On Tuesday of this week, I had the pleasure of meeting with the Honourable Blair Boyer, Minister for Education to discuss aspects of our school infrastructure that we believe are well overdue for renewal.

The minister was accompanied by a key adviser, and Catherine Hutchesson, our local state member for Waite.

Working with Ms Hutchesson and members of the Governing Council we are strongly advocating for new buildings to replace the well and truly outdated demountable buildings on the southern side of our school.

The minister was very complimentary of the learning programs operating here at Coro while also acknowledging the poor state of our existing infrastructure. We also spoke about the challenge of school upgrades right across the state, with a large number of other schools in a similar situation.

We realise that any building replacement will be a lengthy process, however, we are also thankful that the minister will speak with Asset Services within the Department to ascertain the condition and needs of our school site.

Book Week 2024

We are excited to be celebrating Book Week from Monday 19th August through to Friday 23rd August.

Book Week officially runs from the 17th of August to the 23rd of August, (Week 5) in conjunction with the Children’s Book Council of Australia (CBCA). This year the theme is “Reading is Magic”. Reading is Magic CBCA Shortlist Video

For further details please see the separate article below.

Progressive Achievement Tests

Later this term, students in years 2-6 will be participating in the annual Progressive Achievement Tests – PAT-Reading and PAT-Maths.

The Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) are online reading comprehension and maths assessments aligned to the Australian Curriculum. The tests are administered each year and provide teachers with information about the learning strengths and needs of their students.

Year 1 Phonics Screening Check

Again this year all students in Year 1 will participate in a phonics screening check. The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check assesses how students blend sounds together to read a word. The data from these tests will inform our teachers of the teaching of reading for our Early Years students.

What is phonics?

Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds and is vital in learning to read. Some children struggle with learning to read so it is important that these children are identified quickly so teachers can plan for any specific support they may need.

What is the Year 1 Phonics Screening Check?

The Year 1 Phonics Screening Check is a short, quick assessment that tells teachers how your child is progressing in phonics. Your child will sit with the class teacher and will be asked to read 40 words aloud. These words include 20 real words and 20 nonsense words. The test normally takes a few minutes. If your child is struggling the teacher will stop the check. The check is carefully designed not to be stressful for your child.

Teachers then analyse the results and, if necessary, plan for any additional support that students might require.

Why use nonsense words?

The assessment includes pseudo or nonsense words to see if the student is able to use their knowledge of blending to read a word rather than their memory of having seen that word before.

More information

If you have any further questions, please talk to your child’s class teacher.

Parent Survey

Parents are invited to complete the 2024 annual Public Education Parent Survey. The 2024 parent survey opened mid to late July and closes at midnight on Sunday 8 September. During the survey window, you should receive an email or SMS from the Parent Survey Team with a unique link to participate in the survey.

If you did not receive an email or SMS with your unique survey link by Friday 9 August 2024, please check your spam or junk folders. Otherwise, please contact education.ParentSurvey@sa.gov.au and include our school’s name in your email. A new survey will be sent to you.

The survey takes less than 10 minutes and will help us understand:

• what we’re doing well
• where we can improve
• what’s important to you.

It has been coordinated centrally so that added administration workload isn’t placed on the school. Your answers won’t identify you or your child. Only collated feedback will be provided to our school. Information collected will inform school improvement planning and activities at the school. The survey closes at midnight on Sunday 8 September.