Dear Families,

It is great to see blue skies and sunshine even though we are edging close to winter!

Our Walk to School Day was wonderfully successful last Friday morning and I thank you all for getting into the spirit of the event. It was great to see so many people and hear the happy buzz amongst our students! We were able to chat about some imporatnt safety messages about travelling to and from school and hopefully all families were able to continue these imporatnt conversations at home. Congratulations to our SRC for their organisation of the morning under the guide of our Wellbing and Family Engagement Leader Mr Ru!! Please read more about Walk to School day in our newsletter and view some happy snaps of our morning!!

Our Cybersafety Parent Night last Wednesday was well attended with over 60 parents coming along to hear from our facilitators Marty and Carley McGuarin on Raising Kds in a Digital World. The messages around supervision and open communication with your child can not be underestimated. Feedback from the evening thus far has been very positive. Please read more about the Parent Night later in this Newsletter.

My thanks to Nick Hoare and Georgina Torrisi and team for their organisation.

ILLNESS

There have been many articles and media reports in recent weeks about staff and student absences caused by cases of COVID, flu and other illnesses. At SJV we are currently experiencing these challenges too. A number of our staff are ill and we have a high number of students who are absent due to ill health. I am sure many of your families have experienced or are getting over these viruses and bugs.

In terms of student learning, be assured however that we continue to do our best to minimise disruption to student learning. It is very difficult to engage Casual Relief Teachers, and so at times your child may have various teachers across the week. We have a very dedicated and flexible staff and I thank our Intervention teachers and leadership team for taking classes to ensure our students learning is our priority.

At school we will continue to implement and encourage good hygiene practices.

If your child is unwell keep them at home and continue to test for COVID if you have symptoms.

NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME (NSS)

Our students participated in National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) today. Each year, a book is selected to be read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, bookshops and many other places around Australia and New Zealand. This year's NSS book is Family Tree by Josh Pyke and Ronojoy Ghosh. This event is held annually and aims to promote the value of reading and literacy as well as celebrate Australian literature. Prep - Year 6 students enjoyed listening to and discussing the story in their classes and will be invited to complete a follow up activity in library lessons next week.

NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK

National Reconciliation Week begins this Friday. National Reconciliation Week is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. This year's theme is 'Be Brave. Make Change.' Students will be invited to participate in a range of activities related to National Reconciliation Week both in their classes and the library.

PARISH FETE

There will be a Fete Meeting to discuss interest in a fete for 2022 or 2023. This will be held on Tuesday 31May at 7:30pm in the Parish Meeting Room off the hall. All welcome.

OUT OF SCHOOL CARE - CAMP AUSTRALIA - HOLIDAY PROGRAM

If you are interested in participating in a holiday program at SJV please email me your expression of interest. For this to occur firstly, there needs to be a solid number of parents wishing their child to enrol. The costs for participation in the holiday program can be found on the CAMP AUSTRALIA website.

amullaly@sjvmulgrave.catholic.edu.au

COVID UPDATES - RATS

The latest advice from MACS:

It is recommended that from next Monday 23rd May, RATs are used by students and staff when symptomatic.
RATs are also required to be used for five days if a student or staff member is a close contact of a confirmed case and they are attending or working at a school.
From Monday 23rd May 2022, we do not recommend that non-symptomatic students or staff conduct RATs twice a week in mainstream schools.
Students and staff must continue to notify the Department of Health and their school if they return a positive RAT result.
Vaccination remains the best way to protect students and staff in school settings, and your ongoing support in encouraging children aged 5 to 11 to get vaccinated and staff and 16–17 year olds to get their third dose remains critical.

PARKING

Take Care at Drop off and Pick ups

Please be patient, careful and considerate of our students, toddlers, parents and community members at pick up and drop off.

Please be very mindful and careful of pedestrian traffic (students and community members) crossing at the driveway exit to our car park. Students must be escorted by an adult to and from the car in the church carpark.

Please obey all traffic signs and rules around the school.

DO NOT :

park in the NO STANDING area on the corner of Studley St and Bevis St.
reverse from Bevis Street corner into Studley Street
Get out of your car on St Johns Way - it is a kiss and drop zone

YEAR 6 CAMP DATES AND PARENT MEETING

The Year 6 Camp to Phillip Island Adventure Resort will take place from Tuesday July 12th - Friday July 15th. This is the first week of Term 3.

A Parent Meeting will be held on Thursday June 16th at school at 2:30pm. This will be held in the Performing Arts Area. In the interim, any questions about school camp please direct to the class teacher or Camp Coordinator Tony Nguyen.

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS (JUNE)

The Term 2 Parent Teacher Interviews will be held on:

TUESDAY 21st June 3:30pm - 6:30pm

WEDNESDAY 22nd June 1:45pm - 8pm.

Please note that on Wednesday 22nd June the students will be dismissed at 1:10pm

Bookings will be opened later.

Birthdays

We wish the following students a fantastic day on their birthday!!! May you feel very special...

Happy Birthday! We hope that you enjoy(ed) your special day!