Dear Parents & Guardians,

I welcome everyone back to school for term three.  As we start the term, things still remain a challenge as we try to build friendship and fidelity into our school culture, where because of COVID-19 the ways of the past in doing this in many cases are challenging.  We are still unable to have parents on the site, other than to collect their children in the afternoon. Excursions, except for the outdoor field trip kind, are still unable to proceed. Assemblies are only allowed to go for no more than 15 minutes with no parents in attendance.  Large staff gatherings are still not allowed and must maintain the 4 sqm social distancing rule.  This means that these have to largely be done via zoom meetings, which are fine for management matters, but  not necessarily training matters, where active participation is obviously the best way we learn.  So the challenges are still there, but we still try to find ways around this.

Another challenge has been to establish the best way to have a P and F meeting?  I have decided that we will go ahead with the P and F meeting next Wednesday in the Heritage Hall, but due to the 4 sqm rule, it will be limited to 20 attending.  Therefore, we welcome you to come, however, you will have to register your attendance by ringing the office as it will be limited to 20 in number.  I just feel this is the best way to move forward in a way that I am hearing the voice of the community.

In addition to this, the question of the delivery of our curriculum still remains a challenge even with everyone back at school.  Parent and community expectations, teacher backgrounds and experience, school policy, CEO expectations, government regulations, the loss of two and a half hours of teaching time each week due to the staggered dismissal from 2.45 - 3.15, frequently determine what is taught and not taught, and this year the playing field continues to change with regularity.  Yet within these constraints we find ourselves this year, we continue to take all possible steps to devise and implement our school curriculum which gives maximum opportunity for children of very different abilities.

In light of all these challenges that this year holds for us, I continue to learn so much more about your children and the way in which you rise to the challenge as a parent.  One student often will talk to me about his world, sometimes daily.  I must admit there have been times when I needed to attend to things but obviously his story has been important and I ‘ve needed to give him time.  He shared with me a story about how he had helped his dad rebuild a fence in the backyard during remote learning when the students were, in most cases, at home, often challenged by the fact that they were disconnected from school life. For many this caused considerable anxiety.  This boy was in fact a perfect example of this challenge.  Yet, the simple task of working with his dad to complete a fence over a number of days outside, gave him the time to reflect with his dad about his world and what was giving him life, purpose and meaning.  This was largely completed on the weekend, but was not seen by this boy as a job but more of a sacred time that he had with his dad over some wood, some nails and a hammer!  If only I had this conversation with this boy about twenty years ago, I would have been reminded how important such times are and you need to embrace them as you will never get them back.  

The point I’m trying to make here is that COVID-19 is also a time where we need to sit back and learn about the good that each challenge has given us as parents, educators and leaders.  I have only one last thing to say about the story I share with you in this newsletter - I learnt a great deal about myself from the story shared with me by a very wise student.

I leave you with the following thought to consider:

VERY LITTLE IS NEEDED TO MAKE A HAPPY LIFE;
IT IS ALL WITHIN YOURSELF,
IN YOUR WAY OF THINKING.

Marcus Aurelius

Go Gently,

Michael Reardon
Principal

Congratulations

Congratulations to Logan Nightscales, Chloe Payne and Taylor Fairbrother  who have been selected to join the Year 6 Leadership team.

School Excursion Update

We have been waiting for the latest directives about school excursions. At the moment the following continues to apply to excursions which place great limitations upon any actually going ahead at this time:

• Proposed gatherings of students involving two or more classes or exceeding one hour must be discussed with the COVID-19 Operations Room (CEO).
• Day field trips to outdoor locations with no physical distancing requirements (e.g. sport and recreation facilities, trips to local river to collect water samples) are allowed..
• Students may only attend external venues that have a COVID-safe plan.
• Excursions (other than field trips described above) remain suspended.
• School camps remain suspended.

Due to this, there will no overnight camp this year for Year 5 & 6.  However, so that our students do not miss out on this experience the school has arranged for the  following which still may change dependent on future COVID-19 circumstances. 

Year 5 Students will still attend Wedderburn Christian Camp on Monday 14 and Tuesday 15 September.  Buses will depart the school at 9:00am and return to school for 3pm pickup.  They will travel each day to and from St Paul's in three class buses for daily activities, as the activities are out doors this excursion can take place in the current climate. Lunch will be provided both days. 

Year 6 Students will still attend Wedderburn Christian Camp on Tuesday 22 and Wednesday 23 September. Buses will depart the school at 9:00am and return to school for 3pm pickup.  They will travel each day to and from St Paul's in three class buses for daily activities, as the activities are out doors this excursion can take place in the current climate. Lunch will be provided both days. 

In addition to this, Year 6 will attend an all day excursion to Canberra leaving St Paul's at 7:30am and returning to school at 5:00pm on Friday 20 November.   This is subject to approval closer to the date and the COVID-19 restrictions at that time. 

Permission notes and further details in regards to all excursions will be forth coming. 

Congratulations to the following students who have recently received a Principal's Award.

Archie Colliss, Brendan Grech, Mya Withers, Ava-Lucia D'Costa, William Khan, Joel Murphy, Ella Caudle, Amelia Carpenter, Lucas Fenech, Angelisa D'Costa, Sophia Carney, Holly Nightscales, Kieran Middleton, Amelia Palazzolo, Toby Humphries, Oliver Connelly, Sienna Tillman, Leila Tulich, Isabella Minici, Geneieve Luck, Jesse Cutajar.

Class Mass Attendance

During these unprecedented times it is important that we continue with the practice of taking our Primary classes to the week day Parish Masses, in order to enhance their development in the areas of faith and Catholic tradition. 

In line with the Parish's COVID safe plan, we will begin this as of tomorrow, Wednesday 29 July 2020 with 5F attending. 

A different Primary class will be scheduled to attend on days each week and permission will be required from parents. This will be done via an event on the Compass Parent Portal. If consent is not received or if your child is late to school on their allocated day, they will not be permitted to attend. 

All students attending will have their name and family contact number recorded by the Parish office.

At St Paul’s, we pride ourselves on providing quality education to our students as well as quality professional learning experiences for our teachers. Ongoing professional learning is provided throughout each year for teachers to continue to develop their growing knowledge and skills in delivering quality teaching and learning programs. This professional development is often led by members of the leadership team who are experts of the field. This ongoing teacher training is usually done through half day or full day workshops at the school. 

This professional learning for English consists of developing knowledge of Synthetic Phonics using the ‘Letters and Sounds’ program, CEO developed program ‘Teaching Reading Strategies grades 2-6’, Spelling program ‘Words Their Way’ for grades 4 - 6  and almost all staff have been trained in the Understanding Dyslexia and Significant Reading Difficulties course. 

The National Literacy Learning Progressions were developed by ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority). It provides a comprehensive view of literacy learning and how it develops over time. The Literacy Learning Progressions support the explicit and systematic teaching of synthetic phonics including the use of decodable readers in Kindergarten, Year 1 and into Year 2, rather than predictable readers. The teaching and learning at St Paul’s reflects this as outlined below;

• From Kindergarten to Year 2, children are explicitly taught how to read and write by learning the ‘code’ of the English language through Letters and Sounds. As research and evidence outlines, synthetic phonics “...offers the vast majority of young children the best and most direct route to becoming skilled readers and writers” (Rose Report, 2006). 
• Children in Year 3 have a year of revision of Letters and Sounds to ensure that these skills are secured in order to read more complex texts, involving increasingly complex  content and vocabulary.
• Children in grades 4 - 6 are reading to learn and so teachers explicitly teach more complex spelling skills and continue to build vocabulary knowledge through small group instruction using the program ‘Words Their Way’. 
• From Year 2 onwards, children are also explicitly and systematically taught about the 7 comprehension strategies through the program ‘Teaching Reading Strategies grades 2-6’. Children engage with a variety of types of texts when learning about the comprehension strategies, for example, children may read a decodable text, a magazine article, a picture book or view a short video clip online. Through engaging  with a variety of texts, children are supported to learn how to apply their knowledge of phonics and comprehension strategies to a ‘wide’ range of texts in order to become competent and successful readers. 

There are some common misconceptions about the teaching of synthetic phonics that I would like to address;

1. Do you teach synthetic phonics all day, every day?

No. Student’s from Kindergarten to Year 3 participate in an explicit lesson of Letters and Sounds for approximately 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. Children may also complete a practise activity (something that has already been taught) during their literacy learning centres. 

2. Do children read decodable texts only?

No. Decodable texts are used from Kindergarten to Year 2 during small group instruction when learning how to read. Throughout the rest of the day, teachers from Kindergarten to Year 6 expose children to, and use, a wide variety of texts across all Key Learning Areas. Decodable readers are provided via Bug Club for home reading from Kindergarten to Year 3 to allow the student’s to apply what they have learnt in class. Children are encouraged to also read other types of texts such as library books or other texts of interest.  

3. Do you teach writing? 

Yes. Children are also taught how to spell through the Letters and Sounds program. There is a daily writing component in every Letters and Sounds lesson where children write a dictated sentence. Teachers also then explicitly teach writing as part of the Literacy block. 

4. Do decodable texts help children develop comprehension skills? 

Yes. Decodable readers have a clear storyline and plot. They also contain comprehension questions in which the teacher will engage in with the students during these teaching episodes. The importance of using a decodable text from Kindergarten to Year 2 is that foremost, it allows children to develop their decoding skills and then begin to develop reading comprehension skills. 

5. Why doesn’t my child bring home a levelled reader for home reading from Kindergarten to Year 2? 

A students’ reading ability is not determined by a reading level. Students reading ability is measured based on the 6 components of reading which are; phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, oral language and comprehension. A decodable reader allows students to develop all of these necessary skills and ensure success when reading independently. This is because the decodable texts for home reading incorporate the letters and sounds that have been explicitly taught in class. 

Mrs Angela Mourinho
Literacy Coach

Online Safety for your Child is a Team Effort

The Internet is essential to our children's education, future careers and lives. Our children don’t know a world without the internet, a click of a button to find out an answer to their problems. 

I would like to remind you that all our students (K-Year 6) signed the Responsible Use of Technology Agreement at the beginning of the year which states they will use the internet appropriately. Students also agreed they will respect the rights of others. This year, majority of the students have upheld their promise and continue to produce amazing work using their devices. 

At school, according to the Catholic Education Office guidelines, our internet is restricted. Students cannot access inappropriate sites-particularly sites such as Facebook and Twitter. However, we cannot control how students use the internet at home. I have spoken to multiple students across the school and it has shocked me to know how many of our younger students including infants are on a number of social media apps. This is where I need your support. Teaching the students about responsible and safe internet use is important but we also need to be role models for our children. 

The chart below shows the age restrictions for a number of popular apps and social media platforms. Please note that none of the children in our school are old enough to be using any of these online platforms. Age restrictions on social media platforms are in place to keep children safe, as they are too young to understand the implications of their posts or effectively handle dangerous situations. Often students will inform me that their parents have signed up for the app or they have lied about their age when trying to download it. Neither of these situations are acceptable.

Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and the social distancing restrictions, I am unable to organise a guest presenter from the eSafety commissioner to visit the school for a parent community. Instead, I have linked a number of useful websites for you to visit and encourage you to have open discussions at home with your children about safe and responsible use when online. 

Recommended websites:

eSafety Commissioner  https://www.esafety.gov.au

Think U Know   https://www.thinkuknow.org.au

Kids Help Line https://kidshelpline.com.au

Thank you for your continual support,

Mrs Andrea Martin
ICLT Middle Leader

Self Management

Self management is taking responsibility for your own actions and well being. It is learning how to control and direct our emotions in appropriate ways.

These posters have assisted teachers in unpacking issues about problems and the reactions students have towards their problems.

P and F Meeting

It is our plan to have our first P and F meeting since early term 1 on Wednesday, 5th August at 7.00pm in the Heritage Hall.  Due to the 4 sqm restrictions, a maximum of twenty will be allowed to attend.  You must ring the office and register your intention to go (46548900).

For Parish news and information, or to book Mass during COVID-19 please visit the Parish website.

https://www.stpaulscamden.org.au/