Dear Parents and Carers

I hope all of our mums had a very happy Mother’s Day on Sunday. The school celebrated with Donuts for Mum on Friday, and all children brought home a small plant as a gift. On Sunday, Kindergarten uploaded a beautiful assembly video onto our Facebook page, which was dedicated to all our mums in the community. I hope it was a very happy day for all of our mothers.

Enrolment Period

On Monday, we held our fifth Open Morning, which was well attended, as the others have been too. Our enrolments are looking very positive for Kindergarten and other grade levels. I encourage all parents of siblings to enrol their child by the end of May at the latest, so that we able to plan accordingly for 2022.

Book Fair

Next week we are holding our annual Book Fair in the school library. Parents and students will be able to buy books before and after school from Wednesday – Friday. This is a great opportunity to buy some books and set them aside for birthdays or Christmas. My thanks to Amanda Basedow for coordinating the fair.

National Simultaneous Story Time

Still within the broad area of reading, next week we are participating in the annual National Simultaneous Story Time event. All schools that participate, such as ours, have a story read to them simultaneously. This year, a story is being read from the international space station. The logistics involved in coordinating such an event are extraordinary and it speaks to the ingenuity of the human spirit.

Reports

The Catholic Education Office has made some major changes to the report format, for all students in ACT and NSW systemic primary schools. Most parents are now familiar with Compass, which is the administration software being used in all Catholic primary schools. Most parents are familiar with it via signing students in to school and absentee notes. It does, however, have a multitude of functions, including a capacity to report to parents on children’s academic progress. This year, semester reports will be sent to parents via the Compass platform.

CE has sent all schools some text to be sent to parents. What follows below in italics has come from the Catholic Education Office, which I have been asked to share with all parents:

Our teaching team has begun the process of creating each child’s Semester 1 2021 report.

In Semester 1:

For Kindergarten students:

• Achievement in each subject will be reported using a four-point scale (Well Above Expectations, Above Expectations, Meeting Expectations and Working Towards Expectations).

For Year 1 to Year 6 students:

• Academic grades for each subject using a five-point scale from A-E will be reported using the Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards.

For all students:

• Strand Achievement will be reported in English, Mathematics, Humanities and Social Sciences, Health and Physical Education, and The Arts using a five-point scale (Excellent, High, Sound, Basic, Elementary).
• Engagement with Learning statements, which are taken directly from the Australian Curriculum, will provide specific information about your child’s Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Responsibility, using a three-point scale (Beginning, Developing, Consistently).
• Individual student comments will not be used in the Semester 1 Reports.

Dialogue is an important feature of reporting. Sts Peter and Paul will hold Parent/Teacher Interviews in week 9, with the reports to follow in week 10. The Semester Report in this format encourages parent engagement and conversation about student learning.

You are encouraged to participate in the Parent/Teacher Interviews in week 9.

The new approach to Academic Reporting is a developing process. Further work will be undertaken in the coming months to determine how progress and achievement is best reported based on what we know to be important information about a student’s learning and progress.

In summary, the new report format will still report on all the subject areas that have been the staple for semester reports. Kindergarten will have a 4-point scale, rather than a 3-point scale, which has been in use for the last 10 years. Catholic Education has taken the decision not to include comments in this semester’s report. Comments may be included in the Semester 2 report. Please contact me at school if you have any questions about the report.

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal