As the school moves into Week 8 of Term 1, I am pleased to inform parents and carers that children are engaged and motivated with their learning. I talk to children regularly and take great interest in what they are learning and how they are progressing.

 An important component of ensuring learning progress, is daily school attendance including on time arrival. School starts at 8:25am with the morning assembly, children are expected to arrive on time. Strict guidelines are associated with recording daily school attendance. Class rolls are marked at the beginning of the day and children that arrive late are marked as late arrivals. If there is no parent/carer accompanying a child to the school office when arriving after the commencement of the school day, the school will be recording an unexplained late arrival for the child.  In this context, I ask that no children walk unaccompanied into school after 8:25am. If arriving late all children are to be accompanied into school via the school office. This expectation is consistent with school attendance Legislation, ensuring the safety of all children and supports the development of the importance of punctuality.

As discussed at Parent Information sessions earlier this Term and noted in Skoolbag correspondence, two additional forms of communication to parents/carers have commenced in 2019 - positive phone calls and communication letters.

The positive phone call is at the discretion of the class teacher who wishes to nominate a student for positive class related behaviours. The class teacher provides the name of the student to their Stage Leader, who then calls a parent of the child to relay the message. These phone calls have been received extremely well, and the children love hearing the information from their parent.

The second additional form of communication has been the formulation of a letter sent home to parents to notify them when their child has had three behaviour notifications within a five week period. These letters are both a means of improving the communication between the home and the school, and an opportunity for parents to assist their child in making more appropriate behaviour choices. If you receive three of these letters within a term, a meeting will be organised whereby a more strategic and proactive form of support can be provided for the child. 

If anyone would like to discuss the above details further with me please contact the school office so a mutually convenient time can be arranged.

During the coming days I encourage all members of the Nazareth School community to pray for all people impacted by the tragic events in New Zealand.

Peter Dempsey

Principal