St Agnes' Weekly News - Term 1 Week 4 2023

During this Sunday’s Gospel reading from Matthew on the First Sunday of Lent, the focus is on the temptations of Jesus. At times, we may not have enough food, we may not always be safe, we may not always be in control, but we are always loved by God. When we are tempted we need to look at Jesus’ example and trust in God.

Shrove Tuesday by Year 6

Pancake Tuesday is also called Shrove Tuesday. The word shrove means to tell God we are sorry.

During Lent we give up things that we love for 40 days. On Shrove Tuesday we use up all our salt, flour, milk and eggs. After we have used up all of these ingredients we can’t use them for the rest of the 40 days.

On Tuesday at school, we received the most delicious pancakes to celebrate this occasion. Mrs Sprague asked us some questions that we had to answer correctly before we received our pancakes. Some of these were…

“What is the specific name of tomorrow's date?”
“What do we celebrate on Holy Thursday?”
“What season in the liturgical calendar starts tomorrow?”
“How many days are there in Lent?”
“Who died on the cross?”

Ready, set, Go! Some classes participated in pancake relay races. We had to balance a pancake on a spatula and try to beat the other teams. Our cheeks were hurting from laughing whilst dropping the pancakes over and over again. This is an activity often participated in other countries around the world on Shrove Tuesday.

Thank you to our wonderful parents that cooked over 500 pancakes for our school community. We are so grateful for your help!

Ash Wednesday

Despite the wild weather during our Ash Wednesday Prayer Service this week, we were still able to receive the ashes and hear more about the significance of Ash Wednesday as the start of the Lenten season. During this season we are called to the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. We do this to imitate Jesus, who spent 40 days in the desert before beginning his public ministry.

Beginning of School Prayer Celebrations

Today our school community prayed to Let our Light Shine through learning and friendships this year. Our Infants students and families joined Father Paul at 10:30am for a beautiful prayer celebration. Our school leaders received their badges during the Primary Mass later in the day. The theme for today was “letting our light shine’. Father Paul set the challenge for students to find ways to do this in our community. Thank you so much to all of our family members who attended, showing support for the faith life in our school.

Aggies Connects: K-2 Come and read with me

We have been communicating lots of information about K-2 reading and we are excited to offer a series of short sessions in the library over the next few weeks that will help parents to learn about and understand some of the changes to reading, especially in the way that you can read with your child at home. You are welcome to bring your child to the morning session, or collect them from the classroom for the afternoon session, so that you can experience the activities with your child. All sessions will have the same information, so choose a time that works for you. We have tried to attach them to pick up and drop off times, to make it easier for families.

Are you wondering where your home reading books are in Kindergarten to Year 2?

At your family sharing time this week, you should have received a letter about home reading, as well as a bookmark that supports word reading strategies. At present, the focus at home is on reading quality literature to and with your child, however, after Week 6 we will be sending our home reading diaries as well as some optional homework activities that link to the current learning in English. Home reading is supposed to be easy practice, children should be developing their fluency, comprehension and love of stories. Our main message is that “number level books” do not matter. These books have all been pooled as resources for children to choose from, please disregard the old numbers as they are not intended for the same purpose that they were previously. You may also hear your child or teacher talking about “decodables”. These reading books have a series of words that are easy for children to “decode” or sound out all of the words using their taught strategies. These are used in Kindergarten, Year One and Year Two only until children are able to successfully blend and segment words and understand the alphabetic principle in order to read more independently. Children who can do this are able to choose their readers. Home reading should also always include quality literature. The vocabulary, comprehension and enjoyment that comes from these texts are essential for their little minds.

NAPLAN Reminder

NAPLAN BEGINS IN THREE WEEKS!
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 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 (Online Assessment) 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.