Semester One Student Reports

St Joseph’s Merewether, Semester One student reports will be released via Compass on Monday 3rd August 2020.

As previously mentioned, these reports have been modified to reflect the changes to student learning throughout Term 1 and Term 2. Please see important information for parents and carers, provided by the Catholic Schools Office below:

Information for Parents and Caregivers 

The 2020 school year has been like no other. During the educational response to Covid-19, students have been engaged in both school-based and home-based learning. It is acknowledged that this learning has been supported by the hard work and commitment of both teachers and parents/carers.

The opportunity to provide a formal report this semester is important, however, the report will look different because of the changes to learning so far this year and will focus on the learning that has happened both at home and school. It will focus on the outcomes taught and assessed. The purpose of this report is to help parents and carers understand how their child is going at this time and what can be done to support future learning.

All Education Authorities recognise the need for flexibility in usual reporting practices at this time so, based on the advice from the Education Minister, schools will report on student progress without the usual A-E or equivalent grading. This is for Semester One only.

Please note:

• This report includes periods of full and part time home learning.
• Evidence of learning and behaviours demonstrated both during school and home learning have been used to inform all aspects of this report.
• The A-E Grade scale will not be used to report student achievement.
• Teacher professional judgement of student achievement relative to their peer group at this point in time will inform these reports.
• Only NSW Syllabus outcomes taught and assessed this semester will be used to measure achievement.
• In Primary schools, achievement will only be recorded for Religious Education, English and Mathematics.
• Teacher written comments will be minimal.

Unfortunately, at the moment we are unable to have our usual format of parent-teacher interviews at the end of Semester One. If you would like to speak with your child’s teacher please call the Office or email admin@merewether.catholic.edu.au. Class teachers will be informed of your communication and will be touch to organise an interview.  At this point in time these will be held over the telephone or Zoom. Thank you for your understanding in regards to this procedure.

Semester Two Student Council

During Week 1, each class reflected on the qualities of leadership as they voted for their Semester 2 Student Council Representatives. We wish to congratulate the following students:

These students received their Student Council badges this afternoon. We look forward to a great semester working on a variety of initiatives together.

Thank you again to all our Semester One council members who represented both their class and St Joseph’s with great maturity, leadership and pride.

Australian Catholics Young Journalist Award 

In Term 2, Year 6 students entered the Australian Catholics Young Journalist Competition.  The theme this year was ‘Living It Up’. Students were asked to think of inspiring stories within the community and report on the journey of the people behind them.  2020 has been an exciting year for the competition as it was first time digital and photo journalism were added to the traditional print journalism category.

We are pleased to announce that five of our highly talented writers have received special recognition for their work.

In the category of digital journalism we congratulate - 

Winner - Maddi Gill for her podcast interviewing Mike Campbell

Runner Up - Ivy Kiem for her video interviewing Richard Owens

Highly Commended - Nina Amidy for her video interviewing Genevieve Burke

In the category of print journalism we congratulate - 

Runner Up - Will Boyle for his article sharing Grant Nickel's story titled Freedom Wheels

Highly Commended - Ava Williams for her article sharing Lynda Sorby's story titled Lynda's Story

To have so many students recognised from one school is truly impressive. Well done to all Year 6 students, but particularly our five mentioned above.  We are very proud of you!

School Photos and Video

We have a new provider this year for our school photos, Newcastle School Portraits. Our school photos will be taken on Tuesday, 15th September (Term 3, Week 9).

Newcastle School Portraits produced a video for our school. It captures our school community in a very special way. Our Facebook page has a shorter version, but when you have a moment, please check out our school website for the extended version www.merewether.catholic.edu.au