REFLECTION

Strength of a Mountain

God took the strength of a mountain, the majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun, the calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature, the comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages, the power of the eagle’s flight,
The joy of a morning in spring, the faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity, the depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities, when there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete, and so, He called it….Dad

Heavenly Father, 
We pray that our fathers who have passed into the next life have been welcomed into Your loving embrace.

Dear Parents

FATHER’S DAY BREAKFAST – It was a great delight to join the large number of dads and significant male figures in the children’s lives for the ‘Father’s Day Breakfast’ this morning. The children thoroughly enjoyed having their dads, grandads or uncles at school for the occasion. The Pre-Primary children also had their dads or significant male figures come along for an afternoon tea later in the day.
As mentioned in last week’s newsletter, September is Dadember at St Peter’s and there are a number of opportunities for dads to accept invitations to be involved in a range of activities during this month. It is pleasing to see our dads supporting these events.
I thank Alison Rawson and her team for catering for the ‘Father’s Day Breakfast’ who went through 250 sausages, 550 buns,  300 eggs, 27 kgs of bacon, 36 litres of juice, a whole large Milo tin, 10 litres of milk and about 150 coffees in one hour to at least 550 people.

LEARNING JOURNEYS – The Learning Journey tour for Kindy to Year 6 parents will be held on Monday 10 September. Kindy students will finish at 12.30pm and Pre-Primary – Year 6 students will finish at 12.40pm on this day to accommodate the Learning Journey schedule. The booking of times for the Learning Journey tour is to be done electronically. Instructions on how to book a time were posted to the website earlier this week. The Learning Journey is an opportunity for the students to give their parents a tour through a snapshot of their learning experiences. The purpose of the Learning Journey is to celebrate achievements and it may also be a time to renew a commitment to achieve individual learning goals. It is a child led tour and is not a time to discuss matters concerning your child’s progress with the teacher. To help our children to do their best, we need to acknowledge what is important to them, provide affirmation about who they are and what they are doing, so that we can see learning through their eyes. We need to say well done for those things that have taken time and effort, but also to give feedback that encourages them to meet new and ongoing challenges. We need to take care in how we give this feedback to make sure it is not counter-productive. Effective feedback helps to make learning visible and is based on three questions: What was I attempting to do? How did I do? Where to next?
I acknowledge the work of our teaching and support staff who are preparing the class environments to help the students share a snapshot of their learning.
Please be advised that the Year 1 and 2 Sporting School Program will still go ahead on Monday 10 September at the usual time.

YEAR 5 NAPLAN SCHOOL READINESS TEST – NAPLAN is moving online and this means moving from the current paper – based NAPLAN tests to online – based assessments. NAPLAN Online will provide better assessment, more precise results and faster turnaround of information.
A school readiness test will be held in the next week, to help us prepare for the transition to NAPLAN Online in 2019. The school readiness test is not an assessment of the Literacy and Numeracy skills of students. It is a test of school readiness, in terms of ICT capacity as well as logistics and administration processes.

GREAT BOOK SWAP – Last Friday, 24 August, Year 3B along with the P&F organised the Great Book Swap.  Congratulations to staff, parents and students who researched, advertised, informed students to help raise money for Indigenous Literacy. The parents and children of St Peter’s Primary School raised $756.70.

Happy Father’s Day to all our St Peter’s dads, grandads and father figures.

God Bless

Greg Ward

Principal