Leadership & Management

Week 6 Term 1

Dear Parents and Carers, 

The Catholic Church is rich with rituals, signs and symbols, developed and celebrated over many years. Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of the Season of Lent within the Roman/Latin Catholic tradition.  As a school, we celebrated Ash Wednesday Mass with the distribution of ashes. These ashes are a sign of our human frailty and need for penance. They also remind us of our finite life and creation from the earth to which we will return. Our front foyer and the learning spaces will reflect this season,  a purple cloth, a sign of penance and our need for reconciliation. The Parent/Child Reconciliation workshop coincides with the Season of Lent. 

This Tuesday, February 28th at 7:00 pm, Maria Forde will facilitate a Parent and Child Workshop. The teachers will unpack this workshop with the students in preparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation on March 23rd. Last night, the Year 3 parents would have received a letter with further information. The link for the workshop will be sent to you on Tuesday via SkoolBag. It is an expectation that all Year 3 children and families attend this faith workshop.

NAPLAN INFORMATION 

In early May 2022, our school completed the NAPLAN online computer-based assessments for Reading, writing, Mathematics and Language Conventions (Spelling/Grammar). The Online assessments were tailored testing that allowed for a range of student's abilities to be assessed and measured.  

Each year our school performance is published on the My School website.  https://www.myschool.edu.au  The My School website has data from every school in Australia. It includes the school’s student profile, enrolment numbers and attendance rates. It also allows parents to compare our NAPLAN performance to all Australian schools. 

Our results were made available to us late last week. The table displays the mean score for our school in each testing area and how our score compares to all Australian schools. 

In last year’s newsletter, we also published our results compared to the Victorian state mean. The mean scale score is the average performance of our group of students on the assessment. It is calculated by adding all individual student scores and dividing by the number of total scores. It can also be referred to as an average.  Below is a table that shows how our school results compare to the state mean. 

I am pleased with the achievement of our students and our school overall. Our students performed well compared to all students in all Australian schools and compared to schools in Victoria. Thank you to all the parents and teachers for their work over the last two years, especially during remote learning. 

Our Year 3 and 5 students will be sitting the NAPLAN from March 15th this year. In the next two weeks, teachers will prepare students during Literacy and Numeracy lessons. Students will also complete the online practice tests to help them become familiar and comfortable with the online platform. 

Sibling Enrolments for 2024 

If you have a child commencing Foundation in 2024, can you please enrol your child by the end of March so we can determine how many places will be available to new families for 2024? Collect your enrolment forms from the school office or download them from our website.

REMINDER: Family Calendar of Events on SKOOLBAG review

All family events will be placed in the EVENTS tab of SKOOLBAG for easy access. Please call or email Vira vpirrotta@sfmoralnd.catholic.edu.au  if you are having any problems accessing this feature. 

FOOTSTEPS - The Dance and Drama program for 2023 begins this week…

As mentioned a few weeks ago in the newsletter, we are in a position to offer all our students a Dance and Drama Program this year. The program will be facilitated by an external company called FOOTSTEPS https://footstepsdancecompany.com.au/

Each class will receive an hour lesson weekly (10 weeks of dance and 10 weeks of drama) that has been developed around the Australian Curriculum. The program will complement The Resilience Project, by developing the students' social skills, confidence, creativity, expressive skills and coordination in a safe, supportive and stimulating environment. 

The program will begin on March 2nd and will take place each Thursday for all students from Foundation to Year Six for the remainder of the year. 

On Thursday, August 17th we have booked a Whole School Performance. Please place this in your diary and we will forward further information as we get closer to the date.  I am excited that we can offer our students such a wonderful learning opportunity. 

A Letter from Meri-Bek Council

SAVE THE DATE-SUNDAY MARCH 19TH 

St Fidelis Primary School Community Fete Day 

Sunday, March 19

12:00 pm-4:00 pm 

St Fidelis Families, Parishioners and visitors are cordially invited to  

St Fidelis Primary School Community Fete Day. 

There will be  opportunities to chat with students,

parents, teachers and the Principal.

Guided Tours by Staff and School Captains

Activities Include:

Children's entertainment, activities & games including the FUN BUS, 

an ANIMAL FARM, BALLOON ARTIST and plenty more!

15+ MARKET STALLS including JEWELLERY, SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS,

CANDLES, PRE-LOVED GOODS, FRESH PRODUCE and plenty more!

OPEN DAY information including school tours

FOOD and BEVERAGES available 

Have a lovely week,

Manuela