Events are such a large part of College life; they build community and spread joy.  This week we celebrate many significant events of the year.  I would like to highlight two main events.  We celebrated Edmund Rice Day.  Edmund, the founder of the Christian Brothers who established St Mary’s College in Dalby in 1963, led a life filled with service.  He valued each person’s dignity and did all within his means to educate and liberate those from poverty in Ireland in the 1800’s. We looked to the example of Edmund when we developed Living Your Faith and the concept of Praxis. Praxis inspires us to look beyond ourselves and to impact the world in which we live. 

The other big event we marked this week is Mother’s Day.  We hosted two events for Mothers; our Prep Mother’s Day High Tea and our Year 9 Prayer Celebration.  These wonderful events gather multigenerational mothers and mother figures together, to acknowledge the love and support they give us.  This Sunday as families, we will celebrate other mothers as families but this Friday we acknowledged the important role they play in our students lives.  Happy Mother’s Day to all who fill the role of nurturer in our College families. 

Walk for Edmund – Rice Day 2024 

This Friday our Rice House Leaders, Chloe and Malcolm, changed their normal Rice Day games to align with the work of the Edmund Rice Foundation Australia and their campaign ‘Walk for Edmund’.  Walk for Edmund is about raising awareness of social justice and to raise valuable funds for people in Australia and around the world who face barriers to opportunity.  This is our first year taking part in this campaign and our Rice House Leaders have done an amazing job creating this exciting walk around the College for Rice House students.  If other families would like to contribute to this great cause, a collection box will be in the College office until next Friday 17 May or online at Walk for Edmund 2024 - Edmund Rice Foundation (erf.org.au) 

Ecumenical Service 

On Friday 31 May, we will celebrate an Ecumenical Prayer Service as a whole College community.  We acknowledge the rich diversity of faiths in our College families and gather to celebrate this.  All families are encouraged to join us at 9:00am in the MPC for this prayer celebration.  We praise the love of God in our lives no matter our faith background and we value the contribution of all religions to enrich our Catholic College. 

NAPLAN Year 3, 5, 7, 9

In Term 1, NAPLAN was completed by our students in Year 3, 5, 7, and 9.  The goal of moving NAPLAN to March is so that schools have access to the valuable data regarding their students earlier in the school year.  From 2023, NAPLAN results are reported against proficiency standards. There is a standard for each assessment area at each year level. Proficiency standards provide clear information on student achievement. They are set at a challenging but reasonable level expected for the student at the time of NAPLAN testing, based mainly on what has been taught in previous years of schooling. Student achievement is shown against 4 levels of proficiency: Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support. 

All students who participate in NAPLAN receive an individual report of their results.  NAPLAN individual student reports will be provided to schools from the start of Term 3 and distributed to parents once received by the College.

Report Cards

At the end of each semester, we issue formal written report cards which report on the students’ progress against the year long achievement standard. This year report cards will only be issued digitally via the Parent Portal App, paper copies will not be printed and distributed by the College.  It is our aim in 2024 to continue gathering feedback about our report cards and make improvements to ensure they are meeting the needs of the parents they are written for.  So, if at any time you have thoughts and ideas with regards to Student-led conferences or Report Cards, please email these to me or your appropriate Sector Assistant Principal. 

As we begin Week 5, we know all are busy starting and even finalising assessment pieces.  This can be a busy and stressful time for students, their families and our teachers.  It is important that in Middle Years and Senior Years that students look ahead at their assessment calendars so they can plot out their assessment deadlines, access support from teachers when drafting, attend tutorials that may be offered along the way.  Teachers create checkpoints throughout assessment to support this organisation and I encourage students to use these to pace themselves over the next few weeks.  Communication with class teachers is extremely important if students have any questions or concerns when completing assessment, the more we know the more we can support students on the road to success.   

Cate Brennan

Deputy Principal Religious Education