NEWSLETTER 26 - 23rd August 2022

I remember hearing a conversation between an interviewer and former Federal Senator Amanda Vanstone during a radio conversation in which she implied that, regardless of our intentions (and sometimes regardless of the facts), one person’s relationship with another is tempered by the particular perception that the person has for the other; it is this perception which may result in fruitless, frustrating conversations and disappointing outcomes. Michel de Montaigne encapsulated the influence of perception when he stated, “A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.” Michel de Montaigne was an important philosopher of the French Renaissance and his writings, which espoused the strength and worth of supporting a spirit of the importance of appreciating doubt, helped ensure his writings have resonance today. Montaigne believed that a child's curiosity could serve as an important teaching tool when the child is allowed to explore the things that the child is curious about, setting fluid boundaries and encouraging questioning and respectful critique.

Experience also was a key element to learning for Montaigne – he espoused the need for tutors to teach students through experience rather than through the mere memorization of information often practised in book learning, which he believed would become lead to the development of ‘passive’ adults, blindly obeying, and lacking the ability to think on their own. I believe our staff at St Patrick’s share Montaigne’s philosophical ideal of students becoming active learners, who can claim knowledge for themselves. Our perception of each child’s engagement in their learning is very much a reflection of not only our sometimes subjective observations, but also very much a determination of the considerable amount of objective data that we gather from each student’s engagement in a variety of tasks and activities – on their own, in a group, in different contexts and in a variety of independent-to-greatly supported activities.

Montaigne's views on child education continue to have an influence in the present. Variations of Montaigne's ideas on education are incorporated into modern learning in some ways. He argued against the popular way of teaching in his day, encouraging individualized learning. He believed in the importance of experience, over book learning and memorization. Ultimately, Montaigne postulated that the point of education was to teach a student how to have a successful life by practising an active and socially interactive lifestyle. I am grateful that, as much as possible, I am able to visit all our classrooms and, if appropriate in the light of the respective teaching that is occurring, spend time with students and listen to and observe them making sense of the world of knowledge creation; St Patrick’s staff certainly aspire to creating a carefully crafted curriculum that supports student outcomes across a wide spectrum of criteria. Via our school Online Feedback and Reporting Guidelines, staff are in their first year of communicating to students and parents, snapshots of a wider body of student work pertaining to each student’s engagement with carefully crafted learning opportunities. These guidelines are available via our school website and a summary is enclosed in this week’s Newsletter.

Thank you to all families who are actively involved in our collective responsibility in supporting student outcomes and staff welfare.

Regards   

Rod Linhart (Principal)

Term 1 - Thursday 3rd February - Thursday 14th April

Term 2 - Monday 2nd May - *Friday 8th July

Term 3 - Monday 25th July - Friday 30th September

Term 4 - Monday 17th October - Thursday 15th December

*Student Free Day Friday 8th July 2022

August 

September

It’s Book Week and a great time to touch base about our home reading resources. The aim of our school reading program is to develop in students the knowledge, skills and strategies they need to become independent readers.

 Reading is important. Children learn about the importance of reading as they watch family members use reading and writing for everyday purposes including reading for pleasure, using a recipe, writing a birthday card or sharing a story with a child. Listening to your child read at home is also a good way of supporting your child’s reading. As part of our whole-school literacy program reading resources are available for home use. Students are monitored by their classroom teacher and are provided with home reader resources to best support the development of their level of reading proficiency.

A range of readers is available for home use.

• Each child has an envelope and a reading logbook.
• A logbook is included to record the date and the book title and return this to the classroom for redistribution.
• A staff member exchanges books daily through your child’s classroom.

The aim of our home reading program is not for children to read more difficult books as quickly as possible, but rather to enjoy reading and to practise some of the skills and strategies they are learning at school. Children may read a book more than once, in fact, it is recommended that a child read a book up to three times before moving on to develop fluency. 

Some of the books that children bring home as home readers may appear fairly easy to read. In class, children will read similar texts to develop specific skills and reading strategies. Home reading is aimed at enjoyment and practise. Students need knowledge, skills and strategies in the following areas:

• Oral language
• Phonological awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Vocabulary

Classroom teachers provide learning experiences throughout each year level to develop these skills. According to the level of reading proficiencies that are displayed by a student and the skills students are developing the most relevant home readers will be included. Students may find some texts easier than others and some more challenging. A more detailed description of the skills that are being learned by your child will be available with their home readers and by the classroom teacher.

Home reading resources are either levelled texts or decodable texts.

What are decodable texts?

Decodable text is a type of text that is used to support teaching explicit,  systematic phonics instruction. Decodable texts are sequenced to progressive to incorporate words that are consistent with the letter–sound relationships that are being taught to students. Without appropriate phonics instruction, many students will struggle with levelled readers.

Benefits of using decodable books:

• helps reinforce phonics patterns and letter-sound correspondences
• can be used as a guided reading tool for specific decoding skills, such as long vowels or ending sounds
• focuses on building word recognition through meaning – once children have learned to recognise most of the words in decodable texts, they are able to focus on comprehension of the text
• helps to fill in gaps for readers who lack confidence and motivation – decodable readers often do not have a wide range of difficult words, so students can read them successfully even if they are struggling with fluency
• strengthens orthographic memory & reading fluency

Below is an example of a decodable text.

What decodable texts are available at St Patrick’s?

Decodable Texts 1 - alphabet knowledge (introduced in Prep) to decode cvc words and high frequency words including the, I, my. eg My Cap

Decodable Texts 2 - common graphemes (introduced in Year 1) including igh, split digraphs, longer words with common suffixes (ed, ing) and more high frequency words.

eg The Tricks of the Forest

Decodable Texts 3 - common and some less graphemes (introduced in Year 2) including air, ew and longer words with prefixes and suffixes.

Decodable Texts 4 - less common graphemes and morphology with longer texts. eg Big Numbers and chapter book texts from the RipRap series

Levelled Books

Levelled books can be read on different levels and include more difficult words, a variety of sentence patterns and interesting vocabulary. They are not controlled for phonics patterns and can contain a mix of easy and challenging words. They tend to be better for teaching comprehension and expanding vocabulary.

Benefits of using levelled books:

• gives children motivation and keeps them engaged by including stories that they find interesting and relatable
• challenges students with longer, more difficult text and provides practice in comprehension strategies such as inferring and summarizing
• can help build fluency through the repeated reading of the same book
• help to improve comprehension skills

Cons of using levelled books:

• may not provide enough repetition to teach phonics patterns
• can be too difficult for some struggling readers or those who need repeated practice with decoding words
• texts are uncontrolled for phonics patterns

Thank you for supporting your child’s literacy development. If you any clarification regarding our reading program please contact your classroom teacher or Mrs Badcock.

As communicated to families last term (and guidelines available on our school website):

• Online folios are examples of student work (work samples) and performance that reflect the student’s level of proficiency against grade-level criteria and support a teacher’s appraisal of a student’s grades in key learning areas that are reflected the Mid-Year and End-of-Year Reports. This collection of your child’s work is intended to give you some insight into what your child is engaged in and producing in the classroom. Teachers will still provide other examples of student work to parents throughout the year, including student workbooks and weekly tests.

• All primary classes will engage with the same online platform, Seesaw, in the compilation of online folios of student work that will be accessible to both students and parents; Compass, student diaries and school newsletters will remain the primary communication sources related to school routines, events, policies, protocols, and procedures.

Fathers and father figures are welcome to attend a Father’s Day breakfast (bacon and egg muffins, tea and coffee and juice), the venue for which will be the area outside the school hall. We will begin at 7.55am sharp with a welcome and prayer by our School Captains and our guests will be provided with some breakfast by their child or children and will be welcome to visit classrooms prior to departing. We look forward to welcoming you to this event on Thursday 1^st September.

A reminder to parents that this week is a celebration of Book Week. Children will be invited to come dressed for the Book Week Parade to be conducted on Thursday 25th of August in the Assembly Hall at 9:00am.  Students may come dressed as their favourite book character or in character that reflects the 2022 Book week theme of “Dreaming with eyes open.” As communicated to families late last week, our proposed Book Fair - books and other merchandise – has had to be postponed. Families will be informed when we will be offering this opportunity to purchase books and book week merchandise, which we envisage to take place within the next two weeks.

Congratulations to the following students who were recipients of some awards for their contributions to the cupcake competition that was a feature of the recent Latrobe Winterfest Festival.

Participation Certificate – Amelia Willis

Participation Certificate - Harry Phegan

Participation Certificate – Lulu Meech

People’s Choice Joint- Winner – Oliver Singline and Lulu Meech

Next Wednesday the year 5 class will be selling cupcakes as part of a fundraiser for their upcoming camp. Cupcakes will be available from the canteen at recess for $2.00 each. 

Congratulations to the following students who have received Student of the Week.

Prep: Fynn Kelly for the neat presentation of your work. Your handwriting is beautiful.

Year 1: Eliza Radich for your positive engagement and the positive contributions that you make to our class. Great work Eliza.

Year 2: Amaira Mann for adjusting to her new school with focus and enthusiasm.

Year 3: Owen Christie for working hard on learning the multiplication and division facts and for his contributions to class discussions.

Year 4: James Sullivan for his positive attitude towards problem solving tasks in Mathematics.

Year 5: Daniel Eastley for displaying enthusiasm and a positive attitude when designing and creating his biome diorama. 

Year 6: Jack Chapman for consistently portraying a genuine interest in his own learning by neatly recording detailed notes in Religion.

Congratulations to our House Raffle winners this week: 

Dooley - Jaydah Blackwell Martyn - Hallie Lewis

Byrne - Leon Dewing 

Rehan Hasan from Prep has lost his Rugby Jumper if found can you please return to Rehan in Prep or drop it off at the office. It is an unnamed brand new jumper and is a size 4 or 6. Thank you. 

Registrations are now closed. We are now in the process of organising teams and will have further information out to parents and players by the end of this week. 

Thank you most sincerely for the generous offer of assistance with the school’s request for a meal donation in support of the Barker family. The response certainly reflects the generous nature of our wonderful school community. Following on from a letter that was communicated to participating families, the meal preparation roster is below. Please contact Mr Linhart, Lennice or Tameka in the school office if your circumstances have changed in regard to this offer of assistance, or if you would like to offer a meal or lunchbox item. We are asking the meals to be brought to school to allow us to send the meals home each Tuesday and Thursday. Please ensure your containers are clearly labelled with your name for the effective return to you. Once again, thank you to the families who have volunteered their time and resources; the Barker family has communicated their heartfelt thanks for this gesture of support.

Please continue to follow Health advice regarding notifying us if your child contracts COVID-19. Some important considerations regarding the updated COVID-19 School Safety Plan include:

• Parents are welcome inside school buildings without masks – please sanitise upon entry and wear a mask if you are a close contact (as per Health instructions.)
• Positive cases are still required to isolate for at least 7 days.
• Close contacts are still required to follow close contact rules for 7 days including testing daily if leaving their home and wearing a mask (all persons 12 years and older) in indoor settings when outside their home.
• There is no need to sign-in at the school office unless you are collecting or dropping off your child outside the usual drop-off/pick-up times (always come to the school office and office staff will contact the class teacher please, rather than picking your child directly from the classroom.)

Colds and flu

• Students/staff with cold or flu symptoms are required to stay home and test for two consecutive days.
• If the person has twice tested negative on successive days for COVID-19 and their symptoms are mild e.g. a runny nose, there is no coughing or sneezing and, if a student they have indicated when asked that they feel well, then the person is permitted at school /workplace.
  
  

Rapid antigen tests

Schools and the TCEO will allocate rapid antigen tests to CET personnel (staff and students only) as per the following schedule:

• Provide one (1) test when requested due to the person being symptomatic.
• Provide five (5) tests when requested due to the person having household close contact status.

COVID-19 testing

• If staff or students have symptoms, they should stay home and test for COVID-19.
• If it is less than 28 days since they had COVID-19, they do not need to get tested but should

still stay at home if unwell.

• If the test is positive and the person has not had a COVID-19 infection within 28 days, the person is considered a confirmed case.
• If the initial test result is negative and symptoms continue, students and staff with ongoing symptoms are advised to take a second test the following day.
• If the second test remains negative, this is sufficient to enable a return to work or school.
• If a person has returned 2 successive negative rapid antigen tests and still feels unwell consider

taking a PCR test.

• Positive rapid antigen tests must be registered on the Tasmanian Government COVID-19 website by the confirmed case or their parent/carer.

Confirmed cases

Should a student or member of staff test positive for COVID-19 they must:

• Isolate for a minimum of 7 days, provided outside the 28-day reinfection exclusion period.
• Isolate for a further 3 days if they still have symptoms on day 7.
• If test positive using a rapid antigen test, register the result with Public Health using their online declaration form or phone the Public Health Hotline 1800 671 738.
• Notify household close contacts of the need to observe close contact requirements when leaving their homes.

Whole school assemblies have commenced again each morning – parents are welcome; please follow the COVID Safety Plan protocols – sanitize and observe personal distancing.

Karlie offers discrete counselling services to students upon both parent's signed request. Request forms are available from the school office or can be downloaded from the school website.

Unfortunately, we have had some incidences after school regarding behaviours occurring on school grounds when students are in the care of their parents that we would deem inappropriate during school hours. We acknowledge that a quick ‘catch-up’ amongst parents after school can offer the only face-to-face opportunities for parent get-togethers, however, in the light of these incidences, parents are requested to take their child or children home promptly after school please, unless their child or children are involved in a school event, such as sporting coaching, is taking place. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

Parents are welcome to contact Mr Linhart at any time to discuss issues relating to their child’s education. It is important for parents to always make contact with Mr Linhart or their child’s teacher if they require elaboration or clarification on any issue. The school phone is diverted to after hours to ensure your question should be answered.

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

‘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.