NEWSLETTER 17 - June 15th 2021

Acting Principal's Reflection

Over the past few days, I have had the pleasure of reading through many of the report comments for the upcoming Mid Year Reports. These reports provide a snapshot of student progress and achievement during the first half of the school year. In many instances, the report comments also provide important future goals for student development during the second half of the year. I have been amazed this year by the quality of the comments and the amount of prescriptive detail each comment contains about that particular student. In my reading, I was able to gain a clear sense of the areas of strength, as well as the areas of growth for each child. I also find that I can hear the teacher’s particular voice coming through in the comments for that class, which is very refreshing.

Teachers put an immense amount of work into writing these reports. It often takes many weekends and long nights of work to ensure that they accurately reflect the achievement and disposition of each child in the class. Of course, the point-in-time (summative) assessments that teachers use to inform the comments and grades are assessed against the Standard for that particular subject, which comes from the Australian Curriculum. This Standard is used to indicate whether the work that a student produces is at, above or below the required level. Teachers use moderated work examples based on this standard and common assessment tasks designed to assess work against the Standard to ensure that they are assessing student work accurately and in line with other teachers around the country.

It is also important to note that, sometimes, a level of achievement exhibited at this point in time is not necessarily the level of achievement that is guaranteed at the end of the year or the level of achievement that your child may have achieved at the end of last year. Many factors come into play here. Some reasons for a drop in achievement include; a drop in the application and effort shown towards tasks, a jump in the complexity of the curriculum that challenges the student, different areas of the curriculum being taught in the first half of the year or the second half of the year that the student is not as advanced in, regression (especially over the summer break or if a student is away for long periods of time without consolidating their learning), as well as many other possible factors. Some reasons for an increase in achievement include; an increase in the application and effort shown towards tasks, goal setting, self-assessment and reflection, natural progression and maturity (all students go through peaks and valleys in their learning journey which means they learn at different rates).

Parent-teacher meetings provide an excellent opportunity to discuss your child’s report in more detail. The online booking platform to book your parent-teacher meeting will become available on Tuesday 22 June at 3:30pm and will close on Friday 25 June at 3:30pm. The booking link will be available in next week’s newsletter. Reports will be sent home on Thursday 24 June and will also be available via compass from 3:30pm on this date.

Kind regards

Kurt Atkins

Acting Principal

Year 1 News - Mr O'Brien

This term Year 1 has been learning all about the garden. As part of our garden unit, last week our class had the opportunity to do some cooking, using the produce we have grown in our school garden. Our dish was a tasty carrot and beetroot salad.

This experience has led us through the whole culinary journey; from planting and raising our crops, to harvesting, cutting and preparing our vegetables, to finally cooking and combining our food. The experience provided students with an engaging opportunity to understand the food production process. Year 1 should be pleased with how they participated in this activity. A big thank you goes to Mrs Tueon and to Mr Tim for their help and assistance in this project.

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North West Catholic Primary School Cross Country Team

As our school cross country event was postponed, students have been selected from a short run-off in Physical Education to represent St Patrick’s at the NWCPS Cross Country Carnival. This event is being held at Stella Maris Primary School, Burnie.

Congratulations to the following students who will be competing on Thursday: 

Hamish Crawford, James Sullivan, William Hawkins, Sophia Simmonds, Lucy Chapman, Violet Watkins, Jovi Rand, William Brazendale, Charlie Jones, Melia Sesara, Grace Locke, Amaja Scott, Jack Chapman, Cameron Reeves, Oliver Gatehouse, Tyla O'Toole, Sophie Mulcahy, Issy Sherrif, Ruby Anthony, Monty Manion, Charlie Brazendale, Luke Thompson, EJ Sullivan, Stella Riley, Emma Watson. 

Catholic Education Transportation Survey

We want to know how to improve student transport.

Please take five minutes to let us know what you think about how students get to and from school.

The review will also be looking at the attitudes families and students have towards bus transportation and reasons why they may or may not use bus transportation.

The survey closes Friday 2 July 2021.

Mid Year Reports and Parent-Teacher Meetings

Mid-year reports for students in Prep - Year 6 will be sent home on Thursday in Week 9. Parent-teacher meetings will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Week 10. Online bookings for parent-teacher meetings will open up on Tuesday at 3:30pm next week. A link to make these bookings will be in next week's newsletter.

New School Counselor

Our new school counselor, Sarah Padman, commenced last Friday, and will now be available for student sessions every Thursday until Sophie Eaves returns from leave. Sarah will contact families of students that currently receive counseling in the near future. If you would like your child to be considered for counseling, please collect the appropriate forms from the office and return them at your earliest convenience.

Accessing Child Care during School Hours

We ask that parents who need to access the childcare center during school hours (8.50am -2.55pm) please do this via the outside childcare entrance and not through our open area. This is a shared space amongst our classes and Library which has students participating in specialised programs and this can cause unnecessary disturbance to these lessons during core learning time. We thank you for your understanding in regard to this request. 

Staff News

Mr Atkins, Mrs Leonard and Mrs Harris will be away on Wednesday and Thursday completing a First Aid course, Mrs Meech will be away all week, Miss Flude taught Year 3 on Tuesday and Ms Omran will teach Year 3 for the remainder of the week. Mrs Hayes and Mrs Anthony will accompany our NW Cross Country team on Thursday, Miss Flude will take PE. 

WEST Award

Congratulations to Archer Parry who received a WEST Award during today’s morning assembly. We will continue to acknowledge those students who exhibit WEST (Welcoming, Encouraging; Sorry; Thankful) qualities and Mercy Values (Hospitality, Compassion, Mercy and Respect) by presenting awards at our Monday morning assemblies. 

Student of the Week

Prep: Balin Holland for his positive attitude towards all of his work and for trying his best.

Year 1: Jaxon Hampton for the great effort and improvement he has  been making with his sight word recognition

Year 2: Porter Smith for his consistent effort in using neat and clear handwriting in all learning areas.

Year 3: Harry Phegan for his enthusiasm towards Science and Design Technology tasks and for being a responsible monitor. 

Year 4: Melia Sesara for her positive application and attitude to tasks and the excellent presentation of her bookwork.

Year 5: Ryan Jackson for his well researched and engaging presentation on Captain Francis Melville.

Year 6: Monty Manion for his creative sizzling start in his persuasive writing text and for his perseverance while presenting his oral presentation for Religion.

House Raffle Winners

Byrne House: Grace Freeman

Dooley House:  Seth Foster

Martyn House: EJ Sullivan

Nut Aware School

A reminder to parents that St Patrick's is a Nut Aware School and that we ask that parents not pack nuts or nut products in their children's lunchboxes. 

Photos of Sporting Events

If any parents or guardians have photos of students from school sporting teams and would like to see these included in the newsletter, please email them to stpatslat@catholic.tas.edu.au 

Jacob Hingston and Henry Jones competed on the weekend in the Launceston Classic Tournament with the Latrobe U10 team.  

Inquiring Minds - Birth to 5 Years

‘Inquiring Minds’ Birth to 5 program - a ‘Set-Up for Success’ Catholic Education Tasmania initiative.
Our ‘Inquiring Minds’ birth to 5 program operates each Friday during school term time from 9.00am to 10.30am. This program involves a considerable focus on communicating to parents the learning intentions of important activities that are associated with early years learning. Mrs Klug will be working to engage parents in early years learning experiences that will ensure children who are enrolling in Kindergarten, will be informed in regards to developing key social, emotional, physical and cognitive skills and understandings. Parents or an adult family member stays for the duration of these sessions; there is no cost, however if you would like to donate a gold coin it would be appreciated. Please feel welcome to participate.

St Brendan Shaw College Enrolments

Care and Concern

Please feel welcome to be included in our Care and Concern Volunteer List - thank you to the many school community members who are already on this list and are assisting others: Always please contact your child’s teacher, the office staff or Mr Atkins if you feel we could offer support in any way to anyone in our school community in need.

Check in TAS App

It is now a requirement, as part of our COVID Policy, that any adult that visits the school for longer than 10 minutes must sign in using the 'Check in TAS App'. 

Please view the below PDF for information regarding how to install and use the Check in TAS App.

We have QR codes at the office and school hall that can be scanned using this app when you are visiting the school for longer than 10 minutes.

If you do not have a smartphone or device that will let you install this app, you will need to visit the school office so that we can check you in.

Covid-19 School Safety Protocol

• Adults to please hand sanitise upon entering any school building: the school provides hand sanitiser at school venue entry points or adults may use their own (and be observed to use a sanitiser).
  
• Adults, where practicable, to maintain 1.5m physical distancing, observing seating arrangements as communicated by signage or instruction please: indoor event attendance limited to one person per 2 square metre per indoor space.
• Adults to sign-in, either at the school office or on a list provided at the entry of the school building. The school is obligated to record contact details of visitors to school events held in school venues, with this information stored securely for a period of 21 days.
• Appropriate COVID safe signage is communicated at school entry points. Key message to visitors - if feeling unwell, it is important not to be in attendance; the school will bar entry to people who have tested positive for COVID-19 or who are close contacts of a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.
• Although daily cleaning of frequently touched internal surfaces is undertaken, we ask adult visitors to avoid touching surfaces unnecessarily.
  

THANK YOU