Principal's Message

Dear Parents & Carers,

It was lovely to see the students return to school last week with their beautiful smiles. Term four is a busy term with some great events taking place. In the 'Important Dates' page are the dates for term 4, please place these in your calendars so you are able to join us for the various activities. 

In the next couple of weeks, we will welcome our new kindergarten families at our orientation meeting and our 2025 kindergarten students. We are looking forward to meeting the future generation of teachers, doctors, lawyers, scientists, mathematicians, artists, musicians, creative thinkers, philosophers and professions that are yet to be created. Kindergarten 2025 will graduate from St Anthony's in 2031 and from year 12 in 2037. 

ThinkUKnow Presentation for Parents 

Our school will be hosting a ThinkUKnow presentation on Thursday 31 October at 6:30pm in the school library and all parents and carers are encouraged to attend.

ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence based education program delivered nationally to prevent online child sexual exploitation.

ThinkUKnow Australia is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The program is delivered in collaboration with policing partners New South Wales Police Force, Northern Territory Police, Queensland Police, South Australia Police, Tasmania Police, Western Australia Police, as well as Neighbourhood Watch Australasia.

The presentation will be delivered by a local law enforcement member and an industry volunteer. The presentation is pro-technology and addresses topics including self-generated child abuse material, online grooming, sexual extortion, and importantly encourages help seeking behaviour.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about young people and the online environment, and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.

For more information, you can visit www.thinkuknow.org.au

Term 2 PTS Conferences and Term 4 Meetings

It is an expectation that all Sydney Catholic Schools provide one mandatory parent/teacher meeting time during the year. This is always held at the end of Term 2. Parents and Carers are always welcome to make an appointment to see their child’s teacher at any point of the year. You do not need to wait until the end of Term 2 or Term 4 to meet with your child’s teacher. 

In regards to Term 4 Parent/Teacher Meetings, these are not mandatory and are simply an ‘optional meeting’ that you may choose to arrange with your child’s teacher. If required, I really encourage you to organise a meeting with your child’s teacher/s during the year rather than waiting until the end of the year. There will not be formal parent/teacher meeting times at the end of Term 4.

Year 6 Religious Education Test

All Year 6 students from Sydney Catholic Schools sat the Religious Education Test last week (Wednesday 16 October). Congratulations to our Year 6 students who worked hard to prepare for the test. Thank you to Ms Claffey and Mrs Langlands for preparing the students. 

Lost property

Please ensure that you label your child’s uniform, including jumpers, hats, etc. It makes it challenging to locate the owner of items if they have not been labelled with your child’s name. If you have purchased second-hand uniforms, please change the name on the clothing to your child’s name. I appreciate your assistance with this as it helps to reduce the number of unclaimed items. Lost items are stored in a basket in the school uniform shop.

World Teacher's Day

World Teacher’s Day is celebrated in Australia this year, on Friday, 25 October. St Anthony’s is incredibly lucky and blessed to have the amazing teachers and other staff who work in our school and care for the children each day. They are incredibly dedicated, talented, kind and giving and always have the best interests of the children at heart. Children are asked to wear a hat on Friday 25 October. 

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Father Laurie for granting us permission to paint the netball and basketball lines on the courts at Fewings Street. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Car Pick Up Line

The beginning of the school term serves as a timely reminder in regards to road safety. If you collect your child on car line, please remember to move along Arden Street and remember to 'idle off'. 

Change to Recess and Lunch Times 

During the Principal Conference I attended in Christchurch at the end of last term, I had the privilege of visiting two schools and was greatly impressed by many of their initiatives. One initiative that particularly stood out was their innovative approach to structuring break times. The underlying principle is “fuel to learn.” This approach aims to ensure that students return to the classroom after a break feeling energised and ready for the next learning session. The positive outcomes observed from this change include students being more eager to run and play immediately after sitting in class, rather than sitting for another 10 minutes to eat. Additionally, it was noted that students re-enter the classroom in a calmer state. By playing first and then sitting down to eat, they have a chance to settle down and are better prepared to resume learning.

After consulting with our staff, we have decided to trial this new break time structure in Term 4, as we believe it offers numerous benefits. 

The potential benefits include:

• greater flexibility for teachers and students around supervised eating, including younger students having more supervised time to eat, preventing them from rushing through their meals to play
• students eating bulkier and healthier food items just before they go back into class, providing more fuel for learning during school hours

As part of the trial:

• we will still refer to our breaks as “lunch” and “recess”
• lunch will remain at the same time; however, rather than sitting and eating straight away, children will place their lunch boxes and drink bottles in a designated place on the playground (in the shade) and play for a set number of minutes
• lunch eating time (supervised on the playground) will move to the last 15 minutes of the lunch break. Every student will be expected to sit and eat during this time
• Botany Bites lunch orders will be distributed to classes at the end of the first play break at lunchtime
• recess will remain at the same time; however, rather than sitting and eating straight away, children will place their recess and drink bottles in a designated place on the playground (in the shade) and play for 20 minutes, with the last 10 minutes to sit and eat a snack before going back into class

This term, our lunch breaks will look like:

The following extra-curricular clubs will be offered in Term 4

Thank you for your ongoing support as we implement these new initiatives. We look forward to seeing the positive impact on our students’ learning and well-being.

Week 1 Assembly - Congratulations to the award recipients!

Yours in Partnership

Anna Novak

Principal