St Nicholas School

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

TERM 3 - WEEK 6

To the St Nicholas School Community

Welcome to Week 6, Term 3.

 

An enormous thank you to our wonderful parents and carers for your understanding and support of the additional COVID-19 directives and restrictions for NSW schools, imposed on us last Wednesday. These new restrictions have and will continue to cause frustration. However, they have been done with the safety and wellbeing of our school communities as top priority, and for your support and response to these measures, I am very appreciative.

 

Farewell Lesley Harpur

With a heavy heart, I announce the resignation of Mrs Lesley Harpur. After her final day at St Nicholas on Friday 4th September, Lesley will return to Victoria to be with her family. While saddened by the news, Lesley has our total support and blessings.

 

Since joining St Nicholas Primary School at the start of the year, Lesley has proven herself to be an outstanding educator and a much-loved member of staff. While leading the learning of our students, she has helped build the capacity of our staff and strengthened St Nicholas as a professional learning community. St Nicholas is a better place for having crossed paths with Lesley Harpur.

 

The recruitment process to replace Lesley has already commenced. 

 

An eye towards 2021

The cycle of improvement never stops. Whether we are discussing student learning, staff learning or St Nicholas School as a whole, we must be present in the day, though have an eye to the future. 

 

The planning for 2021 has well and truly commenced. Myself and/or members of the St Nicholas School Leadership team have met with all 87, 2021 Kindergarten students and their families. This time-consuming process is integral to supporting the transition of the student, articulating St Nicholas Schools culture and vision, while creating strong foundations for a professional relationship with our parents.

 

Recently I was required to provide the Catholic Schools Office with our preliminary projection of student numbers for 2021. We currently have 599 students enrolled for 2021 with full kindergarten classes (and significant numbers on a waiting list). Our numbers are a reflection of the esteem in which St Nicholas School is held in the local community.

 

Tomorrow members of the St Nicholas School Leadership team will meet with key personnel from the Catholic School Office, specifically focusing on the 2021 Annual Improvement Plan. As a leadership team, we are proud of our capability to create, present and articulate our process for continuous improvement. We do however look forward to other highly capable educators from the Catholic School Office reviewing our work with a critical lens. By doing this, we expect they can add value to our highly effective processes and plans.

 

Parent, Student and staff feedback

St Nicholas School annual collection of feedback from parents, students and staff on the processes and procedures of our school will again be conducted by Survey My School. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from the key stakeholders about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. 

 

The surveys will be launched via email on Monday 31 August 2020, using the email addresses supplied to the school. If you do not receive an email with a link to the survey, you can access and complete the survey by contacting the St Nicholas School front office and asking for a link. 

 

School Photos

This Tuesday and Wednesday Master School Portraits will be on-site to snap our annual school photos. 

 

Please ensure your children are infull winter uniform on both Tuesday and Wednesday. Grade teachers will communicate with parents and students when sports uniform can be worn next week. 

 

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 will be sent home a Parent Portal Compass login and temporary password by email. This email will guide 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.