Dear Parents and Carers

“The Catholic intellectual tradition… [has a conviction]: that to be human is to desire to discover truth, and that the quest for truth is sparked by the expectation that the universe is intelligible.”

Boston College, The Catholic Intellectual Tradition

These inspiring words come from the document named above and speak to a long tradition within Catholicism. This Catholic intellectual tradition has animated the lives of many an individual and many a saint. It has led to profound discoveries and writings and has sustained the lives of countless people over the centuries, and in doing so, has contributed to much of what we enjoy now within our own culture. The desire for truth and the quest for an intelligible understanding of the universe is ingrained within us; we see it in our children as they struggle to make sense of the world around them. The late theologian Karl Rahner believed that all human beings are born with an inarticulate orientation towards God and the meaning that comes from being in relationship with God. Next week, the Leadership Team are meeting to begin formally planning for next year. Our new Assistant Principal, Anna Williams, will be joining us, as will Stephanie Burns, our Religious Education Coordinator, who has been on maternity leave this year. Our meeting will be informed by the larger current of which we are a part.

Term 4 Protocols: Face-to-face learning

The school is enacting some changes to our routines, as they relate to the return to face-to-face learning. None of these changes will have a direct impact on parents, but it is good for parents to be aware of the forthcoming changes. Teachers will inform their classes of the changes.

From Week 7 (next week), students who arrive between 8.30am and 8.45am will be supervised on the playground, in their grade cohorts. Students will be seated in their grade lines, as per the current practice at the end of lunch and recess. K – 2 students will line up in their class groups on the blacktop, and 3 – 6 students will line up on the blue top, in their respective grade and class groupings. At 8.45, students will enter the school and go to their classrooms. This change has been driven by the fact that teachers are necessarily doing much longer duties, during the school day. The extra 15 minutes in the morning (8.30 – 8.45) will give just a bit extra in terms of preparation time.

For a similar reason, should wet weather duty be needed between now and the end of the term, Grades 3/4 and 5/6 will take it in turns to be supervised in the hall, as cohorts, during lunch and recess. This will enable the Leadership Team to help support the teachers in the K – 2 sections of the school to have a break at recess and lunch. The measures will not compromise our efforts to ensure that grade cohorts will be kept separate and safe.

Kindergarten Orientation Day

Next Tuesday, we are holding our Kindergarten Orientation Day, with some changes to our original plan. Our 2022 Kindergarten cohort will spend an hour at our school, with one of the Kindergarten teachers, outside on the playground. This is to ensure maximum COVID safety routines can be followed. All new Kindergarten students from A – K will attend the school between 9am and 10am, and students with surnames beginning with L – Z will attend from 10 – 11am. The information night for parents will still go ahead at 6pm, in the school hall, with appropriate social distancing measures being implemented.

Reports and Class Lists

We are entering the second half of the term, and necessarily the thoughts of the school and the teachers turn to the tasks that are essential for a smooth transition to the following year. The teachers are currently preparing class lists for 2022. Like this year, we will have 13 classes in 2022, with two classes for each grade and three classes for Grade 3/4. The teachers will prepare the class lists keeping many factors in mind, ensuring the classes are as balanced as possible. Importantly, as part of this process, students will be consulted and asked to name three friends with whom they would like to be placed, for 2022. The school guarantees one of the friends. More friends than one may be included. If you have any concerns over friendship dynamics, please email me, or your child’s teacher/s. Requests for individual teachers will be unable to be met.

Teachers are also in the process of gathering assessment and beginning the report writing process. Reports will again be delivered online via Compass, as they were last Semester. Due to COVID and Remote Learning, there has been a disruption to the normal amount of assessment that can be managed. Teachers will report on Maths, English and Religious Education, with one other subject included. Spanish and The Arts will also receive a grade. There will be no comments this semester. In place of comments, there will be Parent/Teacher interviews in Week 10, on Tuesday and Wednesday of that week. Reports will be made available on Compass in Week 11.

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal