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Recently I placed a post on Compass regarding a Special General Meeting regarding two models of parent engagement (a copy of this message follows). I welcome your input by voting on Monday, 19 June. Parent engagement in schools and your children’s education can take many forms, and the two models allow for different ways of engagement.
As adults, and in particular parents, what we model to our children is extremely important. Meaningful engagement in your child's education, includes engagement in learning at home through encouragement, support, reading, parent-child discussions, and making explicit how much you value education through your own behaviour and modelling.
This does not mean that we must know the answer to every question but that we show a positive interest in our child’s education.
By keeping our conversations about education positive with simple questions and encouraging them to look at making a error as a step to success, our children will embrace any challenges they may encounter.
Pope Francis at a recent conference in Rome said, “Educating young people is the duty of parents and of society as a whole…” and noted that children who are unable to complete their schooling end up being a burden on societies.
It has been wonderful in my time as an educator to talk with parents about their child’s development; you are your child’s advocate and dialogue with your child’s educator leads to success for our children. With Reports and Parent-Teacher Meetings taking place at the end of the Term, five questions you can ask your child’s teacher are:
- What is my child learning?
- How is she/he doing?
- How do you know (how she/he doing)?
- How can she/he improve?
- What supports can I provide and can you provide if she/he is struggling? When will we check in again?
Have a great fortnight,
Craig McNee
Comprehension Strategy Focus
Over the coming weeks all classes will be working on the “Making Connection” comprehension strategy. When encountering a text students make connections between the text, their own experiences, and understandings. The book might be about a boy going fishing. The child might be able to connect with this story talking about fishing with their father/grandparents, maybe talking about a time they had been on a boat. Please encourage your child to do this with their library books. I have attached a quick YouTube clip that goes through the super six strategies used for comprehending. You might like to watch this with your child.
Reading Comprehension: Super Six Comprehension Strategies - YouTube
Please see attached
VOLUNTEER REGISTRATION
In order to Volunteer at OLV you are required to complete the Volunteer Induction and be cleared by the Catholic Schools Office to volunteer.
Please follow this link https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/people/volunteer/ and complete the steps.
EXTERNAL PROVIDERS
If your child will be seeing a provider (e.g., speech therapist or occupational therapist) this year at school, please complete the attached application form and return to school. If you require further information, please don't hesitate to contact the Office.
COMPASS
OLV uses the "Compass" App. Login details for parents/carers have been emailed to all new parents. If you are still unable to login, or your account has been made inactive, please contact Leanne in the Office to arrange a reset of your password.
- For all new families please familiarise yourself with the information booklet you received in your information pack or enrolment pack "Parent Portal Compass User Guide" I have also attached this.
- Only Parents/Carers have access to Compass Parent Portal. Parents must have separate email addresses in order to both have access to compass.
- New Users when logging into Compass are given the opportunity to update their details. It has been noted that some parents have updated their mobile phone number by taking out the gaps within the phone number. This is not required. The system requires phones numbers to be in this format.
- REMINDER: PLEASE ONLY EXPLAIN WHOLE DAY ABSENCES - PLEASE DO NOT REPORT PARTIAL ABSENCES through the Compass App. Reporting partial absences will cause inconsistences with your child's attendance.
- SMS's are sent to parents of students who are absent from 9.35am each weekday morning. You will receive a text message if your child was not present during the marking of the roll. Please logon onto compass and explain your child's absence. Do not reply to the text as Compass does not accept reply texts.
- Please notify the office beforehand if your child is going to arrive late; you will however still receive an SMS. The arrival time of the student will be logged as an explained absence when they present to school on their arrival.
- On occasion you may be sent a text message even though your child is in attendance at school. This may be because they have arrived late and not come to the Office for sign in. If your child is late please come into the Office with your child and sign them in via the Compass kiosk.
QKR APP
To assist with the banking, ordering and handling of money, we are moving more of our payments to the Qkr system.
You will find attached instructions for the QKR App. This easy to use phone app gives you the flexibility to place orders for Canteen and fundraisers from your phone. It also reduces the need for your child to bring cash to school. Please remember to amend your child's year group on the QKR App to aid the timely collection of their order. We will be moving to a wider usage of this app as the term progresses.
- Make sure your child matches the class they are in now. You may need to go to your account settings and change their class. This will have to be completed at the beginning of every school year
- Please do not send in a paper bag as well as ordering online (this will stop any double-up of ordering)
- If your child is away or sick and you have ordered their lunch, you have until 8.00am to cancel your order on QKR and receive a credit for next time
- All ordering is now closing at 8.15 am Monday Morning. This allows enough time to print out the relevant reports for our volunteer ladies
- As of Term 2 all lunch orders will only be able to be ordered through QKR. Cash on the day will only be for ice blocks, lollies and chips.
We will be looking at providing this service for other quick financial transactions such as sausage sizzles, raffles, pie drives etc,.
Thanks to everyone for taking up this service.
FINANCE NEWS
Fee Statements were emailed out last week.
- Any school fees that are outstanding, without an agreed payment arrangement with the Prinicpal, will be actioned per the Diocesan Fee Collection Policy.
- For those families experiencing financial hardship it is not too late to contact the school office to arrange an appointment with the Principal or Finance Officer, to discuss payment options.
- Payments can be made via BPay, Direct Debit, or credit card over the phone or in the Office.
- Calculations have been sent home to most families. This will help you to pay a weeklly amount to have your fees paid by the due date, 30/11/23.
Any fee payers that wish to establish a new direct debit or adjust their existing direct debit, please contact Leanne in the office.
We encourage families not to pay their fees via the COMPASS App. The bank fees are significantly higher than if paid via Bpay or credit cards at the Office.
Health Care Card
Most families have already completed the attached Health Care Card Forms and returned to the school with a copy of their Health Care Card. If you have a Health Care Card and have not handed it in please contact the Office. Health Care Cards gives up to 50% of your tuition fees.
Compass Events
It has been brought to our attention that parents feel they may miss out on events the school is having. Please ensure to follow the following ways of communication.
- A notification is sent to your phone that an event has been added to compass
- An email is sent to your nominated address notifing an event has been added to compass.
- Date claimers are up to date per term.
- Please always check the newsletter in case upcoming events are advertisied.
If you receive a notification you can logon onto your Compass App. The following screen will appear if you have an outstanding event. (You may click on your notifications tab for this.)
You can then click into the event and see the following page.
All parents have access to many sources of notifications on any upcoming events. If you happen to miss any of these notifications reminders are sent out from the office via email and push notifications and lastly text messages.
Chess Club
CHESS CLUB at OLV has begun!
Our Chess Club started 3 weeks ago.
Where: In the Library
When: Second Break (D) Thursday, Friday
If you love Chess or just want to learn, please come along.
It is lots of fun!
Mrs McCallum, Miss Slattery, Mrs Telford
Kindergarten
After Visiting Hunter Valley Zoo. Kindergarten were very keen to write about their experiences. Just a few experiences that we would like to share with you.
Year 2
In year 2 we have been introduced to the comprehension strategy “Finding the main idea”. We have learnt that most text are all based around one main idea, and they include details about that idea. We discussed three strategies that we can use the find the main idea of a text.
- Look at the title and any pictures.
- Read the first and last sentence of the text
- Look for any words that are repeated several times throughout the text.
We looked at a text called “Amazing Earthworms”. We looked at the title and the picture of the earthworm, then we read the first and last sentences and found out that the word “soil " was repeated several times throughout the text. We concluded that the main idea of the text is that Earthworms help to keep the soil healthy.
Stage 2
What role does background knowledge and vocabulary play in supporting reading comprehension?
Background Knowledge
This refers to what students already know about a topic before they begin reading about it. Background knowledge plays an important role in contextualising facts in nonfiction and subject matter in a fiction story. When students have background knowledge of a topic, they are better able to make connections and gain a deeper understanding.
Vocabulary
Students should have an age-appropriate bank of vocabulary knowledge in order to be able to make sense of text. The best way to increase vocabulary is to read books with some unfamiliar words. But when students come across too many words they can’t define, this can leave them feeling frustrated and sap their motivation. Therefore, it’s important to target important vocabulary words periodically.
Wide-scale reviews of multiple vocabulary instruction studies spanning the full school age range (K– 12) have concluded that high quality vocabulary instruction can have a significant effect on reading comprehension (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986; Wright & Cervetti, 2017).
Years 3 and 4 have studied several picture books in shared reading, related to our persuasive writing focus this term. Each week, we have an explicit focus on building students’ background knowledge and ensure a rich and direct exposure to the vocabulary in each text occurs. This is achieved by unpacking the theme of each book which has included watching BTN episodes or YouTube clips related to the theme of the text i.e., learning about Iguanas when reading ‘I wanna Iguana’, which in turn has built their background knowledge.
We also purposefully select vocabulary from the text and dissect each word according to their meaning, provide visual aids of each word, examine non-examples, generate antonyms and synonyms and act out the words.
Both areas of reading instruction ensure we are building the bridge to reading comprehension!
Below are some of the texts we have been reading to assist students in their learning about persuasive writing while also building their background knowledge on Iguanas, cows and Koala Bears and unpacking words such as strike, impatient, polar regions, furious and neutral to name a few!
Stage 3
In Stage 3, we are learning about the Main Idea comprehension strategy. We can use this strategy to learn what the paragraph or text is mostly about.
Stage 3 have adopted this strategy in different areas of their learning, especially when reading informative texts about adaptations and biomes. Year 5 attempted this strategy when engaging with their class novel Song for a Whale.
Stage 3 have also lucky enough to spend some time learning how to create their own biomes using Minecraft Education. We are working towards replicating real life biomes by including plants and animals found in the program.
| Kinder |
Ivy S - for presenting her news with confidence. Hailey S -for starting to identify beginning sounds of items. Emmet M -for being able to read and spell CVC words using the letters we have learnt. Kai P - for trying hard with his drawing skills. Nicholas O -for being able to read and spell CVC words using the letters we have learnt. Benjamin Z - for starting to sound out words when writing. |
| Year 1 |
Elodie D - for developing your confidence to speak in front of audiences. Lorcan H - for using a variety of strategies to solve equations in maths. Theo B - for working on your concentration in class and trying to remain focussed on your learning. Elena T - for your participation in class and working hard to make sure your tasks are completed beautifully. |
| Year 2 |
Jemima K for her excellent visualisation of the habitat of the Kangaroo Paw plant in reading groups. Henry W - for his excellent reflection of the Psalms in Religion, Well done Henry! Matilda B - for outstanding work when showing the different shapes that are hiding in a square. Maksim S - for the excellent detail he included when visualising the environment where emus live, during reading groups. |
| Year 3 |
Thea W - for using her time effectively during learning time. LeviA - for demonstrating a mature attitude when answering questions andsharing his ideas with others. Ariana C - for being a confident and independent member of our class. Elsa S - for always concentrating on carefully presenting her work. |
| Year 4 |
Gabi K - for her outstanding drawing of the Greek Myth Medusa. Very clever! Toma V - for trying extremely hard to complete his work. Keep it up. Jennifer F - for an excellent project for PDH with outstanding handwriting. Amazing. Kasey S - for great answers and contributions to class discussion. Well done. |
| Year 5 |
Tobias I - for displaying awesome problem-solving skills and creative thinking at the da Vinci Decathlon Millie H - for displaying awesome problem-solving skills and creative thinking at the da Vinci Decathlon Heath F - for attempting all tasks with a Growth Mindset, particularly learning from his mistakes and trying another strategy Will T - for being an active listener in class discussions! |
| Year 6 |
Alek S -for always working to a high standard during our math lessons Summer F - for consistent effort in the classroom, even when tasks are challenging. Well done! Miles A - for delivering an outstanding Religion lesson to the class this week. Great work! Harper S - for being an enthusiastic member of Year 6. Thank you, Harper! Freya B - for making a conscious effort to think outside the box and problem solve in all learning areas |
| Leader Awards |
|
| V & M Awards |
Kindergarten: Gianna D - for always being a happy person and trying her best. Year 1: Zephyr K - for showing kindness and compassion to everyone in the class. Year 2: Kaidence G - for encouraging her peers to do their best. Year 3: Alierah M - for being kind and sensitive to those who may have different thoughts and opinions. Year 4: Jesse M - for demonstrating and living OLV Mission in his dealings with everyone in Stage 2. Thank you, Jesse! Year 5: Indi P - for showing respect for her peers and the classroom environment. Year 6: Lochlain H - for leading by example and being a kind and respectful member of Stage 3 |
| Lexia Awards |
Christopher H - Level 9 |
| Principals Awards |
Heath F - For showing Leadership in the classroom - making good choices! Aleki V - For always making me happy with his great attitude and smiling face!!!! |
We would like to wish the following children a Happy Birthday.
| Kindergarten | Mehki M |
| Year 1 | Alexis G, Micko A |
| Year 2 | |
| Year 3 | Evan S, Eli O |
| Year 4 | Sienna S |
| Year 5 | |
| Year 6 | Alek S, Max G |
Congratulations and we hope you had a happy day
You are invited to attend a Special General Meeting to vote on the future of family engagement at Our Lady of Victories Primary School.
The meeting comes on the back of the recent P & F Association Annual General Meeting (AGM), where we received no calls for executive positions.
It would be wonderful to have as many parents and carers as possible attend the Special General Meeting, as we really value your input into our school’s operations. It is anticipated that the meeting will only take approximately 15 minutes.
Key meeting details:
Time: MONDAY, JUNE 19 at 7:00 pm; Voting will close at 7:15 pm
Location: LIBRARY or ONLINE
Please note, children are welcome to attend the evening, and will be asked to sit in the Kindergarten room (babysitting available).
If you cannot make the meeting in person, you are also welcome to join us online (details below).
What specifically will you be asked to vote on?
At the meeting in June, all parents and carers will be invited to cast a vote in response to the question:
“Are you supportive of implementing a Parent Engagement Group (PEG) model at Our Lady of Victories Primary School, therefore replacing the P & F Association?”
What are a PEG and P & F Association? How are they the same, or different?
A PEG and a P & F Association are both a style of family engagement forum, and each allow for parents and carers to gather and work in partnership with their child’s school to share the work and decision making in the education of their child.
Ahead of the Special General Meeting, I encourage you to learn more about these forums, by reading the Diocese’s handbook entitled ‘A guide for implementing a P & F Association or PEG in Schools.’ Alternatively, I have also attached a document which provides a brief overview.
Voting guidelines
On the day:
- Voting will be the only item of business
- Parents and carers can vote either in person at the meeting or online (details below)
- Parents and carers are not permitted to vote by proxy that is, you cannot ask someone else (including a parent, carer or staff member) to vote on your behalf
- You cannot vote ahead of the meeting or afterwards.
What happens after voting takes place?
For Our Lady of Victories Primary School to transition from a P & F Association forum to a PEG model, ¾ of the votes must be in favour of the shift. If less than ¾ of votes received are in favour of moving to a PEG model, and we still do not have any nominations for P & F Association executive positions, I will make representation to the Bishop regarding next steps.
Further questions?
If after reading the handbook or background information you have any further questions, you may email them to me, or the Diocese’s Family Engagement Officer, Lizzie Watkin. Lizzie’s email is lizzie.watkin@mn.catholic.edu.au
A final note
I would like to conclude by saying that to be successful, schools must value the perspectives and opinions of students and their families, and act on them in a way that genuinely shapes learning and decision-making at the school.
Whilst I am only a newcomer to your school community, I understand Our Lady of Victories has a proud history of family engagement, particularly through your P & F Association. I have witnessed the many benefits of this partnership between families and the schools’ staff, including a strong sense of belonging, students who are engaged in their learning, and a positive regard for wellbeing amongst all in the community.
Accordingly, I speak on behalf of all staff including your principal, Mr Gerry Vandermaat, when I express my gratitude to all families, particularly those who have taken on P & F executive roles, attended P & F Meetings and/or or volunteered their time and skills to support students’ learning and wellbeing over the years. Your contributions will make a difference not only during our students’ schooling years but help shape them as they progress into adulthood.
I hope to see you at the Special General Meeting on Monday, 19 June, 7:00 – 7:15 pm.
Kind regards,
Craig McNee
Acting Principal
Our Lady of Victories Primary School, Shortland
Meeting ID: 479 896 869 103
Passcode: YweUcK
ST NICHOLAS OOSH Services
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