Dear St Clare's Community,

I do hope you enjoyed the long weekends we have been lucky enough to have and everyone is ready for our first 5 day week of the term. For all our mums and those we hold dear, I hope you had a lovely Mothers Day last Sunday.

Clarity Project

Last week, Chris Edwards, Helen Andrews and I spent 2 days in Cairns working with Dr. Lyn Sharratt. Cairns Catholic Education has engaged Dr. Sharratt to work with all schools in the Diocese.  Dr. Lyn Sharratt is a highly accomplished practitioner, researcher, author, and presenter. Our focus is on the work of CLARITY: What Matters MOST in Learning, Teaching, and Leading. This initiative is one of our identified focus areas in our School Annual Implementation Plan for 2022 and will form quality practices into the future. We look forward to taking the learning from Lyn’s work and working with our teachers to implement it in classrooms. This is a two year project and we are excited to have the opportunity to engage with an educator of such a high standard and turn that into growth for our students.

Staffing

As you may be aware Jessica Lang is taking parental leave in Term 2 and Term 3. We have been blessed to have Jessica join St. Clare’s this year as our Year 4 Classroom Teacher. In the very short time Jess has been with us, it is clear that she is a passionate and dedicated teacher, and she will most certainly be missed. We wish Jess & Caleb all the best as they prepare to welcome Baby Lang.

The process to find a quality replacement for Mrs Lang, began in April and to date we have not been able to source a suitable, quality applicant. To ensure our students' learning continues to be of a high standard and uninterrupted, and we recruit high quality teachers to join our community, this process will continue throughout Term 2.

From Monday 16^th May until the end of Term 2 the following changes will take place. Mrs. Cherie Jenkins will take the Year 4 class, 5 days per week. Mrs. Kaitlyn Marsilio will continue Monday -Wednesday in Year 6, with Mr. Adrian Frost taking Year 6 on Thursday and Friday.

I am extremely appreciative to both Cherie & Kaitlyn for making it possible for these changes to occur. This ensures that both our Year 4 and Year 6 students will continue their learning with the expertise of very experienced teachers and consistency of curriculum programming. Mr. Adrian Frost is also a very experienced educator, and we look forward to the talents he will bring to our community. Adrian’s particular areas of expertise are in Maths and Music.

I will keep you up to date with any new information as it becomes available, as I continue to source a high-quality classroom teacher in Year 4 for Term 3. At this stage Mrs. Jessica Lang is expected to return in Term 4, and we do wish her all the best for the arrival of her first child and the joy that brings.

Mosquitoes

With all this wet weather we are experiencing an influx of mozzies. While we do spray in the mornings, it does not eradicate the mozzies. It may be a good idea to spray your children each morning.

NAPLAN Testing

The National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) tests will be conducted from today to Thursday for our year 3 and 5 students. All tests will be conducted online with the exception of the year three writing.

Chris Edwards has provided further information in this newsletter.  As the NAPLAN tests do have many positive benefits for individual students as well as for schools I would encourage you to please try to ensure that your child is at school during this time. Some tests take place early in the day so it is important that they are at school on time. We wish our Year 3 & 5 students and teachers all the best.

School Photo

Just a reminder that school photos will take place on Monday 16th May. Students are required to wear their full academic uniform, including plain black shoes, and their most stunning smiles!

All the best for for the weeks ahead,
Take care,

Karran Burzacott
Principal