Dear Families,

We are getting very close to the end of the year with still many events to come.  

YEAR 6 GRADUATION

On Tuesday evening we celebrated the Year 6 Graduation. This is a major celebration for our Year Six students who, after seven years in Primary school, move into the big world of High School. On behalf of the school community I wish all the best to our Year Six students.

Farewell too to the families who will move on from St Francis of Assisi Primary School after many years here with us.

The Graduation dinner was a great success. A big thanks to the Year 6 teachers who organised the night and ensured it was a wonderful celebration for the students.

KINDERGARTEN NATIVITY

Our Kindergarten children will tell the Nativity story on Monday 14 December with a special concert. They have been rehearsing every day to ensure this is a memorable event. Not only does it tell the story of the birth of Jesus but it allows us to see the incredible growth our Kindergarten students have made over the year. 

We welcome two family members for each child to this special event. Unfortunately, due to Covid, this is all we are able to accommodate. Please know that babies/younger children are included in this count. 

CANDLE CEREMONY

Our Year 5 and 6 Candle Ceremony will be held at 2.00pm next Tuesday 15 December. This is a special ceremony where we recognise the Year 6 students who have been our student leaders for 2020 and hand over the leadership to our Year 5 students, our new leaders for 2021. During this ceremony our 2021 School and House Captains will also be announced. 

Covid restrictions mean that only one person per Year 5 and Year 6 student may attend the candle ceremony.

FAREWELL MASS

Our Farewell Mass will be held next Wednesday 16 December in the Peace Garden, commencing at 9:30am. Only our Year 6 parents are able to join us at this celebration. 

Once again, Covid restrictions mean that only one person per Year 6 student may attend the farewell mass.   

COMMUNITY COUNCIL

The last St Francis of Assisi Community Council Meeting for 2020 was held a couple of weeks ago. I would like to thank all members of our Community Council for their hard work and contributions during the year. Our Community Council members are Kate Markcrow (Principal), Tiffany Reedy (Assistant Principal), Nikki Arcidiacono (Staff Representative), Sarah Chifley (Council Chair), Amanda Lenard, (Deputy Chair) Christina Knobel (Treasurer), Liset De Koeijer(Secretary),  Lisa Hyland, Jess Cotton and Caroline Kontny. This year has been a very unusual year with not as many community events as we had planned. Having said that the council has spent many meetings being proactive in other areas of the school such as the canteen and our BASCA service. I thank them for their time and effort throughout the year. 

STAFFING NEWS

Mrs Christine McGinness has decided to take the first term off next year on Long Service Leave and then retire her position from Term 2 2021. Christine has had a very long association with our school, starting here in 2000. She has led our Learning Support Team for many years and in that time she has been instrumental in caring for and teaching hundreds of students who have required additional support. Her hard work, dedication and patience has touched the lives of so many children and their families.  I know you join me in wishing Christine a very rewarding retirement. She will be dearly missed.

Mrs Shelley Salzke has accepted a position at Canberra Grammar School for the 2021 school year. Shelley has been a valuable addition to our staff this year and I am sure that the families who were able to work with Shelly this year agree that she has been an excellent teacher to the children in 2 Dhaura. Thank you Shelley, good luck at your new school.

AWARDS ASSEMBLY

Today we came together and celebrated our Awards Assembly. This is the first time since Term 1 that we have been able to gather as a group. Thanks you to Year 5 for hosting such a fun assembly. Mrs Emma Harris, our new STEM teacher, came and met the children and presented the awards to our recipients.

Congratulations to the award recipients for this term:

REPORTS HOME TOMORROW

The reports distributed tomorrow have been prepared in line with the school’s Assessment and Reporting policy and also the Australian Government funding requirements and associated legislative regulations. The teachers have worked extremely hard throughout the year to ensure assessment strategies are implemented to develop clear and fair assessment tasks; to make consistent and reliable judgements about a student’s work; to ensure effective, explicit teaching has occurred and that assessments are placed within those parameters; to ensure that the assessment process is known by the students prior to being conducted; and that assessment data is utilised to inform teaching and learning programs.

When reporting, the teacher is awarding a grade to the student taking into account knowledge, skills and understandings covered up to the point when the judgement is made. This means the staff are making an ‘on balance and professional judgement’ of student progress and attainments.

I hope that you find your child’s Semester Two Report beneficial in providing information related to their learning and progress at school. Thank you for working in partnership to support your child’s education. This partnership between home and school will be healthy and enhance our children’s learning if it is fostered in a positive way.

Thank you also to the staff who have literally spend hours and hours over the past few weeks writing reports and completing assessments. They are a very committed and dedicated group of people.

ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI STAFF 2021

CLASS LISTS

Every year at about this time, the talk starts! Who will be my child’s teacher next year? My question is ….. does it really matter?

I often wonder why parents have certain views about different teachers. Is it based on previous experience or gossip? St Francis of Assisi Primary School is fortunate to have a wide range of talented teachers. We have a fabulous reputation in the community for providing excellence. We have experienced and early career teachers. We have teachers with a passion for Maths, for Literacy, for the Creative Arts, for Technology and the list goes on.

Over 7 years at primary school a student will experience a wide range of teachers and gain valuable skills and knowledge from each and every one of them. Parents cannot always shelter and protect their child or choose their teachers for them. A big part of life is learning to deal with a range of people, whether it be other children or adults. It is about building skills and resilience that can be used in later life. Sure some students may not like a particular teacher, but how do they really know if they have never actually been taught by them.

I do not know how many times a student (and parent) has been apprehensive about a teacher, only to find that they then have a great year. How your child responds to the news of their class teacher for 2021 will largely depend on your own response. Whether you are satisfied or not, you need to be positive and encouraging. If your child sees that you are upbeat, then they will be confident and optimistic about the future.

Our staff members are currently in planning mode for next year. Their thoughts are being occupied by class placements. They have been very careful in placing each child into a class for next year, taking into consideration the following:

• Gender: We aim to achieve an even split of boys and girls (this is made easier by the fact that our school does not lose boys in great numbers to single sex schools in the Primary Years).
• Ability: We believe that children learn from each other and that applies to the more and less abled child. Classes operate most effectively when children learn cooperatively from each other, the learning may not just include academic areas but social growth as well.
• Friendship Groupings: This is always problematic because Primary- aged children move in and out of groups on a regular basis, and as you know from adult life mutual friendships can sometimes be one way on occasions.

An additional layer of complexity in this process is the placement of teachers on grade levels. Our teachers work in teams so it is crucial to have the right mix of team members on each year level. Once again we aim to spread the experience and gender of staff across the grades. We also take into consideration the preferred teaching levels of staff and a need to keep staff fresh by moving them regularly across different grade levels. In short putting classes together is somewhat of a giant jigsaw puzzle but at the heart of the jigsaw must remain the needs of the child. Our staff appreciates the huge trust that you place in them to get the jigsaw right!

Tomorrow, each individual student will get to go to their new classroom for 2021 and spend a little time with their new class teacher. They will bring home a list of their class - so you will know who is in their class.

Thanks for your understanding.

Peace and best wishes

Kate Markcrow  

Principal