Leadership & Management

Week 5

Dear Parents and Carers,

Due to lockdown last week, we were unable to have Ash Wednesday Mass. If you attended Mass on the weekend, the Archbishop gave all Parish Priests permission to sprinkle the ashes on people's heads. Father Greg and Linh have informed me if you would like to receive, the ashes you can do so at the Parish weekday mass at 9:15am on Tuesday or Friday. 

It was great having the children back onsite and seeing their smiling faces last Thursday. Although lockdown was only for three days it did feel a lot longer.  Thursday also marked the Foundation students' first whole day at school and they were amazing. They engaged in their first STEM class and it was a pleasure watching them collaborating with each other in small groups and reflecting on their learning. 

All the teachers are continuing to monitor all the children who still require time to reconnect and build their relationships with their friends.  The teachers have prioritised what is most important for our students and taking the time to listen, reassure and be present for all your children. We are aware that this can take time and we continue to monitor the wellbeing of all students. Our number one priority is the wellbeing of your children. We encourage all parents to monitor their children and to make the necessary adjustments based on their specific needs. Please reach out to your child’s teacher for further advice or assistance.

State Government School Tutor Program and Intervention at St Fidelis

LeveledLeveled

I am writing to you concerning the State Government School Tutor Program. The reason this project is going to operate at our school is to help us support children who may have had their learning affected by COVID-19 and the impact of the pandemic on our school over the last 12 months or so. Children reacted in different ways to online learning and the other changes to our regular teaching programs at St Fidelis. We as a staff have held numerous discussions on how we will meet all the needs of our children whether these needs were evident before COVID or as a result of the different teaching programs last year. 

As you can see from the attached table, we already have in place and offer to our children, a very thorough intervention program throughout the school and we commit considerable funding to it. We are well placed to attend to individual needs our children may have with: small class sizes, educational experts on staff and resourced beyond the school, learning assistants working across various classrooms, Learning Diversity Leadership, targeted Literacy and Numeracy intervention programs, as well as constant ongoing monitoring of children’s progress as part of regular classroom teaching programs.

We are currently in the process of assessing each child in key Literacy and Numeracy curriculum area and their overall progress. As we collect this vital data, we are having constant professional discussions about each individual child’s progress and their particular needs. The $18,000 provided to us from the Tutor Program will add to our Learning Diversity budget and enable us to target more children as our data will show. As always, individual learning plans will be developed for our children and these plans will be discussed with families should we deem discussions necessary.  Basically, the learning plan for any child at St Fidelis will be drawn up based on specific needs and how these needs may be met! 

We appreciate the Government help we are to receive and we plan to target this help to our most needy children. We also look forward to continuing to work with you, our family community, to achieve the best outcomes for each child we care for at St Fidelis.

Sincerely,

Manuela Watson

Professional Learning – Kath Murdoch

This week we welcome Kath Murdoch who will be working with teachers in F-2 exploring Inquiry through play in the early years.  She will continue planning and engaging in professional dialogue with the 3-6 teams about our first terms inquiry concept "Location and Space”.

Our Professional Dialogue with Kath is invaluable to ensure that as teachers we continue to develop our understanding and practice with this approach to enable us to engage the children in their learning and challenge them to think deeply and apply skills and understandings to new contexts.

Parent-Teacher Chats

A special thank you to all who attended the parent-teacher conversations last week. It is always nice to put a face to a name for those parents or carers who may find it difficult to see the teacher during school hours. The teachers appreciate your attendance, your insights about your child, which further assists the teacher with understanding your child as a person and a learner.  

Zoom: Whole School Prayer and Assembly

Whole School Prayer and Assembly is a vital part of the St Fidelis culture. We want to ensure we continue to gather as a school community in prayer and in celebrations. 

COVID has now placed restrictions on the number of parents allowed on the school grounds for an assembly gathering, therefore we are going to try Whole School Prayer and Assembly using the ZOOM online platform this week. A  Zoom link will be sent to everyone by Thursday 25th February via Skoolbag if you would like to join us.

School Photos -2021

For 2021, we have engaged a different school photo company. The reason for this is that our previous company were unable to give us a date this term.  

Given the uncertainty of COVID lockdowns and with the knowledge that many of my colleagues in various schools had missed out on school photos last year due to lockdowns, we were fortunate to have secured an early booking with “The School Photographer” for this year. We booked The School Photographer late last year, knowing how important school photos are as a keepsake of your children’s school years, and they were able to give us a date early this term.

Looking forward to some memorable photographs. 

Bully zero Workshops and Parent Education Evening March 4th 

The National day of Action against Bullying and Violence is an important day to mark Australian school Communities standing together against bullying and violence. In 2019 the Staff Fidelis staff, parents and children were all involved in the review and of St Fidelis Bullying Prevention Policy. 

Each year St Fidelis students engage in an incursion facilitated by the educators from the Bully Zero Organization. These incursions this year are on: 

March 4th Onsite Student Incursions

UNDERSTANDING BULLYING F - 2 

Young people are provided with evidence-based information on bullying, the different types of bullying and its impact on young people. Participants are also taught a variety of strategies to help them assess and respond to bullying situations, whilst identifying and understanding the role of bystanders.

SAFETYNET - Years 3 - 6

Young people are provided with information about cyberbullying and online safety. This includes learning about what cyberbullying is how it can be recognized. It also provides practical opportunities to build skills that will help young people develop personal strategies to protect themselves online.

Wednesday March 3rd - Parent Only Seminar 6:30-8:00pm via online ZOOM 

IT TAKES A VILLAGE 

The session is aimed at Teachers and Parents and recognizes the importance of the whole school community coming together to help recognize and prevent all types of bullying. The session provides an understanding of bullying behaviors, how to recognize it and how to prevent it and manage it. 

This seminar will be presented via online ZOOM platform as a Live Webinar. https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Xty7bgoUTIefEfTWliM0Ag

This is a seminar you should not miss. Please register as soon as you receive the link.

Foundation Enrolments 2022

Our campaign for Foundation enrolments 2022 has begun. We are having school, tours every Thursday in March at 9:30am or 5:00pm. If you know of any neighbours or friends that are looking for a school for their child in 2022, please let them know of our tour times and dates.  Private tours are also available upon request. If you currently have a child at St Fidelis please download an enrolment form and drop off your paperwork in to the office as soon as possible preferably before the end of Term One. 

Music Opportunities 2021

A couple of weeks ago I wrote to you all in the newsletter regarding our Specialist Curriculum for this year.

This is to let you know/inform you about our Specialist Curriculum for this year. The staff and I, along with various consultants, have reflected on all of our curriculum offerings and want to continue with an excellent range of specialist subjects for our children. We feel that a balanced curriculum taught by skilled teachers is vital at St Fidelis. The same can be said for those subjects needing specific skills to be taught effectively.

Therefore, in 2021, our Specialist Subjects will be STEM (Robotics), Physical Education, Language Other Than English (Italian) and Visual Arts. All four Specialist Subjects will be full-year programs.

In addition to this, we will have a whole school Circus Skills program for all children in Term 4 culminating in an End of Year Performance for all our families. Further, we are hoping to have a school choir as an option for children to join; musical instrument tuition for children wishing to learn an instrument will also be available from Term.

We have engaged two companies for instrument tuition Creative Music (who have had a long-standing connection with St Fidelis with musical instrument tuition after school and Experience Music who will join us this year (during school hours to teach students instruments such as drums, guitar or keyboard.

The change in the Specialist Curriculum at our school resulted from staff discussions during our Review process last year combined with children’s preferences and passions. We are confident that all the children at St Fidelis will continue to be exposed to and given opportunities in various specialist areas, subjects they have otherwise had little or no access to! Our Robotics program is testament to that. We are also confident our children will thrive and grow in their school endeavours and enjoy a fantastic school year with us. We are looking forward to four productive terms of teaching and learning and working with our families to continue our children’s excellent education.

It has come to my attention that there has been some misunderstanding about what parents are expected to fund themselves and what the school is funding. 

• Creative Music (after school program) – Parents fund this for themselves
• Experience Music (during school hours) – Parents fund this for themselves and children are taken out of class at different times each week so they don’t miss the same subject each week.
• School Choir - This program will be funded by the school. This is open to all students.  I have employed Josh from Experience Music to give any child this opportunity to be part of a School Choir. This will take place during lunchtime on a Monday.

Singing in a choir provides a sense of real belonging, offers new opportunities for learning, encourages student engagement and promotes civic engagement. Our aim for our School Choir is to participate in regular performances when permitted (School Masses, Sacraments, Kindergartens,  RSL, and other Civic ceremonies, etc.) 

COVID-19

I would like to inform everyone that there have been no positive cases reported at St Fidelis to date. 

Have a lovely week,

Manuela