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Dear Parents and Guardians,
Welcome to our last newsletter for 2020. What a year! It is certainly a year that has tested our resilience, patience, technological skills and our ability to resurrect old computers to cope with us all working from home. Thank you for your work and support of the school.
Farewell to all our departing families. We wish you all the best for the future and hope your journey with us was fruitful. It has been a privledge having your families with us.
As most of the staffing stays the same and most teachers in the same year level, I will only list the new appointments and Specialists. We had employed a psychologist part time, but unfortunately they pulled out last week as they had been offered a full time position.
New Staff in 2021
Hannah Power ( Learning Diversity) Replacing Trish Roberts. (.5 position)
Violetta Bassovitch (Speech Therapist) from Speech Pathology for Schools. (2 days per week)
Psychologist: TBA
Handyman - Stephen Donald - replacing Mr Fixit (Mick)
Specialists for 2021
Sport - Karoline Cooke
Life Lab/Italian - Angela Pezzano
Dance - Gina Coetzee
Art - Stephanie Streets
STEM - Anita Sharma
We have managed to organise our timetable so that we have weekly lessons of these subjects.
I thought I would write a quick summary of things that happened in the year
Professional Development for Staff-
- Dylan Wiliam leading world expert in Formative Assessment
- Kath Murdoch - worked with a number of staff on Inquiry based learning.
- Simon Breakspeare and Ryan Dunn- worked with the Leadership team about Leading School Improvement .
- John Munro - worked with two staff around identifying Gifted and Talented Students.
- VCOP - the big Write
- Respectful Relationships
- Religious Education Collective focused on good assessment practices
- Google Sites, Google Hangouts, Google Meets, Loom, Jamboard - countless other online tools.
Student Activities
- School Camp for Grade 5 and 6
- Nudel Kart Incursion
- Mad About Science Incursion
- Excursions - Try Sailing and all the end of year trips.
- Online Learning!!!!!!!
Partnerships
- Teeth on Wheels Visit
- CDF Pay
- Schoolzine - new website, newsletter and App.
- New Administrative System - ICON
- New Business Manager at School
- Move to new Governance in Catholic Schools beginning 2021.
- Way of the West
- Community Skills and Passions Survey
- 50 things to do in the Williamstown Area flyer Developed.
Events
- Prep Welcome and lunch
- Online Karaoke Disco
- Pancake Day
- Code Camp
- Footy and Fairies Day
- Online Jogathon
- Health and Well Being Day
- Christmas Raffles and other fundraising activities.
- Graduation
- Online Parent Teacher Interviews.
- Tournament of the Minds - two Honours awards
Religion
- Sacraments - Confirmation and Reconciliation.
- Some Family Masses
- Online Liturgies
Media (mentions of the School)
- Two articles in The Australian newspaper.
- One article in Teacher Magazine.
- One Article in Connect Magazine
Building Improvements.
- Hall re stumped and new floor installed
- Acoustic Panelling in the hall
- New AV and Audio equipment in the hall
- Lighting, heating and speaker upgrade in the hall.
- Netball Court repaired and resurfaced.
- Classrooms 1 and 2 re stumped and refurbished.
- Parker St Wall underpinned.
- Updated Electronic Whiteboards in 5 classrooms.
One other mention. Growth Mindset was our overall goal in 2020, like many things, Covid delayed some of this work as we grappled with learning tools to use for Online learning. A lot of this work around Growth Mindset will be incorporated into our work in Numeracy next year, so it has not been forgotten, but probably works better under the theme of one of our key learning areas as we try to move our students from the comfort zone to the learning zone.
The angels proclaimed “Peace on Earth” when the Baby Jesus was born. Lord, help us to be instruments of your peace. We invite You into our hearts to instill in us a deep inner peace and the mindfulness to have peace with others.
Amen
End of Year Liturgy
An event that many of us look forward to at the end of the year is our school Mass. Unfortunately this will be unable to go ahead as a whole school in the church due to restrictions on numbers. Instead, each classroom teacher will run an end of year liturgy in the classrooms with the children.
Another highlight at the end of the year is the announcement of the recipients of the Christian Leadership awards. Once again, this is unable to take place in the church as a whole school community.
Here is a recording of the teachers announcing the recipients of the Christian Leadership awards for 2020.
Dates to save for 2021
*** Please note that First Eucharist for 2020 and 2021 children will take place in Term 2*****
Celebration |
Date |
Year Level Leading |
Beginning School Mass |
Friday 12th February 9.15am |
Faith Formation Leaders |
Ash Wednesday |
Wednesday 17th February 9.15am |
Year 3 |
Lenten Liturgy |
Friday 26th February 3.15pm |
Year 1 |
Year 2 Family Mass |
Sunday 28th February 10:30am |
Year 2 |
Lenten Liturgy |
Friday 12th March 3.13pm |
Year 6 |
Year 3 Family Mass |
Sunday 14th March 10:30 am |
Year 3 |
Feast of St Joseph |
Friday 19th March 9.15am |
Year 6 |
Lenten Liturgy |
Friday 19th March 2.30pm |
Year 2 |
Lenten Liturgy |
Friday 26th March 3.15pm |
Year 5 |
Reconciliation
10 minutes each |
Tuesday 23rd March Wednesday 24th March Thursday 25th March 3.50pm - 6.30pm
Friday 26th March 3.50 - 5.30pm |
Year 3 |
David Marcs School Wear will be running a uniform sale on Wednesday January 27 2021 from 10am to 2pm. Please enter through the Cecil Street hall doors and head through the hall to the glass corridor.
Please click on the following link for information and registration for the external music program, Hello Music.