No 14. Term 2 Week 11, 24th June 2020

Principal's News

Welcome to the end of term 2. What a term it has been! A term like no other I have experienced in my career as an educator or student. A term marked by every emotion imaginable and underlined at every turn by uncertainty and confusion. But despite all the challenges that this global emergency has brought to us, there have been so many reasons to face the current and future challenges this pandemic will bring with optimism and hope. 

In facing this challenge head on in a measured and systematic way, we have so far, conquered every hurdle placed before us and we can enter this next phase of the pandemic with confidence and agility.

Here are a few reasons why:

• Never before have we felt so close and in step with our parent community
• Our students have demonstrated just how resilient, independent and adaptable they can be
• Our teachers have developed new and innovative technological skills
• As a community we have kept the things that matter as our highest priority, like human connection, belonging and compassion
• We have been surprised to see just how many and which students actually thrived during remote learning
• We have stood together. Because together we are stronger. Together, we can accomplish extraordinary things!

Thank you to all of you. Our staff, our students and especially our parents and carers for your amazing trust and support and for all your incredible efforts to make this an amazing 11 weeks of learning and growing. How good does it feel to know that not even a global pandemic can hold us back. St. Kevin's rocks!

Enjoy the well earned break. We will see you all back on Tuesday July 14.

God bless,
Mr Micallef

Covid-19 Update

As we enter a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic, we find ourselves in Victoria considering another period of uncertainty and increased caution. As yet, we have had no further advice from health or education authorities about any need for changing our current routines and practices. It is likely more information will come to light over the holidays. If this is the case, we will certainly inform our community and keep you up to date with any changes that may need to be implemented.

It is the hope of us all that we see our state settle back into a more positive outlook and resume the easing of restrictions, which would allow us to be able to welcome our parents and carers back into our school grounds when it is determined safe to do so. Let's keep fingers crossed that day is soon.

Welcome, Miss Northcott

As most of you would know, Mrs Donald (5/6AD) is due to welcome a new bundle of joy into her family later this year. This is both very exciting but also sad for us as we prepare to say farewell to her while she takes some leave to be a mum. 

On the flipside though, we welcome Miss Lauren Northcott who will become the new teacher of 5/6AD. Miss Northcott, who is a Carlton supporter, is very excited to join our amazing team and we are equally excited to welcome her. Today, Miss Northcott spent the day getting to know her colleagues in the 5/6 team and meet her class for the first time. Next term, we look forward to providing some opportunities for her to spend some more time in the classroom to get to know her students a little before Mrs Donald finishes up at the end of week 2. Welcome aboard Miss Northcott!

National Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD)

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.

To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy (https://www.education.gov.au/privacy-policy).

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal (https://www.nccd.edu.au). If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact the school.

Fact Sheets for Parents, Guardians and Carers

• English
• Vietnamese
• Persian
• Arabic

Enrolments for 2021

Enrolment interviews for 2021 Prep students of our current families have been taking place via Video Conference over the last two weeks and have been great opportunities to touch base with our soon-to-be newest members of our school. All interviews for children of current families will be complete by the end of this term.

We are still accepting enrolments for NEW families for 2021, but places are now extremely limited. If you know of anyone who is thinking of enrolling, please let them know they need to have their forms in as soon as possible. Interviews for new families will commence the week beginning July 24, with all first round offers to be made by Friday August 7, 2020.

School Fees

Thank you to those families who have ensured their school fee accounts have been settled or made arrangements with us to have them settled in an appropriate time frame.

We recognise and appreciate that some of our families may be affected by job losses, business closures or other impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. If you haven't done so already, I urge you to make contact with the school as quickly as possible, to get immediate relief and determine the level of assistance needed.

We appreciate how difficult it can sometimes be for parents to come forward with financial concerns, but our school will always ensure each case is handled with care and discretion. Amongst all the worries that we have at this time – worrying about the payment of school fees should not be one of those things.

Mid-Year Reports

Bu now you should have received your email detailing how to access your child's mid-year report. This semester, the student reports will look somewhat different as a result of significant changes and interruptions to previously planned curriculum programs. In some ways, this opportunity has provided us with a chance to experiment with a different reporting format. Hopefully, we might uncover an even better way of communicating to families on how their children are progressing in their learning.

We would of-course love to hear what you think of the alternate 'checklist' style of report. Do you like it? Do you hate it? Does it give you enough information? Do you miss the comments?

Any feedback you can give us would be helpful. Feel free to let us know via email, or phone or even wait until next term's parent-teacher-student chats. We will take your feedback on board to ensure we effectively meet your need to be informed about your child's learning.

Parent/Teacher/Student Chats

This year we will be doing our Parent/Teacher/Student chats by ONLINE VIDEO chats due to COVID19 restrictions.  These chats will be held on Tuesday 21st July and Wednesday 22nd July.  Please book in your appointment online by clicking the link below and using the code 6pebe.  Once you book your times an email will be sent to you with a link to click on at the time of your appointment

Authentic Learning in 3/4

The 3/4 students have been learning about using money this week. They will continue this learning next term. Watch out parents, these children are ready to go shopping. 

Project Compassion

Thankyou for your generosity during Lent and giving to the cause of Project Compassion. Even with us missing many weeks of school and many of us dealing with the financial stress of Covid 19 our community still dug deep and donated money through the schools Project Compassion Boxes.  We raised $232.10. THANKYOU!

Birthday's to Celebrate at the end of June

Tuesday 16th            Jewels 3/4 DM, Syd 5/6ME

Wednesday 17th      Orion PKK

Thursday 18th          Edwina 5/6 AD

Friday 19th                Amelia PDE, Danial 1/2 RO, Abigail 1/2 MA

Saturday 20th          Taylen 1/2 MA, Willis 1/2 AL

Monday 22nd           Annamaria 5/6 MB

Tuesday 23rd            Hazel 1/2 FE, Diya 3/4 BR, Haya 3/4 TI, Aiden 3/4 TI

Wedneday 24th       Maxwell 5/6 AD

Thursday 25th         Evelyn 1/2 SC, Seth 1/2 HE

Friday 26th                Mason 1/2 RO

Sunday 28th              Keeratjot 3/4 DM, Delwin 3/4 MG

Monday 29th            Juliana PCA

Tuesday 30th            Owen 3/4 TI, Kiara 3/4 BR, Tyrese 3/4 BR 

Moonlit Sanctuary

Year 7 Transition News