St Agnes' Weekly News - Term 1 Week 2 2023
- Sport Uniform - Year 1 and Year 6
- Whole School Prayer - 9:00am
Tuesday 14 February
- Sport Uniform - Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4
Wednesday 15 February
- Sport Uniform - Kindergarten and Year 5
- Band Rehearsals Resume
Thursday 16 February
- Sport Uniform - Year 1, Year 4 and Year 6
- Zone Swimming Trials - Wauchope Pool (please note change of date)
- Year 5 Mass - 10:15am at the Chapel
Friday 17 February
- Sport Uniform - Year 2, Year 3 and Year 5
- School Assembly - 2:30pm to 3:00pm
Dates For The Diary
Monday 20 February
- Zone Winter Sports Trials - St Joseph's Regional College, Indoor Stadium and Port Macquarie Hockey Fields
Tuesday 21 February
- Zone Swimming Carnival - Macksville
- Shrove Tuesday
Wednesday 22 February
- Ash Wednesday
Thursday 23 February
- Year 4 Mass - 10:15am at The Chapel
Friday 24 February
- Infants Beginning of School Celebration - 10:30am to 11:00am
- Primary Beginning of School Mass - 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Tuesday 21 March
- Harmony Day
Over the past ten days we have welcomed 95 new students to our community in Kindergarten to Year Six. We have been listening to parent feedback around communication and are trialling a new format for the newsletters to hopefully make it easier to read on a smaller device. Please offer some additional feedback to pmaca@lism.catholic.edu.au if this has helped improve your ability to read the text.
Once again, we have planned annual school goals that will drive our agenda at school. We would like to share these with you all and will be unpacking additional information throughout Term One.
Has your child been talking about having ‘extra’ teachers in their grade?
A strategic staffing decision has been made to employ additional teachers to work with grades K-4 after a very successful Pilot Project in Kindergarten 2022. This means that staff to student ratios have dramatically reduced for some of our critical learning time. The reason for this is to support what we call our ‘instructional groupings’ which allow our students to have access to a smaller class size with a teacher during the key learning of English and Mathematics. This enables us to target the learning exactly where that group of children need it to be, which will allow all children to achieve at their full potential. The use of these groupings is not new at St Agnes’, and is especially important for 2023 as we support our students through the changes in the Kindergarten to Year 2 English and Mathematics curriculum. The children still spend most of their school day with their class teacher. These teachers are not casuals, they are key members of the grade team, they attend planning meetings and will become a familiar face to students in all three classes, as instructional groupings change throughout the year, depending on the learning needs of the students. You would have noticed their faces when we sent home the ‘Meet the Teachers’ photos at the end of 2022 and again at the start of this year. We are so proud of the way that our students engage with this flexible learning environment.
Canteen News
| Monday | |
| Tuesday | |
| Wednesday | |
| Thursday | |
| Friday | Shelley James-Dumas, Marie Flanagan and Elise Fox |
If you would like to volunteer in the canteen on a regular basis, please see the link below with a form to complete and return to the school.
In the church we are celebrating Year A in the Liturgical Calendar. Most of the Gospel readings this year will be from Matthew’s Gospel, including this Sunday 12 February.
(Matthew 5: 17-37) This week Matthew tells us sometimes we treat God’s commandments and the Church’s laws as a guide to help us do the bare minimum. We ask exactly how much we can eat on a fast day or how late we can arrive at Mass and still have it “count”. We want to know exactly how generous and loving we need to be to make the grade. But Jesus’ preaching puts the lie to that way of thinking. Instead, he asks us to ask ourselves how much more we can do in love. Our standard is not the minimum we can do but the best way to share the abundance of God’s overwhelming, unconditional love.
Belonging to a Catholic school community enables us to learn about the tradition, scripture, religious education, celebration and sacraments. Catholic schools integrate spirituality into everyday life, and it does so in subtle ways across all areas of the curriculum: on the sporting fields, in disciplinary policies, in social justice programs, school liturgies, and in daily prayers and meditation time. Children are given time and space to reflect on what Christ’s message means to them. In so many ways, Jesus’ message of love is lived out in Catholic schools.
Next Thursday, Year Five will be attending Mass at the chapel at 10:15am. Family members are welcome to join us.
This term we will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday on 21 February, Ash Wednesday on 22 February and our Beginning of year celebrations will be held on Friday 24 February, infants at 10:30am and primary students at 12:00pm. During the Primary Mass our Year Six leaders will be receiving their badges.
On Tuesday 21 March St Agnes’ will be participating in Harmony Day celebrations where we learn more about the many cultures represented in our school community in detail. We will be communicating with families who may be able to share resources and information regarding their cultural background in the coming weeks.
Monday's Prayer will be hosted by Five Love. Please join us under the shelter on Monday at 8:55am for prayer.
NAPLAN
The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is a point in time assessment of literacy and numeracy skills. Each year students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 participate in tests for writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy.
From 2023, NAPLAN is moving to Term 1 and will take place from Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March. The reason for this change is so that results can be returned to schools earlier in the year which will support teachers to understand the learning needs of their students and plan accordingly.
NAPLAN tests are just one part of our school learning assessment program and questions are primarily based on knowledge, understanding and skills gained from the prior year of schooling.
In preparation for NAPLAN 2023, our school will undertake activities to help students to become familiar with the format and functionality of the online tests. These activities are not an assessment of student ability and will not be marked. At school we speak very positively about NAPLAN, reassuring and preparing the children for the assessments.
Students and parents can access the public demonstration site (https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site) to familiarise themselves with NAPLAN and the types of questions and tools available. Excessive preparation for NAPLAN is not required nor recommended.
If you have any questions or concerns about NAPLAN or your child participating in the assessments, please contact your child’s teacher or Kate de Bressac.
Zone Swimming Trials
The date of our Zone Swimming Trials has been changed to Thursday 16 February. This was out of our control and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. Registrations have closed but if you have a late registration please contact andrew.wilson@lism.catholic.edu.au or Renee in the office.
Zone Winter Sports Trials
These trials will be held on Monday 20 February. Netball trials will be held at the indoor stadium and Rugby League, Union and Soccer will be held at St Joseph's Regional College. The bus will depart from school at 8:15am and will return in time for afternoon buses. Hockey trials are being held at the hockey fields and transport is by private travel.
Please contact andrew.wilson@lism.catholic.edu.au or renee.shaw@lism.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions, news, or suggestions surrounding sport at our school.
Assembly Awards
Congratulations to the following students who received an award at today's assembly:
1 Faith – Lucas and Hayden
1 Hope – Claire and Harley
1 Love – Alaura and Kanata
2 Faith – Layla and Lily
2 Hope – Ella and Rose
2 Love – Nicholas and Hailey
3 Faith – Joel and Cruze
3 Hope - Ardan and Ivy
3 Love – Miles and Mia
4 Faith – Myles and Georgina
4 Hope – Evie and Mila
4 Love - Kitt and Konnor
5 Faith – Henry and Emily
5 Hope – Oliver and Ethan
5 Love – Angus and Tessa
6 Faith – Tuaka and Olivia
6 Hope – Sophie and Milly
6 Love – Darcy and Hudson
Drawn to Art - After School Art Classes are back. Term 1 on a Wednesday from 3:10pm to 4:45pm.
There are still places available, so if you would like to enrol your child into the Term 1 program please book via the website www.drawntoart.com.au or contact Jane on 0438 803 992.
Ben Hardman Music Tuition
Enrolments are open for guitar, bass guitar and drum lessons with Ben. If your child is interested, please complete the attached FORM and return to the school office.
