Welcome to the commencement of Term 3. I trust families have enjoyed some time together, albeit the disruption of closed borders caused havoc with some holiday plans. The start of a new term is always quite special and begins with the girls eagerly arriving at school and excitedly greeting friends, with everyone talking about the many things they did over the break. While we always hear the sounds of the girls’ laughter throughout the day, it is especially loud and excited during the first days of term, adding to the happy buzz of anticipation for what the new term holds in store.

Our joy was short-lived on campus, and we once again find ourselves in a lockdown period. Our wonderful Barbreck teachers will be delivering lessons online and supporting the girls’ learning development and wellbeing. To this end, we are trying to incorporate activities that may begin online but then allow time to be completed off screen, thus reducing screen time when possible. We understand that online learning can be taxing for our girls and we encourage parents to make judgement calls for their daughters to step away from the online program when they feel it is necessary. We ask that parents advise their daughter’s classroom teacher when this is happening, so they will not expect their attendance at lessons.

Parent Teacher Meetings – Online

Parent-Teacher meetings will now be held online due to the recent restrictions. The times set out through the PTO booking system will be followed, and teachers will call parents to the meeting via the MS Teams App on their daughter’s device. If you cannot access your daughter’s device at the scheduled time and need to use your own device, please contact your daughter’s teacher and they will organise and send you an MS Teams invitation to access the meeting.

School Survey

The recently completed school survey provided some valuable feedback regarding the need for more information about some of our Barbreck programs. In the next few weeks I will spotlight different areas and hopefully provide greater clarity, starting with the staffing matrix for our Learning Plus department.

Junior School Learning Plus

The Barbreck Learning Plus Department plays a significant role in supporting girls who have been identified as requiring academic support, in addition to providing extension for highly able students. These needs vary from year to year according to the number of students identified as requiring support or extension, including the level of support they require. Parents attending the Barbreck Information Evening in Term 1 will recall listening to our Head of Department, Mrs Elka Gaensler, speak about her role and our Educational Psychologist for Barbreck, Ms Fiona Ganino-Day, sharing her post COVID Lock Down psychological support for younger students.

As a guide for schools across Australia, the Federal Government established clearly defined categories for student support through the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD). The NCCD forms part of the high levels of compliance required to be submitted by every school. More information about NCCD can be found at https://www.nccd.edu.au/

Learning Plus Staff in the Junior School

Mrs Elka Gaensler BA (Bachelor of Arts: Education)   Cert of Gifted and Talented Ed Dip Early Childhood Education M.ED (Leadership & Management) M.ED (Learning Intervention)

Ms Fiona Ganino-Day BA (Bachelor of Arts) DipEd (Diploma of Education) M.Psych (Master of Psychology)

Mrs Jess Easton BED (Bachelor of Education) Dip Children’s Services

Ms Lyn Zarifis BA (Bachelor of Arts) Dip Education

Head of Learning Plus, Mrs Elka Gaensler

Mrs Elka Gaensler is a well-qualified teacher with two Masters of Education. She has extensive expertise and experience in educational support and Gifted and Talented Programs. She commenced working at St Catherine’s in 2014, and more specifically in Barbreck since July of last year. As a member of the Junior School NCCD Committee, Mrs Gaensler co-ordinates and manages all support for identified students in the Junior School and works closely with teachers on the development of learning plans for students administered both in the classroom, and as the need arises individually, with the Learning Plus staff.

In her role, Mrs Gaensler will meet with parents, talk to teachers and coordinate the support from allied health professionals to tailor learning goals and establish individual learning programs for girls requiring specific learning programs and are categorised within the NCCD guidelines as requiring Supplementary and Substantial levels of support. In addition to this, Mrs Gaensler teaches small groups of girls, identified as Supplementary or Substantial, for targeted teaching lessons, specifically in literacy.

Junior School Educational Psychologist, Ms Fiona Ganino-Day

As the Barbreck Educational Psychologist, Ms Fiona Ganino-Day has the advantage of being both a teacher and an educational psychologist, enabling her to provide an informed perspective when working with staff, students and parents. She commenced at St Catherine’s in 2021.

Ms Ganino-Day optimises her training as an Educational Psychologist, specialising in child development, to assess and advise educational direction for children experiencing difficulty with learning. Her input greatly assists the decision-making processes for parents, in addition to advising of the need for further assessments and referrals to allied health professionals, such as speech pathologist. As such, Ms Ganino-Day works alongside the Learning Plus Department in an advisory capacity. In her role as psychologist, she also works with students to support their social and emotional development and works closely with classroom teachers to improve student wellbeing.

Teacher, Mrs Jess Easton

Well known to the Barbreck community, Mrs Jess Easton is a qualified teacher who has been working in our Junior School for a number of years. She has a breadth of knowledge and expertise, particularly in the lower primary year levels when foundational learning in literacy and numeracy are established and consolidated. This knowledge and teaching expertise provide a wonderful basis for educational support.

The Learning Plus Department has expanded with the inclusion of Mrs Easton to now provide Numeracy support for students in Years Prep-6 requiring additional work in this area. This support will be provided in small group sessions based on specific learning needs, particularly in Number and Algebra.

Teacher’s Assistant, Ms Lyn Zarifis

Ms Lyn Zarifis works as a Learning Assistant in the Junior School. Under the guidance and direction of Mrs Gaensler, Ms Zarifis provides support to individual students and provides small group sessions with students to support their literacy needs.

Collegial Program Supports Learning Plus Students

Our Junior School teachers also provide timetabled lessons of in-class collegial support for their colleagues across the literacy and numeracy lessons. This method of co-teaching has been well established in the Senior School, with the benefits of two teachers in the one classroom well understood. In the Junior School, co-teaching allows for an increased level of grouping and re-grouping of the students for targeted learning and the sharing of expertise and teaching practice is notably improved.

This support is guided by the teacher of the particular class and may take a number of formats:

• One on one support for individual students;
• Small group support specific to a literacy or numeracy challenge;
• Large group supervision while the classroom teacher provides one on one or small group support.

GREET@the Gate

Owing to the ever-changing COVID-19 restrictions, we have this year incorporated the Barbreck Greet@the Gate with each teacher walking their classes down the Ann Smith Avenue to the Barbreck gates in the afternoon. We really value getting to know our parent community and encourage you to take an opportunity to touch base with your daughter’s teacher, to discover what happened during the day, learn more about sporting, musical or achievements or events that are happening in the classroom.

If there are any concerns or a longer conversation is needed with your daughter’s teacher, we ask that you email her teacher and request time for a longer conversation. Undoubtedly, the home-school partnership is pivotal to the success of each girl.

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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.

Please phone 9758 6744 for all enquiries.