Dear Families/Carers

Charlene Best
Principal

Staff Professional Learning: Teaching Matters Summit

Earlier this week, Mrs Katherine Crouch, Miss Grace Kenny and Miss Brooke Haines attended a three-day professional learning conference titled "Knowledge, Truth, Freedom". This event was part of our ongoing commitment to strengthening teaching practices through evidence-based research.

A central message from the conference was:

“Memory is the residue of thought” – meaning that students remember best when they actively think about and review what they’re learning.
Another key idea was: “Knowledge must come before skill” – highlighting the importance of building strong foundational knowledge to support deeper learning.

Throughout the conference, teachers explored and shared practical strategies to enhance explicit and direct instruction in the classroom. These approaches help ensure that every student is engaged, focused, and learning in a safe, calm, and dignified environment.

They also reflected on the importance of setting and maintaining high expectations for all learners. By doing so, we create the best opportunities for students to grow in confidence and knowledge.

On Thursday 11th September, eleven students from Grades 1-6 represented our school at their first Interschool Chess Tournament. 

Throughout the day, students were paired with players from other schools across 7 rounds, with each win, loss or draw determining their next opponent. They played under international chess rules (which they had only recently learnt), including the touch-move rule. 

Despite the challenges, every student showed incredible resilience and a positive attitude, approaching each new game with focus and enthusiasm and respectful congratulations to their opponents. All students were commended on their noticeable improvement throughout the day, with every student achieving at least one win.

Our team placed 3rd overall, with our top 4 players receiving bronze medals. A special congratulations to Harriett, our top scorer, who even learned strategies from earlier games and applied them in later rounds.

Well done to all our chess players - your growth, sportsmanship and determination made us proud!

From The Anxiety Project 

"A child's anxiety will not usually fix itself. Unless something changes, it will tend to worsen. However, the good news is that seemingly-modest interventions delivered by significant adults can make a difference and turn that progression around."

Michael Hawton -  MAPS Psychologist

TAP Student Lessons

Our classes have nearly completed their TAP lessons for 2025 and at all levels have learnt about their amydala and its role of processing emotions in the brain, particularly fear and anxiety. Children are learning how they can work to calm their own amygdalas by taking control and employing calming techniques.

Please see some of these calming techniques from TAP below:

TAP Parent Development Course

We wish to extend our thanks to all parents that attended our second TAP Parent Development Course session last Monday.

During this session we recapped and explored:

1. The difference between fear and anxiety
2. Brain development and how calming techniques can improve with age and strengthened with the right practice
3. What accommodation is and how patterns impact on families with children who experience anxiety
4. That change to familiy patterns may cause disruption, but usually this disruption is short lived and leads to improvement
5. The importance of sleep, limits on technology and radical downtime for all children

TAP Parent Information Sessions

Our school canteen is requiring volunteers for Term 3 & 4 on a Friday from 9am -11.30am.

If you have a current WWVP card and would like to volunteer please contact the school office.

Playing in the Playground After School:

Please, parents, ensure you supervise your children after school hours while on the school grounds. It is important that we continue to work together to ensure that our expectations for behaviour align with our PBS Matrix and that we model appropriate adult behaviour. 

Medical Condition Updates:

If students have updated Medical conditions could parents please notify the school office by sending an email to shu@catholic.tas.edu.au stating 'Update regarding students Medical Condition' as its imperative that the school is aware of a medical condition that your child may have.

End of Day collection changes:

Please advise the office by phone or by emailing by 2.15pm of any change to pick up arrangements for your child . Thank you for your support.

Please click on the link to view our updated uniform guidelines.

Please click on the link to view information from Midford.

Please see attached our attendance guidelines. Please ensure if your child/ren are absent fro school that you mark them absent via the compass app or email or phone the school prior to 8.45am.

Thank you.