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- News from the Principal
- News from the Assistant Principal
- Religious Education News
- Aboriginal Education News
- Library News
- NAPLAN Online 2022
- Easter Fundraiser
- Compass Ap Update
- For Year 5/6 - A Word of Advice from Tom (former student)
- Parish News
- From the Office of Safeguarding -National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence
- Aspire Junior Theatre Makers
- Tricky Catches
- Noodle Cakes Nutrition Snippet
Dear Parents and Friends of St Kevin’s,
This week sees us continue on our learning journey for 2022 with lots of different content being taught across all grades. On my visits to classrooms this week I discovered Kindergarten are well on their way to learning to read, learning the sounds m,s,a,t,p and how to blend them together to make words like sat, pat, mat, Sam, Pam, at. Year 1 students are learning about addition /subtraction and partitioning. Year 3 could discuss the importance of Harmony Day, where they shared comments about how St Kevin’s is a great school and students are not teased or made fun of because of their skin colour. “I really like coming to school here – it is fun!” was one comment from a Year 3 student. Learning is active and evident in all classrooms, and students are eager to engage in all aspects of school life. We will all keep striving to achieve our 2022 goals of being better readers and writers, and to improve our knowledge and understandings in Mathematics too. Keep up the great work everyone!
Mary-Anne Jennings
Principal
Volunteers
Don’t forget to register as a volunteer through the school website. Registration forms can be found under the “Parents as Partners” tab.
Easter Egg Raffle – out of uniform day
The P&F will be holding the annual Easter Egg raffle again on Wednesday April 6. This raffle is THE EVENT of the year for students!!! So, on Friday March 25 students come to school in their play clothes (enclosed shoes please and no shoestring tops) and bring some Easter eggs to donate as prizes for the Easter Egg raffle. Last year we had over 40 prizes, and some children managed to win more than 1 prize – it is very exciting! Raffle tickets are currently being organised with more information to come.
Kindergarten and Year 7 enrolments
Kindergarten enrolments are now open. Please contact the office during school hours on 49540036 to organise an enrolment pack.
St Paul’s Booragul will be contacting parents in the very near future as to details around enrolment procedures and information nights. Please keep an eye on your emails and we will also update as we receive relevant information.
Winter Uniforms
Winter uniforms are traditionally worn from around mid-May, depending on the weather. Some years we have had very warm weather during May and so have a transition time. If you need winter uniforms now is the time to start planning and ordering from the school office.
Easter Liturgies and Celebrations
In Week 11 (April 4-8) we look forward to Holy Week, and will observe traditional Holy Week liturgies. Holy Week this year falls in the first week of the holidays. You are all welcome to attend our services, please see below for the list of Liturgies and celebrations. There will be COVID safe practices in place around social distancing and use of hand sanitizer. Masks will be optional but highly recommended, so we all have a safe and happy Easter holiday.
Monday April 4 – Palm Sunday Liturgy led by Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2 at 9:15 in the COLA.
Wednesday April 6 – Easter Hat parade and raffle 2pm in the COLA.
Friday April 8 – Holy Thursday and Good Friday Liturgy led by Years 3, 4, 5/6 at 9:15 in the COLA.
News from the Assistant Principal
As promised my newsletter item this week is all about Working Mathematically. I bet you have been on tenterhooks this last fortnight waiting.
Last year we commenced our journey into improving our Mathematics pedagogy (how we teach Maths) by unpacking “What is Numeracy?” and “What is Working Mathematically?” as these two underpin good pedagogy. Let’s start with numeracy.
In the Australian Curriculum, students become numerate as they develop the knowledge and skills to use mathematics confidently across other learning areas at school and in their lives more broadly. Numeracy encompasses the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that students need to use mathematics in a wide range of situations. It involves students recognising and understanding the role of mathematics in the world and having the dispositions and capacities to use mathematical knowledge and skills purposefully.
When teachers identify numeracy demands across the curriculum, students have opportunities to transfer their mathematical knowledge and skills to contexts outside the mathematics classroom. These opportunities help students recognise the interconnected nature of mathematical knowledge, other learning areas and the wider world, and encourage them to use their mathematical skills broadly.
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/numeracy/
As you will appreciate from the above definition, teaching students to be numerate is critical as it is a life skill. Students have to learn to utilise their mathematical knowledge across the curriculum and recognise how it impacts on their daily lives and how to be efficient operators.
In the NSW curriculum Working Mathematically has 5 components: Communicating, Understanding, Reasoning, Fluency and Problem Solving. When talking to my Year 4 students recently they thought that Working Mathematically was just problem solving. It very definitely is not. Working Mathematically is incorporated into the design of our lessons and influences very heavily the way in which we teach. Let me provide a really simple example. Recently, Year 4 was completing a unit of work on 2 Dimensional and 3 Dimensional shapes and objects. They have to be able to communicate mathematically. So, there is all this mathematical language requiring fluency. If they cannot talk the maths language then how can I expect that they will understand what I am saying. For example: What are the dimensions? Answer: length, width and height (or depth). What is the length of an object or shape and what is its width? Answer : length is always its longest side. Another really obvious language or communicating problem they have in this area, is the naming protocols for shapes. They will say that an irregular septagon is an arrow or they call a rhombus or a kite a diamond. In order to understand and describe the properties of shapes they need to name and refer to them correctly. I hope I haven’t lost you! To be good, efficient mathematicians the children need to be able to speak the language correctly and they need to possess different skills and strategies in order to problem solve. They need to be fluent, this doesn’t mean they need to be quick, it simply means that in working towards a solution they are efficient, and have automaticity. Reasoning is perhaps the hardest component as it requires the student to use logic ( LOL I know many adults that I question their logic.. Or perhaps they question mine!) When reasoning I expect students to infer and make generalisations. For example, In Year 4 we are currently exploring patterns. This week we were attempting to establish a rule using a guess and check strategy. We established that it couldn’t be a multiple of 5 because the numbers in the pattern would be even, odd, even, odd and the pattern we were looking at had only even numbers. Working Mathematically is basically the “how” of their Maths operating.
I could go on forever (I usually do). If you have any questions please contact me kim.hogan@mn.catholic.edu.au
God Bless
Kim Hogan
Assistant Principal
As you know, the Diocesan theme this year is Fully Alive!
So far, we have looked at the themes being Created and Known by God and Being in and Building Relationships. This week we touch on Growing in Commitment.
When you get a moment of quiet this week, take some time to contemplate the following: Have you experienced a time when you felt being faithful to God’s call was challenging? How do you feel you are called to use your gifts and talents in your daily life?
Kindergarten Religious Education
Over the past couple of months, I have had the honour and privilege of joining Mrs Albury and Kindergarten for their Religion lesson on my REC release days. The new Religious Education Curriculum for Early Stage One (Kindergarten) is child-centred and play-based. It encourages and allows the children to form a genuine and true connection to God whilst learning about the fundamental beliefs of our Catholic faith.
Similar to the rest of the school, Kindergarten is learning about Lent and Easter. Yesterday the children investigated the symbolism of the Easter Egg. After a visit to the playground to collect natural loose parts, the children were invited to decorate their own egg. Some chose to colour, some chose to use loose parts from the classroom and some chose to use the natural items we collected. It was very special to witness the design process of these beautiful children.
Our new curriculum calls for a lot of ‘wondering’. I invite you to take some time to wonder over these fabulous designs!
Mini Vinnies
The St. Kevin’s children have been thoroughly enjoying taking part in our Fundraising efforts for Project Compassion. Due to staff absences, we were unable to hold an assembly and therefore announce the winner of our Jellybean guessing competition last Friday. We will announce the winner the next time we gather as a school!
This week, the Mini Vinnies children began selling raffle tickets to raise money for the Lismore Flood Appeal. Since we have so many prizes, we will continue to have raffle tickets for sale until next Friday. Tickets are 50c each or 3 tickets for $1 and are available for the children to purchase each lunchtime. Prizes will be drawn at our week 9 assembly.
St Patrick’s Day
Thank you for your generosity and support! The children looked wonderful all decked out in green and we raised $80.00 for Project Compassion.
St. Joseph’s Day tomorrow!
Did you know that until 1999, St. Kevin’s Primary School was called St. Joseph’s Primary School? Our name was changed to St. Kevin’s to be in line with our Parish Church. We have a very rich Josephite heritage at St. Kevin’s. We were founded by the sisters of St. Joseph and we strive to live by our Josephite Charisms; Dignity, Excellence, Justice, Service and Stewardship each day.
Friday 18th March will be a day of prayer and fun as we discover more about St. Joseph and how very special he is to our Catholic faith and to our school community.
Children are to wear school sport uniform.
Everyone is welcome to join us for a liturgy at 9.10am, we hope to see you there!
May God’s Spirit be with you all each day.
Mrs Jasmina Boudan
Religious Education Coordinator
Yaama Ngindaay
Wednesday 23 MarchChildren are encouraged to wear something orange on this day. |
Where have we come from?
Today every child received a single sheet of paper with a hand outline. To help with our celebration on 23 March we would like every child to complete the Harmony Day ‘hands’ activity at home and bring it back to school. They write the names of countries where they have a family connection on the fingers of their paper hand. They may need some help with this.
Children may decorate the hand if they wish. Writing the names of the countries in national colours might be a good way for them to identify as well, for example: IRELAND written in green. ITALY in red, green and white. Or they could draw the map of the country. Our ‘hands’ will help the children understand and appreciate the diversity of family backgrounds in our school community as we celebrate Harmony Day. Here is an example:
Also on this sheet you will see What places have my family come from? It would be greatly appreciated if you could help them to fill in this section. Don’t worry if you can’t answer all the questions.
Thank you for your help with these things.
Please return this sheet to school by Tuesday 22 March so that we can display them all in their classrooms.
Yaluu ngali ngamilay (We will see each other again)
Aboriginal Education Teacher
Premier’s Reading Challenge 2022
Congratulations to Evelyn U, Ariana, Chase and Cierra for completing PRC 2022. Terrific reading and keep reading everyday!
The children have finished PRC however they will continue to read for enjoyment.
All children have received their PRC username and password. Please email me if you have any trouble entering the books online.
For the infants classes it is important that you read with your children Monday- Thursday. After reading the book enter it online.
Kindergarten/ Year 1 – Keyboard practise
It would be fantastic if some children could practise the letters on a keyboard using Keyboard Climber. Please encourage them to use both hands and several fingers to assist good typing skills.
Keyboard Climber Version 1 https://games.forkids.education/keyboard-climber-1st-version/
OR Typing Club https://www.typingclub.com/
Year 2 and Primary classes – Typing.com
https://www.typing.com/student/login
Please email me if your child is unsure of their username and password.
Many thanks
Dianne Binkin
Teacher Librarian
Dear Parents and Carers,
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills which students in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in annually.
St Kevin’s will be participating in NAPLAN Online between 10 and 20 May 2022.
In preparation for NAPLAN Online, St Kevin’s will be participating in practice tests on 28 March 2022 and 30 March 2022. The practice tests give students an opportunity to become familiar with the online test format, and its functions and tools, in a test environment. The practice tests are not an assessment of student ability and will not be marked.
All students in years 3 and 5 will require their own headphones for NAPLAN.
Update to the Parent App
You may be aware that Compass recently updated the Parent app. This update is part of an ongoing effort at Compass to enhance the overall user experience and improve usability.
Attached below is a Parent Guide that outlines the finer details of this update. The changes are straightforward and do not affect the functionality of the app.
Dear Parishioners
Below is a copy of our Bulletin for this Sunday.
You will also find media release from Caritas regarding aid to the Ukranian People of Mariupol.
The above photos depict humanitaria aid supplies at the central station in Kyiv and food supplies ready for distribution in Mariupol prior to the evacuation or Caritas staff. Photos courtesy of Caritas Ukraine.
Regards Anna
All Saints Parish Blackbutt South
Parish Office: 230 Main Road, Cardiff
Postal: PO Box 233, Cardiff NSW 2285
Phone: (02) 4954 0977
Email: asbsparish@mn.catholic.org.au
Website: www.allsaintsblackbuttsouth.org.au
From the Office of Safeguarding -National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence
National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence
Organisation: Bullying. No Way!
The theme of the day encourages parents and families to take a stand together with school communities and recognise the important role that everyone plays to stop bullying.