Dear Parents and Carers,

It is hard to believe that we are half way through Term 1, its autumn already and the teachers are planning for Parent Teacher Interviews – how time flies! I am eternally grateful for the teachers and support staff at our school for their dedication to teaching and learning. The conversations at the staff room table and in our weekly meetings centre around making our school the best possible environment to learn and grow. Not only do we discuss day to day occurrences but also plan long term goals. It is a wonderful environment to work in when I see our goals come to fruition for your children!

Save the Date - Working Bee

The St Thomas Apostle working bee is planned for Sunday 28 March between 8:00am – 12 noon. A working bee will not only be wonderful to get our school ready for winter but a great way to connect with other families and get to know new people. JPlease bring along your gardening tools, John will point you in the right direction and there will even be pizzas for lunch!

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent Teacher Interviews will be conducted between Monday 22 and Wednesday 24 March. Bookings will open this coming Sunday (7 March) and close on Thursday 18 March. The link will be available via SZapp so please keep an eye out.

NAPLAN

In Term 2, all students in Years 3 and 5 will participate in NAPLAN online. NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy, against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia.

To prepare for NAPLAN testing, all students in Years 3 and 5 will be participating in an online Practice Test on 25 March. The purpose of the test is to familiarise students with the type of items that they will see on NAPLAN online and related functionalities. This test is worthwhile to help students understand and be comfortable with the format of the test.

As a parent, you can become familiar with NAPALN Online tests by visiting the public demonstration site:

NAPLAN Online allows for tailored testing. This means that student are presented with sets of questions based on their performance during the test. This model provides students with the opportunity to better demonstrate their range of literacy and numeracy skills and it is more engaging for students. Further information explaining tailored testing can be found at https://bit.ly/2PgG7rL.  If you have any questions or wish to discuss your son or daughter’s participation in this event, please contact our school NAPLAN Coordinator, Luke Mooney at luke.mooney@cg.catholic.edu.au.

Further information on NAPLAN Online, including the public demonstration site, is available at

Warm blessings,

Susan Chant
Assistant Principal