PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents/Carers,

This will be the final newsletter for the term. I hope your family managed to squeeze in some fun over the long weekend, despite the restrictions. I think it is fair to say the students were happy to be back on Friday; a number of teachers commented to me that the energy levels were "high" in the classrooms throughout the day. Our staff are so very happy to have the children back at school; the school has come to life once again with their return. 

As we look back on this term, there have been a number of highlights that must be celebrated, especially given recent challenges. We started the term with Anzac Day ceremonies and activities in the first week and also celebrated the success of our Year 5/6 soccer teams at the District competition, especially our victorious girls team. We celebrated Mother’s Day with a breakfast, liturgy and cocktail night which were all enjoyed by our mums. We managed to gather for one of our First Eucharist masses with some of our Year 4 and 5 students. We finalised the cast for Cinderella and Rockerfella and commenced rehearsals. Our Cross Country team represented the school with aplomb and a number of our students are heading off to represent the school at the next level. In week six, we celebrated St Agnes’ Biggest Morning Tea, raising over $1000 for cancer research. And finally, our school community successfully navigated an extended snap lock down and two weeks of remote learning. Thank you to those parents who completed our Remote Learning Survey. The overall satisfaction rating from this survey was 9.56 out of a possible 10. This overwhelmingly positive feedback from our parent community is a great ‘pat on the back’ for our staff who did their absolute best to support all St Agnes’ students and families during the most recent stint of remote learning. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for their commitment, enthusiasm and innovation this term. I would also like to thank all parents for your continued support and hope you enjoy the upcoming school holiday period.

Changes to arrangements for pick up at the end of day

In an effort to sustain learning time in the afternoons, we have decided not to move to a staggered pick up time at the end of the day, as we did in 2020. Instead, we will open the Clyde Street gate each afternoon to lessen the number of people at Peterson and Locinda Street. We are aiming to ensure students can connect safely and maintain physical distancing amongst parents. We are asking families who have a child in Prep if you could please collect your children from the Clyde Street gate please. This includes older siblings of our Prep students. All other students can choose to meet parents at either the Peterson Street or Locinda Street gate. The Clyde Street gate will be open each afternoon until the end of Term Two or when we have an easing of restrictions. We have spoken to the students about this change for this afternoon.

End of Semester Reports

Semester One Reports will be sent home this Friday, the 18th June. You will receive a hard copy in a seal enveloped via your child and digital copies will also be available through the nForma Parent Portal. New families to our school will receive an email invitation to sign up for this and existing families should already have access.

I would like to thank the staff for their work completing these reports, while also taking on the demands of Remote Learning. Much time and effort goes into assessing the children and then writing each child’s report, a lot has changed over the years, in that schools are asked to teach and assess much more than in years gone by. The June report comes in two parts. There is the written report, which provides information on what your child has achieved as well as areas for improvement/future learning. Secondly, there is the Parent/Teacher Interview, where the classroom teacher(s) will discuss with you what the school will do and suggestions for what you can do at home to support your child in their future learning. The written report and Parent/Teacher Interview go hand in hand; therefore, we ask all parents to attend these interviews. Further information about the Parent/Teacher Interviews is included later in this newsletter. 

Parents need to be aware that in 2020 there were some areas that were not reported on due to the time the children spent at home undertaking Remote Learning. For some of these learning areas, it will be 18 months since they were last reported on. For students, the June written report includes a table that indicates your child’s progress against the Victorian Curriculum; it indicates whether your child is at, below or above standard for this time of year. It is important to view the at, below or above standard rating in the context of the teacher comments. Parents need to understand that the children are not compared to other students but against the curriculum. The most important part of the written report is the comments, which refer to precise knowledge, skills and dispositions that your child has achieved in English, Mathematics, Religious Education and in other areas of learning, including social-emotional learning, how they interact with others and how they manage their learning. For some of you, the reports will be confronting because of areas that need further work. These areas of improvement could include academic, social, behavioural or interpersonal skills. It is unrealistic to think that at school or home children are perfect. As a staff, we are very proud of the progress and results of the children and as parents, you should be too. We should be proud of the achievements of all children, even our Prep children who have been here for only 6 months and have shown significant progress from the day they walked in the classroom door in February. For most of these Preps, the gains in the second half of the year in all areas will shock their parents, in a positive way. Again, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff for their thorough preparation of these reports. With assessment, report writing, remote learning and parent/teacher interviews, this time of year for teachers is an extremely stressful and busy time. However, as always, our staff go about it in a most professional manner. The teachers are looking forward to discussing your child’s progress further at Parent/Teacher Interviews.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Parent/Teacher Interviews will take place on Tuesday 22nd June as planned. The school will be conducting interviews from 1:30pm until 9:00pm. These interviews will be held using Google Meet and teachers will send out invitations for these meetings early next week. All parents are expected to ‘attend’ an interview for their child, as it is a great chance to discuss their child’s report. Parents will need to book their interviews online. School will conclude on this day at 1:00pm to allow interviews to happen. Please visit www.schoolinterviews.com.au to make a booking, using the following code: kkdd5.

Rescheduling of Sacraments

On Friday last week, I met with Fr Alan Fox to reschedule masses for the Sacrament of First Eucharist and Sacrament of Confirmation. We were forced to cancel two of the First Eucharist Masses and also the Sacrament of Confirmation Mass. The new dates are:

Sacrament of Eucharist - Saturday 7th August & Saturday 21st August

Sacrament of Confirmation - Saturday 4th September

Further information regarding bookings for First Eucharist masses will be communicated via Operoo in the coming days.

Shine the Light Social Justice Day

On the final day of Term Two, our students will learn about the injustice of homelessness in our local community. We will gather together for a Liturgy in the morning to set the scene for the day’s activities and at this liturgy, we will present the Winter Appeal donations from our school community to St Vincent de Paul conference leader Rob Sansom. The school is currently collecting non-perishable food items for donation to those in our local community who are struggling to have their daily needs met. These donations can be sent to school with your child and the teachers will collect them. The students can wear casual clothes on this day and school will conclude at 1.30pm.

Canteen

The school canteen will open up for lunch orders this Friday, 18th June. There will be no lunch orders on the last day of term due to early closure. Please refer to the Canteen section of the newsletter for details on how to order. 

Postponed events

Due to the snap lockdown and recent restrictions, we have had a number of events, particularly sporting events, cancelled in recent weeks. Once we have further clarity on these events being rescheduled, we will communicate these dates with families.

End of Term Two

The final day of Term Two is Friday 25th June and students will be dismissed at 1.30pm on this day. Term Three commences on Monday 12th July.

Assembly

Assembly will take place at 2.40pm on a Wednesday afternoon in the Hall. At assembly, there will be presentations from classes, student awards, birthday acknowledgements and special announcements. Assemblies are for students and staff only until further notice.

Wed 16th June - Year 6

Wed 23rd June - Year 4

Enjoy the rest of the week and enjoy the school holidays.

Kind regards,

Lachie