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Dear Parents & Carers
Last week I discussed the work our school is doing with Dr. Lorraine Hammond and Brooke Wardana. Lorraine Hammond is President of Learning Difficulties Australia and a Senior Lecturer and Researcher for the School of Education at Edith Cowan University and Brooke Wardana is an early childhood teacher who provides professional learning and consultancy support to schools across Australia.
As a Catholic system and as a school community, we are striving to achieve two bold goals:
- Every student is a competent reader;
- High Impact Teaching Practice is visible in every classroom.
The work we are doing with Lorraine and Brooke is heavily evidence-based and is focussing on the simple view of reading, in that learning to read requires two abilities – correctly identifying words (decoding) and understanding their meaning (comprehension).
Acquisition of these two broad abilities requires the development of more specific skills. Put simply in a visual model:
An extensive body of research on reading instruction shows that there are five essential skills for reading and that a high quality literacy program should include all five components.
| Phonemic Awareness | The ability to identify and manipulate the distinct individual sounds in spoken words |
| Phonics | The ability to decode words using knowledge of letter-sound relationships |
| Fluency | Reading with speed and accuracy |
| Vocabulary | Knowing the meaning of a wide variety of words and the structure of written language |
| Comprehension | Understanding the meaning and intent of the text |
Fortunately, for us, we have been working with these components for a number of years, and our work is consolidating and improving our practice.
FOCUS ASSEMBLY
Congratulations to Year 3 for a magnificent Focus Assembly yesterday! It was filled with scripture, prayer, dance, and song. Very powerful! Well done.
TERM 2 = WINTER UNIFORM
It is time to get the winter uniforms out and dust them off. We will be wearing it when we return for Term 2 on 20 April. We will have the usual few weeks of change over, but students are expected to wear correct winter uniform. A reminder that school shoes must be black leather school shoes (not canvas, etc) and sports shoes are to be predominantly white.
HOLY WEEK
Next week many of our classes are leading the school in Easter Liturgies to celebrate Holy Week. What are the events in Holy Week? Some of them we know well, while others we do not celebrate as significantly.
- Palm Sunday: Held on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. It recalls Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem one week before his execution.
- Holy Monday: Commemorates Jesus' cleansing of the temple, when he got angry against money changers and other commercial interests who had tables within the Temple. Some believe that this triggered his arrest and crucifixion.
- Holy Tuesday: Recalls Jesus' description to his disciples on the Mount of Olives of the destruction of Jerusalem.
- Holy Wednesday: Recalls Judas' decision to betray Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver.
- Holy Thursday: Commemorates the Last Supper, Jesus’ agony in the garden and his arrest. For centuries, people in authority have washed the feet of their followers on this day.
- Good Friday: Recalls Jesus' death on the Cross.
- Holy Saturday (a.k.a. Easter Eve) is the final day of Holy Week and of Lent.
- Easter Sunday: Commemorates Jesus' resurrection.
ENROLMENTS 2022
Enrolment Period
2 May until 28 May
Enrolment time will be on us again in a few weeks. If you have a little one ready for school in 2022 or you know of anyone interested in looking at our fantastic school for their children, the enrolment packs will be available soon. We are waiting for the latest COVID19 restriction information from Catholic Education regarding an Open Day.
Have a great week.
Brad Gaynor
Principal
brad.gaynor@cg.catholic.edu.au
Get ready for a change with our new parent communication app to occur soon. We are not live yet! We are looking at launching in Term 2.
Please read the attached two documents and download the Compass School Manager App to access the Compass Parent Portal soon to be released.
To ensure you will receive school information, via the Compass Parent Portal, you must provide the school with your correct email and contact numbers. This will not be an opt-in system as we currently have with the SZapp. Please continue to use our SZapp until formally advised we have changed over.
Parent_Portal_Info_Sheet_Parents_230221.pdf
Parent_Portal_Visual_Guide_230221.pdf
ANZAC Day 2021
Our HSP ANZAC Day Ceremony will be held on Wednesday, 21 April. This ceremony will be held at St John Paul II College, not HSP. Invitations for ADF families will be sent home in Week 8. Please rsvp by end of Week 9 or contact me for more information.
We are fortunate to have a Catafalque Party parading and the Australian Federal Guard will provide a significant and formal part of our ceremony. I look forward to seeing our ADF families at JPC for our ceremony.
The Australian War Memorial will welcome people to their ANZAC Day Dawn Service and National Ceremony on Sunday 25 April. Tickets for the Dawn Service and National Ceremony are now available on their website. Use this link to secure your free tickets, but don’t leave it too late!
https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/anzac-day/tickets
Defence Flypast Excursion - Defence students of RAAF families, have been invited to attend an excursion on Wednesday, 31 March. This excursion is in conjunction with Defence students from JPC and we will witness the spectacular fly past to celebrate the Air Force 2021 commemorations. It should be a great day. Permission notes are due back now.
Friendship Group has begun this week. If you have a deployment, exercise or MWDU coming up, please let me know, so I may include them in this group.
As always, if you have any concern with your child/ren, please contact me. Vicki.walsh@cg.catholic.edu.au
Vicki Walsh
Defence School Mentor
ANZAC Day Ceremony
Wednesday, 21 April
This year at our ANZAC Day Ceremony a Catafalque Party will be in attendance performed by the Australian Federal Guard.
As part of their maneuvers, they will be carrying arms (weapons). These weapons will not have any ammunition and will be handled exclusively by the Catafalque Party. They will be a very striking part of our Ceremony and will showcase one of the highly disciplined corps of our Australian Defence Force.
If you are not comfortable for your child to attending our ANZAC Day Ceremony when these weapons will be present, you are welcome to bring them to school after our Ceremony has concluded at 10.45am.
If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact me prior to our ANZAC Day Ceremony. vicki.walsh@cg.catholic.edu.au
Vicki Walsh
DSM
Term 2 - Monday 19th April and Term 3 - Monday 12th July are pupil free days in all Catholic Primary Schools in Canberra.
A reminder that school photos will be on Monday 29 March, with Wednesday 31st March and Thursday 1 April for ELC and catch ups. All students are expected to be in full summer school uniform.
After assessing the small number of students participating in School Banking and the appropriateness of our participation in the program due to recent findings, the Community Council has made the decision to cease the program at Holy Spirit at the end of the term.
Please read the letter attached if you have participated in the program.
While we love celebrating birthdays in the classroom, Health regulations prevent us from allowing a ‘shared’ or home-produced cake. If you wish to supply your class with something to celebrate your child's birthday, please provide a commercially packaged item. Eg, A bag of Freddo Frogs, Super Dooper, etc! Please ensure whatever is sent in does not contain any nut products.
