St Paul's Catholic Primary School Newsletter Term 2, Week 8 2021
Principal's Message
Good afternoon St Paul’s Families,
This evening we will be sharing with our parent community our new approach to reading and writing here at St Paul’s. In fact, none of the information shared is ‘new’ – but our whole-school structured and systematic approach is new for us here at St Paul’s.
Some of you may have heard about a Science of Reading (SoR) approach or have heard about the so-called, ‘Reading Wars’ – a tussle about whether a ‘phonics based’ approach is better than a ‘balanced literacy’ approach. Without getting into the nuts and bolts of both approaches, the things that are common for both approaches is developing a love of reading, the sharing of diverse and meaningful texts with students and having students engage independently to read and create rich texts. We are using current evidence-based best practice approaches to improve literacy outcomes for our students here at St Paul’s.
In 2018, St Paul’s introduced the Read, Write, Inc. synthetic phonics program for students from Transition to Year 2. With now over 90% of our classroom staff (teachers, ISAs and our Leadership Team) trained in the delivery of this program, we are seeing remarkable success. This success is not only shown on data spreadsheets; this success is shown more meaningfully in classrooms every day and at whole-school liturgies, Masses and assemblies.
Two stand-out moments for me this year have been our Beginning of Year Mass led my Year 1/2 C and more recently our Year 1/2 M assembly – where our Year 1 and 2 students shared their learning by reading with confidence and fluency - not a senior student or teacher was needed to assist them with their delivery.
At the beginning of this year, fifteen of our staff engaged in the Science of Reading and Language (SOLAR) course through La Trobe University. We have now taken a more structured approach of teaching Literacy in our Year 3-6 Classrooms by introducing a Collaborative Reading approach and using learnings from The Writing Revolution to support students in developing their writing.
This evening at our parent night, we will share our journey with you and give you some ideas of how you can best support this learning at home. We look forward to continuing to work with you to bring greater success to ‘our’ children.
Kind regards,
Megan Evans
Upcoming Events
PLEASE NOTE:
St Paul's School Canteen will be CLOSED
Thursday 17th of June
(The day of the Athletics Carnival)
RE News
Weekly Awards: Week 7 & Week 8
Week 8 MJR 'Be a diffuser not an escalator' Awards- will be shown after Friday's assembly
Classroom News
General Information/News
OFFICE HOURS: The school office is open 7:50am to 3:30pm Monday to Friday during term time.
UNIFORM ORDERS: This week we received some of our shorts order from the supply company. If you ordered shorts please come to the office to collect them. Hopefully this means it will only be a few more weeks until we expect to receive our complete order (remaining shirts and shorts orders). Families will be advised when their orders are ready for collection. We thank you for your patience, Covid restrictions have made this process lengthier than we would wish.
LOST PROPERTY: Please check the names on your children's hats and other property as we have discovered that children are accidentally taking other children's belongings home.
SCHOOL FEES: School fee invoices have now been sent out to all families via email, please contact us if you have not received your email. When paying fees please ensure you include a reference for what the payment is for, either 'School Fees', 'OSHC Fees' or 'ELC fees' in the name.
SIBLING DISCOUNT: If you have more than 1 child studying at a Catholic School in the NT, you will be eligible for a sibling discount. Please contact finance.stpauls@nt.catholic.edu.au to inform our finance team of which schools your other children attend.
Rm 4 Transition - Miss Jo & Sr Hilde - SPORT DAY: Tuesday LIBRARY DAY: Friday
Rm 1 Yr 1-2 - Miss Mona - SPORT DAY: Tuesday LIBRARY DAY: Thursday
Rm 2 Yr 1-2 - Mr C - SPORT DAY: Wednesday LIBRARY DAY: Friday
Rm 8 Yr 3-4 - Miss Mandy & Sr Hilde - SPORT DAY: Wednesday LIBRARY DAY: Monday
Rm 9 Yr 3-4 - Miss Alex - SPORT DAY: Tuesday LIBRARY DAY: Thursday
Rm 12 Yr 5-6 - Mrs Del & Miss Margy - SPORT DAY: Tuesday LIBRARY DAY: Tuesday
Rm 13 Yr 5-6 - Miss Lauren & Miss Jess - SPORT DAY: Wednesday LIBRARY DAY: Wednesday
Rm 14 Yr 5-6 - Mrs Pond - SPORT DAY: Wednesday LIBRARY DAY: TBA
BOOK CLUB ORDERS: Book Club orders are sent out from Scholastic through the school twice per term. We use the “LOOP” system which means online ordering only. For more information on how to do this please see the link below www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP
Please remember to use your child’s classroom number when ordering.
SPORTS VOUCHERS: Parents are asked to order their voucher online at www.sportsvoucher.nt.gov.au Simply visit the For Parents or Carers section and scroll down until you find the Request a New or Replacement Sport Voucher link. Please allow 2—4 weeks for delivery to your postal address.
Semester 2, 2020 Learn to Swim and Sport Voucher applications are now open to apply online.
Semester 1 2021 Learn to Swim and Sports Voucher applications opened 4th January 2021
Parent or carers are able to print or save the voucher if the child/s details are in the system. If the child/s details are not found, you will receive a voucher to your nominated email within 7 days of applying. Please check your junk/spam folder prior to contacting us if you have applied and not yet received your voucher.
Sport Voucher:
The Sport Voucher Scheme is available to every urban school-enrolled child from preschool to year 12 and home-schooled children. Parents or carers need to apply for vouchers online each semester. All vouchers expire on 31 May each year. Applications close 24 May each year.
Learn to Swim Voucher:
Children under 5 years old and not enrolled in preschool or school may be eligible to receive the Learn to Swim voucher. Children must be registered for the water safety awareness program run by Royal Life Saving Society before you apply. Parents or carers need to apply for vouchers online each semester. All vouchers expire on 31 May each year. Applications close 24 May each year.
PARENT CONTACT DETAILS: Please advise the office of any changes to your contact details. This includes phone numbers, address details and emails. It is vitally important that we have the correct contact number in view of any emergency. Thank you for your assistance in this area.
INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS: Instrumental lessons will take place again this year with Andrew Arthur, Violin lessons with Kirsty McCullum and Woodwind lessons with Eliza Tobin. Instrumental lessons will take place each Friday and Violin lessons each Wednesday during school hours. Contact details for Andrew are – dapa@live.com.au 0428153355 and Kirsty McCullum- kirstymac@bigpond.com and Eliza Tobin for Woodwind lessons - elizatobin@hotmail.com.
SCHOOL START TIMES: We request that families drop their children off at school as close to 8am as possible. Should you arrive prior to this time please wait on the steps outside the staffroom before going to the classroom. At 8:10am the first bell will sound which means the children and parents can then proceed to the classroom. The classrooms and office will be closed during that time however, recess/lunch trays will be accessible outside the classrooms.
SCHOOL DENTIST: St Paul’s does not have on onsite dental clinic, however you can use the Dental Clinic at Nightcliff Primary school. Parents are asked to contact the clinic on 89226466 to arrange an appointment. Parents are to accompany their child to the appointment. There is no charge for this service and it is highly recommended that children’s teeth should be regularly checked. This also includes pre-school children.
PICKING UP CHILDREN at the end of the school day. We ask that all parents/carers who will be picking up their child from school please wait in the area outside the office and staffroom.
CARPARK PICK-UP: In an effort to move the traffic along more quickly and freely we ask that parents safely follow the appropriate procedures. Should you need to get out and buckle your child in—we ask that you use the car spaces available to do so and not the pick up area.
CANTEEN NEWS:
The Canteen is now open 5 days a week as of the 15th of March
Tuesdays and Thursdays will have a limited menu, please refer to Quickcliq for available items.
The Canteen will provide recess and lunch through quickcliq.com.au (account set up required). It seems that some children are choosing not to eat food brought from home and are instead requesting snacks and food from the canteen. Please note that families will be invoiced for this so please ensure your child is aware of what food is packed for them each day and that all food is labelled clearly (including packets of snack foods as it is confusing when children have the same snacks.
LUNCHES: Lunch boxes are taken to the coolroom each morning between 8.15 and 8.30am. It is important to be at school on time for the smooth running of this program and it is important that all recess and lunch boxes are labelled with your child’s name and Room No.
OSHC NEWS: If you have changed your child’s days from last year or would like more could you please let Anna-Lea or Ihrene know. If you wish to enrol in the program—Enrolment Forms can be collected from the office or OSHC. Thank you.
FULL TIME, PART TIME AND CASUAL BOOKED CARE: Please understand that fees will be charged for booked days regardless whether the child attends or not. As we need to consider rosters and menu food that are prepared and organised. There is a subsidy for your fees for this available from Centrelink. Please ring them for more information.
CANCELLATION OF CARE: Two weeks written notice will be required for cancellation of care for both full time and part time children. Change of care days should be supported by email and change to enrolment form. As above, there is a subsidy for your fees for this available from Centrelink. Please ring them for more information.
St Paul's Parents and Friends
We have a very busy term ahead and we will need EVERYONE’S help in some way.
As you will have read in the Principal’s Message, due to very unfortunate circumstances, Bernadette will be temporarily stepping down from her role as President of the P&F. We need someone to step up to help us through this time – you will have lots of support and this is a great way to get to know more people within our school community and a chance to give back. Please contact principal.stpauls@nt.catholic.edu.au
If you are interested in helping please come to a meeting on the first Tuesday of the month.
Community Flyers
