What a week it has been! Again it demonstrated our flexibility and adaptability.

Snap Lockdown and Learn@Home

The snap lockdown showed how quickly we could all pivot, adjust and adapt to learning from home. I would like to acknowledge the wonderful work of our teachers in ensuring the girls were prepared on Friday afternoon for online learning (taking devices, chargers, headphones and resources home) and for delivering three days of lessons – maintaining the momentum of the learning program that had begun just two weeks prior.

Our girls were amazing! It was wonderful to see them engage so well with their learning and to do their very best. For some girls, particularly those in the lower year levels, it was all quite new to them and we thank their parents for working in partnership with us to support their learning.

To ensure we are continually improving, our teacher will take time to review our processes over the next week and identify any opportunities to refine how we respond to any future lockdowns.

Chinese New Year Celebrations

The girls had a wonderful morning on Friday seeing the Lion Dance. They were enthralled by the drums, cymbals and gongs, as the music they created spurred the Lion to perform. The Lion enchanted the girls as it moved around the crowd, showing amazing athleticism as it went from low to high movements. The highlight was when the Lion shared oranges and lettuce – symbols of good luck and good fortune.

Some of the girls were a little startled, hiding behind a teacher, however as the performance continued, they were encouraged to see that two ‘dancers’ were operating the Lion as a human puppet. We would like to thank our Chinese community for sharing in the celebrations and wish you a happy New Year of the Ox.

Collegial Practice at Barbreck

This year at Barbreck, the Junior School staff will be engaging in the collegial practice of team teaching. For four lessons per week, this collaborative approach will see two teachers, share teaching responsibilities within a classroom setting.  Each ‘visiting’ teacher will join a classroom during times when their own class is at specialist lessons, so their own students will not be impacted during these times.

This practice enables greater support of student learning in the classroom, as the visiting teacher can:

• Be the second source of expertise, knowledge and assistance
• Increase the number of students assisted in a lesson, reducing the student-teacher ratio in a class of 20 from 20: 1 to 10: 1
• Take small groups:
  • enabling targeted teaching to occur more often and more effectively
  • direct their lesson delivery to students’ instructional levels

Collegial practice also provides a source of professional learning as they work with other teachers, see the approaches they take and the strategies they employ.

Ultimately, the students benefit through greater support in the classroom, more contact student-teacher contact and teachers improving and refining their teaching knowledge and skills.

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Out of School Hours Care

St Catherine’s School offers an Out of School Hours Care program to all ELC and Junior School families. The program is implemented by our provider ‘After the Bell’, and operates within the ELC building. Parents are reminded that if you need to use the Before School Care or After School Care service, registrations need to be made in advance with ‘After the Bell’. Please allow up to five business days for your registration to be processed before your child can begin attending the program. Registration is free. All families are encouraged to register so that you can use this service in the event that you are unable to pick up your child.

Before School Care – 7.00am to 8.45am

After School Care – 3.00pm to 6.00pm

Registrations can be completed via the ‘After the Bell’ website https://afterthebell.com.au/register-now/

Please phone 9758 6744 for all enquiries.