Dear parents, students and families,

Welcome back to the last term for 2024. Fourth term is always full of emotions. We will begin orientations with our new Foundation students for 2025 and we will say goodbye to many families as their children's educational journey leads them from us. I am looking forward to travelling this term with you.

A reminder that we move to Summer Uniform this term and as part of that hats are to be worn when the children are outdoors. Our recommendation for hats are the Legionnaire Caps as they stay on more effectively. We have a "No hat, no play" policy.

Monday was World Teacher's Day. This is a day when we celebrate all the amazing work our teachers do for the children in their care. We thank our staff for caring for our children, for planning an amazing, engaging curriculum, and for looking after all of their needs. The work you do is essential and helps to build a strong community.

This week we are fortunate to have our Parish visitation from our regional Bishop, Fr Tony Ireland. He visited our school today and met with our staff, students and the leadership team from St Joachim's School. He will join our Confirmation candidates on Friday as they have their retreat day at John Paul College. He will be involved with a variety of Parish teams and Ministries during his visits. He will also lead our Confirmation Masses for eligible candidates from our Parish with Fr Martin. Our St Anne's students will receive Confirmation at Saturday night's 6pm Mass, with another couple of students from the wider Parish community, whilst the St Joachim's students will receive their Confirmation at a stand alone Mass on Sunday afternoon at 2pm. Please keep all of these students in your prayers as they move towards adulthood within our Church, particularly our St Anne's students Alex B, Josiah B, Cleo C, Charlie C, Jane W and Owen W.

Next week we begin placing children into class groupings for the 2025 school year.

Please advise the school as soon as possible if your child from grades Foundation- Year 5 will not be returning to St Anne's Primary School for the 2025 school year, if you have not done so already.

Please advise the school in writing addressed to rshaw@saseaford.catholic.edu.au if you have any requests regarding the placement of your child for 2025. We will take into account these requests as one of the many aspects of building classes for the next year. These requests certainly are not guaranteed. REQUESTS will be taken up to Friday 19th October.

In staffing news I am very pleased to let you know that Mrs Jemima Holmes will not be returning to St Anne's next year. She has far more important things to be doing and will be taking maternity leave. We wish all the very best to Jemima, her husband Tom and daughter Piper who will be looking forward to be having a sibling.

Looking forward to next week, we have our first assembly of the term on Monday at 2.45pm. On Tuesday we have our senior students attending the John Paul College Lightning Premiership round robin and we wish them all luck on that day and thank the staff who will be supervising the children. On Wednesday evening we will have our annual Foundation Parents Meet and Greet for the 2025 cohort. We look forward to the incoming parents having a chance to begin to build the connections and relationships that may last them many years into the future. On Friday we have our annual Lapathon when we raise money for our local Seaford chapter of St Vincent de Paul's. These funds are used to support families in our Parish through donations of Christmas Hampers and children's presents for our most needy parishioners.

God bless

Rod Shaw

Principal

School Attendance and Unexplained Absence

Please contact the school if your child is going to be absent by leaving a message on

9786 4736 and press 1. Please give details of your child’s name and class with a reason for their absence such as: unwell, appointment, holiday or family reasons. Alternatively an email can be sent to office@saseaford.catholic.edu.au with cc to the child’s teacher.

If you are running late, (after 9:00 am) please attend the office to sign your child into school and collect a late pass.

If you are picking up your child early you will need to collect them and sign them out from the office.

As per our policy this will be our morning routine for absences:

Parents will be contacted as soon as practicable on the morning a student is absent via a text message.

If parent does not contact the school after receiving the text message, the school will contact the parent by phone. If the parent is unreachable the emergency contacts will be contacted by the school.

If there is still no response, and the school feels that the child is in danger, the police will be contacted.

Ongoing unexplained absences or lack of cooperation regarding student attendance will result in a formal conference being organized. Unresolved attendance issues will be referred to D.H.H.S.

This is a legal requirement.

Democratic Principles

The six (6) principles of Australian democracy include:

(a) elected government; and

(b) the rule of law; and

(c) equal rights for all before the law; and

(d) freedom of religion; and

(e) freedom of speech and association; and

(f) the values of openness and tolerance

Religious Education

Confirmation...