Principal's Report 

Dear families,

I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation for all of our teachers and the work they do every day.  Along with parents, teachers are key contributors to students' lives. At a Catholic school, teachers develop students spiritually, emotionally and academically. The MACS 2030 Strategy mentions:

Our purpose: Forming lives of faith, hope and love in the light of Jesus Christ.

Our vision: Every student is inspired and enabled to flourish and enrich the world.

I am truly honoured to work with the St Leonard's teachers in developing the heads, hearts and hands of our students to spread God's love to others.

World Teachers' Day -Tomorrow 

St Leonard's has moved our World Teachers day to Friday, November 8th. We will be celebrating the amazing work of our teachers. You may like to encourage your children to make a card, write a letter, draw a picture or pick some flowers from the garden to show their appreciation for their teachers. 

More information can be found at:

https://www.macs.vic.edu.au/Our-Schools/Curriculum-Learning-Programs/Vision-for-Instruction.aspx

School Review

Our school is always looking for continuous improvement. Our recent review largely focused on our teachers. I thank the teachers and the staff of St Leonard's for their input into the school review process. many comments from the reviewer pointed to St Leonard's as being a high performing school which truly is 'Aspiring to Excellence'. The following letter is from Dr Mary Oski, MACS Director of Educational Excellence. More information about the School Improvement Plan for the next 4 years, will be shared later in the year.

Dear Robert,

Re: School Review Completion – E1217 – St Leonard’s School Glen Waverley

Having received the 2024 School Review Report prepared by Paul Ledwidge for St Leonard’s School Glen Waverley, I wish to commend all members of the school community for their active involvement in the MACS School Review process. 

I would like to express my appreciation for your support and engagement in school review and wish St Leonard’s School every success as your community engages in the development and implementation of your next School Improvement Plan.

Yours sincerely

Dr Mary Oski

Director Education Excellence

1 November 2024

Car Park Safety

After the tragic incident at a Melbourne Primary school it is possibly timely to remind all members of the school community about our expectations in regard to parking and traffic flow around our school. Our thoughts and prayers are with the members of the school community and particularly the families directly impacted by loss and injury.

• Please be extra careful to slow down and follow the instructions of school staff, such as Aimee Gale at the Allen St car park and myself at the Springvale Road car park. Please slow down at the zebra crossing, even if it appears that no one is using it. Children (and adults) can be unpredictable at times.
• Studies have shown that our children copy our behaviours, so please be good role models as pedestrians and drivers, around the streets and car parks.
• Please don't be tempted to park in unmarked spaces as this will encourage copy-cat behaviours and could lead to accidents.
• The parish office staff need their car parking space to be free, so please do not park in this space.
• Please remember that we need to be respectful of Glenallen School's space in particular the sloping pedestrian entries from the road to the walkways. Students with walkers or wheelchairs need to use these entries to access the school safely. Please do not stop over the ramp pictured below while waiting in the queue to enter St Leonard's.
• Please use the marked school crossing areas as much as possible and avoid crossing the roads merely to save time.
• Children should always hold the hands of their parents in Year P-2 when in the car parks and crossing the roads. Students in Years 3-6 should be trained and reminded to stay close to their parents when crossing roads.

Swimming

Swimming starts next week. There are three special days:

Monday 18th Nov - A dedicated water safety day (BRING CLOTHES OF TSHIRT and SHORTS) –students will participate in water safety activities that will provide a strong message to students about safety around water as well as teaching them vital skills for their own safety, as well as how to help others in need.

Grading Day – this is the final assessing of student competency for the program. Each student will be supplied with a certificate stating what level they achieved during the program.

Fri 22nd Nov - Fun Day – For programs that run between 8-10 days. The last lesson of your program is saved for games and a wave session to reward the students on their hard work during the program. Our staff will run organised games and supervise a 10 minute wave pool session for each group. School teachers are more than welcome to join in the fun in the pool on this day!

Remembrance Day Poppy Appeal

The Remembrance Day Poppy Appeal will continue until Monday 11th.

The Liturgy Captains will walk around to each classroom selling items and before school outside the office from 8:30am.  Poppies range from $2 to $5 with selected metal pins for $10 and $20. Wristbands are $3.

As Remembrance Day falls during the swimming program, we are holding a school based service on Friday 8th November. An announcement will be made to pause for a minute's silence on Monday 11th, for the students and staff still at school.

Briefly

• Congratulations to Miss Sammut and The Guardians of St Leonard's. Celina from Monash Council attended yesterday's assembly to award the school with a prize for completing the Actions for Earth Challenge. St. Leonard's is now in the top 5 schools in the Monash area. The new plans are a nude food day on the 28th of November, improve our use of compost and recycling bins to have more families contribute to the container deposit scheme.

• A thanks to the STEM MAD Team and Hugo and Joshua, our Robo Cup Junior Champions for presenting at assembly on Wednesday. The thinking behind the designs and solutions found by the students were terrific to witness.

• I have outstanding news to share about the School Sports Victoria State Finals. In challenging weather conditions, both Dallas and Natalie surpassed their personal bests to achieve results we are all very proud of.  Natalie is the new State Champion in discus with a 28.97 metre throw, beating her personal best by over 2 metres. Dallas achieved 2nd place, with a silver medal-winning throw of 32.03m, improving his personal best by over 1metre. Thanks must go to Michelle and Jennifer, their mothers, for the many hours of coaching, driving and organising to develop the children's skills and drive. We wish the students every success for their bright futures.

More photos of the Prep Fire Education lesson.

My best wishes for a wonderful week ahead.

Robert Horwood

Principal