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Sunday’s Gospel Mt 5:13-16 “You are the light of the world’ shares the message of not putting the light under a tub where it cannot be seen, and instead, be the light on the lamp stand where it shines for everyone, This Gospel has been brought to life by our school and its community, particularly over the past week. How wonderful it has been to see our staff and our parent community coming together to shine the light and celebrate the beginning of the school year, particularly at our Meet and Greet last Friday. Thank you to our amazing staff and our parents and carers for your attendance.
The year ahead is an exciting one, with many wonderful opportunities for our community to come together and celebrate learning, to pray and to embrace the STA spirit.
Last Monday, our staff participated in the “faith in learning” system day. The day provided wonderful learning opportunities for teachers across our system to engage in the Catalyst program and listen to valuable keynote speakers that provided insightful knowledge, resources and professional learning to support our teachers in the classroom. Archbishop Christopher Prowse opened the day and shared with us Pope Francis’ message on synodality, “In 2023 we will walk together”. Walking together is something I know our staff and community do so well, I encourage all to come forward to walk together as a community in 2023. Our P&F and school Board are ways you may like to share in the life of the school. There are some positions open for the 2023 school year, if you are interested. Please contact our P&F or School Board via staschoolboard@cg.catholic.edu.au or through our office on 62314022.
Annual Improvement Plan
This year our Annual improvement Plan includes the following key improvement goals:
Goal 1- Building Catholic Identity and increasing community engagement, culture and collaboration
Goal 2- Assessment, data and analysis identify student achievement, aligned with the curriculum and inform teaching practice.
Goal 3- Staff collaborate across P-6 to develop a shared understanding of the curriculum, strong content knowledge and the skills to implement high impact teaching practices that improve student learning.
We look forward to sharing strategies to achieve these goals across the year.
Parent Information Sessions
Tonight we welcome our parents and carers to our information sessions:
Session One:
5.00-5.20pm
Session Two:
5.30pm-5.50pm
Our assistant principal Garreth Wigg, Religious Education Coordinator Beth Lemensich and Learning Support Coordinator Bernadette Whitfiled and myself will also be on hand to answer any questions or queries.
We also have our Compass Q&A session running after session two from 6.00pm in the hall if you are unsure on how to navigate our Compass communication portal.
Whole school Liturgy
On Friday, we celebrate our first whole school Liturgy with Fr. Tom from 11.45am-with a 12.00pm start time in our school hall. This will also be an opportunity to present our Year 6 leadership badges. All are warmly welcome.
Harmony Day Tuesday 21st March (Week 8) - Expression of Interest
As we begin planning for our Harmony Day celebrations, we are looking for expressions of interest from any members of our St Anthony’s community who would be willing and able to cook or prepare samples of food that are representative of different cultures within our community. If you can share your talent and your culture in this area, please contact Beth Lehmensich at beth.lehmensich@cg.catholic.edu.au by Friday 17th of February.
Sacramental Program
This year, there have been some changes to our Sacramental Program. We will not be celebrating the Sacrament of First Reconciliation in Year Three in 2023. From 2024, First Reconciliation will be celebrated in Year Four along with First Eucharist. This year, the sacraments will be celebrated as follows:
- First Eucharist - Year Four
- Confirmation - Year Six
More information regarding dates and how to register your child/ren to receive their sacraments will be communicated via COMPASS in the coming weeks. If you have any questions, please contact Beth Lehmensich at beth.lehmensich@cg.catholic.edu.au.
Spelling Mastery
Next week, our students across Years 3-6 will begin the Spelling Mastery program. Spelling Mastery approaches spelling through strategies, patterns and rules. The straightforward lessons in Spelling Mastery combine phonemic, morphemic, and whole-word instruction to make spelling easier to learn, leading the way to more effective writing. Spelling Mastery interweaves these three approaches according to students' skill development and provides lessons to help you efficiently and effectively teach the spelling skills students need to become proficient readers and writers. Explicit instruction, careful selection of spelling words, and repeated and cumulative practice help students master each concept and reinforce and retain key information. The lessons are planned for 15-20 minutes a day and can assist students in becoming confident, strategic and successful spellers. Spelling mastery groups have been determined according to individual student placement tests that each of our Year 3-6 students have completed. This may mean that your child may be in a spelling group that differs from their regular classroom group or in some cases, year level. The program will be run Monday-Thursday from 11.45am. Whilst the program is planned for 15-20 minutes, to begin, these lessons may extend for a little longer. The program has been well researched with very positive outcomes across our Archdiocese. Our staff have participated in professional learning for the Spelling Mastery program, and we look forward to sharing the success of this program and STA spelling growth over the year ahead.
Italian is back at STA
How wonderful it is to have our students learning Italian. This year we have embarked on an exciting opportunity to be the first Primary school in our Archdiocese to introduce Italian from Pre-school to Year 6! We are currently developing a program with the Italian Embassy and the Dante Alghieri Society to ensure a native Italian speaker is employed as an Italian Classroom Assistant during the week to work alongside Signor (Ben) Mockler to provide interesting and challenging learning experiences for all students. Together we are developing a pathways project which will allow students from St Anthony’s to be supported in their Italian from Pre-School through to Mary MacKillop College! We hope this model motivates students to foster an enduring love of languages.
CARPARK- reminder
NO RIGHT turn into the school driveway between 8:15am -9:30am. Please go down to the roundabout instead. This is for the safety of all our students. Thank you.
Have a wonderful week.
Erin