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Dear Parents and Carers,
We have had a very calm and settled fortnight. I have been able to watch some of the amazing learning happening in the classrooms. As we prepare for our first school spelling bee and maths bee, I have been able to witness first hand, the talented spellers and mathematicians we have in our school.
This morning I was lucky enough to have a visit from some of our Kinder students who came to show me their writing. I am always so amazed at how our children come to school not knowing how to read and write and very quickly develop into confident and engaged learners who love being able to read and write.
Welcome Jai
This week we welcomed Jai Hannon to Year 4. I am sure Jai and his family will enjoy becoming part of our school community.
COVID Update
No doubt you will have been watching the latest lock down advice and would be aware that Newcastle and surrounds have been placed in a 7 day lockdown. I assure you that we continue to follow the NSW Health guidelines and those in place by Catholic Schools NSW. I would like to thank you for your ongoing support and ask that you please continue to follow our procedures for pick up and drop off.
As a school we are ready to go with home learning if it happens and have all procedures in place to switch over in a short space of time. I want to assure you that if we do have to lock down, we will remain open for those children of essential workers.
We plan to continue our term as normal and at this point in time we will be going ahead with all of our calendar events, however some of those may be modified. I will be sending a separate note home regarding these events early next week.
If your child is sick please keep them home, this will help us to keep our school staff and students healthy and able to continue with learning as normally as possible.
Tell Them From Me Survey
HAVE YOUR SAY - Tell Them From Me (TTFM®.) Survey – Opens 23 August
Last year you may recall parents, staff and students (Years 4–6) participating in an online – Tell Them From Me (TTFM®.) survey.
Schools in Australia and around the world have used the Tell Them From Me survey to help them improve.
The data we received provided us with valuable feedback in relation to faith, learning, student engagement and wellbeing and will help to better inform our Diocesan system as well as our own school improvement agenda.
Thanks to input from you and from each of our stakeholders, here are our key learnings and key actions from 2020:
The 2020 TTFM survey told us:
Commencing 23 August 2021, you will be given the opportunity to participate in this survey. The survey takes approximately 15–20 minutes to complete.
As parents and carers of students in our school, we deeply value your feedback and encourage you to partner with us and complete this survey. The information we gather is critical to us and allows us to hear directly from you and gain insight into what you think is important about the work we do, how we communicate with you and where you think we need to improve.
As you can see, we use the feedback you provide us to action strategies for improvement.
We want all (children/young people) in our schools to thrive and we know that working together, listening and sharing ideas helps all students.
If you have questions about this survey, please don’t hesitate to contact us via admin@wingham.catholic.edu.au.
National Tree Day
The last Friday in July is dedicated to schools celebrating National Tree Day. Students helped by planting 5 x new Lilly-Pilly trees near the Library to replace the ones that died during the drought period. Im sure with all the effort put in to planting them, that they will grow big and healthy, bringing green back into that patch.
Diocesan Athletics
Congratulations to Nic, Jake, Angus and Jaxon who travelled to Newcastle to compete in the Diocesan Athletics trials. They all had a great experience, congratulations to Jake and Nic who have been selected to form part of the Diocesan Athletics Team and will now compete to be selected for our Polding team.
Parent Engagement Group
Last week we held our first Parent Engagement Group Meeting. Thanks to those parents who were able to come along. Ms Monkley came and presented on how to access our home learning site, student email and our school portal so that parents can support their children if we have to move to home learning.
At the meeting we also discussed the use of some of the P&F funds that have been held in account and the agreement was made that some of these funds would be used to buy a new laptop charging trolley and to update some of our home readers.
We also decided on the topic of the next meeting which will be held on the 1st of September. This meeting will be focused on helping our children with anxiety. A flyer with further details will come out in the next week or so.
Parent Teacher Interviews
As we are unable to hold our parent teacher interviews face to face this term we will be offering interviews over the phone. This is a great opportunity for you to touch base with your child’s teacher to see how they are going in class and discuss their learning goals. Bookings can be made on Compass and interviews will be held during the week of the 16th of August. Bookings will close on Friday the 13th of August at 3pm. If you need help to make your booking, please contact Mary in the office.
Please join me in saying a prayer that those school communities in our Diocese that are currently in lockdown and unable to attend school face to face.
God Bless
Making Jesus Real – Values of the week
Week 5 - I care for my school and classroom environment
Week 6 - I am a Bucket Filler
Prime Minister Award
‘ Being a steward of creation’, ‘trying your best’, ‘speaking with kindness’ and ‘ being a responsible learner’ are some of the qualities that teachers consider when awarding ‘Prime Minister’ at our weekly assembly. It is an acknowledgement of the student’s efforts and they have the privilege of wearing the badge with honour, of suggesting a focus the school can work on, award Gotchas to other students at lunch time as well as earning Gotchas for themselves. Congratulations to Mia Nash, Week 4 and Susannah Healy, Week 5.
MJR Awards
As part of our MJR system ,we acknowledge that the following students, Grace Maidens, Christian Borserio and Axl Barbour-Williams have reached 50 Gotchas, Ben Linehan and Nicole Jordan have reached 100 Gotchas. Well Done!
Book Week 2021
What's been happening in Year 2.....
In English we are learning how to structure a persuasive text. Students are learning about persuasive devices and how they can enhance a text.
In Maths, students have been learning to add and subtract using Australian money.
In Religion we have been learning about communities and the church as a community.
In creative Arts we are learning our JAFA play.
In Science last term we learnt about the elements needed to grow things sustainably. We grew some green feast peas.
What I have learnt about growing green feast peas......
Delilah Barbour-Williams – You need the sun, the rain and good soil.
Sharmaine Clarke – It needs to be cold and you need water and sun.
Tyla Eakin – You need good sunshine, water or rain, soil and
Hallie Forbes – You need water, sunshine and care away from animals.
Savannah Hagarty – We need seeds and dirt and water.
Eleanor Healy – I learnt that you need good fertiliser and to keep it in the sunshine and have lots of water.
Colebee Hollis – You need seeds to grow the peas, good dirt and a little bit of water.
Charlotte Hughan – I learnt that you can't leave it in the shade for too long or it will die.
Ashlea Linehan– You can't give the plants too much water or they will drown and die.
Kai Macmillan – You need perfect soil and good healthy seeds.
Matilda Robinson – I learnt that you need clean healthy water, seeds and sunshine to grow.
Matilda Ryan – I learnt if you plant multiple seeds that you don't plant them too close together.
Asta Van Vliet – I learnt that you must give new plants good sunshine, water and healthy soil.
Mackenzie Wilmen – You need to spread the seeds out and you need to make sure you water them.