Dear Parents and Carers,

Hope that you and your family are safe and well.

On reflection, Term 3 didn't really go to plan. It's certainly been different for many of us on many levels both professionally and personally. We missed our Sacraments of Reconciliation and Communion, St Mary of The Cross Celebration, grade excursions and incursions including the Year 5 and 6 trip to Canberra along with several sporting events  - our Athletics Carnival, Gala Days and Diocesan Carnivals. These events and activities are extremely important in the life of a school, but none more than it's people. Simply, we missed connection. Connection with what is truly important as a school community - our students, staff, and parents. 

Thank you to our students, staff, and parents for your care, patience, creativity, resilience, persistence and ongoing support that has been evident throughout Term 3  - Remote Learning. I am extremely proud and humbled by what we have been able to accomplished and I would like to acknowledge the many challenges, successes and celebrations that we have endured together - Well done SCC Team!

"We are not a team, just because we work together. We are a team because we respect, trust and care for each other' 

Throughout Term 3 we have received ongoing feedback about our Remote Learning platform and our work in supporting the well-being and learning needs of our students. Thank you for your feedback in helping us plan for Term 4 via the Remote Learning Parent Survey. We had an outstanding 87 responses to the questionaire and the feedback has been both affirming and has highlighted opportunities for improvement in our planning moving forward.

Affirmations:

• On the whole, my child received the right amount of work
• My child is coping well with the amount of work
• I/We feel confident in supporting our child with their remote learning
• I know how to get support from the school,
• Google Online Platform 
• Weekly Class and/or Grade Check-in Zoom 

Opportunities for Improvement:

• offering more face to face opportunities with teachers via Zoom (learning and connection) 
• providing a greater balance between online and offline learning tasks.

NAPLAN 2021 results have been posted to our Year 3 and 5 families. Overall across Years 3 and 5, in each learning domains - Reading, Writing, Grammar/Punctuation, Spelling and Numeracy, we are very pleased with our results and our learning trend data.

Year 3 recorded their best results since 2016 in all domains and ongoing improvement has continued to trend upwards since 2018. Year 5 recorded their best results since 2013 in all domains and has continued to trend upwards since 2018. Congratulations to our students, staff and parents for their ongoing work and support in the continual improvement of our school community. There is no ceiling on learning and improving - we are life-long learners. Together, we will endeavour to grow and provide the best care, well-being and learning for our students moving into 2022 and beyond.

Our CatholicCare counsellor has accepted a leadership position at CatholicCare commencing Term 4. We thank Emily for all her work with our school community throughout the year and wish her every success in her new role. We welcome Julie Brown, who will be our interim School Counsellor commencing Term 4.

Wishing you a very safe, happy, peaceful and relaxing school holiday break. Hope that it is all that you and your family need at this time. Thank you again for all that you have done this term to support us, to support you. Looking forward to seeing our school community come alive again for Term 4 on Tuesday 5 October.

Stay safe and connected.

Take care

Mr Brad Colquhoun - Principal