St Joseph’s Primary School, Red Cliffs

Newsletter 17

Term 2, Week 9

13th June 2017

Phone: (03) 5024 1654 Fax: (03) 5024 2042

Principal: Mark Gibson

email: admin@sjredcliffs.catholic.edu.au

Web: www.sjredcliffs.catholic.edu.au

Address:17 Fitzroy Avenue, Red Cliffs, 3496.

Page 1 School Vision: As partners collaboratively educating our students to ensure they learn at high levels,

we are inspired by Christ and our Catholic Faith & Tradition as we pursue fullness of life for all.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Dear Parents, Our MAJOR RAFFLE is due to be drawn in two weeks. At this stage our tickets returned are only covering expenses for prizes. Please be returning books and trying to sell as many tickets as possible. The money raised is going towards an exciting new nature based playground. I hope everyone had a relaxing and enjoyable Queen’s Birthday long weekend. Congratulations to Cooper Germane and Ellesciah Romeo who represented the district at the zone cross country in St Arnaud last Tuesday. Cooper placed 61st and Ellesciah 44th from the many competitors. Well done to our fabulous school band who finished in first place in their section at the Mildura Eisteddfod last Wednesday. The students presented themselves fantastically and had the audience rocking. Many thanks to Ms Leamon for her commitment to the children. Well done also to the children who have made a huge commitment to being a part of this band outside of school hours. Report formats are changing in 2017 and we plan to have an Information Session/Classroom Visit on Thursday 22nd June from 5-6pm. It would be great to have all parents and students present. Students will have an opportunity to share with parents their Learning Portfolios from semester one. The Senior and Junior School Choir are continuing to prepare for the Eisteddfod on Monday 19th June. Details are outlined later in the newsletter. Parents are welcome to attend. On Friday our Grade 4-6 students will be enjoying the Lightning Premiership at Quandong Park, participating in hockey, soccer, football and netball. Our teams have been made up with a combination of students from Werrimull, Nangiloc and Sunnycliffs and St Mary’s Robinvale. Thanks to Mrs Tiller for co-ordinating the Netball on behalf of our school. The School Advisory Council will be meeting tonight as we have a combined meeting with the other Catholic schools in Sunraysia. This will also see the launch of our second edition of the Sunraysia Partnership Council Brochure. All our school families will be receiving a copy. Grade 6 students have secondary college experiences this week. All Grade 6 students are invited to participate in a whole day school visit to St Joseph’s College (SJC) tomorrow. Children wanting to attend need to be at school by 8.20am to catch a bus into SJC. The bus will return at 3.10pm. Ms Lees and Kyah Keogh will be attending with the students. On Thursday Grade 6 students are invited to Red Cliffs Secondary College from 9.30am-11.30am and will be walked over by our staff. We are sorry about the change of days but we were only informed of this by reading the weekend’s newspaper. Further details are in the note being sent home today. Hopefully children are confident in their choice of Secondary College after these experiences. At this Friday’s Assembly at 2.50pm we will get a chance see the Senior Choir performing in preparation for the Eisteddfod.

Mark Gibson

School Calendar

The following dates are scheduled for the near future. Make sure you are aware of the ones that are applicable to you.

JUNE Wed 14 St Joseph’s College Gr 6

Orientation Day Thur 15 Red Cliffs Secondary College

Gr 6 visit 9.30-11.30am Fri 16 Gr 4-6 Winter School Sports Mon 19 Choir Performance – Mildura

Eisteddfod Tue 20 PSG Meetings Wed 21 PSG Meetings Thu 22 Parent Information

Session/Classroom Visit – Student Reports 5pm – 6pm

Fri 23 Mass for the Needy 10am Fri 30 Last Day Term 2 (2.20pm finish)

JULY Mon 17 First Day Term 3 Fri 28 Grandparent’s Day

AUGUST Fri 11 Book Week Disco 7-9pm Mon 14 Parent Teacher Interviews Fri 25 School Athletics Carnival

2017 School Closure Days

The following dates are confirmed as school closure days. No school will occur on these days.

6th November – Report Writing Day

The following students/staff celebrate birthdays over the next week.

No birthdays this week

Page 2 School Vision: As partners collaboratively educating our students to ensure they learn at high levels,

we are inspired by Christ and our Catholic Faith & Tradition as we pursue fullness of life for all.

RE & PARISH NEWS On Friday June 23, we will celebrate our annual Mass for the Needy at 10am. Prior to the Mass students are encouraged to donate non-perishable food items (those in packets, bottles and tins), warm blankets or clothes. There will be baskets in each classroom for children to drop their items into. These donations are always gratefully accepted by our Red Cliffs charter of the St Vincent De Paul Society. All community members are welcome to attend our Mass.

GENERAL NEWS & UPDATES Breakfast Club Roster: Tuesday - Sara Napoli, Wednesday - Jodie Pascoe, Thursday - Christina Everett, Friday - Fiona Diamantis.

Student Reporting - Teachers are in the process of compiling the Students’ Reports. Report formats are changing in 2017 and we plan to have a Parent Information Session on Thursday 22nd June from 5-6pm. As part of this meeting, parents will be able to collect their student’s report and have an opportunity to look at their Portfolio which is a new part of the reporting process. Our ‘Parent & Teacher Meetings’ will occur in Term Three on Monday 14th August where we will reflect on the student’s portfolio, student report and future learning goals.

Mildura Eisteddfod - Our Junior and Senior Choirs will again be performing at this year’s Eisteddfod on Monday, June 19th at the St Joseph’s Stadium. The Junior Choir section will begin at 10am and the Senior Choir performs later in the morning. Students from Prep-2 will travel in by bus at 9:15am. The Senior Choir will leave at 10:30am with the Junior Choir returning back to school at the completion of their sections and Senior Choir students will travel back after the final performance in their section. Students involved will need to pack a water bottle, recess and brainfood for the day. This is a special event for our students and we invite all parents available, to come along and celebrate the student’s efforts. Tickets are available at the Stadium at $6/session or $15/day. We apologise for the mix up with dates on the calendar - both choirs will be performing on Monday the 19th of June. Full school uniform required with Bomber Jacket is to be worn.

PSG Meetings: For our funded students who need to attend PSG meetings will be held on Tuesday 20th and Wednesday 21st. Meeting times have been arranged and are being sent home with the newsletter today. Please contact Janice Divola if you need to negotiate a different time to the one you have been allocated.

Annual Report to the School Community - As a part of the School Compliance Reporting Requirements, we are mandated to provide an Annual Report to the School Community on the previous school year (2016). The report has been completed and can be viewed at www.sjredcliffs.catholic.edu.au the St Joseph’s website. Hard copies may also be obtained from the school office.

Sporting Schools Soccer- Last Thursday students participated in their final soccer session with Chris from Melbourne City FC. Each class was involved in a mini World Cup with students divided into four teams. Two teams played each other while winning teams played in the final. Students had a great time and Chris was impressed with the improvement of the students’ skills over the 4-week period.

Notes Distributed

The following notices have been distributed over the last week. If you missed them, copies are available from the school office.

Prep/1 No notes sent home Grade 2/3 No notes sent home

Grade 4/5 8/6/17 Week 8 sporting information Grade 5/6 8/6/17 Week 8 sporting information 13/6/17 Gr 6’s – Secondary college

experiences Whole School No notes sent home

St Joseph’s Passive Play

Here at St Joseph’s Primary we offer a structured, supported environment every lunchtime for our students. Those students who choose to come to Passive Play can select from a varied assortment of equipment and activities that have been set up by the supervising staff. The students can actively play within a group or independently. For some students it gives them the time and structure to observe and listen before beginning an activity of their choice. We always provide a large range of equipment and activities to meet the children’s needs to the best of our ability. These activities are changed on a regular basis so the children have something new and exciting to work with on their lunchbreak. Passive play actively encourages those children who prefer a quieter less active break to form friendships based on interests and likes, it encourages them to share and take turns and often gives them the down time doing something they love.

Page 3 School Vision: As partners collaboratively educating our students to ensure they learn at high levels,

we are inspired by Christ and our Catholic Faith & Tradition as we pursue fullness of life for all.

JUNIOR UNIT NEWS & UPDATES

Congratulations to Charli, Connie, Cheltzie and Christina for reaching 100 nights of reading!

Mrs Needham has now set up the challenge boards in the library for the children’s borrowing. As always, please feel welcome to call into the library each Tuesday morning and peruse all the wonderful books we have for the children to borrow.

ON DEMAND TESTING: Year 3’s will be participating in the online assessment tool for reading and mathematics during this week. It’s wonderful to see the excellent attitude towards their learning!

We would like to encourage parents from the Junior Unit to read picture story books with your children in support of our Author Study Inquiry. To help out with this activity, please remember that the Library is open before school on a Tuesday morning from 8:30 - 9:00am and you are welcome to come in with the children and borrow books, or even take some time to read a book with your child in the warmth of the library!

SENIOR UNIT NEWS & UPDATES Last week students blew Mrs Hawkes and Mrs Manuel away with their brilliant commitment to home reading tasks. We were so proud of you all in taking risks and making your reading meaningful. It was also a joy to hear how many students used this opportunity to learn with their parents in cooking and crafts.

We congratulate Ellesciah and Cooper on their participation in the Cross Country at St Arnaud, as well as commend the wonderful performance of our Marimba Band at the Eisteddfod. Special mention also to Luke, who this week earned the Grey Wolf Award and badge in Scouts. This is a special honour with Luke being the only recipient in Red Cliffs, ever, to receive the accolade. What a brilliant demonstration of commitment and effort! What a showcase of our talents this past week! Senior students are rocking term 2! It’s a very busy week sporting-wise with Lightning Premiership practice Tuesday, PE Thursday and Lightning Premiership competition Friday. We wish all students the best of luck. A separate note regarding sports uniform was sent home last Thursday.

Term 2 Week 6:

No. of students who reached individual target

Prep/1W 17/19 Grade 2/3F 22/22 Grade 4/5M 20/20 Grade 5/6H 19/22

The following students won awards last week: Grade Prep/1W - Jye- for working hard on tens and ones during Maths time. Grade 2/3 F - Hayley - for wonderful artwork. Grade 4/5M - Gabriella S - for the wonderful way she conducted herself at leading singing in Church. Grade 5/6H - Christian- for listening to feedback and working hard to improve. Music - Marimba Band- for their commitment and dedication at every rehearsal and for giving their best during their performance at the Mildura Eisteddfod! P.E.- Shae Martin- for demonstrating impressive improvement in his soccer skills during our ‘World Cup.’ Digital Tech.- Grace K- for her understanding of computer systems.

Everyone has the Right to be treated in a friendly and caring manner Junior Unit Hiva- for helping others to clean up. Senior Unit Abby - for being helpful to others in their learning.

Page 4 School Vision: As partners collaboratively educating our students to ensure they learn at high levels,

we are inspired by Christ and our Catholic Faith & Tradition as we pursue fullness of life for all.

Fair Funding for Catholic Schools

Government funding cuts to students with disability Today, over 10,000 students with disability are educated in Catholic schools across Victoria.

Government funding support is critical for our schools to meet the individual needs of these. In 2011, the Gonski Review recognised this when it recommended that students with disability be funded through a

loading that should be matched to the needs of each individual student. Until this measure could be established, the Gonski Panel recommended that all students with disability were funded at the same rate.

While all students with disability receive the same loading from the Australian Government, within Catholic

education, we differentiate the funding support provided to students based on our own assessment of each student’s needs. This system is considered to work well.

The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) trial was established to come up with a standardised definition of students with disability that could be used to

compare spending and support in all states and territories.

The collection relies on surveys filled out by school principals and teachers, not assessment by medical professionals.

Under the NCCD there has been a significant increase in the number of students considered to have a

disability. Initial analysis of the NCCD showed that some schools were over estimating the needs of some

students with disability. In addition, as students are only counted in the NCCD if they are receiving an ‘adjustment’ for a disability, it appears this is favouring the wealthier schools which can afford to make

individual adjustments to meet all the needs of their students.

School leaders and disability support groups, including Autism Support Australia, have said that the data is unreliable. Even the Education Minister said in December that the NCCD was flawed and that ‘This data …

hasn't come to a credible landing point just yet.’

So, why is this important?

On 2 May, the Turnbull Government announced that it will use NCCD from next year to determine how

students with disability will be funded by the Australian Government.

This might have been all right, if the total amount of federal funding available to students with disability was to grow, but this will not be the case for Catholic education.

Under the Government’s proposal, more students will be classified as having a disability but, in most cases, they will attract less funding to Catholic education.

This means that most students who are currently funded for their disability will receive less money from the

government.

Based on the current data, the total funding provided to Catholic school students with disability will be 17% lower over the next 10 years.

It beggars belief that some of the nation’s students who are in most need of funding support are going to be disadvantaged because of the Turnbull Government’s decision to use a funding calculation for students

with disability which its own Education Minister says is not credible.