Term 4: Week 8
End of Year Mass Thurs 5th 1.30pm
Family Christmas Festival Thurs 5th 4.30pm-6pm
Year 6 Graduation Wed 11th
Principal Message….
Dear SFA Community,
As we enter the final weeks of the school year, there is much to celebrate and look forward to in our wonderful school community.
This week, we reviewed student achievements and celebrated their progress over the year. We have had some outstanding results.
The data shows exciting growth this year:
In Mathematics: We have had the highest growth in years, bringing us within 1 point of the Australian norm.
Reading: For the first time, our students' average scores are now above the Australian average, showing massive growth this year! (check out the graph below with our result)
These results reflect the hard work of our students and the dedication of our staff, who have implemented explicit teaching practices. I cannot praise our teaching staff enough for the amount of hours they have put into refining their teaching skills and planning explicit lessons for our students. It’s wonderful to see their efforts making a real difference in student outcomes.
More congratulations go to our students who have won Korean Awards this year through our partnership with the Korean Education Centre. These awards recognise their hard work in learning the Korean language and culture. We are very proud of their achievements!
I am delighted to remind you that our End-of-Year Mass will take place on Thursday, December 5th, at 1:30 pm all are welcomed. This is a significant event to reflect on the year and give thanks as a school community. Following the Mass, we invite everyone to join us for the PIP Christmas Family Festival from 4.30pm, a joyful celebration filled with festive activities and community spirit. (Please see the flyer below for more details)
Meanwhile, our Year 5 students are in the process of choosing next year’s School Captains. We have been impressed by the quality of candidates, a testament to the dedicated teaching team in the Year 5 space who have worked hard to shape these young leaders. I commend all the students for stepping forward with courage and enthusiasm, and I look forward to seeing who are our successful candidates and seeing their leadership flourish.
Please look out for a special edition newsletter in the coming weeks, where we will proudly announce our School Captains for 2025, along with the teaching teams and staff for next year.
Thank you for your ongoing support as we approach the end of another successful school year.
Take care, Michelle
Celebrating our amazing Student Data and Teacher Dedication
This week, we worked with staff to analyse and celebrate students' achievements over the year. One data source we analysed is our students' achievement on the ACER Progressive Achievement Test (PAT). This standardised test allows us to compare the achievements of our students to those of other students in Australia through a norm score. This week, we looked at the mean score of each year level and calculated how many points it was away from the Australian mean for that year level. When this was averaged out, we were able to create this graph. The zero line is the Australian norm.
Looking at the yellow line, we can see that our school's performance in Mathematics hovered between 4 and 5 points below the norm from 2020 to 2023 but increased dramatically in 2024 to now sit less than 1 point away from the Australian average. The blue line indicating Reading also shows sharp growth this year, lifting our average above the Australian average for the first time!
We are incredibly proud of the achievements of our students this year. We are also proud of the efforts of every one of our staff who have worked tirelessly to implement different teaching practices this year. This data, and other information we have been collecting, is good evidence that the direct and explicit instruction we have used in our teaching this year is dramatically impacting student achievement.
🇰🇷Korean Awards 🇰🇷
We are thrilled to celebrate the remarkable achievements of our students in our LOTE program, made possible through our partnership with the Korean Education Centre. These students have shown exceptional passion and dedication in learning the Korean language.
Throughout the year, they have exemplified our SFA learning dispositions by being courageous, self-directed learners and striving for mastery in their Korean studies. Congratulations to the following students for their hard work and enthusiasm! Each recipient has been awarded a certificate and a gift card in recognition of their accomplishments.
Congratulations to our Korean award recipients:
Year 4: Chloe, Shreya, Cooper, and Shiven
Year 5: Jasmaih, Sienna, and Ethan
Year 6: Alfred, Melina, and Eryka
School Captain Journey
Year 5 students have begun the exciting process of student leadership this term. All interested students first applied through a written letter. The successful candidates for School Captains then had interviews with our Principal, Michelle, and Deputy Principals, Tom and Simone. From there, we were left with 8 candidates.
On Wednesday of this week, these candidates gave their speeches to the Year 5 students, teachers and school leaders. Next week, we will have potential candidates give their speeches for Sports Captains, Community and Faith Leaders & ICT Leaders. We wish all leadership candidates the best of luck while the votes are being counted and congratulate them all for their efforts during this process.
Year 3 Gruffalo Excursion
On the 21st of November, Year 3 students attended The Gruffalo musical, an unforgettable experience! The much-loved story came to life on stage with clever costumes, lively music, and engaging performances.
The interactive show had everyone joining in chants, clapping, and singing along with the characters. Students loved watching the mouse outwit the animals and the Gruffalo himself. It was a joyful day, and the students were still buzzing with excitement and humming the songs as we returned to school.
Year 1 Animal Land Excursion
On Monday, November 11th, our Year 1 community went on an exciting excursion to Animal Land! They had so much fun learning about different animals and trying new things.
First, everyone got to milk a real cow! It was a bit tricky at first, but with the help of the friendly farmer, they managed to get some milk into the bucket. We even got to taste some fresh butter on crackers at lunch time!
After milking the cows, we went for a ride on a pony. It was so gentle and slow, and we felt like real cowboys and cowgirls. We also went on a tractor ride around the farm. It was bumpy and noisy, but we loved seeing the different animals and the beautiful countryside.
The highlight of the day was visiting the baby animal nursery. We saw tiny guinea pigs, fluffy chicks, and adorable rabbits. We were so gentle and careful when we held them, and we didn't want to let them go!
We had such a wonderful day at Animal Land. We learned a lot about animals and farming, and we made some great memories that we will never forget.
New Roblox Controls
Last week, Roblox enabled new parental controls designed to give parents more control over their child's experience on the platform.
These controls allow parents to:
○View their child's friends list.
○Set daily screen time limits.
○Adjust chat settings.
○Review content maturity settings based on four categories (minimal, mild, moderate, and restricted).
○ Manage monthly spending limits.
These parental controls are a step in the right direction, but they don't completely eliminate the need for parental monitoring and supervision.
It is important to know that the content in Roblox apps is only categorised by the level of blood and violence in each game. Games with sexual themes are not filtered by Roblox categories and your child may still wander into a game that involves sexual content.
The only real way to ensure your child is safe on Roblox is to communicate openly and honestly with your children about online safety, including the risks of interacting with strangers and sharing personal information, and to closely monitor their play.
To find out more about how to use the new Roblox Parental Controls see here.
5 Features of Families That Stick Together
By: Michael Grose
Strong families have a number of things in common.
1.They may fight hard but they also love each other hard.
Siblings will stick together when the chips are down. They are also loyal to each other. They will defend a sibling if someone at school hurts them. A sibling may do or say the same rotten thing that someone at school said or did but you are allowed to. They aren’t siblings.
2.There is a code of conduct for fighting and conflict resolution. There are rules such as "no put downs"; "no hitting" (or at least no hitting where it really hurts) and "It’s not fun if one child says it’s not".
3.Strong families work on this premise –there is nothing so bad we can’t talk about. Certain actions such as hitting are banned but kids are able to let the bad feelings out when emotions run high. “I hate that ?*&&^^ sod of a brother!” Sometimes you’ve got to let the bad feelings out before good feelings will emerge.
4. Kids ask for what they want. The biggest thing we learn through fighting is to develop our adult voice. That is the voice of reason and logic. The child voice is the whiny, it’s-not-fair voice. The parent voice is the aggressive or angry voice. Teach your kids to ask for what they want so they discover their adult voice.
5. Kids compromise when they disagree. The default mechanism for children’s disagreements is compromise. “You can use this toy today, and I’ll use it tomorrow" is an example of the type of compromise that kids work out for themselves in strong families.
There are plenty of other things strong families have in common including sharing time together. But this is a good list to start.
How does your family measure up?
ADVENT ANGELS 2024
Advent Angels are back for 2024! Only $3 each! Online sales will open on Saturday 16th November.
Please View Here to see this year’s variety. Get in early and Order Here for your selection online.
Online purchases may be collected at all weekend masses at St James church from 23rd/24th November until 14th/15th December.
Advent Angels and other items will also be available for sale at St James church at all weekend masses on 23th/24th November.
This year all money raised will be donated towards Bishop Giovanni Cefai’s Mssp mission in Peru. Please support this initiative and help make a difference.
