PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Dear Parents/Carers,

Welcome back to Term Four. I hope your family had a restful holiday period and everyone is feeling ready for a dynamic Term Four. There is a lot to look forward to from the Sports Carnival to the Walkathon, the Art Show, Year 3/4 Camp and Grandparents Day; Term Four is jam-packed. As always, being the first newsletter of the term, this one is a long one. You will find a list of important dates and related information for each of the major events. This will be complimented by the Term Four Class Newsletter which will be sent out by teachers later next week, outlining the curriculum foci for your child this term.

It’s been a great start to the term, with the children all quite excited to be working in different ways and/or spaces. As communicated previously, the commencement of our refurbishment project is imminent, so moving quickly into our temporary spaces was important to ensure a settled start to the term. If you have not yet popped into your child’s classroom to check it out, you are certainly welcome. One of the major benefits of working in these temporary spaces is the flexibility it offers our staff in grouping children and teaching/learning at their point of need. While it may not be particularly visible to parents, working across year levels to ensure children are being engaged in the learning at their level is a model our staff have been developing significantly throughout this year. Once completed, our new classrooms will offer significant flexibility to ensure this is a consistent feature of our approach to teaching and learning in Reading, Spelling/Phonics, Writing and Mathematics. Once we have some finer details around the site layout, any impacts on access or movement through the school will be communicated. Onwards and upwards at St Agnes’!

St Agnes’ Sports Carnival

On Friday 14th October, all children from Prep-Year 6 will participate in the St Agnes’ Sports Carnival, held at the Rowans Road Athletic Track, Moorabbin (Bricker Reserve). The children have been preparing for their events in PE lessons throughout Term Three and are very excited for the day. The children are to wear their sports uniform for the day and can wear a touch of their house colour with their uniform - hair ties, wrist bands, ribbons, coloured zinc etc. We do require significant parent assistance on the day, so if you are available, please respond to the form on Operoo. Fingers crossed for a beautiful Spring day.

Beachside Division Athletics Competition

Next week, we have 13 students from St Agnes’ heading to Duncan MacKinnon Reserve to compete against students from other schools at the Beachside Division Athletics. The students representing our school were successful at the Holt District event in Term Three, earning their place at the next level of competition. We know the following students will try their best and represent their school with pride. We wish them well.

Girls 9-10y.o

Mackenzie Duddy - 100 Metre sprint, Long Jump

Ava Coates, Rosie Russell, Mia Inwood, Mackenzie Duddy - 4x100 Metre Relay

Boys 9-10y.oCallan Duddy - 800 Metres, 1500 Metres
Girls 11y.o

Erica Vella - 100 Metre sprint

Niamh Bruggeman - 200 Metre Sprint

Sophia Lyras, Alexia Lyras, Erica Vella, Niamh Bruggeman - 4x100 Metre Relay

Alexia Lyras - Triple Jump

Boys 11y.oDaniel Zakhem - High Jump
Girls 12-13y.o 

Chloe Curtin - 100 Metre Sprint, 200 Metre Sprint

Stella Connors - Discus Throw (750g)

Boys 12-13y.o       James O'Reilly - 100 Metre Sprint, High Jump

Transition to Summer Uniform & Uniform Shop

At the beginning of Term Four, the students can start wearing Summer uniform. Until the Melbourne Cup long weekend, students can wear either Summer or Winter uniform, but it must be one or the other, not a mix of both. Hats are compulsory during playtime and outside lessons from the beginning of the term, so please ensure these come back to school as well.

See below the Summer uniform requirements are outlined below:

Boys

Girls

Black Leather School Shoes

Navy school socks

Navy School Shorts

Short sleeved blue school shirt, with logo

Navy school jumper or bomber jacket

Black Leather School Shoes

Navy school socks

Blue and white checkeredSummer school dress

Navy, white or maroon hair accessories

Navy school jumper or bomber jacket

A reminder that in 2023, the Bomber Jacket will be worn only as part of the sports uniform. It is expected in 2023 that all children (with the exception of Year Six students) will have a v-neck woolen school jumper to wear with their school uniform in Winter and cooler days in Term One and Four. 

Hair styles

Hairstyles, in keeping with the concept of uniform, should tend towards being natural and conservative and should therefore conform to the following standards:

  • Hair is to be clean, off the face and appropriately groomed
  • For hygiene reasons, below collar-length hair is to be tied back.
  • No dyed hair
  • Boys’ hair needs to be above the length of the collar and away from the eyes
  • Scrunchies and ribbons used to tie back long hair must be in keeping with the school uniform colours.

Sacrament of Confirmation

On Saturday 15th October at 6pm mass, candidates from our Year 6 class will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. The children have been preparing for this sacrament for some time and we wish them well at this special time. The Sacrament of Confirmation is the final ‘Sacrament of Initiation’, following on from Baptism and Eucharist. The mass will be celebrated by Bishop Tony Ireland and our Parish Priest, Fr Alan Fox. I would like to thank Mrs Aggie Gorski and Mrs Lauren Cummins for preparing the children for this important step in their faith journey.

 

Art Show - Parent Help Needed!

The St Agnes’ School Art Show is happening on Thursday 24th November. Be on the lookout for more information in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we have around 400 pieces of Art work to prepare for presentation on the night. From Week 3 onwards, our Art teacher Mrs Jen Brown is looking for some parent helpers on a Thursday afternoon from 2pm onwards. If you are able to help Jen on a Thursday afternoon, please get in touch with her directly jbrown@sahighett.catholic.edu.au. No expertise is required, it will be efforts such as gluing, labelling and cataloguing the children’s art work. All assistance is appreciated and toddlers welcome.

 

Before and After School Care

Extend are currently experiencing staffing challenges and there has been a short term closure of their services, following the resignation of the program manager. As in many industries, out of hours care are experiencing significant staffing shortages at the moment. I understand that this is a significant issue and inconvenience for those families who use the service regularly and rely up on it for work. Unfortunately, as Extend are an external provider, we have no control over their staffing arrangements. They have had very few applications for the vacant role and are working hard to fill this to ensure the service can resume as soon as possible. I have been told to expect it to return to normal operations by the end of next week. Should you know anyone who might be interested, the details for the vacant role are on the Extend page of this newsletter. On their behalf, I apologise for the inconvenience.

 

School Fees

An updated School Fees statement will be sent out to families before the end of this week. Please contact Shannon in the office to finalise your fees for the year. We appreciate prompt payment.

 

Assembly

For the duration of the renovation project, Wednesday afternoon assemblies will be held in the church from 2.40pm. Parents are welcome to attend. We ask that you come through the school office on Peterson Street and enter the church via the rear entrance. We will continue to have class presentations, awards, birthdays and special announcements each week.

Wednesday 5th Oct - No class presentation

Wednesday 12th Oct - Year 2

Wednesday 19th Oct - Year 4

Wednesday 26th Oct - Year 1

Wednesday 2nd Nov - Choir

Wednesday 9th Nov - Year 3

Wednesday 16th Nov - Year 5

Wednesday 23rd Nov - Prep

Wednesday 30th Nov - Year 3-4 Camp Report

Wednesday 7th Dec - Year 6 Final Assembly

Wednesday 14th Dec - No assembly