From the Principal
And that was Term 3!
It's hard to believe that Term 3 has flown by so quickly and we now only have 9 weeks left of the school year!
Our students have been able to participate in some fabulous learning experiences this term and have demonstrated their progress in key learning areas such as English and Maths through some positive results in the statewide PAT Testing and Phonics Screening Check. Students participate in the PAT tests each year and we are able to analyse their progress, determine directions and look at strategies to support individual areas of need or strength. Teachers have already spent time analysing results which will help inform their teaching in Term 4.
Phonics Screening Check is an annual test administered with our Year 1 students, assessing their knowledge and use of sounds in words. Our results in this area were pleasing with 78% of students achieving the benchmark. These results have also been delved into, providing our Early Years teachers with some useful direction and strategies for individual students for the remainder of this year.
In the last few weeks, we have had our choir perform at the Festival of Music, the Orchard visited the zoo as part of their learning, we participated in Sports Day and the Garden have held a business enterprise day. Have a read of the Student Learning page to hear a little more about some of these opportunities.
Sports Day
As much as we all tried to keep going with our Sports Day, unfortunately the rain was too heavy and created unsafe conditions so we made the difficult decision to stop it after 3 events. Teachers have worked on Plan B and we are pleased to let you know that the final events and the sprints will be held on Friday 21/10 (week 1). We will begin the day as we did before with chants and classes will then continue on with their final 4 events. Sprints will be held straight after these, with presentations being done by approximately 11.00am. Students will return to their class after this and have lunch play and the rest of the day as normal (with a few special activities included in their learning to capture the excitement of the day).
We invite students to dress in their team colours once again and families to join us for the morning program if they can. Canteen orders will be available from the regular menu on this day.
Let's hope the weather works in our favour this time!
Community Hub
We are excited to announce that we have appointed a new Community Hub Leader. She will begin with us in Week 1 next term and we will introduce her in the next newsletter. We are really looking forward to having our hub running and seeing our community participate in some exciting programs.
2023 Class Placements
We have already begun planning for 2023 and started looking at how our student enrolments will fit into classes. This will continue into Term 4 when staff will look at individual students and their needs and place them accordingly in one of our classes. To assist us in doing this, we ask families to let us know via the form at the bottom of the page if there are any particular considerations that you would like us to reflect on in this process for your child. This form can be printed, completed and dropped into the office or emailed to parent.support483@schools.sa.edu.au by Friday 28/10. Considerations could be around learning style, assessments/learning needs or individual family requests (eg. placement where there is a sibling of similar age). Unfortunately we are unable to take requests for individual teachers as staffing and year levels have not been finalised yet. Staff spend a great deal of time reviewing students as learners to put together effective class groups so it may not always be possible to accommodate all requests.
We thank you for your understanding.
Enjoy your holiday break with your family. We look forward to seeing you in Term 4.
Anita