FROM THE PRINCIPAL

To the St Nicholas School Community

TERM 2 - WEEK 4

Welcome to Week 4, Term 2 - 2021.

I trust all our wonderful mothers enjoyed a fabulous day last Sunday when your children spoilt you rotten.

An enormous thank you to the mums who were able to join us on Friday for our ‘Muffins with Mum’ and the 9:30am Mass. Our students love having their parents at these community events and they play an integral role in developing the spirit of our school. It is also an opportunity for our school to say thank you!

I trust you will enjoy the short video of highlights below:

PRINCIPALS MEETING

Today and tomorrow I am involved in the quarterly meeting of the Armidale Diocesan principals and members of the Catholic Schools Office’s leadership team. The focus of these meetings has, and continues to be on school improvement. One of our major drivers for improvement is to work collaboratively as a system.

Working as a system involves a common direction, language and utilising the learning, experiences and skills of each setting. An example of this was today, when the principals (divided into four groups) visited St Nicholas School to reflect on the structures and processes of our uninterrupted literacy block and targeted intervention through our “Learning Leaps in Reading” initiative.

STUDENT LED LEARNING CONFERENCES

A reminder to our parents to please click on the link (if asked, please enter the code  s x 9 z w) to book their Student Led Learning Conference. Thank you to the parents who have already booked their time slot.

As identified in the St Nicholas School Annual Improvement Plan, in 2021 we are committed to providing parents with a deeper and more authentic opportunity to understand, celebrate and support their child’s learning. Our Student Led Learning Conferences will replace the traditional parent teacher interview.

In the last few weeks, under the GENERAL NEWS tab, St Nicholas School Leaders of Pedagogy commenced the process of educating our parents on the Student Led Conferences. In today’s edition, our Leaders of Pedagogy have shared with you a short video they have created as a way of modelling to our parents what they can expect. I trust you will find this a wonderfully useful resource.

NAPLAN

On Tuesday, our Year 3 and Year 5 students joined approximately 1 million young Australians in sitting NAPLAN. For our students, NAPLAN is just another school day where they are required to sit an assessment in writing, reading, language conventions and numeracy. As with the culture of our school we aim to set our students up for success by creating an environment that is calm and engaging. This is a far contrast to the days many of us can relate to when we sat in rows in a large hall.

A small gesture to greet our Year 5 students on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

NAPLAN will be used by St Nicholas School as another instrument to measure the impact of improvement strategies for the English block which have formed a significant part of our 2020 and 2021 Annual Improvement Plans. I look forward to sharing with you these results when they become available.

CROSS COUNTRY

Congratulations to the St Nicholas School Cross Country Team who represented our school with distinction at last week's Diocesan Carnival in Barraba. While delighted to hear (particularly for the individual students) seven St Nicholas School children were successful in gaining selection in the Diocesan team, it was particularly pleasing to hear wonderful reports on the students' behaviour and sportsmanship.  A big thank you to Mrs Belinda Tyrrell, Miss Naomi Burke and Miss Jess Harris for supporting our team in Barraba.

A more detailed report of the carnival can be found under the SPORT Tab.

PANCAKE DAY - FRIDAY, 21 MAY 2020

Next Friday, 21st May,  the PT&F will be serving pancakes during First Break. Traditionally, this has occurred on Shrove Tuesday, but due to COVID restrictions we were unable to proceed as normal. All proceeds will go to the St Vincent De Paul winter appeal to help others in need. Pancakes are a gold coin donation and there will be fruit kebabs available for those with allergies.

Parents are encouraged to support the day by either making and donating some pancake batter, or volunteering on the day. Please help wherever you can, more details are found under the PT&F tab of this newsletter.

Have a wonderful week.

John Clery

PRINCIPAL