General Notices
Art prizes up for grabs when you vote for Keshia
School of Innovation Learning Mentor Keshia Dean has submitted an entry to the Zart Art National Teacher-Artist Prize on behalf of St Anne's College and your votes could help win thousands of dollars worth of art materials for our students to use. Keshia's artwork, called Fiore Rosa (which means "pink flower") was named as a nod to the links to the Italian language throughout our college. This artwork was created during Distance Learning 2.0 and over the summer holidays as an activity to do for some down time.
Keshia Dean
Keshia Dean
Voting is open to the public through the Zart Art website. By voting for Keshia's artwork you can increase the college's chances of winning prizes and resources. Here is the link:
https://www.zartart.com.au/zartstatic/page/national-teacher-artist-prize
The National Teacher-Artist Prize 2021 is a national contemporary two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) art prize sponsored by Zart Art. It aims to encourage, recognise and celebrate the visual arts practice of primary and secondary school educators. This marks the first art prize for teachers. The National Teacher-Artist Prize winner receives a cash prize of $10,000 plus their school will receive art materials from Zart worth $10,000. Seven winners will receive art materials from Zart worth $2,500 in the Highly Commended State-Based Prize. The People's Choice Prize winner will receive an individual cash prize of $2,500. Get your votes in!
Lunch orders available on Wednesdays
Eastwood Orchard will be providing a new way for St Anne's College families to order lunch for their children. Eastwood Orchard has been providing school lunch services to many schools for over 15 years. The family-run business focuses on providing products that are packed with fresh ingredients, lots of fruit and vegies, lower fats and sugars. Products are made with ingredients sourced from their own farm garden or from local suppliers.
The Qkr! App is a secure and easy way to order and pay for your child’s lunch order via your mobile device. Please find the Qkr! ‘How to Guide” attached below.
From Monday, February 22, families will be able to pre-order through the app for the first day of lunch orders on Wednesday, February 24. Orders are only available on Wednesdays and can be made up to two weeks in advance. Ordering closes off at 8:00am Wednesday (of the day you need a school lunch).
A few tips which may help include:
- Once you download the Qkr! app you will need to search for “St Anne’s" in the search bar if you can’t see it on the list. If it’s still not showing you will need to search “all”. Then click on St Anne’s College Kialla.
- Some known errors experienced by families generally include rushing the order and then ordering the wrong products and/or ordering on the wrong date.
- Ordering closes at 8:00am Wednesday (of the day you need a school lunch). Orders and changes after this time are not accepted by the system.
- If you do make a mistake after placing an order, you can change the order (before the 8:00am cut-off time) by doing the following:
- Log in to your Qkr! account
- Tap the menu (3 lines) button at the top and go to "My receipts"
- Click on the relevant date (E.g. 30/03/2021)
- It will then go into your orders. Click on the minus button (one at a time) next to all your orders (if more than one)
- Your order should say "cancelled" and a credit will sit in your Qkr! account for the next lunch order.
Please check Spam and Junk mailboxes
Parents/carers who are having difficulties receiving emails from St Anne's College are asked to please check their 'Spam' and 'Junk' mailboxes.
Learning session times for 2021
8:30am: Learning spaces open
8:55am - 9:05am: Pastoral Group
9:05am - 11:05am: Learning session one
11:05am - 11:35am: Recess/supervised eating/outdoor exploration
11:35am - 1:35pm: Learning session two
1:35pm - 2:05pm: Lunch/supervised eating/outdoor exploration
2:05pm - 3:05pm: Learning session three
3:05pm - 3:15pm: Pastoral Group - reflective practice/goal setting
3:15pm: Dismissal
Town bus passes available from Dyson's
Students who use the town bus system are able to purchase full-term and half-term passes rather than paying for each trip. These passes are available at the Dyson's bus company office.
Feedback form available on PAM
The college has added a link to the parent resources section of PAM which gives access to a feedback form for parents to convey any feedback they would like to provide for the college.
Can you support Lee in the Dash for Dee?
Hi, my name is Lee McCrindle. I’m in Year 9 at St Anne’s College. I am taking part in the March Change for the Cancer Council to raise money for research into finding an end to cancer. One in two Australians will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 85. My nan Dee died from cancer on December 1 last year. She was 73 years old. She started with having trouble breathing, then was diagnosed with cancer and then died one month later. My family want to help all those who are sick and are suffering from this troubling illness. We want to tell cancer where to go! During March my family intend to walk the distance from Shepparton to Coolum Beach, Nan’s favourite place, in the Dash for Dee, which is 1534 km. We would greatly appreciate any sponsorship or donations to help reach our goal of $2000. Here is the link if you would like to donate. Thank you! https://www.themarchcharge.com.au/fundraisers/leemccrindle
Program Support Group Meetings 2021
Program Support Group (PSG) meetings are the formal process of meeting to discuss individual student learning needs and adjustments that are required to support a student's ongoing learning journey. Consultation and collaboration are important elements of personalised learning and support for students at St Anne’s College.
We strongly value the PSG meeting process. In order to support your child in the process, we encourage that it is a collaborative process that celebrates learning and growth, reviews goals and sets new short-term goals and strategies that will support your child to achieve these.
PSG meetings this year will occur in weeks 6 and 8 and if you are a parent whose student is on the list for a PSG meeting, you will be notified of a time for your meeting. If this time does not suit please contact the college as soon as possible to change the time.
As restrictions have currently eased, we will be able to have face-to-face PSG meetings at school, however if it suits you better to have a Google Meet this can be arranged.
Learning plans will be sent out for review via email. Please read over these and update any relevant details and return to the college. While the PSG meeting is the formal communication process within the school, we encourage communication whenever necessary. You can contact your student's Pastoral Group Leader or myself.
- Rebekah Watts, Learner Diversity Leader
Saver Plus offers support for families
Piano lessons available to St Anne's students
Shannon Cooper is available for piano lessons at St Anne's College on Tuesdays and Fridays. Bookings need to be made directly with Shannon. Please see her contact details below. Families can also like Shannon's Facebook page, The Key to Piano.
Why do Catholic schools charge fees?
St Anne’s College, like most other primary and secondary schools, receives operational funding annually based on enrolments supported by the Federal and State Education budgets. However, our level of funding is not at the same rate as a government school due to various factors and
complex formulas. One significant impact applied to our funding is referred to as a Capacity to Contribute (CtC). This funding reduction calculation reflects the idea that
in non-government schools some parents and school communities are more able than others to contribute financially to their child’s education, and are therefore expected to. The CtC is indexed annually at a rate of
around 3.5%, and is linked to our communities Direct Measure of Income (DMI). The DMI is the government’s interpretation of our school
community's income and wealth. The wealthier they assess the school community, the more the government expects families to contribute in fees. Based on St Anne’s College’s current assessment, this impacts our operational funding by a reduction of around 15%.
So, this provides some context around operational funding, but there is also
capital funding shortfalls which we must cover. A government school will
have all of their capital requirements covered, however we must cover
capital funding shortfalls ourselves – a practical example of this is our
current building development stage. This construction project is around
$6 million to complete. Government capital grant funding supports $3 million, but the
remaining $3 million we must borrow via a loan and repay fully with interest
over its term.
As a Catholic college focused on holistic support to our students and
families, we acknowledge that this needs-based funding approach provides
a challenge for us all. To live out our mission and vision priorities, it is
important we support this by way of setting fair and reasonable college
fees, coupled with an expectation that our families commit to supporting
this.
Please find below information regarding our fees, direct debit schedule and the Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) application form.
- David Villani, Business Manager
Shepparton Family and Financial Services support
Please see the below attachment for services offered to vulnerable families by Shepparton Family and Financial Services.
Children's Chatter Matters releases new resources
In response to a survey conducted last year on how to best meet the needs of Sandhurst school communities, Children's Chatter Matters has released parent engagement activities within the following key language and literacy areas:
Phonemic and Phonological Awareness
Receptive language (comprehension)
Expressive language (building longer and more complex sentences)
Expressive language (using language for different discourses, e.g. story schema)
Vocabulary
Social Communication and Pragmatics
Morphology* - the study of words and word parts
Phonics* - systematic teaching of sound-letter relationships;
rich oral language texts for families*.
*These essential language/literacy skill areas have been added in 2021 following survey feedback and current scientific research.
To access the Children's Chatter Matters resource padlet go to:https://padlet.com/ldr1/hqm1l0upqyhpvirb
ICT Acceptable Use Agreement
School of Innovation families have been provided with a copy of the St Anne's College ICT Acceptable Use Agreement via PAM. Families need to be familiar with the contents of the agreement. Please find a copy attached below:
Helping parents to help their teenagers
Managing illness during the COVID-19 pandemic
Additional resources:
https://www.carlyryanfoundation.com
Committed to creating a child-safe environment
The Fathering Channel - support for dads
Visit The Fathering Channel at www.thefatheringproject.org/fathering-channel/
The Fathering Channel is a virtual community designed to support dads and ultimately help kids and families to stay healthy, happy and connected in these uncertain times and beyond. The Fathering Channel also helps families connect to a wealth of resources and advice.
SIMON/PAM
The Parent Access Module (PAM) for our learning management system (SIMON) is an important source of communication between the college and families.PAM is the portal through which parents can check on learning areas, send parent notified absences, access school activity permission forms and check daily messages. It is also the portal through which you will access your child's reports. It is important that you log into PAM daily to check any updates or notices. If you have misplaced or forgotten your login details you can contact administration at office@sackialla.catholic.edu.au
Catholic Schools Parents Victoria
To read the current issue of CSPV use the following link:
https://vcspb.schoolzineplus.com/streamnews?nid=6
School Wide Positive Behaviour Support
Schools today are facing intense scrutiny and are under tremendous pressure for improvement compounded by major issues that place significant demands on our schools. Some of the issues are:
- Increasing diversity of student demographics;
- Changing home structures and complex family relationships;
- Decline in students’ social skills, coupled with increased social media issues and cyber safety;
- Antisocial behaviour in schools is on the rise and becoming increasingly more complex;
- Increase in mental health and school attendance concerns;
- Students with special needs and/or complex backgrounds coupled with diminished behaviour management skills of staff and subsequent increased stress levels;
- Stringent academic accountability positioned against low or underperforming student academic achievement;
- Inefficient and ineffective school organisational systems and procedures for the management of student behaviour.
St Anne's College's expectations from all its members are quite simple:
At St Anne's this looks like:
- Calm, quiet and peaceful
- Equipment and materials neatly stored
- Sharing our space
- Returning materials to their place after use
- Waiting for your turn
- Leading by example
- Offering a helping hand
- Being patient, thinking twice, acting once
At St Anne’s College, in faith, wisdom and learning, we:
are wise about what we do, we know our impact.
What does this look like in your home?