Week 1, Term 2 2021

From the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Term Two. I hope you had a wonderful holiday break and enjoyed the time with your family.

This term is already filling up fast with many exciting and interesting learning activities. I would like to bring your attention to just some of these important events.

National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)

This year our school will complete the 2021 NAPLAN tests online. Over a 2-week period from Tuesday 11 May until Thursday 20 May, our Year 3 and 5 students will be participating in NAPLAN. It is important for all our students to understand that NAPLAN is not a pass or fail type of test. It is about assessing student progress. As a school, we use this data to assist with improving our teaching and learning programs. As the tests are online this year we hopefully will receive the results much faster than in previous years. You will find more information in our newsletter article from Tanya Barrett.

Catholic Education Week 2021 - Raising Hearts and Minds

Catholic Education Week is this week from May 3 – 9 2021. It is a great opportunity for families to explore the benefits of a Catholic Education. This year, our focus is on promoting our free mid-year intake for Reception students.

This is one of many initiatives announced by the South Australian Commission for Catholic Schools (SACCS) to reduce the financial burden on families. All Diocesan schools will offer the 2021 Term 3 Reception intake to parents free of charge. The free intake includes tuition fees excluding uniforms and extra-curricular costs.

Parent/Teacher Interviews

During this week, our families have the opportunity to meet face to face with their child’s teacher for our Parent/Teacher interviews. This valuable meeting allows time for reflection and sharing of student academic, emotional and social development.

If you have not made a time for an interview, please contact your child’s teacher to make a suitable time over the next two weeks.

Building & Grounds Update

During the holiday period, the house next to the school was demolished in preparation for our new multi-sports space. We are currently developing and refining our plans for a hard play surface for netball/basketball and a larger grassed area for other sports. We hope to start work this term and have the space available for use next term. This exciting initiative will certainly allow for more opportunities for sporting programs in our school.

Some additional information about our PE and sports program as we welcome Mr Damien Raidis as our new PE teacher. Damien joined us last week and will be working on Fridays throughout the year. Damien comes with great experience in Physical Education, as he is currently a Casual Academic at Flinders University in the area of PE and Health. I would like to congratulate Damien on winning this position and we look forward to working with him over the year.

Visit from our Deputy Director

Last Friday we had a special visit from our Deputy Director of Catholic Education SA, Mr John Mula. I was able to take John and other special guests for a tour of our school, visiting many classrooms and observing our Literacy Lessons. I was also able to share our master plan and the building projects we are about to start. John had time to meet with all our Year 6 students for a special prayer session and then an open discussion about our school, their learning and their transition into High School.

It was a lovely experience providing an opportunity for us to share our story with John. I was extremely proud of all the students and staff during the visit and had wonderful feedback from the visitors.

I would like to congratulate our Term 2 School Captains, Chloe and Alex and look forward to working with them this term. All our school captains receive a badge to wear which makes them clearly recognisable for the school community.

Recently we provided our House Captains with their new badges in the colour of their team at our whole school outdoor gathering. Congratulations to:

Mackillop (Blue) Chanel and Henry
Tenison (Red) Lily & Sidney
Penola (Yellow) Siena & Ollie
Kensington (Green) Cara & Sebastian

We thank all our students for their involvement in our leadership programs and look forward to them showcasing their leadership skills over the year.

Kind regards

Adrian Grbin

NAPLAN Online

NAPLAN testing begins on Tuesday May 11 and will conclude for our school on Wednesday May 19. The testing schedule is as follows:

Tuesday

May 11

Yr 3 Writing (paper test)

Yr 5 Writing

Tuesday

May 18

Yr 3 Numeracy

Yr 5 Numeracy

Wednesday

May 12

Yr 3 Reading

Yr 5 Reading

Wednesday

May 19

Catch up tests

Thursday

May 13

Yr 3 Language Conventions

Yr 5 Language Conventions

Friday

May 14

Catch up tests

Students in Year 3 and 5 will do the NAPLAN tests online in a change from the paper-based NAPLAN to NAPLAN Online in order to provide a better and more precise assessment that is more engaging for students. One of the main benefits of NAPLAN Online is tailored (or adaptive) testing, in which the test presents questions of higher or lower complexity depending on a student’s performance. Tailored (or adaptive) testing is designed to assess a wider range of student abilities and to measure student achievement more precisely.

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) assesses literacy and numeracy skills that are essential for every child to progress through school. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in the annual NAPLAN tests in reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The assessment provides parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests. NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. NAPLAN also provides schools, education authorities and governments with information about how education programs are working and whether young Australians are achieving important educational outcomes in literacy and numeracy.

Teachers are ensuring students are familiar with the types of questions in the tests and will provide appropriate support and guidance. To see the types of questions and related functionalities visit nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site.

If you do not want your child to participate in one or all NAPLAN tests please contact your child’s teacher for a withdrawal form.

Tanya Barrett

Director of Learning