From The Princpal
Dear Parents, Students, Staff and Friends of Nativity School,
Our student leaders are currently encouraging our community to collect bread tags. The tags are recycled locally, raising funds to buy wheelchairs for disadvantaged people, currently in South Africa. This student lead initiative reminds us of Mary MacKillop and is therefore connected to the Josephite tradition of our school. Mary’s legacy of compassion has inspired our students to help others especially those less fortunate than ourselves and in Mary’s words, “Never see a need without doing something about it,” It is also closely connected to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato si’ and taking better care of our earth through recycling. Please send in your bread tags for this great initiative!
Last week the Year 5,6 and 7 students attended a Cyber Safe workshop with Cyber Safe Families. It is critical that our children have the skills and understandings to safely and effectively navigate their way around their digital environment with confidence. The workshop addressed Cyberbullying, digital footprint, social media, protecting online identity and who can help you when you need it. Cyber Safe families also offer services to families in their own home if they are experiencing difficulty with home internet safety, would like information on how to support their children online or require urgent assistance with online matters. Here is the link to their website: https://cybersafefamilies.com.au/ which also has many free fact sheets on topics of interest as you navigate the digital world with your children.
Teachers have been finalising grades and writing reports for Semester 1. These progress reports will be distributed on Monday of week 10 as a part of our assessment and reporting cycle. Report comments in both English and Mathematics will be written to The Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards. Achievement Standards refer to the quality of learning (the depth of understanding, extent of knowledge and sophistication of skill) demonstrated by students within a given subject.
Student reports can bring mixed feelings for parents. Pleasure and pride if your child is doing well but considerable angst when children are not progressing as you hoped. Reports can mean anxious times for children too. Will my parents be disappointed or proud? Students of all ages take their cues from their parents, so your reaction to their school report can affect the way they see themselves as learners and as people. Try to focus on your child’s strengths and effort and attitude to learning as well as taking time to have a conversation with your child about their learning. As always, if you have any concerns about learning please make a time to see your child’s teacher.
Currently, our staff, led by Angela Pike are collating information on student learning adjustments using the SEQTA learning portal. Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).
Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:
• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.
This information assists schools to:
• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.
The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.
The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information.
Lastly, the year 1 and 2 students are visiting the Adelaide Zoo on Friday to deepen their learning on Biological Sciences and Living things. Many thanks to all the staff and parent volunteers that are attending this excursion and joining in the learning.
God Bless,
Erika
