St Cecilia's Newsletter Week 8

A word from the Principal

Dear Parents and Carers, 

We’re fast approaching the end of yet another term, and your child’s end of semester 1 school report will soon be on its way to you. School reports summarise your child’s performance at school for the semester to date. The achievement levels from grades 1-6 are Extensive, Thorough, Sound, Basic and Limited, however Kindergarten are graded on a three point scale - Working Towards, Working At, Working Beyond. Effort scales are the same from K-6 and equally as important grades to indicate your child's application, attitude and effort towards a subject. These grades are Commendable, Working Well, Works with Encourgament and Needs Attention.

I want to thank the teachers for all their efforts and hard work they have put in over the past few weeks to prepare all their children's personalised reports. With the full  Implementation phase of the new K-2 syllabus, our K- 2 teachers have been working with the new Mathematics and English syllabus’ this year, which meant that reporting for K-2 has changed and will look different to the 3-6 reports, which are still based on the old syllabus structure. While grades 3-6 are still in the Familiarisation and Learning and Exploring phase of their new syllabus implementation, they will continue to report with the old reporting template. Please read the following changes for K-2 reporting carefully.

Literacy Reporting 
Kindergarten to Year 2 (K-2) have been learning using the content in the new English and Mathematics syllabus documents.  These have been implemented across all of NSW. Next year, the new English and Mathematics curriculum will be introduced in primary classes (3-6). 
The new NSW curriculum organises learning based on the main components of both Reading and Writing. For Years 1 and 2, these are:

• Oral language and communication
• Vocabulary
• Phonic knowledge
• Reading fluency
• Reading comprehension
• Creating written texts
• Spelling
• Handwriting
• Understanding and Responding to Literature.

The Kindergarten syllabus contains two additional components:

• Phonological awareness
• Print conventions

Once students develop this understanding and skills in Kindergarten, they no longer need to be taught as explicitly in future years. These new teaching and reportable components are all integral to allow students to become proficient readers, writers, speakers and listeners and they are well supported by empirical research. Throughout this semester, children have been regularly assessed in these areas to check for progress and to determine future teaching and learning. As such, the Semester 1 reports for K-2 will be structured differently than previous years to reflect this change. This year, reports will indicate how your child is progressing in each area, as well as their general effort across these components and you’ll find a brief outline of content learning descriptors (list form) that align to the focus areas graded on.

Mathematics Reporting
Additionally, the K-2 Mathematics syllabus has also been restructured to include the following components:

• Representing whole numbers
• Combining and separating quantities
• Forming groups
• Geometric measure
• Two-dimensional spatial structure
• Three-dimensional spatial structure
• Non-spatial measures
• Data
• Chance (Years 1-2 only)

Similarly, the K-2 reports in Mathematics this year will also reflect this change. As usual, if particular learning areas in English or Mathematics were not the focus for assessment this semester, they will be marked ‘Excluded’. If you would like some more information about the new syllabus documents for Kindergarten to Year 2, there is a detailed document here:
parent-guide-k-2-english-and-mathematics.docx (live.com)

Learning Behaviours, Values, Attendance and General Comment
Each report includes a short section on learning behaviours, values and attendance and the report ends with a general comment. As Mr Madigan and I have been reviewing all the reports we have noted a significant increase in some children's habitual non-attendance. Next week I will be following up on attendance matters with a letter delivered to families in parent/techer interviews should there be cause for concern with your child's regular absence, either partial or whole days.   

If you are interested to know about your child's attendance you can view their attendace rate in the Compass app. Got to 'Open in Browser', select 'Profile', click on 'Attendance' tab. I have attached an image of what you should see when you get to this destination. 

Refer to the red circle, in the picture below and under the 'Percentages' heading in 'School%' you will be able to identify  your child's attendance rate. The descriptors of concern, based on percentages are listed below.  

What's in the blue circle on the photo below elaborates on how many whole or partial days your child has been absent each term.
The green circle shows a key for explained or unexplained absences, such as the following;
- A green cell indicates a child's full day present.
- A peach coloured cell shows an explained absence.
- Peach coloured stripey cell indicates an explained partial absence. 
- Blue cell indicates a Flexible day such as staff development day, HBL, flooding etc. 
- Red shaded cell means the absence was left unexplained. 

Please remember to go back and explain your child's absence within 7 days (not working days - consecutive days) if they've been away. Your child's attendance matters as it can impact on their learning, social dynamics and motivation to come to school.

Please let the class teacher or school know if there's anything we can do to assist in helping you with your child's improved attendance at school. 

Kind Regards

Marta Chylewska

Staying Connected

St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

Our St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal in on now. Thank you to everyone who has donated so far, we are very grateful. We will be accepting donations until Friday the 24th June.

A list of suggested items can be found in the attachment below. 

Pupil Free Day

A reminder that Friday the 30th June is a CSBB system wide staff development day. Students last day of school for Term 2 is Thursday 29th June. 

Term 3 commences on Monday the 17th July.

Mid-year Parent/Teacher interviews - BOOK NOW!

We currently only have 114 bookings made out of 240 children. Please pop into your Compass app to book your mid-year parent/teacher interview with your child's class teacher. The interviews are taking place all of next week.  Parent-teacher interviews are a great opportunity to follow up with your child’s teachers about their report,  ask any clarifying questions and discuss some areas for growth. Learning starts at home, so being aware of what areas your child needs extra help in will benefit them greatly! The teachers are looking forward to meeting with you all. 

End of Year Date for the Diary

Please see attached some key end of year dates for your
calendar.

A reminder that we have the live online school calendar in
your Compass App or on the school website.

Term 3 School Disco

Please save the date for the school disco is Term 3. Friday 25th August 5pm-6.30pm!

More details to follow.

2023 CSBB Religious Creative Arts Competition

Join us for the ultimate celebration of creativity and talent at Catholic Schools Broken Bay's highly anticipated 2023 Religious Creative Arts Competition. Open to all students from Kindergarten to Year 10, this event features five exciting categories, including visual arts, dance, drama, music, and short film.Finalists will have the opportunity to perform or display their work at a special 'Showcase' performance evening, with industry performers and judges in attendance. Don't miss out on this incredible chance to showcase your creative talent!

Stage 1 - Entries close, 18 August 2023.

Stage 2 - Finalists judging, 7 September 2023.

Stage 3 - Finalists showcase evening, 24 October 2023.

Register your interest at your school and mark the importantdates on your calendar.

Bright Beginnings

The next session of Bright Beginnings is on Thursday 22nd June. We invite all families with preschool aged children to come along and join us for a Fitness Frenzy at 9.30am.

If you would like to join us you can register your attendance here.

Teaching and Learning Matters

NAPLAN

As year 3 and Year 5 parents will be aware, this year's NAPLAN assessment were administered almost two months earlier than usual. NAPLAN assessments took place in Term 1 and this change was the first indicator of other changes that have occurred within the NAPLAN process of assessment – the changes are substantial, and I urge you to read the attached information below which will explain the changes to you. At present the NAPLAN assessment results are scheduled to become available to parents in week 1 of Term 3. Hopefully the attached document will help you to understand the assessments.

The main changes in NAPLAN reporting to school and parents, will see the proficiency standards replace the previous numerical NAPLAN reporting bands and national minimum standards. Education ministers agreed 2023 was the right time to introduce this change alongside moving NAPLAN to March. The hope is that proficiency standards provide simple and clear information on student achievement. They are set at a challenging but reasonable level expected for the child at the time of NAPLAN testing, based mainly on what has been taught in previous years of schooling.

Religious Education Update

Weekly Parish Masses

Our weekly parish masses have been a great success! An assigned grade has been celebrating mass with our Wyong community each Monday at 9:15. Please view the following dates for upcoming Mass celebrations (please note the children will not celebrate mass if it is raining). Thank you, Year 3, for sharing these photos.

Term 2
* WEEK 9- 19 June; Year 1

Term 3
* WEEK 2 – 24 July; Kindergarten
* WEEK 3– 31 August; Year 6
* WEEK 4 – 7 August; Year 5
* WEEK 5– 14 August; Year 4
* WEEK 6 – 21 August; Year 3
* WEEK 7 – 28 August; Year 2
* WEEK 8 – 4 September; Year 1
* WEEK 9 – 11 September; Kindergarten

Sharing our Fabulous Learning

The children in Year 5 have been exploring the Sacraments of Service and how some people are called to God through these sacraments (marriage and holy orders). They have been responding by using thinking routines to engage and make meaningful connections. Recently the children used a Colour, Symbol, Image thinking routine to investigate the word ‘commitment’. Later in the unit the children will explore the many commitments our priests, deacons and bishops have to the Church.

Staff Spotlight

Learning Support Aides

From left to right - Mr Sweeney, Mrs Sweeney, Mrs Sartor and Mrs Hopwood. 

We are blessed at St Cecilia's to have four Learning Support Aides who work as part of the collaborative, supportive and nurturing Learner Diversity team. This staff support all our children in the classroom and out on the playground and they're especilally talented in knowing how to connect with children and this is evident from the many positive relationships they have establised.

PEC Update

Year 3 Faith and Learning Walk 

Thursday 22^nd June.  This will be held in the Year 3 classroom starting at 2.30pm.

During the Faith and Learning Walks we will welcome parents and carers into the classroom to celebrate a grade liturgy. The liturgy theme will highlight what the children are learning during their Religious Education lessons and allow an opportunity for the families to connect with the Catholic faith.  

Following the liturgy, the children will demonstrate their acquired knowledge by showcasing their favourite pieces of learning. Participating in these learning walks will enable parents and carers to engage as partners in their child’s learning journey.  All are welcome!

We are looking forward to seeing you.

St Peter’s Catholic College - Annual Global Rosary Relay 2023 - Live Stream and Morning Tea

The Worldpriest Annual Global Rosary Relay is where people from all over the world join together in prayer for the sanctification of priests. Our Diocese is an official prayer location, and the event will be live-streamed from the Hornsby Cathedral on Friday June 16 at 10:30am, which we will broadcast in our St Peter’s Catholic College Chapel.

Rosary beads will be supplied for those who don’t have them, and we encourage you to come along even if you have never prayed the Rosary before.

PBL - Positive Behaviours For Learning

Classroom Connections

5 Blue 

During our Geography inquiry unit this fortnight, we have been learning about the sub question, ‘How do people influence places and the management of spaces within them?’ We explored how good infrastructure is carefully planned by the council and State government to improve the quality of life.  

Students also worked collaboratively in pairs to research and provide examples of the different zone areas (residential, commercial, industrial, agricultural, vacant and community). In the coming weeks, students will have a chance to plan and develop a new town incorporating the different zones. Students have shown excellent inquiring minds! 

Awards & Acknowledgements

Congratulations to the following children for their achievements! The listed award recipients will receive their award at Friday morning's assembly at 8:45am!

Academic Achievement Award

PBL Award

Personal Best Award

Light of Learning Award

Upcoming Events

Week 8

Wednesday 14th June ~ Year 6 leave for Canberra Excursion

Friday 16th June ~ Year 6 return from Canberra Excursion

~ Sacred Heart Liturgy at 8.45am

~ Whole school awards 9am

Week 9

Monday 19th June ~ Year 1 Parish Mass at St Cecilia's Church at 9.15am

Thursday 22nd June
~ Bright Beginnings Fitness Frenzy at 9.30am
~ Year 3 Faith and Learning Walk at 2.30pm

Friday 23rd June ~ Stage 3 CCC Soccer Gala Day

Week 10

Monday 26th June ~ Whole School NAIDOC Mass in school hall at 9.30am.

Tuesday 27th June ~ Paul Kelly Cup Regional at Bateau Bay

Thursday 29th June ~ Last day of Term 2 for students & NAIDOC day rotations 9am - 12pm

Friday 30th June ~ Staff Development Day

SAVE THE DATE:

Confirmation Sacrament, 15th of July at 10:00, St Peter's Catholic College Tuggerah