Term 3, Week 6 Bulletin
Dear Parents & Guardians,
Next week is Book Week; a week that school communities that look forward to with much anticipation. As someone who loves to read (though I don’t always find the time and do tend to get told off by my better half for spending money on and reading ‘work books’), Book Week is an event that we should make every effort to promote.
Over a long career in education, I have learnt that there is no magic bullet that will ensure success for every child at school; each child has different needs and needs different levels of support depending on the concept being taught. That is why teaching is such a challenging job, as I have often said to our staff teams, it’s not rocket science, it’s harder!
That said, the closest thing there is to a key to success for students is reading. Children who become strong, active and engaged readers do tend to be more successful in their learning. Interestingly, there are a number of studies with overwhelming evidence that show that parents and guardians who read (not just listen) to their children and do so even when their children are in their teenage years and have become independent readers, help their children to do better in their development of English. These children nearly always do better in their learning. If there was anything I would actively encourage our parents and guardians to do, it would be this.
It is really wonderful to see our children develop a love of books and actively engage in the joy of reading and listening to stories. Yesterday, I walked into a classroom on an errand and happened to watch a highly skilled teacher reading to the children. The sense of enjoyment and engagement these children had in engaging with this story was obvious.
I know our staff, particularly Helen Saunders in Exploration 1, have put a lot of hard work in to our Book Week event next week. I hope that all our parents and guardians talk about this with their children, and support our Book Fair from Monday, August 21 to Thursday, August 24 so that we continue to make the joy of reading something really special for all our children.
BOOK WEEK SCHEDULE:
Monday 21 August: Author visit.
We have Zeno Sworder visiting our school to talk to the students about reading and writing. Students have the opportunity to pre-purchase his books and the books can be signed by Zeno during his visit. To order go to: www.lamontauthors.com.au and select, ‘Buy our Author’s Books’. All orders must be received by August 7.
Tuesday 22 August: Dress Up Day
Students are invited to dress up as their favourite book character and a parade will be held at 2.45pm.
Thursday 24 August: Learning Expo
The school will be open in the afternoon for parents and guardians to come and see our amazing work.
2.30pm Exploration
2.45pm Discovery
3pm Curiosity and Challenge
Monday 21 through to Thursday 24 August. Scholastic Book Fair
The Scholastic Book Fair will be available from 3.15 to 3.45pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. A leaflet with additional information including details of a pre-purchase option will be sent out the week before Book Week.
DISMISSAL & CHANGE TO THE SCHOOL DAY
A reminder that the change to the school day and our dismissal procedures at the end of the school will take effect from Monday, August 28. If you did not read the letter that was sent out last week or have not yet completed the Google Form indicating from which gate you will be collecting your child (this must be completed by all parents and guardians, even if you plan to still collect your child from the classroom door), it is important that you have read this information and are aware of these new changes.
Please remember, that if you are collecting your child from the classroom door, you need to be there by 3.05pm and collect your child as soon as the bell sounds at 3.10pm as the class teachers will no longer be supervising the collection of children until 3.30pm. If you would like to speak to your child’s teacher, please make an appointment to meet with them at a convenient time.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact the administration team or speak to Caroline or me.
CURRICULUM STUDENT-FREE DAY
Also, please remember that Friday August 25 is a student-free day for all students. There will be no school for students on this day, however, KellyClub will be available for those parents and guardians who need supervision of their children. Please contact our administration team for their contact details.
DIRECTOR’S VISIT
Next Thursday, August 24, we have a special guest coming to St Lawrence of Brindisi. Dr Edward Simons, the new Director of Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, is coming to our school to see how our school is growing. This is great opportunity to show off our school and what we have achieved since we have opened. We will be showing Dr Simons our school song in Auslan and I have no doubt he will be suitably impressed.
BUMP IT UP WALL LEARNING EXPO & INFORMATION NIGHT
As part of our Book Week, we will hold a Writing Learning Expo for all Learning Communities and an information night for parents and guardians. This will explain our new Bump it up Wall writing strategy and how this is being used in the classrooms to support and inform the learning and the progress of your children. Learning Expo’s are a really powerful way we can celebrate the learning of all students and communicate this effectively to our parents, something that we have been committed to since our school opened.
These events will take place on Thursday, August 24. Our Writing Learning Expo will start at 2.30pm and the information night will be at 6.00pm. Please make every effort to attend these events as this is part of our commitment to communicate openly with our parents and guardians.
FATHER’S DAY CELEBRATION
We will be celebrating all our amazing dad’s, granddads and special friends on Friday, September 1, with a special Father’s Day breakfast from 7.30am. Following breakfast, our dad’s will have an opportunity to see their children start the school day, however, we will be concluding this celebration by 9.30am so that we can start our busy school day for our children. I hope lots of our dads can come!
LEARNING WALKS
As a school, we want to keep building ways that we can communicate effectively with our school community. It is really helpful and important to build the knowledge within our parent and guardian community on how learning and teaching looks and works in how school and how our teachers nurture and support the needs of the children in their classrooms. One of the most effective ways we can build this understanding within our parent and guardian community is through Learning Walks; the opportunity for parents and guardians to come to school and see the learning and teaching in action.
Some of our parents will have taken the opportunity to engage in one of these Learning Walks with School Engagement consultant, Tony Dalton and our Deputy Principal, Caroline, last year. We are keen to offer this opportunity again this year, and have consequently organised Learning Walks for parents and guardians on Tuesday, September 19 (the last week of Term Three). If you are interested in attending, please let me or the administration team know. More information on booking your attendance will be sent out to parents & guardians soon.
SCHOOL UNIFORMS, JEWELERY AND STUDENT’S HAIR
A reminder from last week about the school uniform.
- The children should not be wearing brightly coloured trainers to school each day – the school footwear code is black shoes or trainers.
- Students should not be coming to school with brightly coloured tights or pants as this is not part of our uniform code.
- We prefer parents and guardians to purchase the correct school bag, not least because this is correctly designed for children to wear as opposed to the bags other general retailers might supply.
- Children should not be wearing make-up to school.
- Long or dangly earrings are a health and safety risk, especially during playtime or sport. Only studs, sleepers or small hooped earring should be worn.
- Necklaces are also health and safety risk. As a Catholic school, any necklaces worn should only be worn if they have a crucifix rather than other religious symbols.
- Long hair should be hair tied back. Please make sure this is how your child is sent to school if this applies to them.
- Clearly label all items of uniform.
God bless,
Bill Hill.
PRINCIPAL