Executive Director's welcome

A very warm welcome back to Term 2, a long one of 11 weeks!

Although just commencing week 3, we note from the many phone calls to the office that you are all getting on with the great work that you do, ensuring our schools continue to be the vibrant communities that they have become known for!

It seems for the last couple of years that we start every term with some significant challenge or disaster whether it be bushfires, floods, Covid-19 and this time round a cyclone. Although we are thankful that there were no lives lost, we know that communities will be impacted in different ways. It is as always during times like these, heartwarming to see communities come together to help each other, whether that be physically, emotionally or financially. We also thank the SES volunteers from around the state who flew to Kalbarri and other affected areas to assist with the clean up. As our thoughts and prayers remain with the communities affected by Cyclone Seroja, it is a reminder to us to continually keep our eyes and ears open to those in our communities who may be struggling in ways which are not as overt as this and reach out to them where we can.

In our last newsletter we referred to the fact that some P&Fs /parent groups were still meeting via Zoom or Teams whilst others were getting together again face to face. It seems from listening to parents that while some P&Fs /parent groups are going ahead in leaps and bounds others are struggling somewhat, firstly in recruiting volunteers and others in determining what their role actually is. We have discussed this at length, both in the office and also with our counterparts in other states. We feel that there is an opportunity here for a conversation around what the current role of a parent group is within the school and what will it look like as we move forward. Our world is changing very rapidly and as parents/carers who volunteer within the rapidly changing education sector we need to ensure that the work we engage in, not only continues to reflect the world we live in, but importantly continues to add strength to the Catholic schools we choose to educate our children in. This positive action will in turn ensure more positive outcomes for our children and young people. As an overarching body, CSPWA seeks to assist parents and their school communities with the support they need to make this difference and to help us do this we want to hear from you. We are very keen to hear from both primary and secondary school parents who would be interested in being part of two reference groups to contribute to this conversation. If you would like further information at this stage, please don’t hesitate to call the office.

NAPLAN returns this month after being cancelled last year due to Covid-19. Parents /carers have an important role in supporting their childrens’s wellbeing through NAPLAN. It should be noted that NAPLAN stands for National Assessment Program for Literacy and Numeracy. It assesses the key skills of literacy and numeracy, providing vital information for our schools and systems which will in turn help teachers to provide appropriate support for our children where it is needed.

The Psychology team at CEWA have developed  a very useful resource for parents of those children in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 who will be sitting the assessments in the coming weeks. You will find this resource further down in this newsletter.

Most of you will have read in the last newsletter that we have been recruiting for a new Liaison Officer to fill the big shoes left behind by Theresa McDonnell. That process has now been completed and we look forward to introducing our new staff member in the next couple of weeks.

However, what this has meant is that we have decided to move the CSPWA Conference back to August this year. We are currently finalising a date that doesn’t clash with rugby matches (!) and the like, so keep an eye on our FB page to keep up to date with that. Lotterywest have kindly agreed to roll over our grant application from last year, which allows us to provide financial assistance to those parents outside the metro area to attend and participate in the conference. If you would like to find out more about this great opportunity, please call the CSPWA office on 08 9338 9985 or Siobhan on 0409 025 683.

Please note however the CSPWA AGM will take place seperately from the conference this year. You will find the notice further down in the newsletter providing details of the evening. It is important that if you are interested in participating that you register your interest so that you can be sent the Zoom link. In addition, if you are interested in information regarding nominating to CSPWA council please call Siobhan on 0409 025 683 to discuss.

That just leaves me to wish you a very fruitful and positive Term 2, all 11 weeks of it! Please remember that we are here to assist parents with whatever challenges you may encounter but also to celebrate your successes. If you are doing something at your school that you would like to share, please get in touch, we would love to feature your story in a future newsletter.

With best wishes.

Siobhan