Category: Parents

ADVENTURE AWAITS

February 4, 2020

Our very successful St Stephen’s Global Tour to Bethany Home, Malaysia will run again in October for our Year 11s. This extraordinary tour offers students a chance to work with special needs students and young adults at Bethany Home, and includes the opportunity to explore Kuala Lumpur and Penang Island. Expressions of interest are now open. Students and parents from both campuses are invited to an information evening to find out more.

Bethany Home Information Evening
Location: Community Room, Duncraig campus
Date: Monday 10 February
Time: 6.45pm
Please contact Dr Mark Fielding for enquiries at mark.fielding@ststephens.wa.edu.au.

 

STUDY SKILLS FOR OUR STUDENTS

February 3, 2020

St Stephen’s is a subscriber to the study skills website www.studyskillshandbook.com.au

This is a website that helps students develop essential skills for academic success. There are units of work on topics such as improving time management skills, how to study, research skills, summarising, technology use, brain and memory.

There are heaps of resources, including useful handouts, grids and planners on the Things to Print page. We spend time in Forum and Education Plus working through some of the Study Skills Handbook activities, as well as using other resources. Parents are encouraged to chat to their children about the study skills covered at school, as well as to take a look at the site for advice and assistance with their child’s study routine.

To access the handbook, go to www.studyskillshandbook.com.au and login as a subscriber with these details:

username:   ststephens

password:   100success

Dr Liz Criddle

Deputy Head – Teaching and Learning

HANDS ON

January 28, 2020

Raring and ready to get to work, a group of Year 12 students and staff have travelled to Cambodia these holidays, joining RAW Impact to build an entire bamboo house in a local village. The group have been fully immersed in the Cambodian culture, working alongside Khmer locals to make lasting change.

Welcome back from St Stephen’s School

January 28, 2020

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Please see the attached letter from Dr Darnelle Pretorius, Head of Campus, welcoming members of the School community to the 2020 School Year.

The School is a quiet place without the St Stephen’s students, so we look forward to seeing them back on Campus and wish them and our families all the best for 2020!

Welcome Letter Term 1, 2020

SEQTA – WHAT TO EXPECT AND SOME GUIDELINES

January 28, 2020

Dear Parents

SEQTA is an amazing tool for schools and I would encourage both students and parents to check it regularly.

Please note that SEQTA is a resource to supplement teaching NOT an online substitute for the relationship between a teacher and student. Your child spends 320 minutes a day in personal contact with their teachers – and your child has every opportunity to receive help, ask questions and take ownership of their work. I would encourage parents to grow the independence of their children rather than to expect SEQTA to be the prime source of information.

SEQTA is a great insight for parents – but again, the conversations that are then initiated between parents, teacher and student are of the most value. I would encourage parents and students and ensure that they are aware of the documents attached to each course: course outlines, assessment schedules and other resources are available in SEQTA for reference, saving or printing at any time. I would also encourage parents to ask for help and to keep an eye out for the SEQTA information evenings which are often run at the start of each year.

Teachers will on occasion deviate from their teaching plan because students may require extra time for understanding and consolidation. That is part of good teaching and might disrupt a plan previously put in place.  We all know that parents and teachers constantly adapt as the needs of children evolve. Individual teachers will decide the format or formats for the submission of work – sometime these may be in hard copy, sometimes they might be uploaded to SEQTA, emailed or handed in on USB. This will depend on the nature of the task and the format the teacher feels is best. Teachers are striving to meet the expectations below. Some teachers already exceed these and use SEQTA very extensively. The expectations below are our target and while many staff will go beyond these, staff are not expected to.

Cover Page

The purpose of the cover page is to contain an overview of the course. It should be an easy reference for information about the entire year of work. It contains a copy (or a link) to the assessment schedule, program and syllabus. It contains the school Assessment Policy.

For Certificate subjects: The Cover Page includes a paragraph explaining the four compliance requirements, Unit Delivery and Assessment Planner for the whole year, Assessment Tasks (as each is delivered), and RTO Student Handbook.

Assessments

The assessment schedule should be developed at the start of the year. Lower school students are to have the entire semester of assessments visible to parents and students. Year 11 and 12 are to have the entire year’s assessments visible. Assessment titles should include the weighting and clear labels that are succinct. Task sheet/assessment description and marking guide/rubric are to be added at an appropriate time. Marks for summative assessments should be made visible, within three weeks of the assessment being finalised. If there is more than one class, all marks are to be made visible at the same time. Exam marks are to be released at the end of the exam period. Formative assessments can be visible with a weighting of zero. Assessment feedback will be placed in the Marks Book on a regular basis.

(Lesson) Planning

Students, parents/carers and other staff should be able to see what has been planned on a week-by-week basis (as a minimum). Clarity in lesson naming is essential.

Lesson Resources

It should be clear where students can access resources and links. Students may be required to enter homework themselves on occasion.

Documents Section

This is used to store documents that parents/carers might need to access at any point of the year. Documents include anything from a Parent Information Night slide show, Curriculum Handbooks, and the Assessment Policy.

 

Dr Liz Criddle and Mr Bennet Andrews.

 

ASSESSMENT POLICY REMINDERS

January 28, 2020

Welcome to the 2020 school year, we are looking forward to an exciting and busy year ahead. Class teachers will discuss the Assessment Policy with students in class time over the coming weeks.

Parents are reminded that the school Assessment Policy, and SCSA protocols, require that a Medical Certificate is submitted to the class teacher if a student is unwell and misses an assessment. Certificates can be obtained from pharmacists not just from the doctor. Please encourage your child to be proactive – if they are not very unwell they can organise with their teacher to attend school just to sit the assessment then return home. It is important that students are not avoiding assessments, and that they are coming to school whenever possible to sit them on the scheduled day so that assessments are valid for the whole cohort. Of course, circumstances can arise where this has not been possible, please contact your child’s class teacher if this is the case.

Mobile phones should be switched off and in lockers during the school day, unless permission has been given to use them in a specific class. The Assessment Policy requires that students do not have any electronic devices on them when sitting any assessment. This is not just phones, it also includes items such as smart watches for example. Please be aware of this in encouraging your child to be responsible and to plan ahead.

The school Assessment Policy is available on the Parent Portal. Please contact the class teacher, relevant Head of Learning Area, or myself, if you have any questions. Dr Liz Criddle.

FETE FUNDS

December 10, 2019

The funds raised from last year’s Fete have now been allocated and are making a difference around the Duncraig Campus. The old Primary Smartboard 680 is being replaced with new Smart Interactive Display Panels – at the Primary and ELC (with the school paying for one at Carramar). The 86-inch Ultra HD Displays include SMART Learning Suite including digital whiteboard web browser and wireless screen mirroring. They will allow the teacher to create interactive classes and cloud-based lessons across multiple devices ensuring hands-on learning through 3D interactive resources and collaborative cloud-sharing lessons.
Other exciting additions include new music stands and a trolley, which are already being enjoyed by the primary music staff and students; new Interschool sports uniforms; new art boards for better displays of our young creatives’ works and a range of new reading resources.


Our deepest thanks to the amazing Fete committee whose hard work and time continues to benefit all.

PREPARING FOR THE YEAR AHEAD

December 2, 2019

Rest, relaxation, and time with family and friends is the main goal for students over the end of year holidays. However there are some things that students might like to consider doing, perhaps towards the end of the holidays, that will make their school year ahead much easier, particularly senior students.

  • Organise and rearrange your room and study space to make it a more effective learning area.
  • Sort out all of your materials for school, decide what to keep and how to organise your work and if you can improve your filing systems.
  • Set up term planners for the year so you can map put your due dates when the year starts.
  • Set up a study timetable for the year so you have clear times allocated to complete your schoolwork during the week.
  • Think about building your skills in any areas of weakness or any areas you’d like to develop new skills in like touch typing.
  • If you can find out any of the novels you will studying in the coming year, read them over the holidays.
  • For senior students consider downloading the syllabus documents for the subjects you will be studying.

Of course we also want students to refresh their mind and body, catch up on their sleep and take the time to focus on enjoying a healthy lifestyle.

You can learn more about how to be a more effective student at www.studyskillshandbook.com.au by logging in with these details:

Username: ststephens

Password: 100success

Sarah Cooke

Careers Adviser