Welcome to St Mary's Parish Primary School

Dear Parents and Friends, This week students in Yrs. 3 and 5 participated in the National Assessment Project Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). This assessment project is conducted in all schools across Australia. Data gained from NAPLAN is most useful in providing an insight into how a school, educational system, state or Australia nationally is performing. It was pleasing to read the article in the AGE Friday 4 May where it was stated that “Victorian students are ahead of the national average in every area of the NAPLAN skills”. The Grattan Institute conducted an analysis of NAPLAN data where it took into account socio-economic advantages. Once advantages were stripped away, there was a clearer picture of the actual performance of each State. For Victoria, it was found that, “Yr. 9 students were almost two months ahead of the national average in reading, a month ahead in numeracy and five months ahead in writing.” For St. Mary’s students in 2017, we were ahead of other schools within the State of Victoria as listed in the table below. Being ahead of schools in the State is more impressive than being ahead of results nationally. ANNUAL REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY Each year, besides writing reports for the AGM Meetings of the various groups within the school and Parish, I also write the official Annual Report to the Community. This has now been completed and is available on the school website. Hard copies are also available in the Admin Foyer. NATIONALLY CONSISTENT COLLECTION of DATA (NCCD) Each year, we are asked to complete the NCCD in relation to school students with a disability. This data is now being used by Government bodies as part of the funding process to assist schools to make the necessary adjustments to support students to access the curriculum. Please find attached two Information Sheets – one in relation to NCCD and the other about Students with Disabilities. NOTIFICATION OF STUDENT ABSENCE Currently we are finalizing the process of notifying parents via SMS of a student’s absence when no explanation has been given by the parent to the school. This message will be generated by 9.15am. Should you receive an SMS message, it will then be necessary for you to contact the school to verify their legitimate absence. I ask that you continue to notify the school via a phone message or the Absence eForm on Skoolbag if your child is to be absent prior to 8.50am so that you do not receive an SMS message unnecessarily. Please do not send an email or ClassDojo message to report an absence. SMART SPELLING - STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY On Friday 4th May St Mary's teachers and Learning Support Officers participated in professional learning focused on spelling. Michelle Hutchinson led our learning using the SMART spelling approach. This approach is both inclusion and differentiated. Students are able to enter into their learning of spelling at their point of need and allows teachers to differentiate according to student data. This approach incorporates meaning (vocabulary), syllables, sounds and letters and 4 spelling rules. S Say M Meaning A Analyse R Remember T Teach The spelling approach allows students to have the same spelling pattern but learn words of different complexity. For example if students are learning the digraph /ai/ one student may learn the words rain, train, brain, chain, gain and another student may learn the words contain, attain, claimant, entail, frailty. MOTHERS’ DAY Thank you to all the parent helpers who organized and worked on last week’s Mothers’ Day stall. Special thanks to Natalie Brien who so capably coordinated this event. Our Mothers’ Day stall is very special to our students as they get to make their own choice about what their mum would like. Regards Helen Principal