Dear Parents and Carers,

Well Term 2 has gotten off to a cracking start, not only for the students but for the staff as well. On Monday, the teachers had an excellent Professional Learning Day, along with three other schools. It was conducted by Dr Lorraine Hammond from Perth. The day focussed on building competency and fluency in literacy and numeracy using the High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) of a Daily Review. Our teachers were so motivated by what they saw and learnt that they went home on Monday night and created their own Daily Review lesson ready to teach on Tuesday. Teachers' skill and capacity in this HITP will grow as they use and master this practice over the year. The support provided by Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn (CECG) has been exceptional.

Today we had Lorraine Hammond observing our Year K- 2 teachers and giving them feedback on their teaching. The teachers found working with her to be an incredible experience and have come away today with ideas and skills to improve their teaching practice.  Tomorrow we have Brooke Wardana, (also from Perth and a colleague of Lorraine), demonstrating Daily Review in classrooms. All of our teachers, K-6, will have the chance to observe her expert teaching firsthand.  Lorraine and Brooke will be back at the beginning of Term 3 to continue supporting us on our journey to having HITP evident (and flourishing) in every classroom.

ANZAC Day Commemoration

Tomorrow morning (Friday) at 9:30 we will have our ANZAC Day ceremony. As this is being held outside we have no COVID restrictions and are able to have family and friends attend. We especially invite any service men or women, past or present, to come and be part of this ceremony.  Entry is through the main gates (not the school building) and then a short walk over to the ANZAC garden near the Kindergarten playground.

COMPASS

We are delaying our change over to only using the new Compass App and will continue having notifications on SZapp for a while longer. This is because there are still many families that have not signed up to Compass as yet. User names and passwords were emailed home last term. If you need to have this resent, please email office.sttapkambah@cg.catholic.edu.au and it will be sent to you.

This Parent Portal allows you to receive information about your child’s school and their progress. It will give you access to school reports, messages and the ability to submit attendance notes. The portal is accessible via the web and the Compass School Manager App (via the App store on your device).

This Parent Portal will make engaging with your child’s school faster, easier and more secure.

What Can You Do

• Receive relevant messaging through the app or desktop
• Submit absence notes
• Give consent for events/excursions
• Communicate directly with teachers (desktop only)
• Book parent-teacher conferences
• Access your child’s academic reporting
• Update basic contact information knowing your data will remain secure

I urge you to organise access to Compass as soon as possible.

Mother’s Day

We are so pleased that we are able to celebrate Mother’s Day once again this year. In past years and before COVID we used to have a Mother’s Day breakfast (cooked and catered by our Dad’s). This event was in the hall but of course with m² space restrictions, we can’t have it in there. We considered having it outside but with the potential of it being subzero at 8am in the morning, we have opted for an afternoon event. It’s still in the planning stage but we can let you know this:

• It will be from 3:30 – 4:40pm on Friday May 7^th
• It will be in the school grounds
• We want our Dad’s and Grandad’s to help out!

There will be more details next week (once we plan them).

Canteen

Our Canteen reopened yesterday with a new manager and a new menu. The tantalizing smells coming from the canteen as Victoria was preparing the lunches had everyone licking their lips and no one was disappointed when they got their order.  The menu is here in the newsletter. It’s good to have you with us Victoria.

Winter Uniform

Term 2 is when we transition from our summer to the winter uniform. Please see the school website for details

It is expected that all students are wearing the full winter uniform from Monday Week 2.

Ursula Jamieson
Principal