Dear Community Members
Our lives these days are governed by many calendars – the School or Preschool calendar, the sporting calendar and the calendar of the seasons to name a few. The Liturgical Calendar – the church’s annual cycle of seasons and celebrations – has plenty of competition. This part of Ordinary Time in the Liturgical Calendar may struggle to stay on the radar. Not only is it shadowed by Christmas and Lent, but prone to being overshadowed by the end of the summer holidays and the resumption of school and the working year. The Gospel of last week and this week could be called, “A Day in the Life of Jesus”. They follow on from each other in the Gospel of Luke. This week’s reading is by no means ordinary, rather appealing as it is striking the commanding figure of Jesus, preaching and healing with impressive authority.
Schools are extremely busy places with many events and programs running simultaneously at any one time, there is no down time. Like all professions, education needs to be contemporary and in touch with current research to meet the needs of students in the 21st Century. At a national level, schools are also required to meet various benchmarks related to the Curriculum and the general wellbeing of the student body. These demands placed upon school improvement require schools to not just develop one new initiative at a time, but to map and establish a clear framework for what changes need to be made and which existing successful structures and habits of excellence are to be maintained, ensuring no student is left behind and every child can meet their full potential.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter article, this year we are focussing on four agendas
Last week you may have also seen in the Eastern Courier an article on how SJMS is restructuring our Early Years to enhance offerings for children. Click here to read more.
One of the initiatives that has been in the making since last year is the School supplied take-home laptop program, of which I think I have been asked by a child every day since ‘whether the laptops are ready?’. Last year Senior Constable Glen Shepherd held a parent meeting on Cyber Safety, in doing this we aimed to help establish a shared understanding of what we as parent body can do to ensure the safe use of valuable educational devices. We are pleased to announce that Mr Dwiar (ICT Technician) has successfully set up all the devices, the Year 4 to Year 7 students have been learning about Cyber Safety and the MacBooks are ready for use! It is intended that they will make their way home at the end of this week upon the return of the Reasonable Usage Agreement.
P&F and School Board
Thank you to those families who attended the recent combined Parents and Friends and School Board Annual General Meeting. I hope those that attended found the content of the evening useful in understanding the vision for the school and how the school has been working towards this.
Last Tuesday the SJMS P&F hosted their first meeting of the year. It was a great meeting where the committee discussed the events for the year, particularly Term 1. This term we look forward to the Fun Run and St Joseph’s Feast Day Lunch.
On Wednesday 20 March we will also hold our first School Board meeting for the year. This year we continue to work on our Master Plan for future capital works at both our Bridge St and William St sites amongst many other strategic endeavours, to ensure that our school remains relevant for all families.
Parent Involvement, Learning Goals and Reading
“Parental involvement in children’s education from an early age has a significant effect on educational achievement, and continues to do so into adolescence and adulthood.”
The Impact of Parental Involvement on Children’s Education (2011).
This week I found myself speaking to a group of Year 6 and Year 7 students about the purpose of setting learning goals. Of all examples, I used that of Winnie the Pooh and his favourite game of Poohsticks (each player throws a stick over the upstream side of a bridge into a stream or river, the winner being the person whose stick emerges first from under the bridge), discussing we mustn’t just drift along like a poohstick, we must set goals and move towards them with intention and purpose.
As Catholic Educators the recognition as, understanding of and belief in parents as the first educators of their children is ‘hard-wired’ into our DNA. For many of you when we first met this was articulated as a relationship between the expert (parent) and professional (teacher) with the child at the centre of every conversation. This is something we continually seek to honour through our continued partnership. The majority of you have already met with your child’s teacher/s, and your support and contribution are highly valued. The genuine conversations about your children are a testimony to the authentic partnership that exists within, across and through our community. We are not simply going through the motions, we are working together to establish goals and create the conditions for your child to have a successful year in all aspects of their schooling. I thank you all for your ongoing support and commitment.
I want to stress the importance of setting goals and discussing ways to meet these goals. Addressing reading goals is easy - reading with your child every evening. A keystone of learning is being able to read, just think of all the things you would be unable to do, as an adult, without reading skills; shopping, searching the internet, passing a driving test, reading this newsletter, need I go on?
In school children read every day as individuals and in groups. However, we as a school, acknowledge the fantastic contribution our parents make to ensure all children in the school reach their potential in reading. We are confident that we will never be the lone educator in teaching children to read. We need your continued support at home to complement our efforts as your child progresses through the primary years.
Research and studies of how children learn to read show that parents reading regularly with their child has the greatest positive effect in a child becoming a reader, with many of these children being able to read before they enter school or, at least having the attributes to be able to learn to read once starting school.
Children and parents reading together for just 10-15 minutes per day will significantly improve your child’s reading skills and, in turn, improve their life prospects and expectations. Parents and caregivers (who have a current Catholic Schools Police Clearance) are welcome in classrooms to listen to the students read. Please see your classroom teacher if this is something you are interested in, it would be greatly appreciated.
World’s Greatest Shave
One of our students and his family have approached me to participate in the World’s Greatest Shave. Jesse (Year 1 Gold) will participate in the Leukaemia Foundation initiative to raise awareness for blood cancer. Jesse will shave his hair at school on Wednesday 13 March. This is an exception to our school policy on hair as it raises awareness for an illness. Jesse will have a collection box for donations at the front office if you would like to support his cause.
God Bless
Brady Stallard