Dear Parents and Caregivers

We have had a very successful start to the school year, as a school we always dedicate the time to social and emotional learning in the first few weeks of each school year. This is the beginning of our Student Wellbeing which continues throughout the year. During these weeks, we do not permit any educational testing to take place as it is a time to develop relationships with our students. Hence, a focus of the last three weeks has been some testing in all classes and teachers have been busy looking at the data and adjusting curriculum programs accordingly.

It was so lovely to see so many families take up the opportunity to come and meet their child’s class teacher at our ‘Meet the Teacher Evening’ a few weeks ago. Our teachers found these meetings very useful in building a profile on each student and working in collaboration with you to support your child. As you are aware, open communication at Catherine McAuley is important and welcomed. Your child’s class teacher should be your first point of contact if you have any concerns or celebrations you wish to share.

Parent Teacher Interviews – 3 Way Learning Conversations

Parent / Teacher Interviews – 3 Way Learning Conversations,  is another formal opportunity to meet with teachers that is coming up later in the term. Teachers are busily revising Personalised Plans for Learning (PPL’s) for the new year. PPL’s are a formal way of planning and tracking the learning of those students progressing more slowly than we would expect, and a way of continually communicating with families about the plans we have for supporting their learning.

3 Way Learning Conversations with parents and children are a very important opportunity for discussion where teachers will report on progress thus far, especially if there are any difficulties arising. It will also be an opportunity to share the updated PPL for any children that have one.

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program- Literacy and Numeracy)

NAPLAN 2023 is just around the corner! At Catherine McAuley, our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be sitting the assessments during Week 7 and 8 of this term. The NAPLAN assessments are linked to the Australian Curriculum. The aim is to determine whether students are developing the essential skills; predominately in literacy and numeracy, that they will need in life. It is important to understand that this is one form of assessment that is used to gather data about your child’s attainment of Literacy and Numeracy skills. At Catherine McAuley, we use a variety of ongoing assessment and reporting processes to inform our teaching and support student learning.

CMS Student Leadership

At the start of every school year, classes are engaged in unpacking what it means to be a responsible school leader at Catherine McAuley School. Our 2023 CMS Student Leaders have been nominated to represent our three leadership domains:

• Mercy Leaders
• Sports Captains
• Classroom Student Leaders

We will acknowledge these students at next Tuesday’s Whole School Liturgy in the Joan Haren Performing Arts Centre (JHPAC), where they will formally receive a badge and certificate after being nominated by their peers / school community to these leadership roles.

School Events

Term 1, is moving at a very fast pace, and we have already had a few events happen within the school. Such events provide an opportunity for us to come together as a community, meet parents and carers and get to know the different families within our school community.

We have had our first Whole School Liturgy, which is a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together to give thanks for the new school year and to welcome new staff, students and families to our community.

We also had our School Board Annual General Meeting (AGM), where we acknowledged the work of past Board members who served their time and welcomed new parents to our community who will guide and support future school initiatives.

Later this term, we will also be having our annual Year 6 School Camp, Sports Day (March 31) and our Holy Week Celebrations. We look forward to these events as it provides a range of different opportunities for families to come into the school and participate actively in their child’s schooling.

Catherine McAuley Volunteers

Many of the events offered by the school require the support of volunteers to make them successful. These include Sports Day, Mother’s Day & Father’s Day Stalls, Sports Carnivals, as well as excursions and community events.

It is hard to become a volunteer at short notice and we strongly encourage you to become a volunteer at the beginning of the school year, so that you are ready and available when you would like to support your child in this way. If you or anyone in your family would like to become a registered volunteer at the school, please complete a Volunteer Enquiry Form HERE

Catherine McAuley Community Team (CMCT)

Interested in joining the CMCT? Our next meeting will be Wednesday 15th March, we would love to see some new faces joining the CMCT isn't in an ongoing commitment or formal obligation whether you just come along to a meeting or two or just want to join an email list and never attend meetings or just want to help out volunteering at events we welcome all the input you are able to give. Please email Eleni Vailas evailas@cms.catholic.edu.au if you want to be involved in CMCT events.

We have hit the ground running with our CMCT Volunteers this term. Thank you to Theresa for overseeing the ordering for this years of Mother’s Day Stall Gifts, your help has been greatly appreciated.

Thank you to our amazing six parent volunteers – Ashlea, Amy, Kristyn, Lauralea, Sam and Vanessa who gave up there morning to cook pancakes for our whole school community on Shrove Tuesday – Pancake Day, the pancakes were big and fluffy. Thank you for doing an amazing job!!!

Children’s University

Catherine McAuley will again be running the Children’s University Programme in 2023.

Children’s University encourages children to try new experiences, develop new interests and acquire new skills.

The programme aims to:

· Nurture aspirations and self-belief

· Foster curiosity and a love of learning

· Boost achievement and improve life chances

The Programme in a Nutshell:

Over a number of years, members aim to collect awards. Members must earn at least, but not limited to, 30 hours in their first year to reach Graduation. Numerous awards can be awarded within a year why stop at bronze when you could go for gold!

Hours accumulate every year and build on past achievement.

Graduation Ceremony:

Graduation will take place at Adelaide university in Term 4, 2023, with passports completed for the year and handed in by Week 10, Term 3.

Passports to Learning:

New participants will receive their passport to learning where they will record their learning journey. Students who have participated in previous years will continue using their passports to add to the hours they have already completed.

Learning Journeys:

Students undertake learning experiences outside the classroom, outside the normal school day. They provide evidence of their learning, for example, a book review or report, online for marking and fill in their passports.

There are a wide range of activities that students can participate in that will accumulate hours and these activities will be promoted to students once they have signed up to the programme. Certain co-curricular school activities also accumulate learning hours.

Eligibility:

This year, the programme will be open to students from Years 4-6.

Cost:

The cost of being involved in the programme is $16.50.

Click Here to complete the permission form, payments can be made via QKR.  No applications will be accepted after this date Monday 20th March.

Yours in Faith, Growth and Unity

Marc Forster, Eleni Colonico, Linda Caldinez

Catherine McAuley Leadership Team