Dear families and friends of St Joseph’s,

Welcome to the last week of the Semester. With so many events happening around the school over these last two weeks, we have held off our last edition for the term till today.

It has been an action-packed term and I know students and teachers are ready for the holidays. They have worked extremely hard over the term engaging in learning, undertaking excursions, participating in our school review, learning about feedback strategies, showing pride at many sporting events and much, much more. Each term, I become even more proud of the people that our students are growing into and the type of learners they are becoming. A number of school visitors regularly comment on the high levels of student engagement in learning across all classrooms and manners and courtesy they experience from our students. Fabulous work!

This Semester we have faced the continued challenge of managing interruptions due to sickness throughout the school and wider community. I thank and congratulate our amazing school staff for their continued hard work and dedication not only this week but every week. We have a very capable leadership Team and staff who go above and beyond to ensure the events and activities we have enrich the lives of our school community.

Last Friday we welcomed over 500 children to St Joseph’s, when we hosted Under 8’s Day for 2022. It was great to have so many different services and groups from our community come to share in the fun and a wonderful time was had by all. Events like this don’t just happen; they require considerable planning.

A huge thanks to Mrs O’Brien who spent many hours coordinating the day and to all our dedicated staff for making the event such a success. Thank you to the parents who were able to help out with the activities the children have such a great experience. I’m sure they will all enjoy some down time over the break & return to school refreshed for a new Semester.

We were fortunate to have a visit from Fr Dariusz for both Under 8’s Day and Monday’s NAIDOC Mass before he takes a few months leave. We wish him safe travels as he visits his family back in Poland and look forward to sharing in his holiday news upon his return in Term 4.

With National NAIDOC Week celebrations being held across Australia in the first week of July each year which is in school holidays, we have chosen to make the last week of term 2 as our NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC Week is an important opportunity for our school community to learn more about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. Our school has enjoyed the many activities, excursions and visitors who have joined with us to celebrate to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.  

Congratulations to everyone on a very successful Athletics Carnival this week. Perfect weather, wonderful crowd atmosphere and well-prepared competition surface. Thanks again to all of our staff, parents, PCYC and AFL teachers for your assistance throughout the day. Although I was away attending Professional development on the day I was extremely pleased to hear from staff of the impressive level of sportsmanship and persistence students displayed.  Thanks to Libby Lang, who with the support of all staff, created an event that provided a positive experience for our students. The cooperation of the students enabled the day to run extremely smoothly. Thanks to all of the parents who were able to attend the carnival, especially those who offered their assistance.

As we finish off this semester, I’d like to congratulate our students on all of their great work. There has been some tremendous work produced as well as some fantastic growth in our Key Learning Areas. You can all rest up and feel proud of your work this semester. I’d like to thank our hard working teachers for all of their time and dedication over the semester. You should be proud of what you and your students have achieved. I’m looking forward to Term 3 and building on these successes.

At reporting time it is good to stop and reflect on what the meaning of the judgements provided means for us and our children. 

I know that when I was attending school and even when I first began my teaching career, the ultimate goal was to achieve that ever-inspiring A. This would often mean that we had completed a task to an exceptional standard with no criteria to tell us how or why we received such a good mark. The Australian Curriculum provides a detailed explanation of what content understanding and application of skills are required to be successful in each Key Learning Area (KLA) or subject in each year level. This expected standard of success is what we will see on the report cards as a C. 

School reports will be issued this afternoon and will be available via the Parent Portal and will also be sent home in hard copy. If you need any assistance at all accessing the portal, feel free to contact our wonderful staff in the office and they will be more than happy to help you however they can.

Over the course of this semester, teachers have been gathering evidence of learning for each learning area for each of our students. This process involves gathering, analysing and reflecting on multiple sources of evidence to make an informed judgment about what students know, understand and can do.  

Assessment in the classroom can come in many forms. It can either be … 

• Diagnostic (assessing prior learning) - pre-tests and work samples. 
• Formative (assessing for learning) - observations, group work, individual conferencing, ongoing work samples. 
• Summative (assessing of learning) - tasks, assignments, presentations.

This Report Card is a culmination of your child’s academic achievement throughout the semester, as well as a snapshot of their spiritual and social development. It is just one way of communicating information about student achievement, effort and behaviour.  

The Australian Curriculum is written in such a way, that there is an ‘Achievement Standard’ for each year level for each subject area. It is this Achievement Standard that we report against. The standards are written as a statement of what a student is aiming to achieve by the end of the school year for their year level. A student receiving a ‘C’ standard indicates that they have met this standard, that is, that their work demonstrates a conceptual understanding of the concepts covered and that they can apply this knowledge and skill in familiar situations. Simply speaking, a ‘C’ standard indicates that your child is able to do what is expected of them for their year level. 

To move beyond a ‘C’ standard, a student must demonstrate that they are developing sophistication of conceptual understanding, with a strong application of skills, and that they are beginning to transfer their knowledge and skills to new situations (B standard). For an A standard, students must demonstrate the excellent application of skills and be readily applying the knowledge and skills to new situations.

Similarly, a ‘D’ standard does not constitute a fail but indicates that a student is continuing to develop their understanding of the expected curriculum, and may be able to demonstrate some of the elements within it, whether with support or inconsistently. A rough outline of these standards is provided below.

In each KLA, students also receive an effort achievement level. This level is derived by the level of application and study habits during that particular KLA. Please see the table below for the effort achievement scale.

If you have any concerns around your child’s/children’s learning journey please contact your classroom teacher.  Positive Family-School Partnerships are very important. The partnerships are centred around the young person, include the voice of the young person, connect learning at home and at school, build community and identity, recognise the role of the family, use collaborative decision making, collaborate beyond school and ensure that all people participate in the planning. 

WALKING ADVERTISEMENTS

As a school, we do what we can in getting the ‘good word’ out about what we do from day to day. Social media platforms, local publications and signage are some of the ways that we try to achieve this. Yet remarkably, for all the resources invested in this worthwhile endeavour, this type of advertising is not the most effective. 

When interviews are conducted, we ask our families how they came to hear about us. 95% of the time they tell us it’s you—our parents. Their reasoning for choosing St Joseph’s School is mostly to do with the fact that they have spoken to a member of our community that has told them about their good experiences. You play the main part in building good experiences with your school. Thank you for: 

• Seeing us when you’ve got a concern— Good experiences aren’t always about the ’warm and fuzzies’. Good experiences can be about how the school responded to a concern of yours regarding your child’s progress. 
• Being engaged in your child’s learning— When you involve yourself by simply asking; “How is my child going?”; you help create relationships that ensure the progress of your child; 
• Supporting a ‘solutions focused’ way of thinking— any problem involves all parties working together towards a solution. When we support each other, great things can be achieved for your children. 

As a part of our community, you are a ‘walking advertisement’. On behalf of our school community, I thank you for your ongoing support of your children and, in turn, our school. 

Wishing you all a happy and safe holiday break.

God Bless,

Megan