Issue 18 - 9th November 2022

It is so lovely to be back in the school after being away!  I had the most wonderful experience in Italy.  The Saints of Italy pilgrimage with other Principals, CET Leadership and Archbishop Julian was truly one of the most inspiring and faith-filled experiences I have had.  As a Catholic, being in the presence of our Pope, Pope Francis, is a dream come true.  Thousands of people were in Vatican Square on that day and there was an air of respect and faith and awe.  Every church we visited referenced a particular saint and was the focal point of our Mass for that day.  I learned so much about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people, their work for those in need and their sacrifices for their faith.  In the next few newsletters, I will give a biography on some of these saints.  As I said on my Facebook posts during my time away, it was an absolute privilege to represent our school on the pilgrimage.  I kept our community in my mind, my prayers and my reflections every day.

As you have been notified, we have a Deputy Principal joining us in 2023.  That’s very exciting news for our community.  Mr Casey Moore is coming to us from St Paul’s Catholic School in Brighton.  Casey and his wife, Nicole, will be moving into the area.  In the new year, Casey will give you some information about himself and his experience prior to joining us.

NAPLAN

I now have access to the NAPLAN data for 2022.  We did so well!

The key data for schools is the percentage of students who have achieved ‘at or above the national minimum standard’ for each test.

In Year 3, 100% of participating students achieved at or above the national minimum standard in Reading, Writing and Grammar/Punctuation; 87% in Spelling and 93% in Numeracy.

In Year 5, 100% of participating students achieved at or above the national minimum standard in Reading, Writing, Spelling and Numeracy; 95% in Grammar/Punctuation.

The data provides us with information about the areas in which we need to continue to improve student learning.

The skills demonstrated in NAPLAN testing are taught by teachers in the years leading up to the NAPLAN year, and the Years 3 and 5 teachers review those prior to testing.  It is a collective effort.  We will continue to review and revise our teaching practice, programs and prioritised content to ensure our students are optimally achieving.

Congratulations to last week’s Aiming High winners:

Kinder - Kolt Fraser & Leo Moore

Prep - Mac Fraser & Ty Dennison 

Grade 1 - Huxley Bryan & Isla Burke

Grade 2 - Kaley Saward & Kash Quarrell

Grade 4 - Noah Gray & Jordana Pay

Grade 5 - Jedda Maguire & Tayla Ollington 

Grade 6 - Lewis Sheehan & Maddon Radford

Our Parents and Friends are holding their AGM on Thursday 24th November at 3pm. Please note the date has changed. If you wish for our P&F to continue please come along. All positions available to be filled. 

Our Parents and Friends are holding a Christmas Raffle, if you are in a position to donate, donations for our Christmas hampers would be appreciated. 

More information will follow in the next newsletter. 

Congrats Lewis on your Cake win!

Tomorrow, our 2023 Kinder Orientation starts! We are excited to welcome our new Kinders for next year. These sessions run over the following four Friday’s and help our new students and families become familiar with school and our routines. If you know of anyone yet to enrol, please contact the office.

Don't forget to purchase your child's/ren's bookpack online via https://www.booklists.com.au/phos/ and follow the prompts on the booklists families received, if you have misplaced your booklist they are available on compass.

Please see below, term dates for 2023: 

Our designs have been finalised for the new Smart Play uniform. We will soon be able to advise families on an expected delivery date. At this stage it is likely to be Term 2. Our current Kinder students will have the option to wear sports uniform for Term 1 instead of having to purchase new uniform items. 

From the commencement of 2023, the expectation for school shoes will be that all students should be wearing plain black sports shoes with no colour markings. This will save families who are planning to move directly into smart play from purchasing new shoes.

Preventing the Summer Slide

As much as teachers love summer holidays, there’s always a little (actually, big) panic that sets in as we pack up the classrooms and send our children off during those holiday weeks of fun in the sun.  What if they never pick up a book?  Oh, and they were so close in learning all their math facts- will they forget?  We’ve worked so diligently teaching skills and the kids have learned so much—what if when they return in the new school year, they forget?  The loss of skills during the summer in the educational world is known as “The Summer Slide” and it is very real.   Research indicates that a lot of children consistently lose 2 months of reading performance and that those loses accumulate each year during the primary grades.  This means that by upper primary, a student can be up to 2 ½ years behind!  According to research, two-thirds of the 9^th grade reading achievement gap can be explained by unequal access to summer learning opportunities during the summer months during primary school.  Crazy, right?

So, what’s the answer? We must ensure that our children have books in their hands.  Below are a few fun and simple ways to keep kids engaged with learning during the summer.

1. Visit your local library!  Help your child find “right fit books.  Right fit books are books that are of high interest to your child and are not beyond their reading level.  You can use the five-finger test to determine if the book is too difficult for your child.  Open the book to a page with many words.  Have your child begin reading the text.  Hold up a finger for each word he/she does not know.  If you have 4 or 5 fingers up, the text may be too difficult for your child to read independently.  Feel free to still check out the book!  It just may be a book you want to read with your child.

2. Be sure your child reads at least 20 minutes a day.  According to research, a child who reads only 1 minute a day outside of school will learn 8,000 words by the end of sixth grade where a student who reads 20 minutes outside of school will learn 1,800,000 words!  That’s huge!  If reading isn’t one of your child’s top priorities, you may need to set up an incentive program.
3. Set a good example.  When your child sees you reading and enjoying a book or a newspaper article, you are sending a message that reading is important and valuable.
4. Read to your child.  When you read to your child, he/she hears the rhythm of language.  Be sure to read with expression!  Changing your voice for the different characters in the story and increasing volume for exciting parts are only a few ways to make reading interesting.
5. Read with your child –explore different types of reading like poetry.  For our little ones, poetry is great way to improve phonemic awareness skills as poetry often incorporates rhyme.  For our older children, poetry is a means of improving fluency.
6. Read for different purposes.  Reading directions for a recipe or directions for assembling a toy are fun ways to incorporating reading.
7. If you have an iPad, try downloading a few interactive books.  There are also lots of reading games that keep children engaged.