This Thursday 31 October Santa Sabina will hold a mufti day to raise funds for families in greatest need from St Thomas Aquinas Primary School and St Columba’s High School in Springwood. We are asking all of our students to bring a gold coin donation, and to wear mufti to school. While we would always prefer to engage students in service rather than simply raising funds, we appreciate that emergencies such as the recent bushfires require an immediate and practical response. We continue to pray for all of those affected by these most serious events.
Students will not be attending school this Friday as a professional development day has been scheduled for all teachers. The day is being devoted to preparation for the introduction of the Australian Curriculum next year. Teachers at Del Monte will also be engaged in preparation for the PYP next year.
On Friday we had a wonderful example of educational partnerships at work. Students and teachers from Condell Park High School (who are members along with SSC of the Coalition of Knowledge-Building Research – a collection of schools dedicated to teacher and student-led research), spent the day at Santa, talking to students and teachers about effective learning. The Condell Park students have been engaged for a number of years now at interrogating what helps and hinders their learning.They have learnt important skills of research, and were invited by Santa staff to apply these skills with our teachers and students.They observed lessons, and interviewed teachers and students. Our students in turn seemed to relish the opportunity of demonstrating what they consider to be effective learning. Professor Susan Groundwater Smith is the convenor of the Coalition and she was here as part of the research activities on Friday. She will also be returning to Del Monte this Monday to continue her research on the Flexible Learning Spaces currently being used by Years 2 and 3.
I would just like to finish on a light-hearted note about the power of the grapevine. It’s a good lesson for all of us. I have heard it ‘on the grapevine’ that we are changing the uniform next year, and indeed that it will be black and white. It is not the case but it does make for a good story!
Dr Maree Herrett
