Dear Parents & Guardians,
In two weeks, our Grade Three and Grade Five children will participate in the annual NAPLAN assessments. These tests are important – they provide useful information, both to parents and guardians and to schools on the progress of children at school.
It is important though to recognise, that the NAPLAN assessments are one test on one day. They are not the only way in which to gather information on a student’s progress and there are a lot of areas that NAPLAN cannot and should not assess. For schools, NAPLAN rarely if ever tell us something we do not already know. Effective schools should be comparing the results from the NAPLAN with results from a wide range of other assessments.
It is also really important to appreciate that some children get very anxious in these types of situations, however, this does not mean that this child is not making progress. Their anxiety often masks their actual capability.
Lastly, it is important to recognise that NAPLAN is not the measure of a child. There is so much more to children than this. I know many parents and guardians are focussed on their child doing well in their NAPLAN, however, I caution anyone putting too much store into success in the NAPLAN assessments. At this time of year, lots of stores are selling NAPLAN practice books (Aldi of all places??). The reality is though, that this is very little evidence to support the use of these types of resources and I fear they often do more damage than help. They can create heightened levels of anxiety for children and give the NAPLAN a superior status that is not justified. Again, NAPLAN has a purpose but this it is limited in context and intent.
NAPLAN SCHEDULE
GRADE THREE:
Thursday, March 14: Writing
Monday, March 18: Reading
Tuesday, March 19: Language Conventions
Wednesday, March 20: Numeracy
GRADE FIVE:
Wednesday, March 15: Writing
Thursday, March 16: Reading
Friday, March 17: Language Conventions
Tuesday, March 19: Numeracy
We would ask that you make every effort to ensure that your child is at school on these assessment times, barring unavoidable absences like student illness. We will schedule catch-up sessions for those children who are absent, however, it will be difficult to provide catch-up sessions for all the tests that need to be completed if children are away for all of them.
If you have been provided with any adjustment forms by Lorraine Stevenson, our Learning Diversity Leader, please return these to school no later than Tuesday, March 6 so we can plan for these required adjustments.
EXPLORATION LEARNING COMMUNITY (PREP) EARLY FINISH AND PREP REST DAY
Just a reminder that this is the last week for the early finish to school for our Exploration Learning Community students. From next week, our Exploration students will need to be collected at the usual school finish time of 3.10pm.
The students should be collected from either Gate 1 (by the staff carpark) or Gate 2 (by the admin office) or the Kiss n’ Go. As with the other students, these children need to have a coloured tag on their school bag so that the staff on duty know that they are at the correct gate for collection. These coloured tags can be collected from the admin team and they will keep a record of which gate these children are being collected from.
If you would like to collect your child from the classroom door, we will provide this for the remainder of this term only, however, you will need to collect your child on time at 3.10pm as we cannot ask teachers to wait with your child beyond this time.
This week was also the last week of the Prep Rest Day on Wednesday’s. From next week, the Exploration Learning Community children will be spending their first full week at school.
JEWELERRY & NECKLACES
There are number of our children who are coming to school with jewellery, specifically, necklaces. For some children, we appreciate that these might have cultural or religious significance, however, we need to balance this with the understanding that St Lawrence of Brindisi is a Catholic school and, while we acknowledge the place and cultures of other faith and welcome these families into our community, we must always promote and give a central focus to the celebration of the Catholic faith.
Necklaces in particular are a significant health and safety risk, especially when children are playing or engaging in their sports lessons. Wearing certain items of jewellery is not part of our uniform code, in the main for this reason as they are potentially a choking hazard.
Likewise, large earrings should not be worn at school. Studs and small sleepers are fine but if a child can get their fingers into the loop of an earring, they can potentially be pulled out through the earlobe which is really painful.
If you have any questions concerning the uniform please come and speak to me. I try to be considerate about the school uniform, however, we do have a uniform code and children should be wearing the correct uniform at school.
PROJECT COMPASSION
Last week at assembly, I had the absolute pleasure to announce that as a school community, we had raised more than $900 for Caritas Australia, through the purchase of water droplets and very generous donations to the St Lawrence of Brindisi Project Compassion fundraising page. It’s been great to watch our display of water droplets increase each day and staff have been busy making many more water droplets than were originally anticipated.
While our fundraising efforts have been outstanding so far, the challenge is to build upon what we have already achieved. Students are still able to purchase water droplets for $2 and the QR code for the St Lawrence of Brindisi Project Compassion fundraising page is added to the newsletter.
In next week’s newsletter, we will hopefully be able to announce 1 last fundraising effort to take us to the end of term. Together, as an amazing St Lawrence of Brindisi community, we can make a difference in the lives of those in need.
SACRAMENT OF EUCHARIST
Unfortunately, the Eucharist style-cafe evening that was to be held on Wednesday 28 February was postponed and will now be held this coming Wednesday, 6 March. This compulsory Eucharist evening will take place in Padua Hall at St Anthony’s Primary School (enter via Gate 4) at 7:00 pm. It is an expectation that at least one parent with the child preparing for the Sacrament of Eucharist must attend this evening.
A further reminder that students enrolled to receive the Sacrament of Eucharist this year must also attend the Eucharist Commitment Mass with at least 1 parent this coming Saturday, March 2 at 5:00 pm at St Anthony’s Church.
Any students who have not yet enrolled in the 2024 Sacrament Program and wish to participate in the program need to contact Jay Russell via email as soon as possible:
jamien.russell@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
SCHOOL HATS
Can I remind all our parents that as part of our Sun Smart policy, students must wear hats during Terms One and Four when playing outside in areas that are not shaded. A basketball hat brought from home is not part of uniform code and is not appropriate as it does not effectively protect a child’s neck from exposure to the sun.
We are now going to enforce the children wearing school hats at school, that is a hat with a brim that is part of our school uniform. If children do not have a school hat, they will be asked to play in the shaded areas. We would request that parents and guardians check that their child has a hat and that it is clearly marked with their child’s name (noting that texta tends to fade over time or after being washed repeatedly).
TOYS
We have also noticed that an increasing number of children are again bringing toys to school. We would ask parents and guardians to discourage this unless this is part of a specific plan for a child that has been discussed and negotiated with the school.
Toys often get lost or broken, which can require us to support very upset children. Please make sure that your child leaves their toys at home
God bless,
Bill Hill
PRINCIPAL