Dear Parents,

This photo reflects the joy of our students being back at school. The sound of children enjoying themselves has been greatly missed and we are excited about the learning that is planned for the remainder of the Term.

Thank you for your cooperation with the new arrangements for drop off and pick up each day. The smiling faces and messages of gratitude from our families reflects a culture of support and care for each other. Students and staff are getting used to new protocols around hand hygiene, staggered snack and lunch breaks and afternoon drive through.

In line with DET and CECV advice, we continue to ask parents not to come onto the school grounds for the remainder of the term. Please call the Office from the front gate if you are picking up your child during school hours or dropping them off late. Service providers, who normally work with students at school, will not be onsite until further notice.

SCHOOL FEES

In line with CECV advice we are not providing blanket school fee relief. Our families are not uniformly impacted financially but we are able to provide fee relief for families in need. If you require assistance please email me so that I can assist you in responding to your needs. All correspondence is confidential.

IF UNWELL STUDENTS MUST STAY AT HOME

The Department of Health has made it very clear that perhaps the most important action school communities can take to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 is to ensure that any unwell staff, children and young people remain at home. For this reason ALL unwell students must stay home. Thank you for your support and cooperation.

SCHOOL CANTEEN

The tuckshop is now operating for online orders only. Over the counter sales are on hold until further notice.

LAST DAY OF TERM

Next Friday 26th June at 2.30 St Paul’s will be closing for the school holidays. We will be holding a Sorry Day Liturgy via video to all classes as our closing Liturgy for the Term. School resumes on Monday 13 July. 

A word from Danni Molino - Literacy Leader

As all students have now returned to onsite learning, formal standardised testing  in Literacy and Numeracy is being conducted to gain a clear understanding of where students are currently performing, post Remote Learning.

At St Paul’s, assessment on student progress is continuous and ongoing. It is integral to the teaching and learning cycle and consists of teacher observations, self assessments and peer assessments, checklists, standardised formal tests or school based classroom assessments. Assessments tasks need to be:-

• based on curriculum achievement standards

• linked to instruction

• able to measure developmental progress

• differentiated and accessible to all students

 Our Assessment Schedule identifies the requirements for testing in Reading, Spelling, Writing and Numeracy. Assessment tasks are used to inform students and teachers about current student learning;  where the student is now and where they are heading to next. In Numeracy we identify and understand where the children are in relation to the curriculum through a pre test before each topic is taught. This enables us to plan a differentiated curriculum that caters for everyone's needs. Observations during each lesson and from classroom work completed, ongoing insight on how the children are developing provides us with their understanding. At the completion of a Numeracy unit, a post test provides an overall analysis of how well they know that topic in relation to what was taught. 

This information is critical as we plan for the second Semester of 2020.

Teacher Moderation throughout the units of work is a highly valued process at St Paul's. It involves collaborative discussion of student work and occurs throughout the teaching and learning cycle. Teachers agree on the content to be taught, the assessment that will be carried out and information gained for adjustments can also be made.

Welcome Miss Brena Fennelly 

Today we welcomed Brena Fennelly who is replacing Katie Lachal as the Year 5 teacher. Katie will be on maternity leave for the remainder of the year. I look forward to sharing Katie’s exciting news next term. Katie was given a beautiful farewell from the Year 5 parents from outside the gates on Friday morning, Covid style, with social distancing and warm words of thanks. The 5L parents were sent a video of introduction from Brena last week. 

Reflection on Remote Learning

Catholic Education Melbourne, has developed a set of optional surveys for schools to capture the learnings achieved during the remote learning period.  The surveys are designed to be a quick and rapid capture of learnings while the remote learning experience is fresh, instead of capturing every aspect of schooling during the remote learning period.   Data is anonymous and will be shared with each school directly.  This will be a valuable opportunity to seek feedback for improvements in organisational and student learning. Links will be emailed out to parents later in the week.

I CAN’T BREATHE

Our Federated Theme for 2020 is TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD LIKE THEM TO TREAT YOU.  This verse is straight out of the bible in Luke’s Gospel.

At the end of the day life comes down to how you treat others.  

I am convinced that when it is my time to have the interview with God to enter His eternal home he will not ask me my Year 6 grades nor my VCE score.  God will ask how did you treat others when it counted.

Every day we see examples of how people MISTREAT others.  If you were NOT shocked by the words: “I can’t breathe” then something is seriously wrong with how you see the world.  I was totally against the protest Black Lives Matter in the streets of Melbourne because of the COVID-19 health risks.  BUT I was not against the need to voice that BLACK LIVES DO MATTER.  

Saving whales is a wonderful cause but surely saving human lives is also an important cause.  

The Catholic Church is not faultless in this issue either.  At one stage in their history whether the Church condemned or allowed slavery is debatable but the fact it did not outrightly condemn slavery is deplorable.

Racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism and ageism just to name a few all exist in our society and also in the Church.  Each of these ‘isms’ and other negative ‘isms’ are all totally against the Gospel message of love and treating others as you would like them to treat you.

The image of little children playing in the sand pit is always a beautiful and rejoicing image.  They are all playing and having fun oblivious to age, race, class, etc.  At some stage someone will tell them who they should play with and who they should not play with.  If we were true to the Gospel message of love we would let the children play with whoever they liked.

Of course, there are exceptions, like if the other person is a drug dealer or abuser, etc.  But even if this was the case we would still want to treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves.

The hearing of three heart breaking words “I can’t breathe” are haunting.  The fact that others stood by and did nothing is deplorable.  The fact that more people of aboriginal race die in custody is a fact which needs investigating.

God gave us the gift of Free Will.  I do wonder at times whether God ever envisaged what dreadful choices humans would make with this gift.

Can we change the world and its attitudes to mistreatment of others?  The answer is YES.  It first begins with a change of heart. It changes when we hear other people’s stories of life.  Perhaps these last two months of isolation has brought back the gift of listening.

Stop and listen to the story and our heart may change for the better.

Edward Dooley (Mission and Faith Leader)