel M, Mia I, Mackenzie D, Gemma C, Alannah H, Sienna K

9/10y.o Boys - Ashton O, Harry N, Christos L, Conor H, Reuben M, Lachlan D, Kane C, Ayman Y, Logan V

11y.o Girls - Arabella S, Eleanor F, Ava C, Niamh B, Paige T

11y.o Boys - Callan D, Hugh C, Nate R, Jack O, Lucas A, James S

12/13y.o Girls - Jara M, Sophia L, Alexia L, Ella I, Chloe C, Emily C

12/13y.o Boys - James O, Jack N, Matthew I, Seb F, Tristan C

Term Two School Fees

Term Two School Fee payments are due by Monday 23rd May. Please contact Shannon in the office to arrange payment.

CSEF

The Camps, Sports and Excursion Fund for families with Healthcare Cards. If you are a healthcare cardholder you are eligible to apply for the CSEF. This is a $125 per child allowance paid directly to the school to be credited towards school fees. If you are interested, please contact Shannon in the office.

Assembly

Assemblies happen in the Hall on Wednesday afternoons from 2.40pm. Parents are welcome to attend and masks are no longer required. At assembly, there will be presentations from classes, student awards, birthday acknowledgements and special announcements.

Wed 11th May - Year 3

Wed 18th May - Choir

Wed 25th May - Year 2

Wed 1st June - Year 6

Wed 8th June - Year 1

Wed 15th June - Prep

Wed 22nd June - Year 4

Kind regards,

Lachie.