FROM THE PRINCIPAL
TERM 3 - WEEK 8
To the St Nicholas School Community
Welcome to Week 8, Term 3.
St Nicholas School has a positive, student-centered culture where the intention is to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to having a positive mindset and focus for learning. We pride ourselves in creating a culture of setting our children up for success.
A commitment to ‘setting our students up for success’ leads to reflective questioning:
- How could we further support our students to become engaged in their learning?
- How could we further support our students in reaching a state of mind which produces the optimal level of performance?
- How could we further support our students to self regulate?
To answer these questions, our school leadership team reached out to the University of Newcastle, local Occupational Therapists, and finally Lloyd Sign Co. Through collaborating with professionals, our Veritas Courtyard now looks very different.
On Tuesday, three, fourth-year Occupational Therapy students from the University of Newcastle, led by local Occupational Therapist Katrina Wakely, provided professional learning to our school's Education Assistants.
Our school will welcome Katrina back in Week 1 Term 4 for a professional learning session with our teaching staff.
The video below will give you a very small taste of how the space can be used.
In the coming weeks, we will run a competition to come up with a creative name for this wonderful and exciting space for our students.
School Uniform
In last week's newsletter I provided a question to ponder, “should our students be wearing their sports uniform 3 or even 4 days a week?”
I have received some very constructive and passionate feedback from parents on this topic. Please continue to email me your thoughts (jclery1@arm.catholic.edu.au)
To add to the debate, please find attached some contemporary research:
Online Safety
As you may be aware, there is currently a graphic video of a live-streamed suicide circulating on social media platforms. While the video originated on Facebook it has been spread on several other platforms as well, particularly TikTok. The video is being repeatedly uploaded on TikTok with innocuous material inserted at the beginning before cutting to the graphic video.
Once again I implore parents to refrain from letting their children of a primary school age anywhere near social media. Social media is not safe for primary school-aged children!
As outlined yesterday, to ensure the safety and well-being of staff and students St Nicholas Facebook page and Class Facebook pages will be out of action until advised.
Year 2 Tabloid Games
As a school community, we continue to support our children’s active lifestyle, particularly with COVID-19 restricting annual events. Enjoy the short clip below of Year 2 hopping, skipping, and jumping their way through last Friday.
Education Assistant Appreciation Week
Last week, St Nicholas celebrated, congratulated, and thanked our wonderful Education Assistants. Please see below a short message of thanks from me, which was used in our celebrations.
Have a great week
John Clery
PRINCIPAL
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
RE: COMPASS PARENT PORTAL
Compass is St Nicholas School's new Student Information system.
On Monday 31st August parents and guardians were sent home a Parent Portal Compass login and temporary password by email. This email guides parents to login to their parent portal. Parents and carers will only be able to access their own student's details and information. This email will only be sent to parents or guardians of the students.
Compass Parent Portal
Parents will initially be able to view their child’s attendance and provide reasons at to why their child is absent or late to school. When Compass is fully operational parents and guardians will be able to use the Parent Portal to: -
- Book your Parent/Student/Teacher conferences
- View up-to-date class and school attendance information
- Approve past absences for your child
- Enter upcoming absences for your child
- Access your child's Student Semester Reports
- Download, print and approve upcoming excursions
- Update your registered email and mobile number (used for SMS alerts)
- Access information regarding upcoming events and news.
We ask that all parents make an effort to join the Parent Portal and when completing online information (eg. student absence), give as much detail for our office staff to be fully informed. The Parent Portal will certainly make your life easier.
Compass Information
- If you are a parent and you do not receive your email please contact the school.
- If you follow the instructions in the email and you are unsuccessful logging into Compass please contact the school.
- Both parents and guardians of the students will receive an individual Compass login and passwords. For security purposes, please DO NOT share Compass logins and passwords with your family.
- It is very important that you DO NOT share your login details with your children. When the school decides to introduce the students to Compass they will give the students their own login and password details to access the student Compass portal.
We look forward to communicating with you through the Compass Parent Portal. Any questions please contact the school office.