NAPLAN

We are now halfway through the NAPLAN testing fortnight. Year 3 and Year 5 have both completed the Writing and Reading aspect of the assessment. All students appeared very settled. This is only the second time that the assessment has been administered online, and apart from a couple short technical glitches, we are happy with how the process has unfolded so far.

It is important to remember that these tests only give us a snapshot of where the students are on their learning journey. Teachers analyse the results to assist students to continue to grow in their skills and understanding of the curriculum. This is only one tool teachers’ use to measure progress. Students are also regularly assessed within the classroom activities. The data collected regularly by staff, enables the teachers to help develop your child and target their individual needs, through appropriate planning and curriculum delivery. This improves the learning outcomes for each child.

 If you have any concerns about your child’s progress, appointments to discuss the issue with your child’s teacher can be made through the school office. Official parent / teacher interviews will be conducted later this term. This is an opportunity which is offered by the school for you to discuss your child’s learning.

University of Newcastle Student Placement

St Joseph’s will host 4 student teachers from the University of Newcastle in Weeks 7-10 of this term. These students are in the second year of their teaching degree and this will be their first school placement. Student teachers will be observing lessons in the classroom, facilitating small group learning, teaching whole class lessons, completing playground duties and attending staff professional development meetings. We are grateful to 4B, 2B and 2G teachers who have offered to work alongside these beginner teachers. We have so much to share here at St Joseph’s and it is great to see that we can nurture and build the future of our teaching profession in this way.

Canberra Excursion

The countdown is on for our Year 6 excursion to Canberra. The excursion will be taking place from Wednesday 26 May to Friday 28 May. The itinerary is jam-packed! Just a few of the places we’ll be visiting are The Australian War Memorial, Parliament House, The Royal Australian Mint, The Australian Institute of Sport and Questacon. We have been keeping an eye out on the forecast and see the low single digits through the nights. We’ll definitely have to pack the Winter woolies! Thank you to the parents who were able to join us for the information session last Wednesday evening. The PowerPoint from the evening is now on Compass if there is anything you’d like to refer back to.

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL)

Be Respectful: Use kind words and actions

In class and on the playground, our PBL focus for this fortnight is to use kind words and actions. Students are reflecting on the impact, on others and ourselves, when we use kind/unkind words. They will be identifying what these actions look like, sound like and feel like. Students will be looking at an example of a kindness grid, as shown below, and seeing if they can be creative and think of their own ways to show kindness towards other. Please keep this conversation going at home.

Students are enjoying taking their class tokens to the colour house boxes and watching the numbers rise. Special thanks to our dedicated Sports Captains for counting our tokens. The end of Week 5 will mark the next time we announce the mid-term winning colour house.