Term 1 Week 2 2024

Principal's Message

‘We do whatever it takes to lead the way in Love, Learning, Faith, School Spirit, Sport & Community’

Dear families and friends,

Welcome 
A big welcome back to all our kids, staff and families for the 2024 school year. I particularly welcome our new Kinders, new students in other grades and our new families.  You are all very welcome here and I am looking forward to catching up with you all.

I’m really excited to be in my 10th year as Principal at SMP. Yes, you heard right, 10 years and they haven't asked me to leave just yet.  I feel really excited as the initiatives we have put in place are really hitting the mark now,  providing the best holistic education for our kids of Casino. I’m excited by how we will better teach Mathematics and English in going forward too. Yet again our focus will be on our Vision of doing whatever it takes to lead the way in Love, Learning, Faith, School Spirit, Sport & Community. 

Families are welcome to come into the school for pick-up of an afternoon.  We very much encourage you to socialise with each other.  Our big school social event for Term 1 will be our Open & Celebration of Learning Night on Wednesday 3 April.

Some Term 1 Dates (All dates are on our Compass Calendar on the Compass App): 

Open Night - Wednesday 3 April

Student Led Conferences -  Monday 8 & Tuesday 9 April

Student of the Month assemblies:

• Friday 1 March 2:15pm
• Thursday 11 April 2:15pm  (Kinder Easter Hat Parade too)

Cross Country - Thursday 7 March

ANZAC Day March - 25 April (Last Thursday of the holidays

Proposed Student Free Days in 2024:

• Term 1 - Thursday 28 March Holy Thursday (before Easter short break)
• Term 2 - Wednesday 29 May (whole Richmond Region) &  Friday 5 July (last day Term 2)
• Term 3 - Friday 27 September (last day Term 3)
• Term 4 - Monday 14 October (first day Term 4) &  Friday 29 November (after Christmas Concert)

Parent Information Videos & Booklets
Our grade teachers will send a brief video and information booklet home to you via the Compass App. This will ensure all families can view this information when suitable for you.  You will be able to formally meet in person with your child’s teacher at Open Night and Student Led Conferences later in the term. If you wish to meet earlier in person, please make an appointment.  

School Gates and Safety
All gates will be locked at 9:05am except for the front middle gate allowing access to parents and visitors to our school. Before the end of the school day, all the gates will be unlocked again at 2:55pm to welcome parents back in.

2024 Staffing  
Teachers

Non- Classroom Teaching Staff  

• Student Support Educators: Michelle Kent, Kristy Smith, Danny Parsons, Janet O’Brien, Sue Reynolds, Gail Burley, Samantha Olive, Patrice Ramsay, Rebecca Transton, Vicki Gardner, Michelle O’Brien, Ella Roberts, Sam Coggan, Alex Richards, Ella Cooke, Piper Byrnes, Helen Sjostedt, Katie Berry, Tara Freeburn
• Speech Therapist:  Karla Carey 
• Learning Support Teachers:  Paula McIntyre (Years 3-6) & Marianne Bullpit (Years K-2)
• Aboriginal Education Worker:  Sarah Flocchini & Tara Freeburn
• Student Support Worker:  Paddy Wilde
• Specialist Teachers:  Lena Llewellyn, Sarah Flocchini, Marg Dowling & Alison Llewellyn
• School Counsellor:  Lia Masman (Tues - Fri) 
• Family Connect Worker:  Jessie Moulynox
• Casual Teachers:  Louise Angel & Joanna MacPherson
• Office:  Fran Gilmour, Louise Gallagher, Rachel Gillespie
• Maintenance & Cleaning:  Jai White
• IT:  Bailey Kent & James Laverick
• Library:  Betty Schuhmacher
• Assistant Principal  Mission:  Sam Irvine
• Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning:  Felicity Wilde
• Leader of Love & Community:  Hannah de Silva
• Leader of Faith:  Karen McDonald
• Leader of Sport:  Nikki Hammond
• Leaders of Learning - Intervention:  Paula McIntyre
• Leader of Learning - Yr K -2 Instructional Leader:  Karen Faber
• Leader of Learning  - Yr 3 - 4 Instructional Leader:  Michelle Bratti
• Leader of Learning - Yr 5 - 6 Instructional Leader:  Kristie Irvine
• Principal:  John O’Brien

Class Names 2024

Take care
John O’Brien

Assistant Principal's News - Mission

Welcome back to our existing families at SMP and a special welcome to our new families to our school community. For those that I haven't met yet, my name is Sam Irvine and I am the Assistant Principal Mission. I support our school staff and students in a variety of ways.  A few examples below:

• Religious Education; prayer, liturgies, curriculum, student discipleship etc.
• Wellbeing, Pastoral Care, student safety
• Parent queries and supports
• Positive student behaviour support
• Attendance
• WH&S and Maintenance

The dot points above may help guide you a little bit if you would like to reach out and seek some support in any of these areas. Whilst Felicity Wilde (Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning) and I have our own little portfolio to support, essentially an Assistant Principal has to be a 'jack of all trades' so we deal with many different situations - not all of these are glamorous I can assure you!

Catholic Social Teachings
At SMP, we want to be a truly authentic Catholic community that lives and breathes what we believe. We have a big focus to foster this for our students and staff in 2024. 

One way we can strive to achieve this is through nurturing a community that has a strong endearment to Catholic Social Teaching principles. These principles have been inspired by the writings of the Pope and other Catholic leaders about social issues. The CST’s are:

Human Dignity - Every person is valuable and worthy of respect and fairness

Care For Our Common Home - Earth is a gift from God, we should protect it

The Common Good  - We should always try to think about what is good for everyone, not just ourselves

Solidarity - We all should be working together as one

Preferential Option For The Poor  - The Bible teaches us to take extra special care of the most vulnerable people in our society

Subsidiarity & Participation - Everyone should be able to participate in their community and have a say in decisions that affect them

We know that one of the strongest ways to encourage our students' faith is through social justice initiatives as they feel drawn to these.  This will be a big focus for us this year.

Year of Prayer
Pope Francis has initiated a special Year of Prayer this year leading up to the 2025 Jubilee, encouraging everyone to embrace the power of prayer in their lives, within the Church, and for the world.  The Jubilee, in the Catholic tradition, is a special year of grace and forgiveness celebrated every 25 years.

Pope Francis has asked us to focus this year on the importance of prayer in our lives. The Pope is also asking for prayers for unity among Christians and for peace in places like Ukraine and Israel, stressing the importance of peace, especially for children who suffer the most in conflicts.

As a school, this year will have a strong focus on providing prayerful experiences for our students, just as the Pope has asked us to do.

Other Important Term 1 Dates

• Tuesday 27 February - Incitare (Inch-a-tar-ee) for selected Year 6 students at Tullera Hall
• Friday 1 March - Student of the Month Assembly
• Friday 8 March - Three Sixteen Youth Group
• Saturday 16 March - School Family Mass 6.00pm in the church
• Friday 22 March - Three Sixteen Youth Group
• Sunday 24 to Saturday 30 March - Holy Week
• Sunday 31 March - Easter Sunday
• Thursday 11 April - Student of the Month Assembly

Friday Church Visits
At SMP, our students are very lucky to be so close in proximity to our parish church. Not all schools have this privilege. As a school community our students have the opportunity to celebrate a Liturgy of Word and/or Prayer Service once or twice each term in the church. We warmly invite all family members to join us with our Friday church visits during Term 1:

• 23/2 @ 1.00pm - Years 1, 2 & 3
• 8/3 @ 1.00pm - Years 4 & 5
• 22/3 @ 1.00pm - Kinder & Year 6
• 27/3 - Holy Week prayer services ~ Kinder, Years 1, 2 & 3 @ 1.00pm ~ Years 4, 5 & 6 @ 2:10pm

Ash Wednesday
On 14 February, our whole school will celebrate Ash Wednesday in the church. 

What is Ash Wednesday?

• Ash Wednesday is the first day in the liturgical season of Lent.
• It is the day when Christians receive ashes on their forehead as a sign of remorse.
• The day before Lent is known as Shrove Tuesday, the word 'Shrove' meaning 'to be sorry'. Another name for this day is ‘Pancake Tuesday’

What is Lent?

• Lent is the liturgical season of the Church year leading to Easter that lasts for 40 days. 
• It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on the night before Easter (Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday).
• Lent is a time during which we perform acts of kindness, practise generosity and make a special effort to grow closer to Jesus.

Did You Know?

• Catholics abstain from eating meat on Ash Wednesday and every Friday during Lent. Our school canteen will have a separate menu for Ash Wednesday to follow this.

How it will look for us this year:

• 10:15am - Years 1-6 celebrate a Liturgy of the Word in the church 
• 2:15pm - Kindergarten will celebrate a very short prayer service with Fr Peter in the church

All parents and family members are welcome to come along and celebrate Ash Wednesday in the church with us.

Colour House Shirts
Colour House Sports Shirts ($27.95) will now be available for purchase through local retailer, Incy Wincy Kids. Due to a shipping hold up, they are not quite ready to be purchased as of yet. These are not compulsory, purely optional for those that would like this shirt for sports carnivals.

Once they become available, they will be able to be purchased online or in their Casino or Lismore shops.

We will let everyone know when they have arrived.

Behaviour Level System
At SMP, we have very high expectations on student behaviour and place a lot of emphasis on this. With this in mind, we also do know that kids will make mistakes and require further support in this area at times. Our number 1 approach to ‘behaviour management’ in the school is through proactive strategies that make the greatest impact, most notably, building strong, supportive and trusting relationships with our students. 

This year, we have introduced a new ‘Behaviour Level System’ in the school. At times, some students may find it difficult to be engaged in their learning in class or facing challenges on the playground and need further support with this. This is what our new system roughly looks like:

Sam Irvine
AP Mission

Assistant Principal's News Teaching & Learning

Success Criteria Reports
Your blank Success Criteria reports will be coming home this week for you to see what your child is learning at SMP this term. These reports are broken into Reading, Writing, and Number and outline what your child will be able to do by the end of the term if they are achieving grade expectations. 

These reports are also a wonderful tool for supporting learning conversations with your child and offering them home learning opportunities, linked to what they are being taught at school.

I have attached a video to guide you through these reports.

If you do not receive your child's Success Criteria Report and would like one emailed to you, please email me at felicity.wilde@lism.catholic.edu.au and I will have it sent to you.

Explicit/Direct Instruction
We have had an incredible start to 2024 with both our teachers and students taking on a new way of learning at SMP. Research has repeatedly shown that direct, explicit instruction is one of the most effective ways for students to learn. We have therefore begun the implementation of some Direct Instruction and Explicit Direct Instruction programs across SMP. The whole school is taking on an Explicit, Direct Instruction program for Maths called Ochre Maths. This is a program developed by highly successful educators from across the country which scaffolds students through the introduction of new learning whilst regularly reviewing what they have already learned to develop mastery. I am already seeing a greater level of confidence in our students in the maths classroom as a result of the structures included in this program. For those wanting to learn more about Ochre Maths or see what the program looks like there are some great Parent FAQs on the website- https://ochre.org.au/ochre-for-parents/parent-faq/

Kinder and Stage 1 English- Our infants students will continue to follow the direct instruction program InitiaLit for their English program. This was introduced across the infants' classrooms last year and we have already seen a marked improvement in student results in reading as a result. InitiaLit is a three-year program, covering the first three years of school. Some students, who did not receive Intialit in their first years of school and need some consolidation with this learning are finishing the program in their Year 3 classroom. If your child is doing this, you will receive a note from their class teacher this week. 

Stage 2 English- Our Stage 2 classes are implementing the Reading Mastery Program for their English block this year. This program is aligned with the Science of Reading and covers all outcomes of the NSW Syllabus using a Direct Instruction format, similar to that of InitaLit. After seeing the great success our infants students had with the IntiaLit program, we wanted to replicate this and continue this success throughout the older years. We witnessed Reading Mastery in action across a number of schools in the Canberra Goulburn Diocese on our visit there last year and were impressed with the students' engagement and results. We look forward to our students feeling successful whilst improving their English skills through the introduction of the program. 

Stage 3 English- Stage 3 is introducing a Direct Instruction approach to their Spelling this year. This means all students in Stage 3 have completed a placement test to identify their personal needs in spelling and have been grouped according to these needs. The placement tests allow the teachers to identify exactly where each child is in their spelling and what they need to move to the next level. This may mean that your child moves to different groups during the spelling block so they can work with students at a similar level to assist them in reaching mastery in this area. The rest of the English block will be completed in the student's own class and all classes will follow the same level Explicit Instruction program, also from Ochre. This follows a similar structure to maths in that it scaffolds students through the introduction of new information whilst regularly reviewing previously taught matter. These programs are based on a new novel each term and this term Year 6 are reading "Rivet Boy" by Barbara Henderson and Year 5 are studying "War Horse" by Michael Morpurgo.

If you have any questions about any of the programs we are introducing this year, please do not hesitate to contact me at felicity.wilde@lism.catholic.edu.au

Felicity Wilde
AP Teaching & Learning

Sport News

Welcome back to a new school year! I hope you all had a lovely break and ready for a great year of sport at SMP in 2024. The sports days for each grade level for 2024 are as follows (this is the day your child will wear their sports uniform):

Kindergarten - Wednesday

Year One - Wednesday

Year Two - Thursday

Year Three - Friday

Year Four - Thursday

Year 5 - Tuesday

Year 6 - Tuesday

Running Club 2024
During Term 1, all students have the opportunity to participate in the school's Running Club, which operates on Tuesday and Thursday mornings starting in Week 3, Tuesday 13 February from 8:30 am to 8:50 am.  The Running Club welcomes students of all athletic abilities. Students may change into their colored house shirts or running attire at school.

Nikki Hammond
Leader of Sport

Birthdays

Happy birthday t0 Elliot Shirm Paislee Webster Charlotte Cooper Ryder Hammond Sophie Fraser Genevieve Makejev Harrison Gill Ace Barton Bella-Rose Smithson Ella Convine Olive Berry Nina Handran  Alex Handran Liam Sullivan Chelsea Cruickshank Edward Shields Benjamin Urand Reece Gay Hope Gollan Isabel de Wit Charlie Wu Sophie Leadley Gracyn Ind Bryce Bunker Joel Dean Isabelle Rose Keira Smith Charlee Gould Marcus Lickiss Isabel Flynn Layla Maroney Thomas Shelton Van Johnston Connor Gillespie Olive Chelman Sara Cole Tristan Allen-Preece Olivia Rayner Milton Summers Ellie Churchill Jordan Lickiss Kira Green Mila Roberson Nathaniel Rollon Ryder Birney Aaliyah West Henry Simpson Koa Pilling Chloe King Eyla-May Burnie Frejya Love and Oliver Convine who celebrated their birthday in January.

Happy birthday t0 Zian Rollon Mollie Gill Nate Pratt Elsie Hardwick Nash Irvine Finlay Couchman Ariana Delaney Ava Turner Arlo Johnston Emity Hannah Shayla White Sierra Anderson Amity Hale Rhys Benn Tilly Taylor Sophie Armfield Nate McAlister and Sophia Thomson, who have recently celebrated their birthday, and to Kyra Clarke Allirah King who celebrate tomorrow.