Dear Friends, 

Welcome to Week 7, Sabbath Week, and hopefully some opportunity to rest or recharge.  It was wonderful to share on Sunday the beginning of our First Eucharistic Celebrations with our Year 4 students, after much preparation and waiting. 

We are now settling well back into school after an extended period of remote learning. Remote learning has given the students opportunities to develop enhanced computer literacy, resilience, self organisation and management skills, whilst working within an environment very different to their classroom. Research presented from around the world demonstrates that every student assimilates back into school life at different speeds and with different needs.

Part of our planning for return has also included reviewing our normal calendar of events and ensuring that we can hold as many of these as possible. We have also spent much time considering our assessment and reporting structure for Semester 2. 

In a normal reporting cycle, teachers would begin gathering data late in Term 3 and into Term 4. In Term 3, we experienced a significant interruption to face to face learning, when we went to the remote learning model. There was a time frame where families, students and staff were transitioning to online learning. We can guarantee that our students did learn during this time, however cannot guarantee that work produced could be considered authentic assessment, because of many variables. Teachers gathered data while the students were learning remotely, however, our ability to moderate and compare during that time was impacted by many of the challenges previously mentioned. 

Thus our Reporting for Semester 2 will look different.  We will be grading Religion, Mathematics and English only and the Engagements with Learning. Instead of having a formal comment on the report, parents/carers and teachers will be involved in Learning Conferences - Three Way Conferences and Parent/Teacher interviews during Week 10. These meetings will enable all significant adults to have a conversation about each child’s strengths and areas for further development. The notes from these meetings will then be used as the basis of hand over for the teachers in 2022. This will then enable strengths and needs to be identified and acted upon from day 1 of next year.

SEMESTER 2 REPORTS 2021

In Semester 2:

For Kindergarten students:

• Achievement in Religion, Mathematics and English 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 Religion, Mathematics and English 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 and Mathematics 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 2 Reports.

LEARNING CONFERENCES 

On Monday the 22nd of November you will receive notification that our learning conference booking system is open. Parents/Carers will then be able to book via our  COMPASS Parent Portal a time for their Parent Teacher Interview (Kindergarten to Year 2) and Three Way Conference (Years 3-6). Please be aware that booking system will close on Wednesday 1^st December. Due to COVID restrictions, these interview/conferences will be held online via Microsoft Teams. 

Dialogue is an important feature of reporting. The Semester Report in this format encourages parent engagement and conversation about student learning. We want the report to be the entry point for Learning Conferences being held in Week 10, where we can engage in genuine conversation about your child’s strengths, challenges, effort and areas for growth. Below is a brief explanation of what each style of conference will involve: 

Three Way Conferences  (Year 3-6)

Three way conferences are held before the release of the formal report in Term 4. The students are responsible for leading the conference, and also take ownership of their learning by sharing the process with their parents. The conference involves students demonstrating their understanding through a variety of learning situations and sharing work samples. During preparation for the three way conferences, students identify their strengths and next step learning goals. Time is set aside for the students to familiarise themselves with the format of the conference.

Interviews (Kindergarten - Year 2)

Parent/Carer/Teacher Interviews will focus on  students work habits, achievements and areas for growth. These needs are discussed based on the teacher’s professional recommendations as well as a discussion about the parent’s knowledge of their child and the student’s individual aspirations.

On Friday of Week 10, parents/carers will be notified via email, when their child/ren's report/s are ready to be accessed on COMPASS. 

It was wonderful to be informed this week that after the recent elections of Merici Captains for 2022, six of these students are from the Holy Trinity 2015 graduating class.  Amy Stubbs from this cohort is the Merici School Captain for 2022. The other five ex- students awarded with leadership positions are Niamh Prior, Freya McLaughlin, Rebecca Lowe, Isabella Dunn and Collette Patterson. Congratulations to all these recipients and their families!

Have a wonderful weekend and a peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families.  Please do not hesitate to reach out for anything at all and continue to stay safe. 

Warmest wishes,

Philippa 

First Eucharist

Congratulations to Chloe and Carrie who celebrated thier First Eucharist on the weekend!

St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal

L'Arche Summer Fundraiser

We will be holding our L'Arche Summer Fundraiser on Friday 3rd December (Week 9)

Students are invited to wear a Hawaiian Shirt and bring in a GOLD COIN donation. During lunch we will have a disco outside and enjoy an ice block together!

The RAP team; school staff, teachers, family and community members, will be meeting on Tuesday 23 November at 3.30pm on MS Teams. The meeting will review the 2021 actions and plan for 2022. A RAP is a formal statement of commitment to reconciliation. New members are very welcome. Please RSVP for a invitation to the meeting rose.lee@cg.catholic.edu.au.

Turn your anger around without yelling

School Fees Due

We ask for all School Fee accounts to be paid in full by the 2nd of December 2021 to allow the school to settle its own creditor accounts. 

Late Arrivals - Compass

Please be aware when students arrive late or have an appointment in the morning, do not fill in the absentee form on Compass, the front office staff will sign them in on arrival. When you complete an absentee on Compass we are actually not able to sign in the children. We have to delete your absentee before the student can be signed in.

Masks

As per the ACT Health guidelines, all adults, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a mask when entering school buildings.  Parents at this point in time are still not allowed in school buildings.

Cold and Flu Symptoms

Please do not send children to school who are displaying any cold and flu symptoms. This is as per ACT Health guidelines that anyone displaying cold and flu symptoms have been asked to stay at home. Many children are being sent to the front office by their classroom teacher as early as 9.15am to be sent home, as they should not have been sent to school as they are sick.

Drop Off

A reminder that parking cars in drive through, is not permitted at any time between the hours of 8.30am and 4.00pm. If you need to walk your child to or from the ELC, we ask you to park in the designated parking areas and walk them in. By parking in drive through you are holding up the line and making it dangerous for others using the drive through correctly. 

Of an afternoon, please be patient with one another and use manners when using and entering the drive through line. Please do not cut the queue, simply join the end of the queue. Cars trying to cut in to the front ring road queue are then causing issues with the flow of traffic on Theodore street. This is  then causing cars to park across our children crossing area resulting in safety concerns.

Also please remember to not queue across our neighbours (Pinocchio's and Fred Ward Gardens) driveways when waiting in the drive through line. Clients of these businesses still need to be able to access their driveways.

If you do not like waiting in the line, please just come down a little later. If you came down at 3.15pm most of the traffic is gone by then and there are still staff rostered on supervising your child.