Principal's Report

Dear Parents,

Congratulations to our Junior Stella house champions who won the Prep - Year 2 Athletics Carnival last Friday.  It was an exciting day of running, throwing and ball games for all students.  Special thanks to Mr Edwards our P.E. Teacher for organising such a fun day for us to enjoy.  My sincere thanks also to all staff for their support of the event and the many parents and grandparents for supporting the children on the day.

School Fees for 2025

In 2025, we will be introducing an Annual Capital Fee per family to help cover the costs of our current school building loans. The School Advisory Council (SAC) has approved a fee of $250 per family, effective from 2025. This new annual charge will be billed with the Term 1 invoice. The Capital Fee will be reviewed by the SAC every three years, considering factors such as projected student enrolments and the school’s financial outlook. It is anticipated that the fee will increase by approximately $40 per year over the next three years. The SAC will conduct another review of the fee structure at the end of the three-year period.

The completion of this building project provided the space required to facilitate the growth of the school and increased enrolments over the past 3 years, resulting in the record number of students enrolled in 2025 in 21 classes between Prep to Grade 6.

The building project completed in 2022 had a total cost of $3.4 million, with half of the funding provided by the government and the remaining half covered by a 15-year, interest-free loan from the Catholic Development Fund. To maintain the interest subsidy on this loan, repayments must be made on time, and the Capital Fee will be used to cover a portion of these repayments, in accordance with the guidelines set by the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne.

Please see below our 2025 school fee letter.

Prep 2025 Orientation

Well done to Miss Murnane, Mrs Thorley and Miss Short on the successful completion of our Prep 2025 Orientation morning held on Tuesday this week. Special thanks to Maryann Luci our Co-P & F president who coordinated the morning tea for our visitors, it was greatly appreciated.  Special thanks also to Mrs Ann Easton for her assistance and Mrs Joelle Diakrousis for her continous support of our school.  Thanks also to our LSO team who were marvellous with assisting students during the sessions.

Class Placements 2025

The staff have begun the very important job of placing students in their 2025 classes. Please note that we are unable to take specific requests from parents for the placement of their child as this would make a very difficult job even harder, as well as undermine the work currently undertaken by class teachers.  

Our process involves the students making a list of 5 people in their year level they would like to be in a class with, and then the teachers, on balance, create the class lists.  We endeavour to have at least 1 friend from students lists in their new classes.  All lists of 5 are recorded digitally for accuracy.  

Considerations to be taken by the staff across the 3 year level classes include: gender balance, academic balance, social and emotional needs balance, friendships and clashes of personalities.  No class list is going to be perfect, and it is important that we encourage our children (and parents) to develop resilience around this.

School Advisory Council

My sincere thanks to the School Advisory Council for their support this year as we navigate future directions for our amazing school.  In partiucular, I would like to thank Mr Ben Quirin for his support as Chairperson of the council this year.  I would like to acknowledge our outgoing members - Mrs Maryann Luci, Mrs Bronwyn Kilkenny and Mr Sam Radford for their many years of service to the council.

I would also like to welcome our new SAC members Mrs Maria Hogan and Mrs Pip Reid, I look forward to working with our team next year. 

The 2025 School Advisory Council is:

Fr. Justin Ford - Parish Priest (Custodian of Mission) 

Pat Berlingeri - Principal (Ex-Officio) 

Ben Quirin - Chairperson (2023-2025)

Maria Facciolo (P&F President 2025)

Sarsha McEntee (2023-2025)

Jules Oudshoorn (2024-2025)

Steph McDonald (2024-2026)

Jill Ireton (2024-2026)

Maria Hogan (2025-2027)

Pip Reid (2025-2027)

Custodian of Mission report 

Charipersons report

School Calendar

Please use the following Google link to add the school calendar to your own calendar for ease of information exchange. School Google Calendar HERE.

God Bless,

Pat Berlingeri

Principal