Dear Parents and Carers,

This Friday students will bring home their Semester 1 School Reports. These reports are written for and addressed to parents, not students. There are many ways that students receive feedback about their academic progress through the day/week from teachers. This report is a way of summarising student progress to date against the Australian Curriculum and in line with Australian Government expectations on reporting to parents.

I encourage you to read it before your child does and then choose to share those aspects that are relevant with them. When you look at your child’s report the first section to focus on is the Personal and Social Capabilities. To me these are what make a person successful in life: the ability to collaborate with others, to respect oneself and others, to accept responsibility, to persevere and to manage one’s time are all skills and attitudes that one can learn and apply to every area of life. Learnt during the childhood years these can shape one’s life far more than receiving A’s in each subject.

I suggest also talking to your child/ren about their strengths. Strengths are not always necessarily what a person is very good at with hard work. Strengths are the areas in life that one is good at and comes a little easier to them and they feel energised doing! It is good to keep telling children to keep putting their effort and love into their strengths and then find a way to use these to help them in areas that are more challenging. For example your child maybe musical so may find it easier to remember their times tables in a musical way, thus making it a more enjoyable learning experience.

I encourage you to celebrate all that your child/ren have achieved in the academic and non-academic areas. Optional interviews are offered at this time. There will be a letter coming home with your child’s report on Friday if you would like to request a time to meet with your child’s teacher or if there is a particular aspect of the report you wish to discuss.

Thank you for your ongoing care and partnership in your child’s learning.

God bless.

Rachel Smith
Principal