From the Principal

Welcome Back as we reach for the STARS!!

We are delighted to welcome all our students, staff and families back to St Francis de Sales for Term 3. We hope you had a great break with your children and we are now all refreshed and ready for an exciting term of learning and FUN activities.

This week NASA has released an image of far-flung galaxies as they were 13 billion years ago, the first glimpse from the most powerful telescope ever launched into space, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) which promises to reshape our understanding of the dawn of the universe. It is an historic moment as we get a window into stars and galaxies never seen before. We continue to learn about our self and our world. This term we hope that together we can support our children to reach new heights and depths in their learning as they too reach for stars and realise new frontiers never reached before.

A STAR is BORN!!!

On Thursday 14 July we were all very excited as Andi headed to Yarra Glen Racecourse to participate in the Victorian Cross Country Championships. WE are delighted to announce that Andi came fifth in her race and has qualified to race in the Nationals. The National Championships will be held in Adelaide on the 26 August. Andi was presented with her uniform as she will compete as part of the Victorian Team. This is an outstanding achievement. We have never had a studnet get to State level and now we have a student from our school in the Nationals!! We are so proud of Andi.

Andi was supported at the race today by our students who qualified for the district Cross Country, along with Lulli and Kristy. Our entire staff and students were so thrilled, that they wanted to plan an extra special surprise welcome back for Andi. They made posters and we had streamers, pom poms and balloons. We all lined the corridor to cheer and welcome Andi back. Andi was our super STAR today and she was supported by an entire school of twinkling little stars. We were all so happy for Andi.

A Star is Born

First Eucharist

We wish all our children making their First Eucharist this Sunday a very special day. We pray that the blessings of Christ be with them always. May this day be the beginning of many special days as they receive the Eucharist and know God's blessings in their life.

The SLAB has been POURED!!

We came back from our holidays to find the building site looking different with the reinforcement all in place for the concrete pour.

On Friday 15 July was the BIG day! We had to close down the staff carpark for the day to parents and visitors as the concrete was poured from the carpark in front of the portable as well as from the driveway behind the portable. The work commenced at 4:30am!!! We had concrete trucks enter and leave all day to get our slab poured. It all had to be done in one pour. We are thankful for the weather and all the support from our community that enabled this important stage to be completed. It was an exciting day for our children to witness the changes as the concrete was pumped onto the building site. We are now off the ground and ready to see the next exciting stage take place.

Grandparents Day

Please save the date!!

We are going to have a grandparents morning on Monday 1st August from 10am to just after 12noon. There will be an Operoo out early next term so we can get an idea of numbers. We look forward to grandparents visiting the learning spaces to do some activities with our students, having a morning tea in the community room and joining the students for a special prayer of thanks to conclude the morning.

Launch of Protective Behaviour for Learning

We will be launching Protective Behaviours for Learning at St Francis de Sales on

Monday 25th July

There will be a day of FUN activities and a special lunch

Children are invited to dress in HAPPY colours.

Our Expected Behaviour are:

RESPECT

RESPONSIBILITY

KINDNESS

Thanks for those who have sent in their mascot ideas. There is still time to enter and submit a drawing by next Monday 18 July.

Siblings for Prep 2023 Receive Acceptance!

Interviews for the Prep of new families commencing in 2023 will commence in next week. Letter of acceptance for Foundation 2023 will go out to these families by August.

If you still have not dropped in your enrolment application, please do this now so you do not miss out. Please help pass this information on to family, friends and neighbours looking to enrol their child at St Francis de Sales for 2023.

Orientation Program will commence in October.

Staff PD Day Friday 22 July - School Closed

COVID Safety

We still require your support to keep our school COVID safe and to ensure the health of staff and students. Masks are encouraged and strongly encouraged when attending meetings. Parents are invited to attend Morning Gatherings as we move to pre-Covid life with safety and care.

If a student or staff member is a household contact or household-like contact they are no longer required to quarantine. They must:

Notify the school that they are a household or household-like contact and that they are attending school during the 7-day period.
Undertake rapid antigen testing 5 times within the 7-day period.
Wear a face mask at school when indoors during the 7-day period if they are aged 8 years or above, unless they have a valid exemption.
If symptomatic, stay/return home, take a rapid antigen test, or get a PCR test if RAT kit is unavailable.

If a student or staff member has been in contact with a case of COVID-19, including at school or at work, they must:

If asymptomatic, continue to attend school and monitor for symptoms.
If symptomatic, all students/staff must stay/return home, take a rapid antigen test, or get a PCR test if a rapid antigen testing kit unavailable. Follow the Checklist for COVID contacts.
On receipt of a negative test result, and if well enough, the student/staff member can return to school.
The school is not required to seek rapid antigen test results from the students or staff unless a positive test is returned.
The school must report positive student cases via the process established by the diocesan education office. Please notify the school immediately.
The school will notify the school community that there has been a case at the school.

Everyone is encouraged to follow COVID safe practices

Avoid people with fevers, sweats, chills or flu-like symptoms.
Use hand sanitiser after contact with commonly touched surfaces.
Maintain good cough etiquette.
Do not touch, kiss or hug others.
Use disinfectant wipes to clean computers and desks between different users and at the end of the day.

Let's keep safe and have a happy and productive term of learning.

Christine White

Principal