Dear Parents/Carers,                                                                        

Welcome to a new academic year. I trust that you and your family were able to celebrate Christmas in a special and joyful way. 

We particularly extend a warm welcome to our new kindergarten children and families new to our community. We also welcome our new staff members; Miss Stephanie Kingsley and Miss Shanae Slattery.

We are a “can do” community and I’m sure both will experience the beauty of St Paul’s hospitality which was so very evident when I came to the school at the beginning of 2018. 

I would like to share with everyone our focus areas for 2024. Some, you may notice, begin to happen very early this term, others will become more evident as the year progresses.

We will implement considerable teacher training in the area of student writing and the creation of texts. We are also continuing to focus on student attendance and engagement.

In the week beginning Monday, 26 February 2024 (Week 5), parent teacher meetings to discuss student progress in reading and Mathematics through the PAT assessments are planned. At this meeting each parent will be given a data report that maps your child's progress in Mathematics and English to take away. From this meeting, it is a wonderful opportunity for you to now clearly, early on in the year, focus areas that the teacher will need to work on with your child.

These meetings are only 15 minutes in duration and should a further in depth meeting be required, this can be arranged after these initial meetings.

Last year, as a school we spent considerable energy on improving student absence Our plan is to continue to monitor this closely. Student performance in our National Testing was significantly impacted  by student absenteeism throughout 2023 and I will share this data with you in the coming newsletters.

St Paul’s plans to continue our focus on building student number fluency and applying related mathematical content to solving mathematical problems.  Our National Testing data identifies the continued need to enhance teacher content knowledge, especially in Stage 3 Mathematics outcomes as well as assisting teachers to create challenging realistic problems that enable the students to apply this content knowledge.

In addition, the K-6 Mathematics and English Syllabus has been revised and will need to be implemented this year.  This will require ongoing professional learning for all staff throughout the year. 

Finally, every five years, schools go through a process of review. The school Cyclic Inquiry process is an opportunity for the school community and its leadership to stop, reflect (inquire) and celebrate its improvement and growth journey and to identify a limited number of major strategic priorities that will further enhance student growth and improvement.

This process examines the evidence based growth in the culture of the school as a faith and learning community. This will be led by an external panel of educators, involving interviews, observation and collaborative discussion with the school leadership team, staff, parents, clergy and the wider community. The panel also spends time in classroom learning walks.

It is my hope that our improvement agenda can be followed through. The school cyclic inquiry process makes for a large school agenda, but out of this will come clarity of purpose for change as we create and implement a new strategic plan for our school community.

Opportunity to Meet with Your Child's Teacher

As stated earlier, students data meetings will begin in the week beginning Monday, 26 February 2024. However, Meet and Greet Meetings are still available for you within the first four weeks of the term either at your request or the request of your child’s teacher. If you would like a Meet and Greet meeting feel free to arrange this with your child’s teacher through the office. These can either be done over the phone or in person. Please contact the office as soon as possible to arrange a time with your child’s teacher. Quite often these meetings are beneficial should your child suffer from anxiety, there has been a significant change or loss to the family or simply because you would like to directly meet your child’s teacher at the beginning of the year to create a positive working relationship. I am very aware in most cases, such a meeting is not needed either by the parent or the teacher and this is why we have chosen to make this on a needs only basis. You may find that it is necessary to arrange a Meet and Greet Meeting for one of your children but not the other, and that is perfectly fine and understandable. Due to this meeting not being formally timetabled, the same information about homework, timetables, sport days etc will be sent home in a thorough grade Outline for term one.

Student Supervision

A reminder to all parents that morning supervision begins at 8.30am, when the school gates are opened and afternoon bus supervision ends with the last bus leaving at 4.00pm. Supervision on area two, in front of the canteen finishes at 3.40pm.

Your child should not be dropped off at the office area on a regular basis before 8.30am.

Last year some children were at school at 8.00am and were sent to the office. This is beyond our regular hours and is an unreasonable expectation. It would be expected that you take them to ASPIRE like other parents do and pay for this service that is available to you. If you are going to be late for any reason when picking up your children, please contact the school office. The phone is attended until 4.30pm, after this time it will go directly to the message bank and will not be followed up until the next morning. Ringing after this time to make appointments to meet with teachers or members of the Leadership Team would be an unreasonable expectation and will need to wait till the next morning after 8.30am. Teachers have considerable administrative responsibilities to attend to, various meetings, lesson planning to complete and unfinished marking that weighs heavily on them. Please be mindful of this when you ring and expect to speak to them beyond these times.

Haircuts

Please ensure your child's haircut meets the requirements outlined in our school handbook as stated below. It would be good to read this to your child before taking them to the hairdresser. Perhaps take a copy to the salon would be helpful.

HAIR

Students are required to wear their hair in a neat and tidy manner.  Haircuts should be of an even grade. Hair should be well brushed and combed and it is assumed that hair will not be in such a condition as to invite comment. Ribbons must be school colours. No oversized bows and hair embellishments.

BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:

• Extreme styles, bleaching, colouring or dyeing of hair are not permitted.
• Gel, mousse and hair spray or other substances should not be used.
• There will be no undercuts, steps or shaved lines within the hair.
• Nothing shorter than a Number 3 comb is acceptable.
• Hair should not extend to cover the eyes or beyond the shirt collar (boys).
• Boys hair should be of a length not to attract attention. ‘Man buns’ are not permitted at St Paul’s.
• Students who do not abide by the haircut requirements will be asked to fix the identified problem.
• Long hair is to be tied back or plaited. Ribbons and bands of school colour are to be worn. 

I will be monitoring students this week and approaching any student who does not meet these requirements.