Dear parents, students and families,

On Monday our students had their second changeover session with their class teacher for 2024. This provided our students an opportunity to get to know both their teacher and their classmates for 2024 and the classes certainly looked pretty relaxed and happy to be together, as nervous as some may have been originally.

On Tuesday we held our final Advent Liturgy. They have been a beautiful and moving way of sharing how we are becoming prepared for the true Christmas celebration.

Last Friday we held our End of Year Mass for all students. Our Leadership roles for 2024 were announced and what a fantastic group they looked:-

School Captains: Jane and Chase

Vice Captains: Cleo and Josiah

MacKillop House Captains: Leo and Josiah

Francis House Captains: Cleo and Jax

Ignatius House Captains: Christian and Jack

Choir: Emily and Will

ICT: Kevin and Owen

Liturgy/ Social Justice: Kevin and Jane

Sustainability: Alex and Charlie

Marine Ambassadors: Aurorah, Sai, Harry and Chase

Our Awards Ceremony was held yesterday. Congratulations to all who received a reward. Our awards are based around the notion of "being your best" rather than "being the best". It must certainly have been very hard for our staff to select as I have seen how hard all of our students have worked this year. Over the year I greatly enjoyed spending time with our students in their classes and outside.

Wednesday evening we held our Year 6 Graduation Ceremony. Year 6 students shared a meal with some of the staff and spent some time together before moving to the Church. Parents and families then joined the students and staff in our Church from 7pm for Mass.

Today our Year 6 students had their "Big Day Out" of celebration to formally conclude their schooling at St Anne's. We wish them all the very best with their exciting move to Secondary School. Thank you to the whole school for gathering outside the Hall to farewell our Year 6's at the end of today. Parents should be able to access reports today electronically. I am sure you will find successes in them to celebrate with your child/children.

Recently we held a Lapathon to raise funds for our local St Vinnie's to support needy families this Christmas. Funds have been coming in daily and so far the amount raised is approximately $2000.00 which is being passed on to the organisation this week. Thank you so much for your support of those in need this Christmas in our Parish as we live out one of the lessons from the Gospel.

Tomorrow is our last formal day of schooling for our Foundation - Year 5 students. Students finish at 1pm. Monday 18th December will be a Teacher Only Day as we finish up 2023 and prepare for the 2024 school year.

I wish everyone a joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year, wish those moving on from our school all the best for their future and look forward to seeing the majority of you back here on Tuesday January 30th when our Year 1-6 students commence. Our Foundation students commence formally on Thursday 1st February but many will be in for some 'getting to know' you sessions with our Foundation teachers on the preceding days.

God bless and have a safe and happy summer.

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

End of Year Mass

Pics from our end of year Mass.