Dear Parents and Carers

“As the child learns to speak, he moves out of the world of his immediate surroundings towards the far larger world revealed through the memories of other men, through the common sense of community, through the pages of literature, through the labours of scholars, through the investigations of scientists, through the experience of saints, through the meditations of philosophers and theologians.”

- Bernard Lonergan SJ

The late Jesuit priest Bernard Lonergan is not an overly familiar name outside the realm of academic theological circles, to the great loss of the wider community. Aside from writing on topics one would associate with theology, he also spent much of his writing life putting into words what happens when we think, know and understand. The quote above beautifully illustrates his own understanding of what it means to grow into intellectual and human maturity: we start our lives with the world mediated to us through our senses, and the journey of life can be described in such a way that the world’s deeper layered meanings gradually are mediated to us through our community, through the work of scholars, and the like. We well may add to Lonergan's list the teaching of educators and the love of parents.

Strategic Plan/Annual Improvement Planning Day

I begin the newsletter with the quote from Lonergan because it formed part of our thinking, and approach, when the Leadership Team gathered for the day on Monday, to begin writing our 2023 – 2025 Strategic Plan. Veronica Hall, our incoming REC from 2023, joined Anna Williams, Fron Garrett-Rumba, Stephanie Burns and me, as we spent a day identifying needs and planning strategic goals and strategies, to help our students learn to the best of their ability. CE asks all schools to choose 3 goals. One of those goals needs to be linked explicitly with the system agenda, ‘Catalyst’, and to that end, we have a another ½ day next week with two personnel from CE. They will help us write and refine our third goal. The Strategic Plan (and from it, the Annual Improvement Plan) are in the embryonic stage. They will be published before the end of the year to the school community.

Semester 2 Reports & Parent/Teacher Interviews

The Catholic Education Office has taken the step this Semester of removing the comment boxes from the Semester 2 reports. CE have asked all schools to include this text, from the office, in a letter or newsletter to parents:

‘Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn (CECG) has communicated to schools informing them that general comments will not be required on the Semester 2, 2022 reports. This is in line with other educational jurisdictions and systems. Given teacher workload at present, including staffing pressures across the profession, CECG’s position is to prioritise parent/teacher conferences occurring during Term 4. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress, their strengths, challenges, and future areas of focus. A Semester Report will be sent home as in previous semesters providing A-E grading and attendance information’.

In summary, this means that a report will be sent home to parents, with a grade for all subject areas. General comments will not be included. In lieu of comments, Sts Peter and Paul will hold parent/teacher interviews in Week 8 of this term. A link has been sent home to parents, which will allow parents to book a meeting with their child’s or children’s teacher/s.

Class Lists – 2023

The students have submitted their requests for ‘Friendship Four’ and the teachers are in the process of compiling the class lists for 2023. Multiple factors are taken into account, including of course the friendship choices of the students. The school can only guarantee one friend for the students’ lists. Working dynamics, even split of gender and ability, and teacher knowledge, all needed to be factored into the final lists. If any parent has a particular reason why their child should not be in the same class as another child, please email me directly, if you haven’t already done so. Teacher requests cannot be entertained. The final decision regarding class and teacher placements rests with me.

BFIRM

Today, our Year 6 students attended their final leadership day for 2023, at BFirm. The days have been great successes for our students, and our teachers report great growth in the children. The students learn a great deal around resilience and grit and have enjoyed the program a great deal this year. My thanks to Sarah Kennelly and Luke Gubler for their organization and hard work.

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal