From the Principal
Child Safety - Our Responsibility
Be who you are and be that perfectly well.” St Francis de Sales
At St Francis de Sales we hold the care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people entrusted in our care as a central and fundamental responsibility of our school.
Our commitment to the protection of students is enabled in a nurturing, respectful and safe community where the uniqueness and sacred dignity of every young person is celebrated and they are able to flourish in their learning and development. This vision is driven by the gospel message of love, justice and abundance, beautifully reflected in the words of John.
“I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full.” John 10.10
In response to Legislative requirements within the State of Victoria, including the specific requirements of the Victorian Child Safe Standards as set out in Ministerial Order No. 870, St. Francis de Sales regularly reviews and updates policies and procedures to ensure that the quality of our care is maintained and improved.
Over this year, we have been reviewing and updating our school policies including our Child Safety Policies and procedures. Our Key Child Safety Policies can be accessed on our school website under Student Wellbeing. Links are also provided below:
Parent/Guardian Code of Conduct
Creating a child-safe school environment is a dynamic process that involves active participation and responsibility by the school, families and our community. It is important that policies are lived and there is a culture of safety. This is the collective work of all adults. Teachers are mandated to report but we can all be actively involved in ensuring we have a child safe environment and raise concerns so that all our children are safe. Now more than ever, during COVID-19 a shared commitment to improving our child-safe culture is paramount. We each need to take responsibility to act in a way that promotes safety and wellbeing for our children and one another.
One of our keys priorities is to engage our children as active participants in processes that have an impact on their safety. I have formed a safety committee with a senior from each home group. This committee will meet with Rachel and me, via a Google Meet at the moment until we return back to school. The first task of this safety team is to work together to help communicate a SFS safety message in a child friendly manner. The children who have been nominated for this role are:
LS1 - Daelan, Madison and Aishwini
LS2 - Zoe, Charlotte and Eden
LS3 - Max, Phoebe and Fiona
I congratulate these leaders for stepping forward to work on this important task and help be an advocate for safety. I look forward to working with this team in coming weeks and with our seniors when they all return to school. When we return to school it will be great to expand this team so we can also involve our juniors. We want all our children to be actively involved in supporting a safe and respectful school culture. Student voice does matter and is essential to help us embed a child safe culture at St Francis de Sales.
Stay Strong Melbourne: Stay Strong St Francis de Sales
The Peace Prayer of St. Francis captures the spirit of God's love to get us through these difficult times:
Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
Save the date - Wednesday 9th September
There will be parent Information Session via Zoom for parents of Year 5 and 6 students.
Made in God's Image
Every person is created in the image of God therefore we are asked to mirror God’s Sacred Dignity in all we do. "Learning to accept our body, to care for it and to respect its fullest meaning, is an essential element of any genuine human ecology" (Laudato si, no. 155).
God lives in our midst. In His image, men and women have received the capacity to be in relationship with God and with each other. We believe that every person is made in the image of God, and this belief expands our way of seeing the human person.
One of the fundamental duties of a Catholic school is to ensure that every student is kept safe and led into the fullness of life that God wants for each human person. We are called to love like God with faithfulness, trustfulness, responsibility, forgiveness, mercy, and generosity.
In this Term's RE/inquiry our children have been reflecting and discussing scripture and life making meaningful connections to who they are and how they are called and empowered to use their giftedness, as they grow and change.
St Francis de Sales recognises that parents and carers are significant and essential partners with schools in actively supporting and nurturing the educational and wellbeing outcomes of children. Thus we encourage active involvement of the parents/carers in this information session.
We have organised a ZOOM meeting on Wednesday 9th September from 7-8pm to inform parents about the introduction of Bodyworks- A Personal Growth and Development program to be implemented in Term 4 for Year 5 and year 6 students. This program is contexted and integrated into our current RE/Inquiry and will link with the unit planned for Term 4 on interdependence.
Further details and a zoom meeting code will be emailed to families next week.
FUN FRIDAY
Thanks to everyone who got into the spirit of our crazy Hair comfy PJ day today. The photos are on the Community Page and they sure have put lots of smiles on our faces today.
It was such a fun day that we have decided that each Friday will be FUN Friday!!
Each week while we are remote learning we will have a different theme. We will come on a Google Meet in our home groups so we can catch up and have a bit of FUN before we start our learning for Friday. As some families share devices we will meet at the following times:
- Juniors - 8:30 - 8:45am
- Seniors - 8:45 - 9am
The themes are :
Friday 28 August - Favourite or Fancy Hat Day
Friday 4 September - Favourite Dress Up
Friday 11 September- Favourite Soft Toy.
Friday 18 September- Favourite Footy Team.
Let's get involved and finish each week with some FUN to lift our spirit and be happy!!