Yesterday your child had the opportunity to experience their class for next year during our annual transition day and it all went very smoothly.

The sorting of children into class groupings is a complex and time-consuming process where teachers are expected to exercise and make professional judgments. It’s all about identifying the particular social emotional and academic needs of all our children and making sure there is a balance across each grade level.

Groupings of children are based on a number of factors such as:

• Current educational philosophies held by the school
• Social, emotional, physical and academic needs of the children within the cohort
• Gender balance
• Student behaviour
• Children who work well together / children who don’t work well together
• Family siblings or family relations
• Court Orders or Legal Interventions

Occasionally we receive parental feedback that their child is unhappy or emotional when they find they are not in the same class as their best friend/s. Whilst we will always do our best to make sure children have good social connections within classrooms, it is often the case that best friends, doesn’t always make for best learning.

The strong message across all our grades at St Ita's is that class time is for learning and recess and lunch times are for socializing. If your child comes home disappointed that they are not in the same grade as their best friend, use this as a teachable moment to give your child the skills and capacity to be resilient and work through the situation. It’s great preparation for students going into secondary school and moving into the working world with people you have never met before. It is also a great opportunity for children to develop an inclusive, resilient mindset and develop new friendships.

Our classes and teachers are now locked in for the 2021 school year and unless it is an error from our end, we will not be making changes to any classrooms as doing so creates a domino effect across levels.

Our experience shows us that children are naturally nervous or anxious when moving to their new classroom but we find that once they have their orientation experience and they come back from the end of year break they settle very quickly into their new environment.

Keep well everyone and thank you for your ongoing support.

FAREWELL MRS JENNY ADRICHEM

This end of the year brings many joys, and also some sadness for the St Ita's learning community.

Our multi talented, highly skilled, creative Artist, Musician and Drama specialist extraordinaire, Mrs Jenny Adrichem will be ending her time on staff at St Ita’s.

Jenny has been a dedicated and outstanding teacher at St Ita’s since 2002.  Her passion for the Arts is something that she has always shared with our students during her specialist classes, arts shows, concerts, Eisteddfods and music events.

When I witnessed my first St Ita’s whole school concert, I was totally blown away by the quality of the “Cecil B. Damille type production” that she put together, with the support of students, teachers and parents.

She has been an amazing influence over so many children during her time at St Ita’s and we wish to thank her and wish her every success in retirement.

Put your feet up, sit back and relax a little, Jenny, and “May God Bless You” as you relax into retirement.

GRADUATION ON SITE

A reminder to our Grade 6 parents that tomorrow, Thursday 10th December, our Grade 6 Graduation ceremony will take place onsite.

In line with the current Covid-19 expectations, we are now able to allow one parent from each family to attend the formal part of the Graduation Ceremony to be held in our school hall between 9.00am and 11.00am on Thursday 10th December. Each parent attending will need to sign in at the hall and wear a mask during the ceremony.

Please reverse park along the school fenceline at the Drouin Rec Reserve and access the school via the Rec Reserve School gate to walk down to the school hall.

Please do not park in the Church car park tomorrow as there is a funeral in the church and the car park is required. 

SCHOOL REPORTS

End of year reports will be distributed to all parents electronically on Monday 14th December via the nforma CEPL parent portal, the same as mid year. Please use your user name and password to log in or create a new account for new families to the school.

It is highly recommended that you use a computer to access your child’s reports for the first time. Subsequent logins can be made on a mobile device if preferred.

For new accounts, once you have followed the instructions & updated your password, you will be able to view your child’s report online.

You can also use the following link:

https://parent.nforma.ct.com.au/app/index.html?schooldomain=stidrouin#/login

Once in the portal you will need to:

• choose your child (if you have more than one at our school) and then
• choose 'Assessment and Reporting'.
• select the year/semester. eg 2020/Semester 2 (December 2020 report).

Forgotten passwords:

If you have forgotten your password, please follow the 'forgotten password' link.

Please note that your new password needs to be at least 7 characters long and must include at least one non alpha-numeric character, e.g. *, - / or similar.

If you have requested a password reset and the email does not appear, please look in your junk/spam folder for an email from no-reply@nforma.com.au.