Assistant Principals’ News

LEARNING JOURNEYS

At Infant Jesus our goal is to develop a community which fosters life-long learning and an attitude which promotes achievement of full potential in an environment embedded in our Gospel values.

Our Learning Journey session enables parents, children and the school to come together to support, share and celebrate each child’s learning.

At Infant Jesus School our Vision for Learning is based on our beliefs that:

Children are competent and bring a wealth of experiences and knowledge to the learning task.
Children are involved in making choices which supports their unique way of learning.
Children are engaged in meaningful and purposeful tasks which include action and reflection.

The aims of a Learning Journey are:

To allow children to take responsibility and be accountable for their learning.
To help children build reflection and goal setting for their own learning.
To help children develop a love of learning and begin to see themselves as life long learners.
To encourage a wider range of child/parent communication.
To enhance / support parent communication and participation in school.
For children to develop pride in their learning.
To encourage communication that focuses on learning and development.

At the end of the Learning Journey session, parents are encouraged to fill out a short survey in the class. As a school, we are keen to get feedback on how we can improve our Teaching and Learning and this is one strategy we are adopting to gather some further information about our school.

Parents are reminded that the class Learning Journeys will take place on Monday 17 September from 3.30pm – 5.50pm for Pre-Primary to Year 6 classes and on Wednesday 19 September for Kindy classes. Each Learning Journey will be 20 minutes and times need to booked using Parent Teacher Online.

LEARNING JOURNEYS – PARENT TEACHER ONLINE

For these interviews we are continuing to use the internet-based booking system called Parent Teacher On-Line (PTO). It will save time for parents, staff and students!

Using this system you will be able to book the interview times that suit you best from any internet-connected computer. A computer will be available in the library during school hours if you do not have internet access at home or elsewhere.

Please access the system as follows:

Go to the school’s home page: http://www.infantjesus.wa.edu.au/pto
Click “Obtain PIN/Password” and enter your email address. Your PIN will be emailed to you. This will email you your password to access PTO. Please note that the email address is the email address that you have provided as contact details with the school.

Full instructions are provided to you after log in. Please note the following points:

When you log on, the system displays only your own child/children. Bookings are made for individual parents/guardians, not for couples. Couples can however log on to the system simultaneously to coordinate bookings. If two parents/guardians wish to attend a single interview time slot, one parent/guardian should make the booking then both can attend.
You will only see time slots that are available at the time you are using the system. As time slots are booked for teachers, those time slots are no longer displayed as available. PTO prevents double-booking of teachers or parents/guardians.
When you have made all the bookings you require, you can download or email a report of your bookings in time order for printing.
Other parents may be making bookings at the same time that you are using the system. It is possible, though unlikely, that a time slot is displayed to you as available, but is then booked by another parent shortly afterwards. If you then attempt to book this time slot it will not be available and a message will be displayed to indicate this.
If you encounter any problems using PTO please contact the school office or email Frank Colangelo, directly on frank.colangelo@cewa.edu.au.

I am sure the system will be of benefit to students, parents and staff. Any feedback you may wish to provide will be most welcome.

WHAT TO BRING TO SCHOOL AND WHAT TO LEAVE AT HOME?

Over the years we have all seen lots of somewhat ‘gimmicky’ but very well-presented items that all children can easily access. One of the latest is from a supermarket where tiny items are collected to make a shop. These miniature items are much treasured and keenly collected. It is quite a challenge to ensure all the items have been added and there is a great sense of achievement when the set is complete.

Collecting these items can take place in many ways. However, at Infant Jesus School, we expect that these special items would be left at home as they can be damaged or lost. Children may then become upset which then further impacts their learning as they are distracted by their own items that have been lost or damaged. Indeed, if we see these items at school we remind the students that they need to be left at home.

If children are bringing their own resources to school eg. mini shop items, AFL Football Cards etc it also creates a challenge for those children who do not have these items but would like to join in.

At school, therefore, we ensure that all students are provided with a variety of options before school, at recess and at lunch. Equipment and resources are available for all students to access. We expect that children look after and share the equipment and resources as this further develops both responsibility and their social skills which are essential for life.

INFANT JESUS DAY

Infant Jesus Day was a fabulous day full of celebration of our community from the past, to the present and the future.

During the day there were a number of competitions with many prizes!!! The prizes were presented to the following students at the assembly last Monday morning. Congratulations to our: