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Dear STA Families,
Welcome to Term Two, how lovely it has been to see our students back at school and ready for learning. This term there are many exciting events happening in our school.
Last Tuesday, our Teachers participated in a Catalyst professional learning conference which explored High Impact Teaching Practices based on the Science of Learning. The Science of Learning is to summarise the existing research from cognitive science related to how students learn, and connect this research to its practical implications for teaching and learning.
This pedagogy and practice aligns with one of our annual improvement plan goals to:
Improve student achievement in English and Mathematics through the implementation of explicit teaching using evidence based practices.
This term, teachers will be focussing on implementing High Impact Teaching Practices (HITP) in their classrooms. Some examples of this are through explicit instruction and daily review.
Year 6 Leadership
Last Friday, I met with our school captains and Year 6 portfolio leaders. May I commend these students on their proactive ideas and suggestions to create an even better learning environment at St Anthony’s. Some of these ideas include:
School Captains
- Creating a Student Representative Council
- Lunch time clubs, eg. Chess club
Environment Leaders
- Worm Farm
- Student activities
- Rain barrel
- Providing Veggies to Canteen
- Recycling Bin across the school yards
Media Leaders
- Creating a student newsletter
- Equipment for media
- Organising yearbook sponsorship
School Organisation Leaders
- School Open day tours
- Sports equipment
- Stocktake of lunch time sports equipment
- Canteen Menu review
- More shade around the school
Mission and Ministry Leaders
- Leaders visiting classes to lead prayer
- Mental Health and Well-being Day
- Sunday Children’s Liturgy with Fr Tony at Mass
We look forward to working through these ideas as a team and bringing to life as many opportunities as possible for our students.
NAPLAN
All ACT schools will participate in NAPLAN Online testing from 10-20 May 2022.
Year 3 and 5 students have had an opportunity to participate in practice tests last week. As a parent/carer, you can become familiar with NAPLAN Online tests by visiting the public demonstration site, http://bit.ly/naplanonline. The purpose of the site is to familiarise students with the type of items they will see on NAPLAN Online and related functionalities. This level of familiarisation is worthwhile to help students understand and be comfortable with the format of the test.
Further information on NAPLAN Online, including the public demonstration site, is available at www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/naplan-online.
Eating and playtime arrangements.
This term there has been a slight change to the playtime and eating arrangements. This has been a considered decision based on research and observations of last term. The following points are some examples to provide feedback on what this change looks like at school:
- Students are no longer rushed to finish their food so they are first out to play
- Students have time in their eating period to discuss with teacher their playtime experiences
- Teachers have opportunity to observe eating habits and to ensure all students have something to eat before returning to class
- Students have a longer period of time to eat their food in a calm and seated environment after playtime
As with all changes, this will continue to be assessed and monitored. Adjustments and consideration have been made for students as required.
Cross Country
Next Monday we will have Cross Country for our P-6 students from 12pm on the top (government) oval. This event allows volunteers who have a WWVP to help on the day.. Please see further details about this event on the Cross Country note that was sent out yesterday.
Market Day
This Thursday, we have our Year 5&6 Market day event. How wonderful it is to welcome back these opportunities for students to join together. Please note- students cannot use cash to purchase items- Market day money can be purchased through our QKR app. Under school events- Market Day Tab.
ThinkUKnow- Cyber safety
As outlined in the last newsletter, our school will be engaging with ThinkUKnow to speak with our students from Years 3-6 as well as facilitating a Parent/Carer evening session at school around cybersafety.
ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence-based education program led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), delivered nationally in partnership with police and industry partners to prevent online child sexual exploitation. Dates to be advised.
OPEN DAY AFTERNOON
YEAR 6 CAMP
May I take this opportunity to thank our Year 6 Teachers and Mr Lowe, Miss Whitefield and Mr Bradley for their additional time and preparation to ensure our Year 6 students enjoy a wonderful time at their camp in Narrabeen next Wednesday-Friday. Narrabeen is a memorable camp experience which I am sure each of you will thoroughly enjoy!
COVID update
As Covid continues to be in our environment, families are reminded to report positive cases directly to our covid support email on stacovid@cg.catholic.edu.au
Close Household Contacts
Household contacts will not have to quarantine if they have no COVID-19 symptoms but will need to comply with the following requirements for seven days from the time the first person in their household tests positive for COVID‑19:
- Advise ACT Health that they are a household contact by completing a COVID-19 online declaration form.
- Wear a face mask in all indoor spaces when outside of the home, if aged 12 years and over.
- Students study from home, where it is practical to do so
- Parents/Carers notify the school of their child being a household contact
- If it is not practical to study from home, students must undertake COVID-19 testing and return a negative result in the 24 hours prior to returning to school and then every 48 hours if ongoing attendance is required
Daily Reporting of COVID Cases
Schools will notify parents only if there are a significant number of cases within the community and/or a cohort.
The health and safety of students and staff remains as always our priority. If there are high numbers of COVID-19 exposures at our school, consideration will be given to whether any of the following additional COVID-19 Safety Measures should be reintroduced, with authorisation by Catholic Education Office. These measures aim to limit the potential for further transmission and will generally be limited to a short period of time (e.g. 1 to 2 weeks).
- Additional testing recommendations such as to test before returning to school/ELC and again in 48 hours
- Masks Staff, students in Years 7-12, and visitors may be asked to wear a mask when indoors and when physical distancing of 1.5 metres cannot be maintained
- Limiting parents and carers on site Parents and carers may be asked not to attend a school/ELC site without an appointment
- Cancelling permitted activities Any of the planned permitted activities may be cancelled or rescheduled to another date
- Cohorting It may be necessary to cohort a particular class or year level so that they don’t mix with other students or staff across the school
- Remote learning Some or all students may need to return to remote learning. This measure will be limited as much as possible, however may also be enacted in response to workforce shortages arising from COVID-19
May I take this opportunity to wish all our Mother’s, Grandmother’s and special women in our lives, a very Happy Mother’s Day this Sunday. I hope you have a lovely day with loved ones.
This Friday, we will be celebrating our mothers and mother figures with a liturgy led by Year 2. A link for this liturgy will be sent out to families on Friday.
A reminder, if you haven’t already, please send in a photo of our students with their mothers or mother figures to beth.lehmensich@cg.catholic.edu.au by 4pm on Wednesday the 4th of May.
We had our tongs out and were warming our barbecues to put on a lovely Mother’s Day breakfast for our mums, unfortunately, we are still unable to welcome our families onsite while our children are here. We hope restrictions will ease soon so we can again welcome our families beyond the gate.
We wish all of our mothers and mother figures a very happy Mother’s Day this weekend.
Last week we had Master School Portraits (MSP) at St Anthony’s to take our professional school photos. Please see the information below for families regarding ordering photo packs and for students that were absent on photo day.
Individual photo packs can still be ordered through COMPASS until Friday 6th of May.
Sibling photo orders now need to be made by contacting MSP via phone on 6255 9208. These also need to be placed by Friday the 6th of May.
Students absent on photo day can have their individual and sibling photos taken at the MSP office in Jerrabomberra. Appointments can be made on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after 4pm. Please contact MSP via phone on 6255 9208 no later than Friday 6th May to make an appointment.
Book club flyers were sent home last week and orders close on Thursday. All orders are to be made online, orders will be delivered to school.