Dear parents,

This week the school underwent a rigorous external review undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research. The two reviewers were from Melbourne and Perth and both had extensive experience as school principals. The reviewers spent three days in the school talking with staff, parents and students. Prior to the review they examined all of our documentation linked to our educational programs.

The staff were given very positive initial feedback yesterday which identified the substantial improvement made since our last review. We hope to have a final copy of the report in the first half of term two and the findings will be shared with staff and parents.

I thank those that made themselves available to talk with the review team.

Pupil Free Days

You may have noticed, when checking the school calendar, that there are two pupil free days scheduled this year – this means that staff attend but students do not. Both days have been added to the school holidays following Term 1 and Term 2.

The first falls on Monday 19 April and the second falls on Monday 12 July.  These days have been allocated by Catholic Education to allow staff to engage in professional learning corresponding to a new system wide initiative called Catalyst that will be rolled out over the next 3 years.  Catalyst empowers teachers with evidence-based professional learning in High Impact Teaching Practice, K-2 Literacy, quality curriculum resources and in-classroom coaching.  It is a framework for united understanding of and practice in teaching ‘what matters most’ and ‘what works best’ based on soundly researched evidence.  

Kidz Biz will be operating their vacation care program on that day.  Please see the Kids Biz flyer for more information and booking details.

School Banking

Parents may be aware that ACT Government schools ceased school banking programs at the commencement of the school year.  All catholic schools were supplied with a range of questions to consider from the Australian Investment and Securities Commission to see if it was justifiable to continue with school banking.  As a consequence, the decision was made to discontinue school banking from the end of this term. Currently we average fifteen students using the facility.

Maths Problem

Congratulations to Brody Press who was last week’s winner. This week’s problem is below.

Money Matters

Emma has five coins of each of these denominations, 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, and $2.  List the coins Emma must use if she makes $12.95 with the least number of coins.

Keep Children Safe

Children are more at risk than adults around schools because they are smaller and less visible to motorists.  They are also less predictable and less experienced, which makes them more likely to make errors of judgement.

Failing to follow simple road rules increases the risk to children around schools. While schools can become congested during the peak times, illegal driving and parking behaviours are not acceptable as it increases the risk of injury for children.

Parking Operations regularly patrol school zones to support school communities to promote safe behaviours and keep children safe. Please do the right thing to create a safe environment around our school.

God bless

Peter Hughes