St Mary of the Angels Scoop

Principal's

 

Panorama

Zoe Nugent 

 Prayer of Gratitude

Father in heaven, thank you for providing St Mary of the Angels with a staff who are adaptive and willing to step in and help others.

Thank you for ensuring that we always look towards our students and their best interests.

We ask for peace over the last few weeks of term, ensure illness stays at bay and allow staff and students a fun and learning filled passage through to the end of Term 3.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

 

Principal's Meeting Feedback

 

Last Wednesday evening I headed off for the Term 3 Principal's Meeting.  

The next two days were jam packed with school visits, meetings and feedback sessions.

Thursday morning commenced with a school visit to Sacred Heart Boggabri (SHB), under the brilliant leadership of Kath Baird.

The visit to Boggabri gave me the opportunity to see the CSO Literacy Block expectations implemented in multi-age classrooms and how teachers and education assistants were utilised.  Hearing the students discuss their learning and where they were headed next on their learning journey was heart warming and I commend the educators at SHB for their efforts in differentiation and engagement in their multiage and multi grade classrooms.  Having taught and led in a school of 56 students (Sacred Heart School Corryong) previous to my time here at St Mary of the Angels (SMOTA), I know the challenge and the joy that this can provide educators with.

The visit was also affirming of what we do at SMOTA with our VCOP Walls, Learning Intentions and Success Criteria, being up in classrooms and students actively engaging with these.  

From Boggabri, I headed to St Philomena's in Moree where all Principals debriefed on our school visits with CSO Director Chris Smyth and the School Performance Leaders.

 

The following session was presented by Cherie Yates and Jacquelene Wait from St Joseph's Primary Tenterfield, and was titled Co-Teaching: what it isn't! Structures and processes to make it happen

All I can say is WWWOOOOWW ......what an incredible journey that team has been on and still is. It heartens me that SMOTA began their Co-Teaching Journey this year and I can see the benefits to both staff and students alike.

 

I am glad Matilda will get to see this presentation at the LoP AP conference and that the SMOTA Leadership team is booked in for a school tour at Tenterfield in couple of weeks to see this in action. 

I look forward to sharing more details with you as we take our next steps on this journey.  

 

The evening session was the Australia wide Launch of Data Ecosystem that saw 80 participants from 20 different Diocese around Australia. I must say as a new Principal to the Diocese, it was interesting to see the 'story' of the Data Ecosystem from the conception of the 'Why' through to the present.  See here for news article.

 

For the rest of our time at Moree, Principals delved into;

  1. Data Analysis of the 2022 NAPLAN results and the different ways in which further interventions for students could be found and their effectiveness measured. 
  2. The CSO draft AIP (Annual Improvement Plan) and how we move towards the next phase of reflecting on our own schools AIP and the way forward for 2023.
  3. The NCEC (National Catholic Education Conference) being held in Week 8 in Melbourne
  4. and finally Employee Services, as a school we should find out mid next week about our Preliminary Staffing for 2024.

Overall a full on two days, but well worth the time spent with colleagues determining how we can all support all of the students in the Armidale Diocese.

 

Congratulations!

Huge congratulations to all of our Athletes on Tuesday and a huge thank you to Jon, Tiff, Jenna and Krystel for their preparation and support of our students.

Good luck to our Polding entries, Scarlett N, Christopher W, Hugo S, Kayne B, Olive and Flynn M.

So very proud of the effort you all put in!

 

SCHOOL SURVEY FOR PARENTS

Each year Catholic Schools Office in Armidale ask parents, staff and students to complete satisfaction surveys for schools. This years survey is now open and will close on the 31st August. The survey details have been emailed to you. 

Thank you in anticipation of your completion of this survey.

 

Blessings Zoe