Dear Parents and Carers

We have all returned to school and settled back into our new normal. This means the words “staggered” and “cohort” have become the new normal. We are currently, until further notice, having staggered morning teas and lunches and staggered dismissals. The children are still adapting to not mixing. We are a school that has many cross grade friendships and children that love to play together especially in the morning and so that can be difficult for the children to understand but with a number of  schools closed we will have to abide by these rules for some time into the future in order to keep the children safe and at school.

Next week we will have our Book Character day but not the formal parade. Please see the details in this newsletter. 

We have given each grade a week to settle into class and have begun individual testing of mathematics and english. The following week each grade’s teachers will have a planning day with members of the leadership team (Kinder and Year One this week) and they will plan targeted teaching for the remainder of the year. If there are children who are falling below our benchmarks they will get extra support over the coming weeks; especially our early readers. I am looking forward to spending time back in class over the coming weeks to lend a hand supporting our teachers so they can support interventions.

Thanks to the generosity of the Sport Club the children are able to have expert assistance in their Physical Education lessons over the next five weeks. In Term 4 the curriculum skills for basketball are usually taught by Mr DeVilliers. Over the next five weeks he will be joined by Brendan Matthes our basketball coach and together they will teach, motivate and extend the children’s basketball skills in order to build their fitness and improve or extend their basketball and general ball skills.

Today the children will join in a faith celebration with John Burland from Sydney Catholic Schools. These sessions will be via Zoom and will have a particular focus on celebrating two hundred years of Catholic Education in Australia.

In Term Two you will have received a letter from SCS outlining the new Amadeus music program. This is an extensive program that will be rolled out to all SCS schools. Our program will begin in 2022. Each student from Years 3-6 will receive three music sessions a week.

Session 1 will be with Ms Conroy which will teach the music curriculum.

Session 2 will be in small ensemble groups with a music tutor and their chosen instrument.

Session 3 will be with their class in a Concert Band format where they will learn to combine their individual skills in a band format.

Musical instruments for the Amadeus program have been delivered to the school and will be allocated to students before the end of the term. There will be a small cost to parents for the program. So far we have had $80 000 worth of brass instruments delivered to the school and will have a further similar amount of stringed instruments delivered in the coming weeks. More information will be forthcoming over the next few weeks and early next year.

Dismissal - car line 

Could our Year 3-6 families please not make their way to the carline until 3pm as we have a large volume of cars for the earlier pick up and they are blocking the surrounding streets. If you do encounter any residents please make way for them and give them right of way. We are currently checking the volume of traffic and may make some changes to classes and timing next week.

Enjoy your week.

Regards

Julie Caldwell