Parent Information Evenings

This week our Years 1-5 class teaching teams gathered with parents and carers to outline some of the things that make up the structure of the year at school. It was wonderful to see so many families represented in the meetings and in conversations with staff afterwards. We thank all of our staff for their work in sharing the evenings with families and to you, our parent community for seeing this as an important part of your collaboration with us.

Our Year 6 group session is next week and our Kindergarten teachers will communicate to parents the times that they will be offering for those important first meetings about how your child is going.

New Parent Community Group

While we are still coming to understand the new model for parent engagement in our school following the move from P&F structure last year, we are excited to be launching this soon. You will see the flyer with date, time and some information to help you engage with our new structure in the newsletter. We warmly invite all parents and carers to these sessions throughout the year and encourage you to walk with us along this new direction. A main goal in our School Improvement Plan is seeking your voice in things that matter to you, so we look forward to time with you.

MISSION

FIRST WEEK OF LENT

OPENING SCHOOL MASS

WEDNESDAY 28TH FEBRUARY

We warmly welcome families to attend the St Peter’s Opening School Mass next Wednesday. This is an opportunity to celebrate as a community and acknowledge that God truly underpins everything we do. The Mass will be followed by a badging ceremony for our Year 6 leadership student position holders. A candle will also be distributed to our new families in Years 1-6 during the Mass (Kinder families received their candles at the end of last year). 

PARENT COMMUNITY GROUP

At the end of 2023 our community made the decision to move to a new parent group model replacing the previous Parents and Friends model. The new model is called a Parent Community Group and will provide the following purposes:

1. An opportunity for parents to ‘have their say’ on topics the school is requiring feedback on.
2. An opportunity to get to know other parents/carers/families.
3. Opportunities for parent/carer education.

The first of these forums will be held at the same time as the student disco on Thursday 7th March. Parents can drop their children off to the disco and stay onsite in the staffroom to provide their voice. Topics for feedback will be advertised in next week’s newsletter.

FINAL CALL FOR PARENT REPS !!!

Thanks to those parents who have already volunteered to be a parent rep in Kinder (Monical Purcell), and Year 4 (Kylie Ryan). If you would like to be part of the parent rep team, please email your interest to amanda.thomas@lism.catholic.edu.au  If we don’t gather more interest from parents for these roles we will move to providing social events for parents/families across the year levels. 

Parent Year Level Teams assist in these ways:

• supportive of positive communication between home and school
• organisation of 2 social events a year for families to build relationships
• regularly give parent voice at our Parent Community Forum meetings
  
  
  
  

LEARNING

MAKE GETTING STUDENTS TO SCHOOL ON TIME EVERY DAY A TOP PRIORITY

Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school and themselves. Ensuring that students arrive at school on time every day is crucial for their academic success and wellbeing. Parents play a crucial role in instilling the importance of punctuality in their children. Here are some strategies for parents to make getting students to school on time every day a top priority:

• Establish a Consistent Routine. Set a daily routine that includes specific times for waking up, getting ready, having breakfast, and leaving for school. Consistency helps children develop good habits.

• Model Punctuality. Children often learn by example. Demonstrate the importance of punctuality by being on time for family events, appointments, and other commitments. 

Limit or Have No Screen Time in the Morning. Minimise distractions such as excessive screen time in the morning. This helps your child stay focused on getting ready for school without unnecessary delays.

DIEBELS

DYNAMIC INDICATORS OF BASIC EARLY LITERACY SKILLS

What are DIBELS? 

DIBELS are measures that help teachers and schools determine how students are performing on important reading skills. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. These measures are designed for students in grades K-6 following extensive research done by the University of Oregon, Centre for Teaching and Learning, which have been updated to an Australian Version.

What skills are measured by DIBELS and why are they important? 

The critical skills necessary for successful beginning reading include: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. The DIBELS measures assess students on four of these five critical skills, which are often referred to as the “Big Ideas” of reading. 

Which tests will be given to my child/children? 

Each student from Year 3 to 6  in Weeks 4 and 5 this term will complete the tests depending on his or her grade. 

How much time does it take? 

Each of the DIBELS tests only takes about one minute to complete. DIBELS tests are “indicators” of the student’s overall reading status, and are not intended to be in-depth or comprehensive measures of reading. Just like using a thermometer to take your child’s temperature, which provides a quick indicator of your child’s general health, these quick DIBELS tests provide teachers with information about your child’s reading health and how well he or she is progressing on a particular early reading skill. Benchmark assessments generally take 2 to 6 minutes to give, depending on the grade of the student and time of year. DIBELS measures allow teachers to get valuable information about students’ reading skills without using large amounts of instructional time. 

How will the results be used? 

A student’s scores on the DIBELS measures give the school information about whether or not a student is on track for grade-level reading success. A school can quickly identify students who do not meet the goals on each DIBELS measure and provide support. For example, if your child is reading words accurately, but slowly, the teacher can provide extra practice re-reading texts to improve his or her reading rate or fluency. System staff can also study the test scores across classrooms and grade levels to make decisions about how to best use resources to make sure that every child in the school, including your child, is on track to become an accurate and fluent reader. 

Case Management Meetings - Improving Student Writing

Last Wednesday, St Peter’s staff began Case Management Meetings (CMMs) for 2024 to support student learning and teacher professional development. These meetings are a collaborative inquiry focussed on student learning involving both prevention and intervention. Teachers meet for 20 minutes to analyse a sample of student work, identified from our Writing data wall, determining the next steps in instruction to meet the learning needs of teachers and students.

The classroom teacher examines the work sample, describing the strengths and areas of need, and shares the teaching strategies that have already been trialled in the learning. The CMM team consists of our Principal, Mrs Tess Koning, Assistant Principal - Learning and Teaching, Ms Karen Robson; Leader of Learning, Mrs Rachael Cullen and Mrs Briody Tarbox as our knowledgeable others and the student’s classroom teacher. As a collaborative team, they aim to find one or two different strategies the teacher can try over the following weeks.

A follow up meeting is scheduled and the teacher discusses the progress of the recommended strategies using the student’s work as evidence. The CMM cycle is continued throughout the year, allowing teachers the ability and opportunity to gain insight into which strategies are most effective in improving student writing. Even if a given strategy does not work as intended for the target student, the teacher’s repertoire of strategies has grown and the whole class benefits from the strategies implemented. 

All of the St Peter’s staff look forward to engaging with further CMMs throughout the year as we continue to see our students learn, succeed and thrive in their writing.

YEAR 2 WELCOME TO COUNTRY

Year 2 classes have been working on creating a Welcome to Country in their writing lessons. Each class will have their Welcome to Country shared at the start of an Assembly this year.

Year 2 Green 

Canteen VOLUNTEERS 2024 

Click on the picture below to read the Menu

Click on the image below to order online with

Flexischools orders close at 8.30am !!

Canteen Roster

• Volunteer Working With Children Check required 
• Please sign into Who's On Location (St Peter's sign in) at the front school office.

Canteen Roster - Week 5, Term 1

Monday	Wendy Sheppard
Tuesday	Jodie Brindle
Wednesday	Erin Maker
Thursday	Wendy Sheppard
Friday	Carolyn Thompson & Jodie Brindle