Newsletter Week 2 Term 1 2024

We are back! 

Returning to school can be the most exciting and daunting time of the year. Our students have started the year excited and eager to be at school (mostly!). We have spent the past few days settling in, catching up with friends and learning about their new classes and teachers.

Starting school for the first time is an even bigger undertaking! Our kindergarten students have started and settled in exceptionally well with the help of their year six buddies.

For me, it's fantastic to see how our students have grown and changed since the time I was on leave. Being back with the students and staff and the 'busyness' of school life is made so much more enjoyable by the enthusiasm of our staff and the boundless energy of our students.

Enjoy the weeks ahead,

Katie

Canteen

Our canteen will start service this Friday. 

Mrs Di Holley, our Canteen Supervisor, has informed me of her intention to resign this term. I sincerely thank Di for her time and commitment to re-starting our school canteen. She has worked over and above to ensure that the canteen is staffed and stocked and serves our students every week. Di and I will work to finalise her resignation and commence the recruitment process for a new Canteen Supervisor. 

Friday Assemblies and Merit Awards

Our Friday fortnightly assemblies commence this week. Families of students receiving a merit award K-6 will be notified by a Compass email.

Communication From School

We will share information regarding our Parent Information Evening later in the week. Please see here our other communication methods to keep parents informed.

Newsletter: Published fortnightly on Wednesdays from 2024

What's On: Published on Sunday afternoons

Parent Planner: At the start of each term

Curriculum Note: Week 2 each term (Week 3 for Term 1)

Parent Information Evening: Wednesday 21 February (Information to follow)

Parent-Teacher-Student Goal Setting Meetings: Week 6

Parent Input Surveys

At the start of each year, we invite parents and caregivers to share infromation with classroom teachers about their child/ren.

Survey links are class-specific and published via Compass today.

Please take the time to share any important information with your child's teacher. There will be an opportunity for interviews/goal-setting meetings later in the term.

Volunteering

Information for new volunteers is availble on our school website.

Week 3: 

Tuesday 13 February:  

• Shrove Tuesday Pikelet Fundraising for Project Compassion  
• P & F AGM and February Meeting 6:30pm – School Library – To nominate for Executive Positions click here 

 Wednesday 13 February:  

• Ash Wednesday Mass:11am – Years 2-6 Corpus Christi Church

Week 4:

Wednesday 21 February:

• Parent Information Evening (Information to follow)

Thursday 22 February:

• Opening School Mass - 9:15am - Corpus Christi Church

Parent Planner Term 1

Please find below a Term 1 Parent Planner. All dates are correct are time of publishing and may be subject to change. Please continue to check our 'What's On' updates each week for any changes and updates.

This document will also sit in the Compass Parent Portal for the term.

In weekour comprehensive spelling plan for 2024 will be fully implemented K-6.

K-2 will participate in Initialit - a daily program which has been in place at Corpus Christi for several years with great success.

Year 3 will participate in Spellex - a new daily program developed by the Initialit authors as a primary continuation of Initialit.

Years 4-6 will participate in Spelling Mastery - this is a new program for our school. It has been in used around Australia for several years. It is evidence based and proven to be successful. It approaches spelling from three directions phonemic, whole-word and morphemic. 

Spelling Mastery is a levelled direct instruction program. This means every student in the room will follow the same explicit instructions at the same time. The three classes will split into five smaller groups, four times a week for twenty minutes. All students have completed a placement test to ensure they are placed in the correct group to maximise their learning. 

We are looking forward to seeing our students grow and develop in spelling this year. If you have any questions about these programs please contact the school.

Michael Deed

 Highway to Success and Happiness

Corpus Christi has once again launched into the social/emotional development skill building program HIGHWAY HEROES.  

 Over the coming weeks, your child will be involved in a unit of social and emotional learning that uses a teaching metaphor of everyone being on a journey travelling along the Highway of Life. They will learn that one of the first destinations on the Highway is their current one – Primary School - with many more to follow, and that along the Highway, everyone will experience many events (‘Highway Happenings’) – some fabulous, others horrible, many bland and every so often, exhilarating. It’s rarely dull!

Think about the Highway of your Life, with its many twists and turns; the times you
needed to slow down for repairs, or perhaps came to a complete stop altogether and
needed help to get going again. These are common Happenings on the Highway of
Life, and so everyone needs HIGHWAY TOOLS to deal with them - and that means
becoming a ‘HIGHWAY HERO!’

What are Highway Happenings?
Primary School is one of the first independent destinations, and whilst there, every
student’s job is to acquire knowledge - academic, social and emotional – the latter two being the focus of Highway Heroes. Your child will be learning that everyone
experiences BUMPS and HAZARDS on the Highway, and therefore, learning the skills to deal with these Highway Happenings is vital. Highway Heroes will help your child to learn these skills, and as their parent, you will also be included with newsletter information and ideas for home practise. That’s the pathway to becoming a HIGHWAY HERO - and every child deserves the opportunity to be on that pathway.

Highway Hero Skills

To be a HIGHWAY HERO means a child has positive self and social management skills and can use positive thought patterning - called ‘Supa Thinking’ – to make sensible, rational choices – about HAZARDS, BUMPS – and all sorts of Highway Happenings. Let’s consider the following situations.

If a child regularly forgets to take their books and lunch to school, misses homework
deadlines and has a desk that’s chaotic, there’s a very good chance that the child will be underachieving. Learning good planning and organisational skills – HIGHWAY TOOLS - are what is required to help that child, because the HIGHWAY BUMP of
disorganisation is disrupting their journey, and perhaps will also determine their
destination.

These are the symbols that you will be seeing over the coming weeks as your child learns
about HIGHWAY BUMPS, HAZARDS and TOOLS, so that they too can become a
HIGHWAY HERO.

It’s terrific that you are all on the journey, so buckle up!

 SCHOOL REFUSAL

The start of the school year can bring challenges for some children and families in the form of school refusal. 

School refusal is a complex issue as there is rarely a single cause. It affects children of all ages across primary and secondary levels. It can often occur during times of transition at school. 

Dealing with a school refusal child can affect the whole family, adding pressure to an already challenging time. School refusal is not considered a formal psychiatric diagnosis. It’s a name given to an emotional and/or behavioural problem.

In this edition of SchoolTV, adult carers will learn how best to approach this issue and work towards a solution.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SCHOOL TV- The SURVIVING SCHOOL SERIES.

Here is the link to the School Refusal edition of SchoolTV https://waratah.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/school-refusal