Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It is hard to believe that we are approaching the end of Term 1 already!  We have so much happening behind the scenes and it is exciting to see it all come together – with plenty more to come!

NAPLAN

Our NAPLAN window has officially closed, and we congratulate our Year 3 and 5 students who completed the tests.  A special mention to our Year 3 students who engaged with this for the first time.  It was great to see them excited to give it a go, as well as persisting through any issues that arose.  A NAPLAN individual student report will be provided later in the year. We will contact you once we receive these with some further information on how to interpret this.

ST JOSEPH’S KINGSWOOD STRETCH PROGRAM

As mentioned at the parent information evening, we have been spending quite a bit of time in the background developing and expanding our STRETCH program.  The aim of this is to provide multiple opportunities for our students to be extended and challenged across a range of disciplines. Included in this has been ongoing professional learning for staff with focus on assessment and curriculum planning and ensuring an increase in complexity of tasks and assessments within the classroom. To assist with this, we have involved some key personnel on staff, as well as from the Catholic Education Office:

Key Knowledgeable Others:

Kirsten Maycock: System Coach: Gifted Education (Formerly Innovation and Enrichment Coordinator at St. Dominic’s College)

Brooke Hopkins: System Coach: Assessment and Curriculum Planning, working alongside Vanessa and other staff members on a fortnightly basis.

Kate Mueller: Lead Teacher Gifted Education

As a part of this initiative we have also developed some small group opportunities for students to excel. As mentioned in my previous newsletter we have joined the Science Oliphant Awards for the first time.  Further information regarding this can be found on SZapp but be quick as registrations close at the end of Week 11.  In addition to this we are excited to announce the following:

STEM MAD IS BACK!

Our school will be participating in STEM MAD (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths Make A Difference) again this year, a project which is endorsed by Catholic Education.  The focus of the program is to participate in the STEM MAD Showcase in August for identified students from grades 3-6. This showcase is designed to acknowledge and promote STEM learning initiatives that address real-world problems and demonstrate how students in Catholic schools take action that matters. Student teams are asked to design a product, service or innovation to make a difference to others or the environment.  We look forward to sharing the journey of our three registered teams, stay tuned!

Ethics Olympiad

This year we are excited to announce that our Year 5/6 students will have the opportunity to participate in the Ethics Olympiad. The Ethics Olympiad is a competitive yet collaborative event in which students analyse and discuss real-life, and timely, ethical issues. It differs from a debate in that students are not assigned opposing views rather, they defend whatever position they believe is right and win by showing that they have thought more carefully, deeply, and perceptively about the cases in question. The event encourages and promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking skills, civil discourse, international engagement, and an appreciation for diverse points of view.  Teams will be selected based upon current student data and mock sessions where students will have the opportunity to showcase their skills.  We look forward to competing against other schools in Term 3 of this year, we will keep you updated with their progress. 

SALA Exhibition

I am thrilled to be a part of the SALA Exhibition for the first time – what a wonderful and unique opportunity for the students at St Joseph’s Kingswood. 

We are lucky to have Katie Routley, an experienced art teacher leading this within our school.  Each student will produce a piece of artwork to contribute to the exhibition and each class will have specialised art lessons with Katie. Participating in SALA fosters creativity, school pride and community engagement. It offers participants the opportunity to connect with the vibrant visual arts scene and allow students to exhibit alongside over 10,000 South Australian artists. We cannot wait to see the exhibition come to life in our hall in August this year.  Please keep an eye out for key info and dates. 

Inclusive Education:

As always, it was a pleasure meeting and continuing to meet with families to discuss individual learning plans.  Please keep an eye out in your emails for these as they will be sent prior to Learning Talks so any concerns or comments can be discussed then.  If you require a further meeting with myself, please let me know, my door is always open.

Until next time…

Vanessa Saccardo

Assistant Principal