Outstanding Professional Service Award

Congratulations to our wonderful Library Technician Mrs Helen Tomazin who received the Professional Teaching Council of Western Australia outstanding professional service award. Helen is not only an amazing Library Technician at Good Shepherd but also is the WA School Library association treasurer and co-editor of ic3 a professional journal for school library staff. We thank Helen for her wonderful contributions in encouraging readers at Good Shepherd.

COVID 19

As you are aware there is no longer a mandated isolation period for testing COVID 19 Positive. However, as with all other illness, students are not to come to school if they are sick or have any symptoms. If a child tests positive parents are asked to notify the health department and complete the COVID form on the school website: http://cewa-collections.powerappsportals.com/COVID-19-Self-Reporting-Form/

2023 Class allocations

As the end of the school year is rapidly approaching, this is an opportune time to remind parents of the process we use when allocating classes for the next school year. This process aims to establish classes where the children have a couple of friends they get along with and where there is an even distribution of gender and learning abilities.

The children are asked to name a number of close friends they would like to have in their class in the following year. Students are then distributed to classes based on a number of characteristics including their achievements in literacy and numeracy, social and behavioural aspects, special needs, friendships and any other considerations that might apply.

This process is taken very seriously and is time consuming for the staff. We do our best to ensure that children are distributed in class groups for the best learning environment possible.  Changes to the allocated classes do not occur as a norm. Where a parent is told by the child they have no friends we would like you to consider this from a child’s point of view because as we know, their best friend this week may be different from when they completed the survey in preparation for the class splits.

Classes Allocations for 2023 will be communicated to parents in early January.

Car Park

I would like to extend my thanks to parents for their patience when using the carpark for pick up and drop off. A reminder that when you are dropping off or picking up to move as far forward as you can in the drop off pick up zone. Please make sure your child is quickly exiting the car in the morning as it can cause traffic issue when cars are not moving quickly.

Manners

As you know this year we have had a focus on the school value RESPECT. At the Monday morning students assembly, I spoke to students about manners. I thanked them firstly for how polite and courteous I have found them. I explained that at Good Shepherd we expect that they say “please” and “thankyou” and that when someone is listening they use whole body listening which means they face the person and look at them when they are talking. We also spoke about manners such as saying “excuse me” and waiting if they need to interrupt someone when they are talking.

Healthy Eating

We all know that healthy eating ensures that we have a healthy body. Resent research also places the importance of how eating well assists with our mental health. Encouraging our children to have a healthy diet allows them to grow into healthy people. As parents we are continuously having to help our children make the right choices. I know with my own children we allowed them to have treats but limited these items. You may be interested in the article below which outlines the effect of junk food on mental health.

https://www.kidsnews.com.au/health/junk-food-is-harming-kids-mental-health/news-story/3ae1bb4987014bd0770a97cd85ec359f

Staffing

Congratulations to Jess Farano who has been appointed as a teacher to St. Thomas More Catholic Primary School, Margaret River. I wish her all the best in this new adventure. Congratulations as well go to Lauren Weiner and Romina Chapman who have announced that they are pregnant. We wish them both all the best.

World Teachers Day

The 28^th October is “World teachers day” where we recognise the great efforts of all staff who work in schools. As you know we are very fortunate to have an amazing staff who go above and beyond to ensure each child receives an excellent education. On this day we encourage students to wear a hat to show their support of the theme “Hats off to teachers.”

Nic Gaglia

Principal