Principal's News

                                                                                                                                                                                Dear Parents and Carers,

Happy St Kevin’s Day to all students and families! 

Confirmation

Congratulations to the candidates who were sealed with the fruits and gifts of the Spirit through the Sacrament of Confirmation last Sunday. Bishop Les Tomlinson was most impressed with the knowledge our students expressed in relation to Confirmation. He spoke to the students and teachers at the Confirmation Retreat Day.  The challenge for all is to live in the spirit and embrace goodness, kindness and self control in all we do in our everyday lives.

Congratulations to Fulvia Gerosolimo (REL) Ana Saro, Tiziana D’Costa, Nadia  and Pam for organising such beautiful liturgies and Rebecca Corcoglioniti the Year 5/6 teacher who prepared the students so well. Thank you also to the families of the candidates. We continue to pray for these students and their families. 

Cross Country 

I was incredibly proud of all the students who trained in the cold and rain to get fit and prepare for Cross Country on Tuesday and Thursday morning.  You are all incredible! Thank you to Mr Peter Scarfo for facilitating the event and supporting students and families. Also, thank you to parents for bringing in dry clothes and getting the students here early and ready to go! Well done team! 

Congratulations to the 26 students who participated in the Cross Country event this year.  An amazing achievement for Lennix who came 2nd in the event!   There are  — Catholic and government schools in this district!  Top job Lennix we are all so proud of you!  Wish you well for regionals! 

Kiara came 11th!  Great achievement!  

Tiago also came 11th!   Inspirational!

Scholastic Book Fair 

The Scholastic Book Fair has been a great success at St Kevin’s! We look forward to hearing how much we raised in the next few weeks!  Thank you to Jo Matarazzo for all the organising and setting up of this extravaganza in the Library. 

Big thank you to Renee W, Sophia Z, Bridget B, Poppy K, Ariana T, Diaz C and Susie for volunteering their time and skills assisting at the Book Fair. TOP JOB!

Parent Teacher Student Conversations

Parent Teacher Student Conversations will take place on Wednesday 21st of June between 12:30pm and 5:30pm.

Students will finish school at 12pm on that day.  All students are required to attend the Conversations as this is a perfect opportunity to review achievements so far and then set goals.  Reports will be sent to the Compass Parent Portal on Monday 20th  June. Please ensure you can log in and receive messages etc.

Email Mr Con or myself if you are experiencing difficulties with your Compass account.

Student attendance 

Remember that students are expected to be at school by 8:45am.  It is very unsettling to miss out on the first welcome activities of the day.  We are striving to set up the best learning environment, being present and ready to commence mindfulness activities at 8:50am is very important and settling for all to be present and ready.  Thank you for your support with making this happen.

Professional Learning

St Kevin’s, St Gregory and St Charles staff will attend a Spirituality Day at St Charles this Friday 2nd June.  Staff will select which workshops they would like to attend.  These workshops are facilitated by MACS staff, REL’s and past principals as invited guest speakers.  

SPEAK UP 

The Staff participated in a Professional Learning Session focusing on Speak Up! 

Speak Up is a program available only to MACS schools used to record language.  The program records voice and it provides data on word accuracy, word count and 

sentence structure.  The program is a word to text program and annotates as the learner speaks. Samples are stored and teachers can reflect on the students progress over time.

The teachers will decide how often the students will complete ‘Speak Up’ and the data will eventually be displayed on Seesaw and student formal reports.

Student Attitude and Behaviour

Together we can build positive behaviour and attitudes. I honestly believe this and research strongly supports that parent partnership assists with the achievement and improvement of learning and behaviour. 

So this is why I call out to all parents and carers to have a chat to their child/children about  appropriate and inappropriate behaviour.  This is because staff and I have noticed some behaviours that are not acceptable in the playground and in the classrooms.  

Unfortunately we have to speak to parents about some students' behaviour that include exclusion behaviour, bad language, treating each other harshly and behaviour that is disrespectful to Staff, Casual Relief Teachers and students.  There have been CRT (Casual Relief Teachers) who are refusing to work in certain year levels because of the lack of respect.  I am sure you all understand how difficult it is to firstly replace teachers and then when they are selective it makes it quite a challenge to replace staff.

To support us with Behaviour Management we have a PBL (Positive Behaviour in Learning) Coach and the teachers meet regularly to discuss implementation of this program.  At the moment we are working on a Behaviour Management Plan and this has been shared with SAC (School Advisory Council) and will be shared with parents very soon.

We need to turn the attitude around to ensure positivity as students continue to build ownership and responsibility of their own behaviour.  Please have a chat with your child/ren about how they can best build positive partnerships with staff and be respectful.  I would appreciate your assistance with this matter and it is on the agenda for the next SAC meeting for discussion and actioning.  

Be conscious of your attitude. Work extra hard at keeping your attitude positive in all kinds of weather, through all the challenges of life. – Catherine Pulsifer

Communication to Admin - Office and Bursar

This is the new administration email address: stksecretary@sktemplestowelr.catholic.edu.au  if you need to communicate with the office please email this address and Selena and/or Tina will respond to you.  

This email is not checked on the weekend or after office hours therefore please email me if you require immediate assistance.  gleone@sktemplestowelr.catholic.edu.au

Seesaw 

Statistics for Seesaw - Each newsletter I will present data for the week

Congratulations Students, Staff, Parents and Carers for responding to students' work!

Attendance

A quick reminder that it is so important to have the students at school on time.  When a student is on time they begin the day calmly, organised and settled. They are able to follow instructions and participate in the Welcome Circle that sets a positive mindset for the day.  They are able to greet each other and the teacher and follow instructions with ease and comfort.  When students are late, they feel unsettled and uneasy. Everything can be more challenging and difficult.  They also miss out on announcements and the daily schedule.

We want all our students to succeed, be happy and safe.  I understand that it sometimes happens but please try and be here on time!

Preps 2024 

Prep Enrolments are now required to be completed and sent in! Email me or let the office know if you need an enrolment form.  Confirmation letters went out last week to enrolled families!

Working Bee

Thank you to the parents who responded and assisted at the Working Bee last week. The hard working parents commenced working on the Uniform Shop and this will continue.

Jo Harman, Elena Cappellotto, Fangmei Fang, Sandra and Jim Tsiotinas & Suzanne Lane 

St Kevin’s Running Club 

Running Club will recommence on Tuesday 8:15am and will run every week till end of term supervised by Peter Scarfo.  All students are welcome to participate (Prep to 6).

Assemblies for Term 2

Term 2   Week 8 -  Wednesday  14/06    Whole School Assembly  2:30pm

Italian for the Term 2 Week 6 

Preps, Year 1 and 2:

In Week 5 Students learnt to say the name of school objects and this is extended into sentences for example “Posso avere la matita, la gomma e la forbice per favore?”

“Can I please have the pencil, the eraser and the scissors please?”In Week 6 Students practised all the vocabulary learnt before and revised the colour of objects, for example “Posso avere il libro blu e la matita rossa per favore?”

“Can I please have the blue book and the red pencil?’

Year 3,4,5 and 6:

In Week 5 Students learnt about the colours, and we described school object, for example:

• La matita blu ~ the blue pencil
• Il libro verde ~ the green book

In Week 6 The students investigated matching the gender of a classroom object - for example: - la penna nera, il libro nero

- la gomma rossa, il quaderno rosso

They investigated that some colours do not have a feminine or masculine so they do not change, for example:

• La forbice rosa, il diario rosa - The red scissors the red diary
• La riga arancione, il computer arancione - The orange ruler the orange computer

Second Hand Uniform Shop 

Thank you to everyone who has dropped off some uniforms. 

Please spread the message. If anyone has any spare St Kevin’s uniforms they are no longer in need of, especially in sizes 10-14, and are in  good, clean condition, please ask them to drop them off at the school.  Our families appreciate the option of being able to purchase a second hand uniform.

Compass ONLY in Term 2

Reminder to download Compass. We currently have 29 parents who have not downloaded the app.  We have communicated with most parents and some have now joined Compass. 

 It is so important that everyone gets onto it ASAP.  I will continue to send daily reminders to parents who have not joined Compass.

All the very best to James Gallagher and family.  We wish James and his family a safe trip to Ireland and Scotland.  We hope to hear from you soon!

Every blessing, 

Gabee Leone