Dear Parents/Caregivers,
Welcome back to Term 3! I hope you had a restful and relaxing time with your children over the winter break and were able to spend some quality time together and not be dictated by timetables.
This term, we welcome new staff and students to St Patrick’s School community. A special welcome to our 6 Mid-year Reception students: Margarita, Chloe, Harry, Idrees, Rugiatu and Saffron and we look forward to being part of their learning journey. Their teachers are Ms Christine Charman (Monday – Wednesday) and Ms Natalie Taylor (Thursday and Friday) who are both current staff members who have taken on additional time. We also welcome new students and families to other classes in our school: Nathalie (Reception), Kathy (Year 2), Brian, Johnny and Janesha (Year 4) and Alvin (Year 5). We look forward to building strong and lasting connections with you as members of St Patrick's Community. Lastly, I welcome new staff members for this term. Ms Karen Mesa will be working as an additional teacher in our Judy Burley Learning Support Centre alongside Ms Caitlyn O’Callaghan and Ms Nikki Tidd will start as our Front Office Receptionist on Tuesday 8th August.
Each year, Catholic Education South Australia (CESA) asks that all Catholic schools take part in the LLL Surveys. There are surveys for staff, students and parents. These surveys are an opportunity for you as parents to provide feedback regarding the school’s performance. The survey only takes 3-5 minutes of your time, and your responses are anonymous. Data from the surveys will assist our school to self-assess against the Living, Learning, Leading Standard and develop plans for improvement. The data will also foster increased confidence in, and accountability of our school’s effectiveness and outcomes. These surveys are online and need to be completed by the end of Week 5, 25th August 2023. An attachment with important information is attached in this newsletter. I invite all parents to make the effort to take part in these surveys. If you require help, please contact the Front Office so this can be arranged.
We are currently completing our Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD). The NCCD is an annual collection of information about Australian school students with disability (SWD). All SWD are provided with adjustments to their learning, according to their individual needs, that are implemented for improved student learning and wellbeing outcomes. The data collection is anonymous and individual students are not able to be identified in anyway. This data contributes to our government funding.
I am about to start looking at staffing for 2024. This is a time-consuming exercise and for it to be successful, I need parents to return their 2024 expression of interest forms before the due date stated in the letter which is 11th August 2023. Letters were sent home this week. Once student numbers are confirmed, I can calculate staffing needed for next year and advertise staffing vacancies.
Parent/Teacher/Conversations will be offered in Weeks 3 and 4 of this term. These conversations are optional. Bookings will once again be completed online, and information will go out this week.
Our school beanies were a huge success and we sold out of stock very quickly. We are awaiting new stock, which is due at the beginning of Week 3. Please note, once this stock comes in, it will be expected that if a student is wearing a beanie to school, it will be the school beanie only.
Next week we are inviting community members to come to St Patrick’s School and see our students’ learning in action on Monday 7th August. We will begin the morning with Community Prayer at 9am followed by classroom visits. All classes will be taking part in the Phonology lessons. Our guests are invited to move around various classrooms to see how the program develops from junior classes to senior classes. Since introducing the Playberry/Laser phonology lessons, we have seen improvement in the spelling and reading results of students across the school. We will conclude the morning with a morning tea near the school hall.
Over the next couple of weeks, you will be seeing Catholic Education SA (CESA) advertising Catholic Education Open Week on bus shelters, billboards and buses. Please take the time to look at the bus shelter on Hanson Road near the Grand Junction Road intersection and the billboard on West Lakes Boulevard for some familiar faces advertising St Patrick’s School.
In all things love
Barbara Ahern & Anne Marie Platten
The Leadership Team
