We respectfully acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, the Traditional Owners of the land on which we work and learn, and pay respect to the First Nations Peoples and their elders, past, present and emerging.
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- From the Principal Week 1
- From the Assistant Principal Week 1
- RE News
- White Cards
- Sports Day Term 1
- From Mrs Austin in the Library
- Parent Network
- Helpers Required for Meet and Greet
- 2023 School Counselling
- ACTION Bus 80 and 81
- Please stop for crossing supervisor
- Working With Vunerable People Card
- Keep your details up to date
- Community Notices
Dear SCA Families,
I love the start of the school year and I love being back at SCA. It was great to see everyone on Tuesday, refreshed and ready for all this year will bring. The staff have been here for nearly two weeks now, working hard to ensure every student has many great learning experiences.
I offer a warm welcome to all of our new staff, students and families. It’s great to have you as a member of our St Clare’s family. I hope your time with us is rewarding and enjoyable.
Whether you are a student or parent, guardian or grandparent, a new family or returning one, I look forward to the contribution you will each make this year. I also offer you my full support and invite you to contact me should you wish to discuss any matter.
Annual Improvement Plan
You may be interested in our strategic priorities for 2023. Staff will continue to work hard in all areas, however, we will especially focus on three priorities this year:
Our Vision is to Be the Light.
Our Mission is to be leaders in faith, learning, community and leadership, so that every person in our school is able to do the best they can to contribute to the growth and wellbeing of students.
Key Improvement Goals
- That every student is a competent reader.
- High Impact Teaching Practice is visible in every classroom.
- Creating a religiously literate school.
Staff Are Learners Too…
I would like to acknowledge the dedication of all staff during the last couple of weeks. There have been endless hours of planning programs, updating information and preparing classrooms to ensure that your children have a smooth start to the 2023 school year.
2023 Staff
Welcome to Vanessa Dunn, Claudia Moritz, Crystal Wilkes, Peter Olney, Rachel Kennedy, Matt Mitchell and Nick Purcell who join our staff this year. It’s also great to have Jo Reed fill in as Assistant Principal while Val Ciuffetelli is on leave.
Parent Information Night and Meet and Greet – For all families
All families are encouraged to join us next Tuesday 7th February. Our format this year will be the same as the last couple of years.
5.00 – 6.00pm Sausage Sizzle under the Hayshed
6.00 – 6.25pm Classroom Information (session 1)
6.30 – 7.00pm Classroom Information (session 2)
Following the sausage sizzle, each classroom teacher will present an overview of their classroom and the significant events and happenings for 2023. To cater for parents with more than one child, teachers will repeat the session at 6.30. (For families with more than two children it may not be possible, unless two parents split up, to attend a session for each class. Please feel free to contact the teacher with any questions or concerns you may have.)
This is a great way to meet your child’s teacher and get to know other families. All welcome.
If any parents can assist with cooking sausages, it would be greatly appreciated; please contact the Front Office on 6294 1860.
COVID Safe Protocols for the Evening
- Please use sanitiser before and after eating.
- Please bring your own drink bottles, as shared water facilities are not appropriate.
- Please stay at home if you are unwell.
Newsletter every Wednesday!
The newsletter will come via the COMPASS app each Wednesday. I encourage all families to install the COMPASS app on your smart phone and/or Tablet.
Please update your preferences to ensure you receive messages for the correct class and year level. This is done by opening the COMPASS app, going to the ‘settings tab' and sliding on the appropriate buttons.
Community Council AGM Tuesday 14th February at 6.00pm
We invite all parents to come along to our first Community Council (SCA CC) meeting for the year. The Community Council provides an important leadership role in our school by undertaking an advisory role in policy and finance matters, and a hands-on role in community building and school promotion.
We are seeking new members in both an executive (Chair, Secretary, Treasurer) and non-executive (parent representative) capacity. If you would like to be involved in your child’s school, and you can meet twice a term (at 6pm on Tuesdays in Weeks 3 and 8 of each term) please consider nominating yourself and joining us in the staffroom on the 14th.
Terms of office are usually set at 2 years, so no one should feel they are committing themselves for life!
Calendar
A reminder that the calendar is available online through the School App and Website (https://www.sca.act.edu.au/) .
We are on Facebook. Search for @scaconder on Facebook.
Safety Plans
Our school’s safety plans rely on us having correct and up to date contact and medical details for every child. Please ensure you inform the school of any updated personal information as a matter of priority.
Evacuation Drill
Please note that on Thursday next week we will conduct our first evacuation drill for the year. Teachers will assure the students of their safety, and that it is just a drill. To help alleviate any potential anxiety, I encourage parents to speak with children about the positive aspects of a drill before Thursday.
School Fees and Remissions
School fee invoices will be sent home shortly. Parents facing real difficulties paying are encouraged to apply for fee remissions. Any applications for fee relief must be made annually. Forms are available from the front office.
Student Safety
The start of the school year is a particularly busy time in our school carparks and surrounding streets. To help keep students safe when making their way to and from school, please ensure you drive and park safely and legally, at and around, school grounds. We all have an important role to play in supporting road safety. Access Canberra has notified us that mobile speed and parking vans will be in operation to support our students’ safety. These enforcement teams play a critical role in supporting our students get to and from school safely and we thank them for their ongoing support. In addition to sticking to the speed limit, please remember to park safely – including not parking across pedestrian crossings, in no stopping zones, on corners, verges and double parking. Unsafe and illegal parking can reduce visibility of our students and motorists to see each other, creating a significant hazard when students cross the road. Let’s work together to keep our kids safe.
Janitor / Groundsperson
Our Janitor / Groundsperson, has moved on and we are advertising the position. If you know of someone who may be interested, please point them towards https://careers.cg.catholic.edu.au/en/job/501002/janitorgroundsperson-st-clare-of-assisi-parish-primary-conder-act for further details.
Finally, I thank you for your efforts in preparing your children so well for what has been a smooth start to the year. Our theme for 2023 is “Walking Together”, and we will reflect more on this in coming newsletters. With this in mind, we look forward to the year ahead and I wholeheartedly offer my support to you as we walk together in the education of your child.
It was once said…
You will never learn if you don’t make mistakes. Unknown
Blessings to you and your family.
Matt Egan-Richards
Principal
St Clare of Assisi Primary School Community Council
Please return form to the Front Office or email to matthewer@cg.catholic.edu.au
I wish to nominate myself as a member of the SCA Community Council.
Name: …………………………………………………. Email: ………………………………..
Child/ren and Class: ……………………………………………………………………………………..
All nominations are for parent representative. However, I would also consider serving in an executive role such as Chair, Deputy Chair, Secretary or Treasurer. (Please circle if you would be willing to serve in one, or more, of these roles.)
Signed: …………………………………………… Date: ………………………………..
BEGINNING OF YEAR REMINDERS……….
- Starting time is 8.45am sharp. Students arriving late will need to be signed in at the Front Office.
- Supervision commences at 8.30am and no student should be at school before 8.30am. Students arriving before 8.30am are unsupervised. Please use before school care if necessary.
- A student’s hair should be cut off their face and, if longer than shoulder length, it must be tied back in an appropriate school coloured band. Hair should also be of natural colour and extreme haircuts are not permitted.
- No jewellery should be worn to school and only plain studs, small sleepers and watches are acceptable. No bracelets, bangles, sparkly ear rings, nail polish, make up, etc are allowed.
- Correct School Uniform must be worn at all times. Students who continually wear incorrect uniform will receive a reminder note to be sent home to their parents.
- St Clare of Assisi has a NO HAT NO PLAY Policy. Students without a correct school hat will be asked to sit in the shade.
- Black ‘jogger’ or canvas type school shoes are not part of the school uniform. The only school shoes allowed at St Clare’s are the traditional or formal black leather school shoes.
- Students with Mobile Phones are expected to switch the phone off and leave it in their bags. If mobile phones are heard or sighted during school time they will be confiscated. The School takes no responsibility for lost or broken mobile phones.
- Students who are collected by their parents during the day for appointments must be signed out/in at the Front Office before and after the appointment.
- Parents visiting the school to assist are required to have a Working with Vulnerable People Card and are also asked to sign in at Front Office and receive a Visitors Badge.
- Please ensure the School always has up to date contact and emergency details for your children.
- Medical details must be updated and sent to the Front Office.
- St Clare of Assisi is a NUT FREE School. Please remember this when preparing recess and lunch, including peanut butter, Nutella, cakes with nuts, etc.
- Dogs are not allowed on school premises.
- Afternoon messages regarding changes to the afternoon routine must be received by the Front Office by 2.00pm or we cannot guarantee your child/ren will receive the message.
- Carpark - Please remember to be patient and considerate of others when driving in the car parks. School carparks are notoriously dangerous and ALL PARENTS are asked to be patient and alert. If you are in a hurry, collect your children early or wait until after 3.10pm when the carpark is less congested.
- TURN LEFT when exiting the school entrance as this keeps the traffic flowing.
- Absences from school – it is a legal requirement that all absences are explained. Please notify the school of your child’s absence by using the COMPASS App.
- Canteen Ordering - Canteen ordering is only via the Qkr! App. Please see school website for instructions
Welcome to 2023! This year is an exciting one as we welcome many rich learning opportunities not only for the students but for our Staff. As the community was enjoying the last week of their holidays, our dedicated staff here at St Clare of Assisi were busy participating in a week of Professional Learning.
SCA Staff Spirituality Day
We were blessed to have Lee Herden and Bernadette Scott from the Catholic Identity Team, to facilitate our Professional Learning Day. A perfect setting at the Yarramundi Cultural Centre on Lake Burley Griffin, we unpacked the concept of synodality and the importance as Catholic Educators to ‘walk together’ as people of hope and action. We look to consolidate the work already being undertaken with the SCA RE Curriculum and Mission and to continue to embed High Impact Teaching Practices into Religious Education lessons.
“We were able to connect and share with others our understanding of Walking Together, and continue to build understanding of the RE Curriculum, Learning in Faith and Faith in Learning. We really liked the 7 minute walk where we were able to connect with country and then connected with another staff – it gave us opportunities to get to know my new colleagues better.” Crystal Wilkes 4B and Rachel Kennedy 5Y
Sarah Richards, a Ngiyampaa woman living on Ngunnawal/Ngambri country was commissioned to design a piece of art that would represent the theme for 2023 of Walking Together. This piece was unveiled to the Staff at our PL day. It has taken pride of place in our foyer. Rachel Kennedy, our REC, will share more about this in our next Newsletter.
Compliance Training
As with most organisations, each year, all CE Staff need to undertake training in all areas of compliance. This helps us better serve our community especially the students we teach and care for. In the next couple of weeks, we will be renewing our CPR and First Aid qualifications with ACTWELL. Stay tuned for the photos on Facebook and in the Newsletter.
Catalyst
Informed by the Science of Learning and The Science of Reading, SCA along with every school in the Archdiocese has been on a journey. The teaching staff are implementing a high-quality curriculum for students. The delivery of the Australian curriculum is through lessons that reflect High Impact Teaching Practices. This includes daily review, sequencing of concepts, modelling, questioning and reviewing previously taught concepts. Our teachers will focus on the use of Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) in their strategically planned lessons, to teach new concepts to mastery.
In grade teams, the staff prepared lessons and programs that explicitly focussed on EDI. During EDI lessons, teachers utilise ‘Engagement Norms’ to motivate students and hold them accountable for their learning. Engagement Norms ensure students are doing something every minute, whether it be discussion with a partner, reading text aloud, showing responses on a whiteboard or gesturing. These norms are designed to keep students actively engaged in their learning. Teachers are able to instantly check for understanding, provide immediate feedback, correct student responses at point of need and re-teach concepts if 80% mastery has not been achieved.
On Monday, the SCA Staff attended the ‘Faith in Learning’ Systems day. This event invited staff from across Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn to engage in insightful presentations from leaders in Education and Faith. Keynote speakers included Archbishop Christopher Prowse, Ross Fox, the Director for Catholic Education, Dr Lorrainne Hammond, (who has worked closely with SCA Staff for a number of years), Ollie Lovell, Professor Pamela Snow, Noel Pearson and many other well-known key-personal in the fields of Science of Learning and the Science of Reading.
“ It was a great day, we were able to build knowledge in the Science of Learning and Reading and implications for the Classroom. We particularly enjoyed the presentation from Noel Pearson as he reinforced the benefits of Catalyst.” Cheyenne, Susan and Holly (Kindergarten Teachers)
There is a wonderful sense of calm around the school as the students have enthusiastically returned to school and the well organised and relevant Professional learning has given our staff a great springboard for the year of Walking Together.
A very warm welcome back to 2023. I have enjoyed meeting lots of people over the past few days and I look forward to working with you this year.
Opening School Mass and Year 6 Leaders Commissioning Ceremony: Friday 17th February 2023, 9:30am: Parents are most welcome to join us for our Opening School Mass at 9:30am. At the end of this Mass we will be commissioning our Year 6 student leaders, with parents welcome to join us for morning tea afterwards.
Sacramental details: Please keep an eye on Compass for information regarding sacramental enrolment. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with myself, Rachel.kennedy@cg.catholic.edu.au or call the Parish office on 6291 6688.
Staff Retreat: Last week our staff participated in a spirituality retreat focused on the Archdiocesan theme of ‘Walking Together’. Exploring the concept of synodality through the Emmaus scripture was a wonderful and purposeful way to commence our school year. Below is the Archdiocesan prayer which will be shared throughout the year:
Wishing you a blessed start to the 2023 school year.
Rachel Kennedy
Religious Education Coordinator
What are White Cards? White Cards are a merit certificate for effort and achievement. Classroom teachers award white cards and they are presented at Friday Morning Assemblies at 8.45am. Parents are welcome to attend.
Congratulations to the children who will be awarded white cards this week at Friday 8.45 am assembly.
| Year 1 | Reign P, Jasmine T |
| YEAR LEVEL | SPORTS DAYS - Sports Uniform to be worn on these days |
| Kinder | Monday and Wednesday |
| Year 1 | Monday and Thursday |
| Year 2 | Monday and Wednesday |
| Year 3 | Tuesday and Friday |
| Year 4 | Wednesday and Friday |
| Year 5 | Tuesday and Thursday |
| Year 6 | Tuesday and Friday |
Welcome to the SCA Library! The Library is a place where the children of SCA come to learn many things including, how Libraries work, how to research, author studies, novel studies, genres, many more interesting things and of course to love reading!
The children will visit the Library once a week for their lessons and to borrow books. I ask you to encourage your children to borrow books to take home and read and share with you. Some books are great shared with each other and others are great for the children to read on their own. Books can be kept for a week until the following Library lesson or longer if your child is reading a novel. Children in the younger grades are asked to use a Library bag to protect the books they are borrowing. Our Library has thousands of picture books, hundreds of series of chapter books and novels and a wide variety of non fiction texts. There is definitely something for every reader to enjoy!
Scholastic Book Club is a huge part of our school Library. With all books bought from Scholastic, the school receives rewards. These rewards are then spent on buying more books for our Library. Book Club catalogues come out twice a term, so 8 times a year. Classroom teachers will hand these out in the classroom. Parents are encouraged to use the LOOP platform when ordering. Orders will be delivered to your child's classroom unless it is marked as a GIFT, where you will receive a phone call to collect the order from the Front Office. So, please support Book Club when buying books.
Book Week will be celebrated in Term 3 and there will be more information about this closer to the date.
I look forward to working with your children this year and encouraging them to develop a love of reading.
Katherine Austin
Teacher Librarian
The Parent Network is seeking helpers for the Meet and Greet, Tuesday 7th February. If you can spare some time between 4.30pm and 6pm to help set up, cook/serve sausages, or help pack up it would be greatly appreciated. Please email Fay at SCAparentnetwork@outlook.com.au
As the afternoon times have now changed for the ACTION bus 80 and 81, our school bell has been adjusted to fit the time changes. Please note children catching ACTION bus 80 and 81 will now leave their classroom at 2.40pm to catch the bus. This time is for those catching the bus only. All other children will be dismissed at normal times.
A school crossing supervisor is supporting our school each morning and afternoon to increase safety for children. Please support this initiative by driving safely near the school and encouraging children to use the supervised crossing.
Our crossing supervisor is responsible for controlling a busy environment, which includes managing the flow of pedestrians, cyclists and motorists during peak times. It is important for motorists to drive at a speed which allows them to safely stop when the supervisor enters the road. Please be patient and allow the crossing supervisor and other pedestrians to safely clear the road prior to proceeding.
The school community is encouraged to familiarise themselves with the basic crossing supervisor procedures:
- The supervisor will ask pedestrians to wait in a safe location by the side of the road
- When it is safe, the supervisor will stop traffic
- The supervisor will blow their whistle twice to indicate it is safe to cross.
The School Crossing Supervisor program is delivered by Transport Canberra and City Services’ School Safety Program. If you have any feedback about the program, please contact TCCS.
Please be patient, polite and respectful to our supervisor, they are committed to keeping our students safe.
This year we have many events that require parent assistance. To volunteer in a classroom, in the canteen or at a school event such as carnivals or fete, you must hold a current Working With Vunlerable People (WWVP) card. A volunteer WWVP is free.
The link below will take you to the WWVP application.
https://mydigitalaccount.force.com/WWVPNDIS/s/wwvp-ndis-new-application-v2
The kids love seeing you there!
The school may need to contact parents urgently for a variety of reasons. Please make sure that your contact details are up to date. This can be done on our school communication app, Compass.