NAPLAN

At Wyvern we place a strong emphasis on maintaining a balanced and engaging curriculum in both the lead up to, and during NAPLAN testing week. We challenge, encourage and support your son to achieve his personal best in the tests and we do all we can to ensure that the classroom climate is one of low anxiety. Judging from the positive feedback from students about their experience of NAPLAN testing this week it does seem that our approach strikes the right balance. I congratulate Year 5 and Year 3 students and teachers for their excellent effort shown during this week’s NAPLAN assessments. We expect the results from the assessments to be available towards the end of Term 3.

MOTHER’S DAY BREAKFAST

I thank the P & F, Emma Cope, Sally Hassen, Sarah Pussell, Kathy Burshtein, Wendy Stanton, Cath Walters, Denise Hunt, Johnny Lee, Katia and Fotis for organising an excellent Mother’s Day breakfast last Friday morning. The wonderful attendance and superb tone made the event a very special one. Thank you to Penny Tucker for the donated roses from Flowers on Norton and Julie Maree Wood for her generous donation of her beautiful cookbook to mothers on the day. I also thank the hard-working  team of Year 5 mothers,  Nicky Harmer, Julie Maree Wood and Rachael Eagleton, who coordinated the selection, ordering and distribution of Mother’s Day gifts.

BUILDING LEARNING POWER PARENT INFORMATION SESSIONS 

On Thursday 22 May, Mrs. Cate Fryda, our Learning Framework Leader, will conduct parent information sessions about our BLP Learning Framework at Wyvern. The meetings will be held in the Library with options at either 8:30am or 6:00pm. We look forward to seeing many parents attending as Mrs Fryda sets out how we equip your sons with lifelong 21^st century learning skills.

PUPIL FREE DAY ON 6 JUNE

A reminder that 6 June (Friday before the Queen’s Birthday Public Holiday) is a pupil free day. On that day Wyvern staff are looking forward to working with Bronwyn MacLeod, author and co-author of five educational texts on curriculum differentiation and gifted education. She is the author of Module 5 of the Australian Government’s Gifted and Talented Teaching Package, and has planned, implemented and published school action research projects for Independent Schools of Queensland, Sydney Diocesan Catholic Education, and the Independent Schools of Western Australia. Bronwyn also works with schools and educational authorities in New Zealand, South-East Asia and Africa.

Bronwyn is also the Convenor of the Certificate of Gifted Education and lectures in the Masters of Education courses at the University of New South Wales. She is also the director of COGE Online for the University of New South Wales and has taught mixed ability and self-contained gifted classes from K-12 in government and independent schools.

DEBATING SUCCESS

On Friday 9 May, the Year 6 debaters travelled to Meriden School, where they debated the topic ‘All Children Should Learn to Cook at School’. Our two teams, one on the affirmative side and one on the negative side, debated passionately against some very tough competition. It was a close competition with sophisticated arguments on both sides. We are thrilled to announce that both of our teams won on the day!

We are  looking forward to hosting the next debate on Friday 23 May at 2.00pm against St Patricks and Santa Sabina where both Years 5 and 6 Debating teams will be debating ‘That a Good Book is Better than a Good Movie’. Please feel free to join us on this occasion.

Ian Holden
Head of Wyvern House