PARENTS AND FRIENDS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (AGM)

The Annual General Meeting for our P&F will be held this Wednesday evening 18th May at 6.00pm in the staffroom.

Another great opportunity for families to connect with the school is through our Parents and Friends’ Association (P&F).

Over a number of years our P&F have been very involved in:

• Providing many facilities to enhance the school environment
• Contributing numerous literary resources to our library
• Providing essential Readers to ensure our little people are given the best opportunity to develop early reading growth.
• Establishing the Fitness Circuit and Sensory Play Space
• Turfing the Oval
• Supporting families in need and many student experiences in sport and culture.

As you can see our P&F have been outstanding contributors to the physical and social development of St Peter’s.

We would love to see new faces join us on Wednesday night and please let the office know if you would like to be a part of the P&F this year but are unable to attend this Wednesday.

WELCOME TO

Our two Teacher Prac Students in Kindergarten and Year 6

The St Peter’s community welcomes Christa Morrow (Kindergarten) and Emily Aide (Year 6) who commenced their teaching practicums with us this week. A teaching practicum is an exploration of the actual practice of teaching under the supervision of a mentor, typically involving actual teaching as well as duties related to the profession. The authentic learning gained through this process is invaluable in shaping the next generation of teachers. We wish Christa and Emily all the best over the coming weeks, and thank their supervising teachers, Miss McKenzie and Mr Murtagh for sharing their support and expertise. 

Our two new families who joined our School Community this week.

The Milne Family - Natasha, Andrew and Jesse (Kinder Blue)

The Ledbrook Family - Elizabeth, John, Sebastien (Year 5 Red) and Luke (Year 3 Red)

NAPLAN 

Students in Years 3 and 5 began the annual process of NAPLAN testing this week. Whilst a vehicle for gaining valuable data, it is important to remember that NAPLAN is just part of the suite of data collection that teachers and leaders use to gauge how our little people are travelling. Thus, we promote a relaxed approach to NAPLAN, ensuring a good night’s sleep and a healthy, nourishing breakfast, whilst avoiding undue stress or pressure. See further article in Learning. 

1ST PARENT Q & A PITSTOPS

It was so nice welcoming families to our first Parent Q&A Pitstop on Thursday morning and afternoon this week.

The Pitstop started with a sharing of experiences where parents were hoping to develop resilience to support their children‘s development and wellbeing.

Mrs Thomas (Family Connection Coordinator) and Mrs Files (School Counsellor) gave a short presentation on the implications and value of developing resilience. Families shared some of their ideas in adding to the wisdom of the room.  See further article in Mission.

FAMILY PARTNERSHIP SURVEY - QUESTIONS 5, 6 and 7

Last week we shared questions 3 and 4 through our newsletter. This week we present the responses to questions 5, 6 and 7.

Q5) Family education topics parents were interested in:

1. Resilience (73%)
2. Supporting writing at home (45%) 
3. Safe technology use (44%) 
4. Supporting reading at home (43%)
5. Encouraging maths enquiry learning (42%)
6. Talking to your child about puberty (30%)

Q6) Number of families interested in sharing their skills in a lunchtime club = 12

Q7) Number of families interested in being a class parent = 12

The staff came together last week to discuss innovative ways to rebuild parent connection at St Peter's, with many great ideas brought to the table. Rebecca Cameron and Amanda Thompson are in the process of compiling these ideas so that we can implement them as soon as possible. More information to come!

MISSION

PARENT PIT STOP Q & A

Thanks to families for their input in our Parent Pit Stop on Resilience yesterday. We discussed the importance of connecting with our children before correction or re-directions. Please find attached the slides and a handout from the session. We will endeavour to film the next Parent Pit Stop on Reading. 

Lets Talk About Resilience

Building Resilience

MASS AT ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHAPEL

Year 6 Blue attended Mass at St Francis of Assisi Chapel on Wednesday, accompanied by Miss Dal Santo and Mrs Morris. Chelsea Brown, very bravely, volunteered to read the first reading, completely unprepared! As is usually the case in such circumstances, there were lots of tricky words and names of places to be deciphered, and Chelsea did an amazing job! We are so lucky to have students of such calibre leading faith in our school! We thank Fr Paul, Sr Ann and the parishioners for welcoming us so warmly, and also our Year 6 students for representing our school so impressively. 

YOUTH MINISTRY OFFICERS AT ST PETER'S THURSDAYS EVEN WEEKS

We are fortunate to have been offered Ella and Gian, the Youth Ministry Officers at MacKillop, to work with our primary students on Tuesdays and Thursdays commencing next week. On Tuesdays, the YMOs will lead any senior students wishing to be part of a Junior Ministry Team in worship and fun, with the view of the team ministering to their younger peers at St Peter’s later in the year. On Tuesdays (fortnightly) they will be working with students in class and grade groups, with Ministry and RE, but also just to form connection with our primary students as part of the wider transition into secondary school.

Students in Years 5 and 6 are invited to join the Youth Ministry Team! See Mrs Cameron on Monday to register your interest!

LEARNING

NAPLAN 

As children progress through their school years, it is very important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults.

This week and into next week our Year 3 and Year 5 students have been completing their NAPLAN Assessments. NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents and carers to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.

NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students have already learnt through the school curriculum. Over the past few weeks our teachers have ensured that students are familiar with the test formats and have provided them with appropriate support and guidance. 

NAPLAN tests are constructed to give students an opportunity to demonstrate skills they have learnt over time through the school curriculum, and NAPLAN test days should be treated as just another routine event on the school calendar. The best way you can help your child prepare for NAPLAN is to reassure them that NAPLAN tests are just one part of their school program, and to advise them to simply do the best they can on the day.

St Peter’s children have approached these assessments calmly and with a growth mindset. We commend them and their teachers and parents for helping them prepare so well.

If you would like further information please access NAPLAN - information for parents and carers.

NEW K - 2 SYLLABUS

NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) is developing a new syllabus for K-2 Mathematics and English as part of a major curriculum reform K-12. The final documents  were  released in Term 4 2021 and will be fully implemented by the end of 2023. The 3-6 Mathematics and English syllabus reform process will begin in 2022 with full implementation by 2024.

The curriculum reform is a result of the NSW Government Curriculum Review that was launched in 2018. This was the first comprehensive review of the NSW curriculum in three decades. After two extensive rounds of public consultation, education research and lessons from the experiences of other jurisdictions in Australia and internationally, priorities were identified for the early, middle and late years of schooling. The NSW Government has committed to: