Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to St Benedict’s for Term 4. Welcome to our new student Hector (Year 1) and his family. You are a welcomed addition to our community and we look forward to getting to know you better.

I love this time of year when the sun comes out, the trees in the eating area become covered with leaves, the students don their summer uniform once more since Term 1 and we see just how much some of them have grown! At this time of year we can also see how much they have learnt and how they have become more independent. It is a proud moment for us all!

Whole School Performance – St Benedict’s ‘Disney’
Our whole school performance, Disney occurred on Wednesday 25^th September. It was well attended by over 400 family members and friends and involved every student in the school. Many parents spoke of how they enjoyed the performance and how wonderful it was that each child was part of it. Thank you to all staff for their tireless efforts in preparing the students for the performance and to Alana Quirk and Hayley Gould for their organisation of professional lighting and Breena Walshe for the sound and visual effects. Thank you also to Jan Simpson who helped with choreography for the performance and to the parents involved in the organisation and creation of some of the costumes. Thank you to the P&F for their organisation and running of a canteen on the night. Finally a huge thank you to all the students, who bought such joy and enthusiasm to the night and absolutely shone. Well done to all!

Planning for 2020
There are a number of processes that are undertaken in order to plan for 2020. We will review our current achievements against the goals of the 2019 Annual Improvement Plan and 2018-2020 Strategic Plan and use data from other sources to inform our priorities for 2020. At present we have or are in the process of completing:

• Analysis of the feedback provided through the school surveys completed by students, parents and staff last term,
• The analysis of NAPLAN data, and
• Recommendations from last year’s Registration report.

Staff are involved at all levels of the review and analysis of data. Alana Quirk, skilled in data analysis for teaching and learning, has analysed the NAPLAN data in detail and will report to the staff this week with recommendations. This year the school leadership team will be hosting and working with other school leadership teams and members of Catholic Education on a new pilot designed to streamline the Annual Improvement Plan and Strategic Plan process. We view this as an exciting opportunity to strengthen key improvement goals and to ensure students and student learning is central to all processes undertaken at the school. The School Board in their consultative role will also provide feedback on the suggested Key Improvement Goals for 2020 to the school.

God bless.

Rachel Smith
Principal