Dear Parents and Carers,  

It is the second week of Advent and we are called to Prepare the Way of the Lord. This was God’s instruction to John the Baptist as he preached forgiveness, love and compassion. We can help prepare ourselves for Christmas by occasionally stopping and reflecting on our core values, goals and purpose. It’s good to ask ourselves occasionally “is what I am doing and what’s on my to do list align with the person I want to be?"

Our Friday 7.45am Community Mass will continue throughout the holidays if you would like to attend.  If you are in Mosman for Christmas and intend attending Christmas Mass it would be a good idea to read the note below from the parish regarding booking for masses over Christmas. 

This week you will receive a notification to let you know that your child’s end of year report is available on Compass. Each report gives an overall view of your child and their work habits and behaviour at school. For Religion, English and Mathematics each student will have several achievements stated and will be given some future goals that school and home can work on together in 2021. Years 1-6 receive grades in each subject. The allocation of each grade comes after a process of gathering data and then having this data moderated by teachers at a grade level.  Data is then overseen by the leadership team to ensure that the teachers professional learning is having an impact. 

In the process of gathering information to inform a grade, each teacher has triangulated data that is informed by standardised tests (which are normed for thousands of students across Australia), class assessments which test the students content knowledge and skills at the end of a unit of work and teacher observations that look at the way a student goes about their work - whether they need support, modified tasks or whether they are independent workers.

When you read your child’s report please take time to congratulate your child on their achievements and talk about how they might achieve their goals.

We are still reconciling the expenditure and the profit from the Christmas Fair. Any profit will go towards our Deep Learning goals for next year. The students hope to create a sustainable garden. We are beginning this journey with advice from David Harrington and Oz Harvests on our Staff development Day next Thursday.

Due to the restructuring of Sydney Catholic Schools some of the sport pathways have changed.  Please see the link below.  We are no w in Conference B Zone 3.  This replaces the previous regions and clusters. 

https://sites.google.com/a/syd.catholic.edu.au/primary-sport/about-us/conference

Last week Year 6 were confirmed in six ceremonies.  Bishop Terry Brady officiated at four of them.  Father Phil performed the last two.  A very big thank you to the teachers and Thomas Dabbah for preparing the children and thank you to the Year 6 parents who brought their children to this very important Sacrament. 

Regards

Julie Caldwell