February Newsleter

Welcome to the 2025 School Year!

It has been a wonderful start to the year at St Peter Chanel, with students settling beautifully into their new classes. Across all year levels, children are already establishing the routines that will maximise their learning and set them up for a successful year. The energy and enthusiasm in classrooms and on the playground have been a joy to witness! 

We are thrilled to welcome our new Deputy Principal, Mrs Virginia Smith. Mrs Smith brings a wealth of experience and a deep passion for education, and we are confident that she will be an invaluable leader and support for our students, staff, and families. We look forward to the positive impact she will have on our school community.

A special welcome to the newest members of our SPC team. We are delighted to have Miss Mikaela Petty joining us as our new Year 5 teacher and Miss Elyse Poke as our new Year 1 teacher. Additionally, we warmly welcome new Teacher Assistants Brooke Saltmarsh, Rach Woods, and Kaylah Bishop, whose work will greatly support student learning and engagement. We are excited to have them on board and know they will be wonderful additions to our staff.

We also extend a very warm welcome to the many new families who have joined our SPC community this year. Starting at a new school is a significant transition, but we are confident that they will quickly feel at home and experience the strong sense of belonging that makes SPC so special. Our school is more than just a place of learning; it is a family, and we are grateful that they are now part of it.

A particularly special welcome goes out to our 24
new Kinder students, who have begun their educational journey with us. Their enthusiasm, curiosity, and excitement for learning have been wonderful to see, and we look forward to watching them grow and thrive in their first year of school. The transition to Kinder is a significant milestone, and we thank our staff and families for making it such a smooth and positive experience for our youngest learners.

At SPC, we believe that the best outcomes for children are achieved when families and school staff work in partnership. Open communication and collaboration between home and school are key to supporting each child’s growth academically, socially, and emotionally. We encourage all families to stay connected with us throughout the year, whether through classroom updates, parent-teacher meetings, or involvement in school events. You are welcome to contact us at any time should you have any queries or concerns.

We look forward to a fantastic year ahead, full of learning, growth, and shared successes!

I am absolutely thrilled to be joining this wonderful school community! From the moment I arrived, I have been overwhelmed by the warmth, kindness, and support shown by staff, students and parents – the warm greetings I received from parents on the first day were a perfect example of this! I'm also incredibly impressed by the physical learning environment here at St Peter Chanel.  It's clear that great care and attention have been invested in creating clean and engaging spaces for our students. Plus, I must say, it's a beautiful part of the world to work in. I'm truly looking forward to the year ahead, getting to know each and every one of you, and becoming actively involved in all the exciting school events to come!

Supporting our students in NAPLAN

The 2025 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) will now occur in Term 1, from Wednesday 12 March to Monday 24 March 2025 for students in Grade 3 and Grade 5.  Through Student Support we offer the following adjustments to ensure access for all students undertaking in NAPLAN.

• Disability Adjustments including additional time, a quiet space, small groups, audio support, support person, colour and font modification 
• Withdrawal or exemption: under directed circumstances, students may be withdrawn or exempt from NAPLAN. Students may be withdrawn or exempt from selected or all NAPLAN tests under consultation between families and the school.

All queries or concerns regarding NAPLAN should be directed to either your child’s classroom teacher or myself, and together we can ensure that your child is provided with the most suitable level of support during this testing period. 

Brooke Lardner

Student Support Coordinator

My role has expanded to Numeracy this year, and I’m excited to see some more programs in place for those that struggle in Numeracy, in the future. We run several program in Literacy, and I’m going to give them a spotlight each month in the Newsletter to give you a better understanding of what purpose they serve. 

Program Spotlight - PreLit

PreLit is the beginning of our programs and starts in Kindergarten. It comes from suite called MultiLit and is a systematic, skills-based program that lays a foundation for children to learn to read. Teachers use it to teach pre-literacy skills and concepts in a fun and engaging way, focusing on phonological awareness and oral language development 

PreLit is a systematic, skills-based program that lays a sound foundation for children to learn to read. It provides early childhood teachers with the tools necessary to teach pre-literacy skills and concepts in a fun and engaging way, focusing on phonological awareness and oral language development through structured storybook reading.

Laura Korpershoek

• Classrooms will be open at 8:30 in the morning. Students can enter via external classroom doors or through the main entry.

• The weather is warm, please send a water bottle full of water and a hat (Hats are required in Term 1)

• Please indicate in communication booklet if your child's regular travel arrangements, if these change, please indicate in communication booklet

• If you need to call the office regarding any travel changes, it needs to happen by 2:30pm at the latest.

• If you collect your child in an afternoon, please wait outside. The students come out to you.

These forms have all gone home in student bags. Can you please complete and return these so we can update our records with anything new or missing.

Also, for any student with a Medical Plan i.e. Asthma/Anaphylaxis/Diabetes we would greatly appreciate a current plan provided in addition to the paperwork sent home.

School photos will be on Thursday, 27th February. Photos can be ordered via Compass. 

The 2025 National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) will now occur in Term 1, from Wednesday 12 March to Monday 24 March 2025. Students in Grade 3 and Grade 5 will participate in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language and Numeracy assessments. Our assessment schedule is: 

Catch up days are scheduled for any students who are absent for any assessments.

Parents who wish to find out more about the national assessment program can read the attached PDF.

As many of you have already noticed, work is beginning on our new car park. Construction workers will be on site from the first week of March. Please be mindful at drop off and pick up times. 

The "Kiss and Drop" zone is strictly drop and go. This area is for parents who just drop their child/ren off and leave. If you need to get out of your car, for any reason, you are to park somewhere else.

Policies and procedures are always changing. We will send out any changes to families as they happen. All our policies can be found on our website.

SPC Policies & Documents

Our fortnightly bake raffle will continue this year, with the first one next week. 

Since changing to our Smart Play Uniform we no longer have much or a variety of second hand uniforms. If families have any uniform they would like to donate back to the school, this would be greatly appreciated. 

Any donations can be dropped off to the school office.

Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Program will be delivered to Kindergarten, Prep, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students on Tuesday 25th February 2025.  Ditto’s Keep Safe Adventure Program is a fun, interactive live incursion that teaches young children essential personal safety skills and knowledge using age-appropriate language, song, and dance, starring Bravehearts’ lovable lion cub ‘Ditto’ and a specially trained Education Facilitator.