News
Principal's Report
Sports Day is upon us!
This week I’ve been talking to the children about what Sportsmanship looks like in action. I hope we will have that on display in spades tomorrow as our children compete in the various events.
The reality is parents play a crucial role in shaping this.
Parents play a pivotal role in either positively shaping their child's sport experience or negatively influencing the outcome. parents need to help their children discoger the fun in activities, why learning the basic fundamentals are important, and hos to demonstrate good sportsmanship.
Teach this explicitly! Ask your child how they would react if they lost or someone else won. Help them in this journey.
As a student who participated in sports day, I learned a lot from my parents’ support and encouragement. They taught me how to be humble in victory and gracious in defeat. I was quickly told by both my parents if I had strayed from this path. They also reminded me that sports are not only about winning or losing, but about having fun, making friends, and improving myself. I think these lessons will stay with me for life.
The weather is looking amazing, and I can’t wait for tomorrow already!
Principal's Report
‘Keeping our eye on the sparrow and our heart on the horizon.'
The two pillars of Catholic Education are faith and learning. If oversimplified, we can call this the working with the heart and the head.
One of the quotes that sticks with me the most at the moment we must:
‘Keep our eye on the sparrow, and our heart on the horizon’.
Keeping our eye on the sparrow is a biblical reference from Matthew’s Gospel. We focus on the ‘now’ so much at the start of the year. Our eye on the sparrow so to speak. Early year testing, parent teacher interviews, looking at our educational data and making sure we know where each student sits and where we want to go. We also need to take the time to keep our heart on the horizon. To stop and listen to ourselves and be in touch with our faith.
The Ash Wednesday Mass we celebrated yesterday was such an example of that. Our 90+ students plus many members of our parish and parents stopped and paused, and celebrated Mass with Father Anthoni. It was simply a stunning mass, that asked the students to ponder what they could do in the next 40 days (+ Sundays) to bring themselves closer to God.
NAPLAN
Speaking of the horizon, NAPLAN is on way earlier in the year this year as our Year 3, 5 and 7 students will be tackling the NAPLAN tests predominantly online (with the exception of Year 3 writing), in Weeks 7 and 8 of this year.
NAPLAN is less of a window into how our students are doing, and more of a window into how the school is doing. As a school we predominantly rely on the data from other assessments that are conducted throughout the year.
However yesterday I opened up the Advertiser (not in a literal way, more on my phone in the early hours of the day) to the article ‘NAPLAN Results Revealed’ an exposé on the 2022 NAPLAN results across the state. Full admission is I’m not a fan of these tables. Nor am I a fan of the Advertiser as a whole. What was incredibly pleasing however was to see where our school sits, and as such our students sit when compared to others in the state and in the region. It wouldn’t be appropriate to go into this in detail in this space, but some key stats were:
- A clear top of all schools in the Yorke Peninsula
- 6th out of all Catholic Schools in the state
- 65th out of the 785 schools in the state (Top 8%)
For a long time, we’ve kept these achievements private. But it’s so crucial that this is acknowledged and understood by at least our community, if not the wider community around us.
As mentioned, the two pillars of a Catholic School are faith and learning. Both have been highlighted this week.
Parent Teacher Interviews
I would like to thank all involved in the Parent Teacher Interviews last week. Trialling these earlier in the year has received unanimously positive feedback from both staff and parents. Teachers were able to share where they want to take the students, not where they have been. It is a futures-focussed approach rather than reactive. We also had our highest ever attended conferences with over 95% of our families now having had meetings. Thank you for taking the time to focus on your child’s education.
Sports Day – 9th of March and Student Free Day – 10th of March
Tomorrow you will receive a timetable for Sports Day that will detail the logistics and ins and outs of the day. It is such an exciting day for our community.
The following day is a Student Free Day. On this day the teachers will be completing professional development on the Child Protection Curriculum, a mandated part of our curriculum that is taught in each one of the 785 primary schools in the state.
God Bless you in this time of Lent,
Scott March
Upper Primary News
In Religion students thought of three promises for Lent, a promise for each pillar of lent; Prayer, Fasting and Charity. Our room is really starting to take shape and become ours. Don’t they look great!
Senior Primary News
Exploration of Historical Fiction
It's been a very exciting few weeks for our Year 6 and 7 students, who have been learning about historical fiction and figurative language in their English lessons. Through their studies, our students have gained a greater understanding of different eras in history and the language used to describe them. The students have been exploring the different writing styles of historical fiction, which often includes figurative language. They have been discussing the different ways authors use figurative language to create vivid images and bring stories to life. Through this exploration, students have been able to gain a greater appreciation of language and its power to evoke emotions. In addition to learning about the different writing styles, our students have also been studying the use of figurative language in everyday life. They have been examining the different ways figures of speech, such as similes and metaphors, can be used to express feelings and ideas. Through this unit of work students will gain a greater appreciation of the power of language and how it can be used to create vivid images and evoke emotions. Enjoy reading some of their historical fiction ‘Sizzling Starts’!
"The deadly screams were as alarming as a siren ringing in my ears. The constant gusts of icy wind were enough to make my arm hairs stick up straighter than a pencil. The screams of injured people around me was as horrific as a tornado ripping through a town." Cruze
"Mama’s arms are squeezing me tight. Tears ran down her dirty, tired face. “Diese Gnade, die mich so weit gerettet hat.” Mama sang quietly in my ears. The bombs rained down from the sky and landed in a circle around our house. Mama’s scream rang in ears and I shut my eyes." Jade
"My whole body vibrated from the outside in, as the bomb hit the ground. Shards of glass, debris and dust blew up into my face like smoke billowing from a burning tower. My vison was blurry and the only sound I could hear was the ringing caused from the explosion. I’d lost all sense of direction. It was at this moment fear and terror ripped through my body, my heart skipped a beat." Chloe
"The ear-piercing sound of repetitive gun shots bounced off the timber frames and echoed around the family room. The family room which was once filled with smiles, but now is only a dark pile of worry. My little brother Elias was whimpering in Mama’s arms, and my older sister Lena’s face was as pale as the cumulus clouds bouncing in the dark sky above us." Jada
Junior Primary News
Last week , Jo took our class over to ‘The Green Space’ to teach us about nature, gardening and how to take care of plants in the garden. She supplied lots of different naturals items for the children to look through and observe, as well as, organising garden experiences too! The children picked lettuce seeds, tomatoes and were able to try seasoned potatoes 🥔 which were picked by some students last week. We love our school garden and the opportunities the children have due to this facility are endless!
Middle Primary News
Our Year Three and Four Class led the Ash Wednesday Mass for the school and Parish.
Congratulations on your fabulous participation.
As we begin the season of Lent each child has chosen their own Lenten Intention to follow throughout the journey leading to Easter where we grow and change to become more like Jesus.
Reception News
In the Reception classroom we have been working on recognising numerals. One way we did this was by playing a game of 'memory' by matching the numerals and placing them into pairs. The player who had the highest number of pairs at the end of the game won that round. They played so nicely together and had a lot of fun practising their number recognition skills.
Literacy Coaching - Reception
This first term back at school will have all new Reception students being tested for their oral memory. There will be 42 sentences spoken to a student by me, and that student is required to repeat the sentence exactly. These sentences are asked in a very quiet, comfortable environment, with no distractions, and over 3 weeks so that the student is not over tired. The reason behind the testing is to discover the level of the student’s ability to understand and recall what is said to them. Class teachers will change their instructions if a student has a problem with a longer sentence. Also, oral memory is the foundation of all learning, so it is important to know how a child is able to cope in the classroom environment.
Regards,
Mandy Thompson.
