Principal's Report

There's now less than four weeks left if the 2025 school year and a lot still to come - in the next few weeks we have our Swimming Carnival, Year 5 Leadership Day, Year 6 Graduation, Year 6 Big Day Out and our Junior All Star Boys will be competing in the State final. We'll celebrate Advent with weekly liturgies, based around the four themes of Advent hope, peace, joy and love. 

Importance of Sleep 

Getting enough sleep each night is essential for children’s well-being and their ability to learn effectively. Our teachers often notice how tired some students appear in the morning, which can make it harder for them to concentrate, engage, and do their best in the classroom. I've recently witnessed this myself with students appearing exhausted and lethargic first thing in the morning. We have found it to be especially noticeable on Monday mornings, when busy weekends and late Sunday nights can catch up with them. Primary school children should be aiming for 10 - 11 hours of sleep per night.  More information from the Royal Children's Hospital about the importance of sleep can be found here. 

MACSIS Survey - Student results

We recently received our MACSIS results, and have started the prcess of discussing the implications for us for next year, and actions that we can take based on this data. 

Below I've shown the Radar Chart for our Students' results.  We had 121 students from Years 4 to 6 participate in the survey. There is some really positive data here, and naturally some opportunities for us to improve. 

Three areas of real strength include:

1. strong teacher–student relationships, showing that students feel known, supported, and connected to their teachers.
2. Rigorous expectations demonstrating strong alignment between our learning expectations and values.

3. Student Safety is high, especially compared to other MACS schools. 

    

    

At the same time, the data highlights some helpful opportunities for growth:

1. School engagement: While steady, engagement scores sit slightly below the MACS 2025 average, indicating room to strengthen student motivation and connection to learning activities.
2. Student voice remains an area where we can continue giving students more opportunities to share ideas, lead initiatives, and influence their learning environment.
3. students perceptions of our school's Catholic Identtity is down on past years and we will work to improve this next year. 

Upcoming AGMs

Our Parents and Friends AGM will be held this Tuesday evening at 6pm in the school staffroom. All class reps are invited to attend.  We are still looking for a Parents and Friends President in 2026, please consider taking on this improtant role or having a chat with a fellow parent who might be able to consider it. 

The School Advisory Council AGM is the same evening (at 6:45pm). 

Christmas Festival 

Our Christmas Festival is shaping up to be a greatr evening (as long as the weather cooperates). Make sure you have the date in your calendar.  We'll also have our matinee performance at 12pm that day which may appeal to grandparents so feel free to let them know about it.

Uniforms

Please remember that students wear navy socks with their uniform, and white socks with their sports uniform. Today I needed to speak with five students who were wearing white socks with their uniform. 

Swimming Carnival

Everything is just about ready for our School Swimming carnival next week at MSAC. This is a big day for us here at St Finbar's, with the logistics involved in transporting the whole school to MSAC. Please take some time to read through your NForma communications carefully to ensure that you are familiar with what your child needs to bring along. Thank you once again to Tania Thompson who has put in an enormous amount of work coordinating the schedule for both Junior and Senior carnivals, and coordinating the many, many volunteers for the day.  Thanks as well to those of you who are volunteering, we literally couldn't run this day without you all.

Clash of the Courts

A group of our mums took to the courts last weekend for the annual Clash of the Courts netball tournament, playing against 11 other Bayside schools. From all reports, it was a successful community event, with many supporters cheering on the St Finbar's team. 

Year 3 persuasive letters

I received many letters this week...48 to be exact, from our Year 3 students who have been learning about the persuasive genre and how to construct a formal letter.  

The timing is coincidental considering the recent Homework survey that we conducted, but the students did their best to convince me that homework should be banned.

While they raised some valid points and convincing arguments, unfortunately for the Year 3 students, we have no plans to abolish homework anytime soon. Please see some of the letters that I received below, the students should be very proud of their letter writing skills. 

Two of our chook whisperers here at St Finbar's. 

Take care and God bless,

Michelle Hill

Principal