Dear Parents and Carers of St Kevin’s,

NAPLAN results have been released and St Kevin’s needs to celebrate its excellent results AGAIN! We are above National, State, Diocesan and Statistically Similar Schools in all areas of NAPLAN in both Year 3 and 5. This is indeed a time to celebrate as a village. It takes a village to raise and educate a child. St Kevin’s is doing exactly that in ensuring the social, well-being, spiritual, creative and academic needs of our students are being met and nurtured. We are definitely a Catholic community nurturing mind, heart and spirit, following the light of Christ. So again, I say congratulations to the parents, staff and students themselves in being a great village where learning is visible and accountable and where we are achieving great things.

But wait there’s more....

The netball gala day was held yesterday, and it was another huge success. Our junior team won all their games, and our senior team also did very well. Sportsmanship, teamwork, listening to and acting on feedback and being courteous were highlighted strengths of our students. Again, this does not just happen overnight – it's the village raising its children to be responsible and productive members of society. Well done to both teams. Thank you also to the parents who volunteered as coaches, marquee managers and construction engineers, umpires from St Pius Adamstown and staff, who volunteered their time to make the day so successful.

Over the next few weeks, we should also see some work being done at the front of the school that will create an outdoor learning space for our students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2. This is part of the Commonwealth grant money that was awarded to us via Pat Conroy, our Federal Member. We look forward to utilising this new refurbished area of our school.

2023 the place to be …. wait for 2024... there will be lots more!

Student /Parent Conferences

Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey about our new initiative of Student led conferences about their learning. We have taken your feedback on these and will adjust their timetable in 2024. As you can imagine, we received many varied responses from very supportive and great initiative, to being of little or no value. 

So somewhere we will come to a happy medium. Student-led conferences are now part of how we communicate the learning that is happening in the classroom. These conferences, which are now an integral part of primary schools in our Diocese, are designed to ensure the students are aware and accountable for their learning too. It encourages our students to take more responsibility for their learning and goal setting. On my learning walks and talks I ask the students these 5 questions and expect all students to be able to answer:

1. What are you learning and why?

2. How are you going?

3. How do you know?

4. How can you improve?

5. Where can you go for help?

Feedback to teachers following these conversations enables teachers to focus on areas of need, for e.g. Do the students know what they are learning? Do the students understand how to be successful in their learning? Do the students need more feedback on their learning?

So, from your feedback we will reduce the number of students led conferences to 1 per semester. They will run similar to this year but at different times of the school year. We will ensure that the students can tell you about their learning, using the above questions as a guide.

These conferences are not meant to be parent/teacher interviews.

Parent/teacher interviews are when there is a 1:1 opportunity to discuss the learning and wellbeing of students as required. These parent/teacher interviews are available to all parents and teachers whenever required throughout the school year. They are not pre-scheduled or planned as an event, rather they are flexible and fluid in timetabling so as to meet the individual needs of students as they arise. If you would like to have a 1:1 meeting with your child’s teacher or if a teacher requests to meet with you, then appointments are made that are mutually acceptable to all parties. These meetings are then much more productive and information, rather than just a quick 10 minute “Yep they’re going great, no problems etc etc”

Please reach out to your child’s teacher via email if you would like to make an appointment or have an issue/concern you would like to discuss. Many parents have already reached out to teachers this year, and teachers have also been in contact with parents to have a chat or notify them of their child’s progress. Semester 1 reports reinforce student learning gains and areas for improvement too.

Mary-Anne Jennings

Principal

ICAS

ICAS assessments 2023 commenced this week with Digital Technologies. ICAS recognises academic performance in a way others celebrate achievements in sport or the arts.  We offer students who love sport and have physical prowess the opportunity to attend gala days and  follow pathways in sport.  We also give students, weekly, the opportunity to demonstrate their musical skills with guitar, and bi-annually the chance to show their creative flair through our school musical. Over the coming weeks students who love academic rigour get to compete against other students across Australia and internationally in a variety of subjects.

English – Week 5

Science – Week 6

Mathematics – Week 7

SUPERSTAN

Our rehearsals are picking up a pace and I hope your child is giving you a preview of our performance, rehearsing their songs and dances at home.  Hopefully, all students costuming is well underway.  Tickets will go on sale on Friday 25^th August.

God Bless

Kim Hogan

Faith Life, Catholic Identity and the Liturgical Season

This week we marked the Feast of Mary MacKillop at weekday Mass with our Parishioners. We were also fortunate to host the Sisters of St Josephs’ Lochinvar for morning tea afterwards. Sisters Maureen and Anne travelled from Lochinvar to join us for the occasion where they shared their stories as former students of St Kevin’s – previously St Joseph’s – and talked to our school community about the history and motivations of Mary MacKillop and Tenison Woods.

Mary MacKillop is Australia’s first Saint and represents the Catholic Identity that St Kevin’s school Charisms are built upon. Our school Charisms represent the values and characteristics of Mary MacKillop. Over the course of the term, keep your eye on the school Facebook page for opportunities to share what our school charisms mean to you. We’d love to hear your feedback.

Celebrating Mary MacKillop

Sacramental Program

Please keep our Sacramental Candidates in your prayers as they continue their faith journey and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation next Tuesday night. All are welcome to attend the Confirmation Mass at St Philips Catholic Church, Vista Pde, Kotara South. The service begins at 6:30pm.

Students in the sacramental program will participate in the Retreat Day at St James’ Primary School, Kotara South on Friday 11^th August.

Religious Education

Continued preparation is occurring for the roll-out of the new Religious Education curriculum for Year 2 & 3 which will occur next year. Year 2 will follow a similar model in the Pedagogy of Encounter to that which the Kindergarten and Year 1 grades use with a heavy emphasis on Personal Choice Making, while Year 3 will move to a model of Encounter that predominantly uses an Inquiry style of learning to facilitate Religious Education.

Upcoming Liturgy Celebration

The Feast of the Assumption will take place on Friday 18^th August. The Feast of the Assumption occurs on Tuesday 15^th August and is considered a Holy Day of Obligation.

Premier's Reading Challenge

Premier's Reading Challenge ends 18 August 2023 and all books must be recorded by midnight on the 18th.  Parents can add books to their children's reading lists online. If you need help with entering the books, please send the reading lists to the library, but please do not wait until the last day!

The number of books required are as follows

Book Week 

Book Week parade is Thursday 24 August 2023 so start thinking about costumes! This year's theme is Read, Grow, Inspire.

Thank you to those famiulies who have either paid their school fees or are continuing to make regular payments. School fee statements were emailed last week. Please take the time to review your account and make any necessary adjustments to your regular payments to ensure the account wil be settled by the due date of 30th Novermber 2023.

If paying weekly, there are 16 payments until the due date; if paying fortnightly, there are 8 payments until the due date; if paying monthly there are 4 payments until the due date.

I encourage families to contact the school of there is any reason they are unable to meet their full fee paying obligations. Arrangements can be made to meet with the Principal to confidentially establish a suitable fee agreement.

Regular attendance at school is essential for students to achieve quality life outcomes.  Everyday counts, as regular attendance helps students:

• Develop a sense of belonging
• Develop and maintain friendships
• Be more engaged at school
• Progress with their learning
• Be more aware of career and life options.

Supporting positive school attendance is a shared responsibility - everyone has a role to play in promoting the regular attendance of students.

We're proud to announce that from July 2023 all of our Catholic Schools Office sites, including St Kevin’s Primary School are powered by GreenPower – 100% clean renewable energy.

Run by the NSW Office of Energy and Climate Change, GreenPower is the only government accreditation program that guarantees electricity use is matched with power from renewable electricity sources.

The purchase of GreenPower guarantees the electricity is coming from renewable energy sources that meet strict environmental criteria. This ensures that the grid electricity we use has net-zero emissions.

The transition to GreenPower is just one of the actions Catholic Schools Maitland-Newcastle is undertaking as part of the Diocesan Sustainability Plan 2022-2025, to positively influence sustainability across our region. Another is to reduce electricity consumption across schools. New LED lighting is progressively being installed in all schools and at one primary school alone, there has been a 26% reduction in electricity.

With 58 schools, the impact of the lighting project is quite significant and combined with the installation of PV solar across all Catholic Diocese schools, further efficiencies will be gained. Reducing our demand on the grid is good for the environment but helps students too, with potential reduced operating cost savings being channelled to additional programs.