Dear Parents and Carers,

In 2023, St Mary’s is implementing a school wide approach called High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) from the Catalyst project created by Catholic Education, Canberra & Goulburn. HITP is focused on applying researched practices on how the human brain retains information. A major component of this approach is direct instruction. In 2022, three teachers successfully implemented this approach into their teaching and learning practices and tomorrow’s pupil free day will be utilised to upskill the remainder of our teachers in the pedagogy.

This year St Mary’s will implement several programs to support teachers to embed the approach into their classroom practices.

• InitiaLit (English program from Kinder to Year 2)
• Connecting Maths Concepts (Mathematics program from Kinder to Year 6)
• Spelling Mastery (Spelling program from Year 3 to Year 6)

InitiaLit is an evidence-based whole-class literacy program providing all children with the essential core knowledge and strong foundations to become successful readers and writers. The system focuses on two areas, phonics to systematically and explicitly teach the basic and advanced alphabetic code in a set sequence, and vocabulary through oral language and listening comprehension aided by quality children’s literature.

Connecting Math Concepts introduces ideas gradually and teaches students the connections between concepts. Focusing on big ideas in mathematics, the program teaches explicit strategies that enable students to master challenging concepts such as ratios, proportions, probability, functions and data analysis. Detailed explanations and guided practice enable students to progress toward independent work, helping them to achieve success and become confident mathematical thinkers.

With Connecting Math Concepts, all concepts are learned and assimilated through use. The program presents new concepts incrementally, extending them into subsequent lessons. Students move forward in small steps, learning and applying a variety of topics in each lesson. Students learn and remember more, in less time, developing the depth of understanding required for advanced mathematics. At St Mary’s the program will be implemented in the current class groups.

Spelling Mastery is a six-level Direct Instruction series that teaches students dependable spelling skills by blending three approaches: the phonemic approach, the whole word approach and the morphemic approach. Each approach has advantages and possible disadvantages. Spelling Mastery is designed to maximise the advantages of each approach and minimise the disadvantages. The program uses a placement test to understand student’s knowledge of spelling and to provide a starting point in the program. At St Mary’s students from Years 3 to 6 will be placed in appropriate groups for their knowledge of spelling. Progress monitoring is completed during the teaching of the program and students may move between groups as their spelling improves.

I am very excited about this approach in education and I am looking forward to see the growth of our students. If you have any questions about the pedagogy and the programs we are implementing please don’t hesitate to contact the school for further information.

Kind Regards,

Phil Nielsen

Building Character & Resilience Program 

Starting this Friday students will be placed into different groups made up of students from Year 6 to Kinder. They will come together to be introduced to a new 'character virtue' or 'good habit' through the Building Character & Resilience Program. This will provide students with practical and helpful knowledge to help them grow into kind but strong personalities. The aim of this program is to enable students to thrive in adversity with the ability to make positive contributions to the world around them.

Within the groups they will be provided with a simple explanation of the 'character virtue' or 'good habit' and with a practical example of how students can practice it day to day. Over the course of the year, the Building Character & Resilience Program will introduce students to 48 good habits or virtues in one of four core areas of character:

• Respect and Responsibility
• Sound Judgement
• Self-Mastery
• Courage and Strength

   

Opening School Mass

Thursday 2nd March 2023

12 pm

  We are celebrating our whole school Opening Mass on Thursday the 2nd of March at 12pm. Our Year 6 leaders will be inducted at this mass.

If you are a Year 6 parent and you will not have a family member attending the mass, could you please let the school know so a staff member can be with your child during the badge ceremony.

All students attend this Mass and all our parents and carers are warmly invited to attend.

Thank you to the parents who helped at our swimming carnival last Friday night as well as on Thursday morning for the long distance races.

Thank you to L&R Group who manage the pool for the wonderful staff led by Lydia White.

Thank you to our Community Council and their band of helpers who provided the lovely BBQ.

Finally a super special thank you to Alison Seaman who setup and ran our carnival on the West Wyalong Swim Club computer system. This was a wonderful improvement for our timers and saved a lot of worry.

    

Parents of Kinder students are reminded that there are three more rest days - Wednesday the 15th and 22nd of February and finally the 1st of March.

Our Kinder students get very tired and this break will help them to remain keen and focused.

We remind our parents to logon with SeeSaw using the information provided by your teacher.

SeeSaw is used extensively by teachers to contact parents and distribute information.

Students are moved automatically each year to their new class.

Please contact your class teacher or the school if you require any assistance or you are not able to see your child's class messages in SeeSaw.

There is parking in the church carpark and on Church Street for dropping off and picking up children.

Children who walk or ride to school may use the crossing on England Street as required but then must enter the school through the bus stop area.

The following events are in the calendar in the next few weeks.

The Compass Calendar is updated to show Mass times, sporting events, important events.

The SZAPP calendar is no longer updated, please do not refer to this calendar for important dates.

Day	Event	Location
Wednesday 8 February	Kinder Rest Day and Best Start Testing
	School Counsellor Visit	At school
Friday 10 Februray @ 5.00pm	School Twilight Swimming Carnival	Holland Park Pool
Tuesday 14 February	Pupil Free Day
Wednesday 15 February	Kinder Rest Day and Best Start Testing
	MacKillop Touch Trials For athletes who qualified.	Sydney
	School Counsellor Visit	At school
Tuesday 21 February	CG AFL Trials. For athletes who nominated only.	Wollongong
Wednesday 22 February	Kinder Rest Day and Best Start Testing
	Ash Wednesday Mass @ 10am	St Mary's Church
	School Counsellor Visit	At school
Thursday 23 February	Western Region Swimming For athletes who qualified only.	Young
Friday 24 February	MacKillop Basketball Trials For athletes who qualified.	TBA