Dear Parents and Carers,

In this final newsletter for the school year, I would like to congratulate our students and families on completing a full uninterrupted year of school!

A return to reasonably normal activities this year has meant school camps, community activities, interschool sports, excursions, and sacraments could all go ahead.

On behalf of the St Simon’s School staff and myself, we would like to wish our school families a very happy holy and safe Christmas, and we look forward to 2023 being a year of continued growth and success for the students of our school.

Christmas Concert

Our Christmas Concert last Friday evening was an excellent sign of the St Simon’s Community coming together to celebrate and reflect on the Christmas season.

A big thank you to Laura Nackashian, music teacher, for organising and producing the concert and thank you to Paul Howard for providing audio production ensuring we could all hear the wonderful singing and music.

As it turns out we had another reminder of how blessed we were on the evening to have such perfect weather for the concert!

Graduation

Today, our Year Six students celebrate their final time at St Simon’s as they graduate from primary school. The students participated in a special graduation lunch, signed memory bears, and had a silent disco in the hall. This evening we gather to celebrate Graduation Mass followed by some reflection time and the performance of the year six graduation dance.

Congratulations, and thank you to the year six team and parents who have contributed and organised so much for the students to feel special on this graduation day.

End of year Mass and Assembly

A final reminder that all members of our school community are invited to join the school community this Friday 16th December at 9:00am for the celebration of the End of Year Thanksgiving Mass and Assembly. After Mass, several awards will be presented and an acknowledgement of staff leaving us at the end of 2022. We also have the “Passing of the Light” ceremony, a symbolic gesture of student leadership between our year five and year six students.

We will also be farewelling the families who are leaving our school community with a small gift that acknowledges the partnership between home and school as this comes to an end.

Staff Leaving

As we come to the end of the year, we have several staff that are finishing their time at St Simon's in 2022.

Vicki Knights

Vicki Knights, Learning Support Officer, is leaving St Simon’s to focus on her health needs. We are very grateful for Vicki’s warmth and gentleness working with students in the classroom and we wish her well in the future.

Olivia Frisch

Olivia Frisch, Year Six Teacher, will be leaving in St Simon’s. We thank Olivia for her contribution to our school, particularly the care and compassion given to our year six students. We are grateful for Olivia’s skills and talents that have been given so freely to the St Simon’s School Community.

Lee-ann Kupiec

Lee-ann Kupiec, Year One Teacher, will leave St Simon’s to take up a teaching position at Harkaway Hill College, Harkaway. Lee-ann began her association with St Simon’s through a preservice teaching placement during one of the COVID lockdown periods. In 2022 she was appointed to Year One classroom where she has made a positive impact on the students in 1R and the broader Year One cohort. We wish Lee-ann all the very best in her new role at Harkaway.

Karina Hannett

After an amazing 38 years of service to Catholic Education across Melbourne and Regional Victoria, Karina Hannett, Year Five Teacher and Level Leader, has decided to retire at the end of this year. During her time at St Simon’s, Karina has brought her teaching and leadership wisdom to students and colleagues in years two, five and six. We are immensely grateful for the care and attention to detail Karina places into the well-being and teaching of her students.

Karina, we wish you all the best as you embark on this next phase of life and enjoy that new swimming pool in the backyard!

Anna Morgan

After a dedicated 22 years of service to Catholic Education at St Simon’s Primary School, Anna Morgan, Administration Officier, will retire at the end of the year. Anna has supported 4 principals, many staff members and hundreds of students and their families as one of the friendly faces you see when you arrive at the school office. Anna’s calm, caring personality and high level of attention to detail and process have made her such an asset to our school community. Anna, we wish you all the very best in this next chapter of life as you spend more time with family and several four legged friends in your household (woof!).

Excess COVID RAT KITS

The school has a supply of RAT kits available in quantities to any family who would like to come and collect from the office.

We are aware that many workers in the health industry are still required to test regularly for COVID so if there is someone in your family who would benefit from some of these tests, please come and collect some test kits before Friday 16th December.

Booklist news

This a reminder to families that we are moving to a different way of managing student booklists in 2023.

In 2023 families will be charged a per-student levy of $90 through the school fees structure. This levy will cover the costs of stationery, books, consumables (paper towel, tissue), materials and digital services used in our education programs.

A small “bring from home list” will be shared with families and will include items such as pencil case, a pair of headphones etc

In short, on the first day of school next year, students will need to bring themselves, their school bag, lunch and pencil case.

Assessment Days Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st January

The school year will begin our Student Assessment Days on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st of January. A message will be sent to all families with a student\s in Prep to Year 5 with sign-up information for these days.

All students are asked to make an appointment on one of these days.

There will be a separate letter for families with a child starting in prep 2023 with information about signing up for a student assessment block on one of the Wednesdays during February.

School Office Hours

School Office is til 1:00pm Monday 19th December 2022 and will open from Friday 27th January 2023 from 1pm.

Keeping Safe in the Digital environment over the holidays - Parent eSafety resources.

As we break for the summer holidays, this is time when children may be spending more time on screens and online. The Australian Government’s eSafety Commissioner has some excellent resources for Parents and families for supporting safe and healthy use of online and digital activities. The picture is the link below.

Tom Wursthorn

Principal

St Simon's Parents' Association