Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to a new academic year. I trust that you and your family were able to celebrate Christmas in a special and joyful way.  I know from personal experience, that the Christmas masses were prayerful with a huge attendance. Christmas lunch and New Year celebrations possibly seem to have happened a long time ago as you now prepare for your children returning to school and the many unexpected challenges this can sometimes bring.

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 Sarah Florio (1T), Mrs Kylie Booth (3H), Miss Georgie Glover (4T) and Mrs Alicia Failla (5H)   We are a “can do” community and I’m sure you will experience the beauty of the 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 2020.  Some, you will notice begin to happen very early this term, others will become more evident as the year progresses.

1. It is our intention to finalise the review and redrafting  of our Vision and Mission Statements and to formally launch both.  This is the foundation on which all our work and any future change needs to be based.  It should be the focus of our response to any question that asks “What’s the purpose?” on any initiative or activity within the school.
2. We will seek to create a deeper understanding of our school motto “Truth, Love, Faith” with the students and create a presentation with the student leaders that they will share with each class so that all students clearly understand how this looks in their day to day life at St Paul’s.  This is where the students will find their answer to the question: “What’s the purpose?” in anything to do with their school community life and academic progress at St Paul’s.
3. We will continue to refine our classroom practice to ensure that clear learning intentions and success criteria are evident to the students in all the work they participate in.  There will be a greater focus on differentiating the Success Criteria across all Key Learning Areas to ensure students have a clear understanding of what quality learning and high expectations look like. 
4. We will use the ACER PAT assessments in literacy and numeracy to analyse student and class needs.  This will be used to establish a Mathematics or English goal with every child in the primary grades and class goals in the infants grades.  There will be a data parent/teacher meeting towards the end of term one to share this information and a learning goal with you about your child. (A new initiative)
5. We will be extending the changes to our classroom practice in mathematics that assist students with their direct recall of basic number facts (tables, division facts, number facts etc).  In addition to this, the students will be using this skill to apply mathematical content knowledge to mathematical problems in order to build deeper learning and concept transfer to real learning situations.  This is a Diocesan initiative called “Challenging Mathematics Tasks”.
6. We will continue to modify our classroom practice in writing (imaginative, persuasive and informative) in order to build student capacity in this area.
7. A new spelling pedagogy called “Words Their Way”,  to be implemented in Years 3-6, 2020. Words Their Way is a teacher-directed, student- centered approach to vocabulary growth and spelling development. Students in K-2 will continue to learn to read and spell using the synthetic phonics approach of Letters and Sounds and transition to Words Their Way in Year 3 -6.
8. The school will begin to implement the new PDHPE Syllabus, focusing on Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) which will also be incorporated in our Positive Behaviours For  Learning (PB4L) whole school approach to behaviour management.

As you can see, another very busy year is planned for St Paul’s with a very full agenda  as it continues on it’s school improvement journey.

So what does this mean for us?  Hopefully more literate and numerate children and more effective communication and involvement with the parent community.  This may somewhat oversimplify our plans, but if we manage to achieve this over the next three years, then we will have something significant to celebrate.

Go gently,

Michael Reardon
Principal

Change to Meet and Greet Meetings/Information Evening

Due to the above plans, the Leadership Team are again seeking more effective and less time consuming ways to provide you with the information you seek about your child’s progress and well being at St Paul’s. We need to do this in a way that alleviates both parents and staff having to add additional evening meetings to your already busy work life and family schedule. Due to this, we have decided not to have the Parent Information Meeting held last year in about the third week of school.  However, we will be having a progress and data meeting towards the end of the term to outline your child’s progress in term one, their particular strengths and needs and strategies that will assist your child in moving forward for the rest of the year.  This will mean that we won’t have to ask you to come in for an additional meeting in term one.

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 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.

2020 School Captains and Student Leaders

Congratulations to Lachlan Campbell and Alana Bucca who are the St Paul’s School Captains for 2020. They will be supported by our Student Leaders, Jake Murray, Erica Edgerton, Ashton Chan-Sau and Charlotte Rota. These students will receive their badges at the Opening School Liturgy on Thursday, 13 February 2020.

Bushfire Appeal

The below extract was taken from the Advertiser Community News. It acknowledges how our school community has supported those communities that have been devastated by the bushfires over the school vacation period. I wish to thank the students and all those parents who assisted in such a selfless initiative. Annmarie Lauricella, our P and F President, gave great leadership to our school community contribution.

This truly is about our school motto: Truth, Love, Faith.

St Paul's Camden students fundraise for local firies

It might still be the school holidays but some local students are already hard at work for a good cause.

St Paul's Catholic Primary School students have been roaming the Narellan Town Centre over the past few days, accompanied by their parents, to raise funds for the region's firefighters.

More than 30 students across all grades have been collecting donations to support the worthy cause.

The charity event was organised by the school's P and F president, Ann-Marie Lauricella.

"It was initiated by the families of St Paul's school to support a good cause," she said.

"We've been overwhelmed so far - there are people dropping $50 and $100 notes in, we've even seen kids donating their pocket money. It's just brilliant."

The students will also be out and about with their parents and teachers on Australia Day collecting funds from 9am to 12pm.

Each student will receive a Maccas Award from Camden McDonald's for their efforts.

Casey's Toys in Narellan has also donated a prize for the child who collects the most money.

"We've had so much great support from local businesses and Narellan Town Centre as well as the Wollongong Diocese," Ms Lauricella said.

"I think people have been so willing to donate because even if they aren't directly affected by the fires we have all seen what has happened.

"The support we have had is unbelievable."

An RFS, NSW Police and Camden Sports Club representative will count the money raised on Australia Day once children have finished collecting funds.

New Reflection Garden  - Flagpole Area

I’m sure that everyone has noticed the upgrades to the playground areas.  This has been an initiative carried forward by the P and F with two years in the planning. We now have a very special outdoor space that will better accommodate parents and families during our morning and weekly assemblies as well as being an outdoor focus for prayer with the placement of our new cross in this garden.  I wish to acknowledge all those in it’s planning and completion as well as the funds provided by the P and F to bring this to reality. I wish to acknowledge the work of so many parents at our school fete that provided the funds to make such an initiative possible.  I also need to acknowledge the work of Warren Linden and his father Deryck who endured the heat over the Christmas vacation to do the work, with labour costs gifted, such a kind gesture deeply appreciated by all.

A special thank you to the Romeo family and Sharon Romeo who created the cross.

Parent Volunteers Orientation to Assist in Classes or go on Excursions

Last year most parents didn’t need to attend a parent volunteer orientation because they had done so in 2018.  This session provided parents with information about child protection protocols, privacy matters and expectations of parents seeking to assist in classes and on school excursions.

There will be two sessions for parents to choose from if they want to be a parent volunteer either through in class assistance or attending excursions.

These sessions will be held on Tuesday, 11 February 2020.

Session 1: 9:30am - 11:00am

Session 2: 6:30pm - 8:00pm

If you attended the sessions last year, 2019, you don’t need to do so again this year.  If you attended the sessions in 2018, your currency has expired and you will need to attend them again this year. These need to be completed by all parent volunteers every two years.

You cannot assist in class or on excursions unless you have booked to attend either session if your currency has lapsed.

If you are attending please complete and submit  the elctronic form below.

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 SHERPA 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 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.

Protocols When Seeking To Meet With Staff

Last week, even with it being the first week I had a situation that reminded me to make sure I explicitly state the hierarchy we follow when dealing with matters at the school.  Naturally, as a parent, you would usually seek out the teacher first if you are concerned about any matter to do with your child. Should this not be resolved at that point then you would seek a meeting with the Middle Leader assigned to your child’s grade to seek their wisdom in how to move forward with your concern.  Only after this point, should Mrs Brunetta or I be involved. At any point, Mrs Debrincat, our Religious Education and Well being Coordinator is available to support children and parents for many of these matters.

If everything went to either the Assistant Principal or Principal first, nothing would be resolved effectively as there simply would be no time to do so with 615 children and 400 families!  Also, usually such meetings are not five minute matters and our time needs to be prioritised to the more pressing or high end immediate matters.  

It is also highly inappropriate for such concerns to addressed on the line in the morning, just before the children go into school.

In summary:

• Engage with your child’s teacher
• If issue not resolved request to meet with the Middle Leader allocated to your child’s grade.

• Arrange a meeting with Mrs Debrincat who may be able to assist your child directly as the wellbeing coordinator.
• If matter is still not resolved seek a meeting with either Mrs Brunetta (Assistant Principal) or Mr Reardon (Principal)

Below are the Middle Leaders responsible for each grade:

Kindergarten - Mrs Hatter

Year 1 & Year 2 - Mrs Mourinho

Year 3 & Year 4 - Mrs Smith

Year 5 - Mrs King

Year 6 - Mrs Martin

Class Parent Representatives

The Class Parent Representatives is a new role that was implemented last year.  

Attached to this newsletter is an expression of interest form for class parent reps this year.  As we are not having a formal information evening this term, I have decided to send out the information via our newsletter.  If you are interested in being the Rep for your child’s class, it would be greatly appreciated. Could you please complete the expression of interest and return it to the school no later than Friday, 14 February 2020 or email the school office via info@spcdow.catholic.edu.au and let the office staff know your interest along with the relevant class.

The purpose of implementing the Class Parent Representative is to improve communication with parents in the school for school events and to provide pastoral support at the request of the Principal.

The role of the Class Parent Representative (CPR) will enable the school to share the work and planning for parents further afield who, due to work commitments, are challenged in supporting the school in this way.  There is one parent selected from each class. Therefore, each grade will have three CPRs. This will make it easier to share the work around so that it is not such a huge burden on a small group. Each grade will only be involved in one or two during the year.

Attached is the role descriptions and expression of interest form. You can also put forward your expression of interest by emailing the school office via info@spcdow.catholic.edu.au

Nut Free School

St Paul’s Catholic Primary School is a nut free school.  Please make sure that your children’s lunches and snacks are free of nut products.  We have a number of children who have severe allergies to nut products (even the smell of nut breath from another person) and they can go into anaphylactic shock.  Thank you for making our school environment a safe one for all.

Updating Computer Records     

Accurate school records help us to operate much more efficiently.  Please ensure that you update your Compass records via the parent portal when you change phone numbers or address.

Celebrating Our Faith  

Our opening school liturgy will be held on Thursday, 13 February 2020. It will begin at 10am. All parents and friends are invited to attend. 

As the students come back to school this week we will be focussing on re-establishing strong routines within the classrooms and across the playgrounds. This helps to maintain an environment that is conducive to learning.

This year the children will be given the opportunity to unpack the weekly target and then journal on something that was positive for them during their school week. This new initiative will lead our students into our final chapter of PB4L Social and Emotional Learning.

CEDoW Student Responsible Use of Technology Agreement

Last Thursday, students were sent home a copy of the CEDoW student responsible use of technology agreement (pink coloured note), which requires you to sign and return before this Friday, 7 February 2020. Students will not be allowed to use technology at school until this form is returned.

Consent Form For Use of Student's Image and/or Work

Students were also sent home a copy of the consent form for use of student's image and/or work, which must also be signed and returned to school before this Friday, 7 February 2020.

Book Club Orders

Letter From Made Fresh -(New Canteen Operator)

Sacrament of Penance Programme