Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,

Book Week

Book Week has arrived and our Library is looking wonderful! Congratulations to all the students and teachers for their efforts in creating such beautiful Book Week displays and a very special thank you to Mrs Turner and Mrs Patmore for the many hours of work that it takes to transform our Library each year. A virtual tour of the Library is being built on the school website and will be ready for families to enjoy on Friday. Go to Book Week 2020 on the Parents tab. 

On Friday, we will be holding our Book Week parade between Recess and Lunch, via Zoom. Parents and families can watch live from 11:45am (the link will be provided via SZapp on Friday morning), although we are unable to provide exact times for each class. If you miss the live parade, a recording will be posted in the afternoon. A reminder that each student will be provided with a sausage sandwich for lunch (dietary needs will be catered for) but will need to bring a drink and snacks to supplement this, if needed. The canteen will be open for counter-sales and lunch orders as usual.

World Teachers’ Day
Australia celebrates World Teachers’ Day next Friday 30 October. I am conscious of the cliché, but teaching truly is a noble profession and I am grateful every day for the generosity, talent, patience, commitment and, above all, love that our wonderful teachers bring to their work. I encourage every student at Mt Carmel to take the time to personally thank their teacher next Friday.


Departing Students
Schools are required to record destination schools for all departing students. I ask that all families of Year 6 students inform us as soon as possible of the high school your child will be attending. In the Forms & Documents tab on the school website and app is a Year 6 2021 Destination eForm. I also request that any K-5 families moving from Mt Carmel at the end of this year send me an email (michael.green@cg.catholic.edu.au) as soon as possible indicating your intentions along with your destination. Much of this term is spent preparing for next year and our student numbers need to be accurate. Thank you for assisting us with this information gathering. 


Class Placements 2021
Parents are invited to email me with regard to any considerations you may have for your child’s class placement for 2021. These considerations should be important for the education and wellbeing of your child. Requests for a particular teacher, gender of a teacher, multiple friends etc, are usually not appropriate nor a priority. It is very important for parents to understand that creating classes is detailed and exacting work completed by the teachers to ensure that your child is placed in an appropriate class group each year. When considering class groupings, teachers will look specifically at your child’s educational and social needs and place them with a teacher and peers that will support their development. Requests are to be emailed to me at: michael.green@cg.catholic.edu.au by Friday 6 November 2020. Please be aware that each request will be considered separately and by no means are all requests met. Requests from previous years are not kept on file or considered, as situations change each year. If you would like a previous request to be considered again, you are asked to send in a new request for 2021.


Annual Satisfaction Surveys
At the end of last term, I received Mt Carmel School's annual satisfaction survey report. The parent and student surveys at Mt Carmel School were undertaken in August 2020. Invitations containing a link to the on-line survey instrument were sent to all parents and to students in Years 3 to 6. The survey remained open for 14 days. Parents who had not completed the survey were sent a reminder three days before the surveys closed. 74 of the 153 parents completed the survey (48% completion rate is considered very good). 147 of the 183 students completed the survey (80% completion rate is considered excellent).

Parents and students were asked to express their satisfaction in response to a number of statements. Parent and student responses were scored as follows:

Strongly DISAGREE — 0
DISAGREE — 1
AGREE — 2
Strongly AGREE — 3

The average score for each statement is colour coded for quick reference:

Whilst feedback from both parents and students is positive overall—students feel safe and happy at school and parents recognise that their children are being engaged and challenged in their learning—there are certainly areas in which the school has work to do, including in communication around differentiation, assessment and reporting. The information gathered from the parent and student surveys will help inform our 2021 Annual Improvement Plan. Executive summary reports of the parent and student surveys are attached to this newsletter, for your information.


Ooshie Swap Day
An OOSHIE Swap Day will be held in the PAC at Mt Carmel this Thursday 22 October at lunch time. Bring any OOSHIES you want to swap; do not bring along the ones you want to keep. Also, any DONATIONS of OOSHIES—both the current type as well as previous types—will be accepted as they will be given to some outback NSW schools where the students have not had access to a Woolies store. If you have any of the Woolies cards these will be collected as well for donating.

May God’s peace be in your families,

Michael Green
Principal