St Cecilia's Newsletter Term 3, Week 2
A word from the Principal
Dear Parents and Carers,
As we enter the second week back at school in Term 3, we have just received our year 3 and 5 NAPLAN results, which the children should have brought home today. While these results provide valuable insights into our children's academic progress, I want to emphasise that they are not the sole measure of your child's abilities and potential.
At our school, we believe in the holistic development of every child, nurturing their unique talents, interests, and skills. NAPLAN results should be viewed as just one piece of the puzzle, reflecting a snapshot of a particular moment in time. We value each child's growth and progress over time, encompassing their social, emotional, physical and intellectual development.
It's essential for parents to remember that these results do not define your child's worth or potential. As caregivers, your support and encouragement play a pivotal role in shaping their self-confidence and attitude towards learning. Instead of focusing solely on the scores, let us engage in open and constructive conversations with our children about their strengths, areas for improvement, and interests.
These discussions can empower children to set their own goals, recognise their achievements, and develop resilience when facing challenges. By fostering a positive and growth-oriented mindset, we can guide our children towards becoming lifelong learners who embrace the joy of knowledge and personal development.
As a school community, we are committed to providing a nurturing and supportive environment where every student can thrive and shine in their unique way. Together, let's celebrate their progress, acknowledge their efforts, and help them build the skills needed to achieve their aspirations.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding your child's NAPLAN results or their overall development, please don't hesitate to reach out to our dedicated teaching staff, Mr Madigan, the Learner Diversity team or myself. We are here to work collaboratively with you to ensure your child's success and wellbeing.
Principal Feedback Survey
Just a reminder that last week the Director of Schools has invited all parents to contribute to my ongoing leadership development through completing a short survey. I have placed the parent link here for ease of access, as well as is in the attached letter from Danny Casey. I look forward to hearing of the initiatives and contributions which the community values and I thrive off constructive feedback on how I can continue to improve in my leadership capacity to serve the community better.
Thank you in advance for your support and participation in this process. You are valued members of our school community, and I hope we can continue to foster a culture of understanding, growth, and positivity together.
Kind regards
Marta Chylewska
Staying Connected
Crossing Duty
Bruce our new crossing man is working in a casual capacity to cover Leanne when she is away. On some occasions neither of the trained crossing supervisors can make it. In those instances, our teaching staff volunteer to assist with this duty but they are not trained for this role and unable to hold the STOP sign or wear the Transport NSW uniforms. This does mean our staff are not as visible to incoming traffic and putting themselves at risk to ensure the safety of our community. As the children's safety is paramount to all of us, could I please ask every family to help reinforce road rules, cross at the right place and remind your children that when using the crossing they must wait behind the yellow line till they are invited to cross the road by the supervisor or teacher on duty.
Lastly, when our staff are on crossing duty, please understand that they need to remain focused and vigilant with their crossing responsibilities, therefore they will not be able to have in-depth conversations with you at that time.
Families Leading In Partnership Meeting
The next Families Leading in Partnership (FLIP) meeting will take place on Wednesday 9th August at 6:15pm in the staffroom. Some of the agenda items for discussion will be:
- Numeracy Improvement Plan
- Culture Survey feedback
- Building Update
- School disco planning & Father's Day stall update
- Open to other agenda items.
Please RSVP here.
Mufti Day Tuesday 8th August
Mary Mac’s Place is an initiative of Catholic Care – our social services arm of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Broken Bay. We will have a Mufti Day on Tuesday 8 August on Mary MacKillop Feast Day to raise funds to keep this essential service running. Please bring a gold coin donation. Homelessness and social isolation can be overcome by working together – Catholic Care and Catholic Schools Broken Bay – as one community. Mary Mac’s receives no funding and rely 100% on community support.
Father's Day Stall - 1st September 2023
To all our dads, pop's, pa's, grandpa's, poppy's, opa's and special carers. Get excited, the mothers have been shopping! This year we have the greatest, coolest, clever, and useful selection of goodies to spoil you and celebrate you.
- Gifts are $6 each.
- 4 gifts per child limit.
- ON SALE now on QKR!
The QKR online stall will close 5:00pm Wednesday the 16th of August so get your orders in before then. This gives you three weeks to order and we ask that you do so within the given time frame.
Happy Shopping!
Year 4 Class Parents Belinda T and Mel M.
School Disco Tickets Now Available
Our annual school disco coordinated by our year 5 parents with the support of Kindy parents, will take place on August 25th at 5pm - 6:30pm. The school disco theme will be FLUORO FRIDAY! So please help your children get those NEON outfits ready!
Tickets are available to purchase now on QKR and will be $8. Children will receive a wrist band upon signing in at the disco. The wrist band will indicate to canteen volunteers that a child has paid for a snack pack. The snack pack will include a little chocolate bar, packet of popcorn, a Snap-Stick iceblock, bottle of water and an attire accessory to wear at the disco.
A compass message for volunteers will come out later this week. To assist in the smooth running of the event parent helpers will be required for jobs such as; canteen, check in table upon arrival, supervision duties, first aid duty, decorating, toilet monitoring and any other jobs that may arise. We hope to get 30 - 40 parent volunteers, so parent helpers can do half hour shifts on a job rather than the whole duration of the disco.
School Service Team Updates
Thursday Morning Office Hours Reminder
A reminder that the school office opens slightly later on Thursday at 8.45am due to a morning weekly general business meeting.
Late Arrivals
A reminder that the school day starts at 8:45am and if your child is arriving after this time, an adult is expected to walk them into the school office and sign them in so the child can take a late departure slip to their class teacher. This term teachers are maximising their peak learning time and we are no longer gathering for any assemblies on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. There are several late comers just strolling into school and heading straight to class on these days. Any arrivals after 8:45am must be checked in at the office, by an adult as late. Thanks.
PACER
Students from our school have recently undertaken an education tour of the national capital. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage and democracy. The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education.
To assist in meeting the cost of the excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $30 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion and was factored in for reduction of camp costs.
Teaching and Learning Matters
NAPLAN Results
Congratulations to our Year 3 and Year 5 students who did so well in this year’s NAPLAN Tests.
NAPLAN results were sent out to parents today and these results will include new proficiency standards.
The NAPLAN proficiency standards include 4 proficiency levels for each assessment area at each year level:
- Exceeding: the student’s result exceeds expectations at the time of testing.
- Strong: the student’s result meets challenging but reasonable expectations at the time of testing.
- Developing: the student’s result indicates that they are working towards expectations at the time of testing.
- Needs additional support: the student’s result indicates that they are not achieving the learning outcomes expected at the time of testing. They are likely to need additional support to progress satisfactorily.
Not all SSS DATA has been released yet, so analysis of trend data and comparison to Statistically Similar Schools (SSS) will not be known to us till early September. We will share that data once we receive it.
Paul Madigan
Public Speaking Competition
This year St Cecilia's will be participating in the annual whole school Public Speaking Competition. All students from Kindergarten to Year Six will be involved in some capacity in public speaking, with Kindergarten reciting a poem, Years 1 and Year 2 presenting an adapted narrative, and the students from grade 3 to 6 presenting a speech they have written in class.
The children in all grades 1-6 will be planning and writing their speeches at school based on a list of topics that align with the curriculum, however, they will be expected to practise their speech, regularly at home. They will be encouraged to use palm cards for prompting but will need to prepare to not read their whole speech from the cards. The delivery and writing of the speeches will be assessed for end of year reports and marks will be shared with the children.
Please see timeline for the speeches below, full details have been sent via Compass but if you have questions please email Att: Literacy Coach at scw@dbb.catholic.edu.au
Religious Education Update
SAINT MARY OF THE CROSS MACKILLOP LITURGY
(LED BY OUR BEAUTIFUL KINDY STUDENTS)
At St Cecilia’s we have a strong connection to Saint Mary MacKillop because she along with Julian Woods founded Australia's first order of nuns, the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, established St Joseph's School, and came to Wyong in 1916 to establish a convent and school. This is where the Sisters of St Joseph, established our school, St Cecilia’s as both a day and boarding school. The Sisters of St Joseph withdrew from St Cecilia’s at the end of 1988 and a lay principal was appointed in 1989. Our school community will always remember with love and gratitude the Sisters, who gave so much to the children and families of the Wyong Parish.
Please join us in prayer as we celebrate
the feast day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop on
Tuesday, the 8th of August at 8:45am (assembly area).
As mentioned above, children will wear mufti clothes and bring a gold coin donation.
Staff Spotlight
Guess Who's Back?
We welcome back Mrs Sheppeard after having a year off on maternity leave to take care of her bubba boy. Mrs Sheppeard was at St Cecilia’s last year teaching year 2 and she was our Digital Pedagogical Leader before going off to take the lead role of mum in 2022.
Mrs Sheppeard will be teaching all the BLUE classes for an hour either on Monday or Tuesday when the class teachers go out of class to engage in collaborative coaching around Numeracy. We are beyond excited to have Mrs Sheppeard back at St Cecilia’s!
Below are the times when each of the grade teachers are released for coaching on a weekly basis. Mrs Nash takes all the gold classes while Mrs Sheppeard takes the blue classes.
| MONDAY | TUESDAY |
9:35 – 10:45 | n/a | Year 6 |
11:35 – 12:25 | Year 5 | Year 4 |
12:25 – 1:25 | Year 2 | Year 1 |
2:05 – 3:05 | Kindergarten | Year 3 |
PEC Update
Dear Parents and Carers,
Please see flyer below on 123 Magic, I am a huge advocate for this program and the support or affirmation it can provide parents with. I will be attending these sessions and would like to invite anyone interested to attend with me. If you are interested, please contact me on 0424 763 734, bookings essential.
When: Tuesday 15th August, 22nd & 29th August 2023 (3 consecutive Weeks)
Where: Wyong School Community Centre 52 Cutler Drive, Wyong
Time: 12.30pm – 2.30pm (2 hours)
123 Magic and Emotion Coaching is for parents and carers of children aged 2 – 12years, wishing to learn how to manage difficult behaviours and encourage the development of their children’s ability to manage their emotional reactions.
The program aims to teach parents easy to use skills they can use to encourage children to respond more flexibly when they are frustrated or upset.
Parish Giving Broken Bay, Wyong Parish
Hello families,
You may not be aware that our diocese, Broken Bay, has an app with lots of fantastic resources, including information on mass services, Catholic Care and our parish giving program.
An important way of contributing to our parish and being part of the community is our “Planned Giving Program”. It is a simple way to help build our St Cecilia’s Church of Wyong Parish. By donating, even as little $1 on a weekly basis makes a huge difference to our Parish, which is fully funded by our parishioners. If this is something you’re interested in doing have a look at the app below for more information.
https://brokenbay.goodgiving.com.au/home/brokenbay
SPORTS News
In Week 1 this Term we caught up on our missed soccer clinics last term and the children will now be commencing with the netball clinic that will run for the next 4 weeks, run by professional netballers from NSW Netball. The clinics will take place on Thursday and Friday.
Things to look forward to this term:
- CCC Athletics: Friday week 3 -4th of August
- Stage 2 Soccer or Netball Gala Day: Friday week 6 - 25thof August
- Stage 3 Oz Tagcompetition for selected students: Tuesday - Week 7 - 29thof August (parents will need to be the transport)
- Stage 3 Netball Gala Day: Friday Week 10 - 22ndof September
We are also excited to have Aus Kick AFL run their after-school clinic beginning next Wednesday 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd August 3pm-4pm. We had this run last year with lots of success. The flyer was attached in the Principal's Updated last week and can be found here on our school website.
Sporting Achievement
Congratulations to Claudia S, Indie G. and Taylor G. who represented the Central Coast in the U11 York Cup and Kim Small Shield Representative Carnival Tamworth. Indie was named Player of the Tournament for her team and was a part of the leadership team.
Taylor and Indie also went on to represent again in the U13 State Championships.
Taylor’s competition was in Tamworth and they came 6th. He was named Player of the Tournament for his team which is also an incredible achievement at 10 years old. His goal even made the news (#55).
https://www.nbnnews.com.au/2023/07/02/tamworths-annual-under-11s-hockey-tournament-returns/
Indie’s competition was held at Wyong Hockey Fields, they came 5th and she scored the winning goal for their Friday night game.
We are so proud of you all and love receiving and sharing these updates regarding our children's significant sporting achievements.
Paddy Murton
PBL - Positive Behaviours For Learning
Classroom Connections
Grandparents Day!
What an extraordinary turn out for perhaps the biggest event on the calendar. The excitement in the air was electric and the smiles couldn’t be wiped from anyone's eyes until it was time for our wonderful grandparents to leave.
A huge thank you to the teachers for opening their classrooms, and to the grandparents for showing such enthusiasm and encouragement towards the learning of their grandkids. Whilst learning may have looked vastly different to when our grandparents were at school, the love and adoration of a grandchild to a grandparent never changes.
Congratulations and thank you also to the Stage 2 team for putting on a wonderful liturgy involving a tear-jerking photo montage of memorable moments and an inspiring grandparent's rendition to Do-Re-Mi written and choreographed by Mrs Adcock.
We hope and pray you all enjoyed the morning as we all look forward to adding many more memorable moments to celebrate with grandparents until next year's event.
Mr Paddy Murton
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
Kinder Blue | Deklan B. | Kinder Gold | Ivy-Anna G. |
1 Blue | Aria N. | 1 Gold | Poppy H. |
2 Blue | Ava J. | 2 Gold | Parker F. |
3 Blue | Patrick McB. | 3 Gold | Jayde. G |
4 Blue | Laila F. | 4 Gold | Olivia C. |
5 Blue | Frances M. | 5 Gold | Oliver K. |
6 Blue | Abdur J. | 6 Gold | Liam W. |
Creative Arts | Delilah P.H. | Japanese | n/a |
PBL Award
Kinder Blue | Lachy T. | Kinder Gold | Macy M. |
1 Blue | John H. | 1 Gold | Tomas J. |
2 Blue | Maggie G. | 2 Gold | Jian S. |
3 Blue | Ciara H. | 3 Gold | Spencer T. |
4 Blue | Jesse G. | 4 Gold | Lincoln B. |
5 Blue | Nikeeta R. | 5 Gold | Neil Y. |
6 Blue | Lincoln G. | 6 Gold | Kaylee D. |
Creative Arts | Hux S. | Japanese | n/a |
Personal Best Award
Kinder Blue | Samara B. | Kinder Gold | Taj S. |
1 Blue | Caiden P. | 1 Gold | Lennox B. |
2 Blue | Charlie C. | 2 Gold | Zachary L. |
3 Blue | Iona McB. | 3 Gold | Harry L. |
4 Blue | Hannah B. | 4 Gold | Fernando A. |
5 Blue | Koby S. | 5 Gold | Mia T. |
6 Blue | Ella L. | 6 Gold | Grace B. |
Library | Zach L | Japanese | n/a |
Library | Sargun K | Creative Arts | Arabella H. |
Upcoming Events
Term 3 Week 2
Thursday 27th July ~ 100 Days of Kindergarten
Friday 28th July ~ Whole School Awards
Term 3 Week 3
Monday 31st July ~ Year 6 Parish Mass at St Cecilia's Church
Wednesday 2nd August ~ Year 2 Faith and Learning Walk 2.30pm
Friday 4th August ~ CCC Athletics Carnival
Term 3 Week 4
Monday 7th August ~ Year 6 Public Speaking Class Presentations
~ Year 5 Parish Mass at St Cecilia's Church
~ First Eucharist Parent Information Evening at St Cecilia's Church at 7pm
Tuesday 8th August ~ Mary MacKillop Liturgy
Wednesday 9th August ~ FLIP Meeting #7 at school 6.15pm RSVP HERE
Friday 11th August ~ K-6 Mindset Mission Performance in Hall at 9:15am
