Principal's News

Welcome to the ‘Premiership Term’!  A mentor Principal of mine, was known to call the third term the Premiership Term and it has always resonated with me. I feel it  builds excitement and spirit as most Melburnians follow an AFL team!  

I hope that everyone was able to relax and enjoy the break.  It was a perfect time to get over those winter sniffles and rebuild our immunities for the second half of the year. 

This Semester we welcome a new Staff member, Claire Ryan our Physical Education Specialist and Somayeh Hejazizadeh a new Learning Support Officer working across the school with a variety of students.   Angela Scarcella is also volunteering in the Junior Area on a Tuesday morning. Unfortunately the advertised Performing Arts Teacher retracted her application for personal reasons and we are going to interview in the coming weeks for a Performing Arts Specialist and Teaching & Learning and Numeracy Leader.

We are working on employing  the services of Catholic Care for one day of school-based student counselling per week for the remainder of this year as Chiara Campagna has reduced her hours as School Chaplain to one day a week for nine weeks beginning in Term 3 Week 3.

Lastly I would like to introduce our new Business Manager Caryn Ooi.  She previously worked at The University of Melbourne as a Chief Operating Officer and Research Finance Consultant.  I had the pleasure to be chosen to be part of the MACS panel for appointing new Business Managers and I was extremely impressed with Caryn’s  analytical knowledge, her communication skills,  commitment to collaborative and supportive conversations as well as her amazing financial knowledge as a chartered accountant.  She will begin transition this week and I am looking forward to working with her and Robyn to begin our 2023 Financial Budgets.

We welcome back Eva and Con who have been on Long Service Leave.  Robyn James will also return in week 3 and has been overseas visiting her family in the USA.  Fiona has been doing a top job in the Administration Office and I really have so appreciated the extra support from Bianca Griffiths and staff.  Well done TEAM!

GET WELL SOON, AIDAN!

At the beginning of the school holidays Aidan, Andrew and Frances’ youngest son, had a serious bike accident. He was in the Royal Children’s Hospital and is now recovering at home from some very painful injuries.  We are all so glad to hear that Aidan is making a steady recovery and the whole family is in our prayers and thoughts. 

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING ‘PATHWAYS TO PRINCIPALSHIP’

We are lifelong learners at St Kevin’s!  Last week I spent two days at the Catholic Leadership Centre and I was challenged and inspired by amazing professionals and entrepreneurs  such as  Stephen Brown from the Brown Initiative, Paul Sharkey MACS, Andrew Fuller Psychologist, Mrs Kerrie McDiarmid from St Clare's College Sydney Principal who has been named one of Australia's Most Influential Educators of 2022 as well as a team of aspiring leaders in Primary and Secondary Leaders from across Melbourne.  

Learnings included exposure to research in the following areas:

• The components of high quality school leadership
• We explored cultivating connections and building engagement in the learning community
• We used Pedagogy of Encounter (process of Inquiry) to engage in tradition and explore the definition of the Catholic Well.
• There was an investigation of the brain and how to best enable learners
• Transforming learning to align with the needs of the future generations
• We delved into the AITSL Principal Standards and
• Examined ‘Evidence to learning’ and approaches to implementation. 

This learning has been engaging and absolutely inspirational as well as a wonderful opportunity to build relationships with future principals and global educators.  I now belong to a syndicate and we meet frequently to support and develop our understanding through research.  In November each Leader will present their own investigation and how they have actioned learning in their schools.

LANGUAGES

Thank you to all the 24 parents and staff who have completed the Languages Survey. Here is the link -  St Kevin’s Languages Survey for Parents/Carers and Staff 2022  

I really encourage all parents and staff to complete the survey.  The students are all completing the St Kevin’s Language Survey P-6 2022 with staff support. The results will be shared in the next few weeks.  

At the moment Anna Peron has been working with the students to investigate different aspects of learning languages.  The student last week completed Language Maps which included the creation of Mind Map about their linguistic backgrounds.  They were asked to list their parents and grandparents' country of origin and what languages they speak at home.  I encourage you all to have a conversation with your child/children about your background. The students will be asked to add to their mind maps after these discussions this week.  The goal this week is for the students to write, draw and speak any language they know that comes from another country.  Staff will be having a Professional learning session with Linton from MACS (16th of August) and he will speak to us about Reimagining Language Learning.  It is an exciting time and I will inform you of the process as it evolves.

REVIEW 2022

On Tuesday 12th of July Gaynor Robson-Garth presented her draft report for the 2022 Review to Leadership and MACS staff, the St Kevin’s Staff and to the SAC. 

The following statements were presented to each group

These are summary statements which will be developed further when the Annual Action Plan and School Improvement Plan are written in August. The full report will be made available once it is ratified by MACS.

PHOTOS AND WEBSITE UPDATE - PARISH AND SCHOOL

On Tuesday (19/07) we will have a photographer from Carter and Creative (Website Crew) will work with Parish and school to update photos for our website and that of the parish.  

My aim is to visually represent the innovation and connectedness between our faith, learning and relationship through images.   Our facilities and learning strategies will also be represented along with staff and children at work and play.  We have all ‘Parent Permission Form’ from enrolment and beginning of the year and if you did not give permission for your child to in advertising material they will not be photographed. Please notify me immediately if there are any changes.  I am sure we will all be looking extra beautiful tomorrow! ;)

SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL

Julia Keenan has stepped down from the School Advisory Council due to personal commitments.  On behalf of the school, Advisory Council and Community I sincerely thank Julia for her contribution to the Council and all school activities.  We appreciated her help with fundraising and supporting the PFA. Julia generously gave her time and I acknowledge her efforts and commitment to the Council.

The School Advisory Council will elect the next chair at the next meeting.  If you are interested in being a member of the School Advisory Council and helping to contribute to making our community a positive and vibrant one then please fill out the Google doc and share it or PDF it email or return it to the school office by Monday 26th July.   The next SAC meeting is on the 9th of August at 7:30pm.   NOMINATION FORM

SAC Meetings for 2022 - 13th September, 11th October, 8th November, 29th November - SAC/PFA Thank-you dinner

COVID TERM 3 UPDATES 

There were some changes announced to schools as part of MACS and Victorian Government  Directives released in the last few weeks.  There are no longer any mandatory vaccination requirements for staff or visitors working or attending mainstream schools.  The Victorian Government is providing up to three further deliveries of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) in Term 3 and again in Term 4 to schools.  

Schools are asked to remind staff, students and families that the current advice from the Victorian Government is that it is recommended that face masks are worn in indoor settings (except for close contacts, who must wear a mask indoors unless an exception applies). 

Household contacts are required to test negative using a rapid antigen test on at least 5 out of 7 days if they are attending or working at a school onsite.  Parents/Carers are able to leave isolation if other arrangements cannot be made to transport their noninfectious child via private vehicle to and/or from school. The person leaving self-isolation must travel directly to and from the location, making no stops, unless there is an emergency or as required by law. They must remain in the vehicle at all times, unless it is reasonably necessary to leave the vehicle to deliver the person to and from school, and must wear a face covering whilst outside the place of self-isolation. 

We will continue to provide parents and carers live updates when there is a positive student case at the school.  This will be done via the St Kevin’s App.  We ask that all parents continue to contact the school when they discover a positive RAT test in their family and if possible get PCR tests to confirm. We also ask parents to apply extreme caution over the term, in particular as we counter a third wave of COVID in our community. Overlaying this is the terrible influenza season we are having which in some cases has more debilitating symptoms than COVID itself.   

By working together as a school and being considerate of others,  we will minimise the spread of all illnesses amongst the student community, thus reducing the impact of lost learning time.  

SCHOOL UNIFORM REMINDER

Thank you to the overwhelming majority of parents and carers at St Kevin’s who take such great pride in the way their children are dressed and groomed for school each day.  We have recently noticed that some students are wearing runners with their school uniform, instead of school shoes.  A reminder that runners are to be worn on Physical Education days ONLY with sport’s uniform.

NATIONAL CATHOLIC EDUCATION CONFERENCE 

In September the ‘National Catholic Education Conference’ will take place in Melbourne.  Schools have been asked to be involved in promotional material by making the shape.  This week we will try and make a heart shape on the playground involving the whole school.  I am sure the students will tell you all about it and we will upload photos to all social media platforms.

COMMUNICATION

CONGRATULATIONS Year 5 & 6 Parents!  

36 Parents read the last newsletter and completed the survey

. 

It would be great if 82 families respond to the survey!

How can we grow this number?  By suggesting to fellow parents to complete the survey. 

Thank you to all parents who do complete the survey. 

It is definitely a consistent bunch of LEGENDS!

Which level will be the champions for Term 3?    

DATA COLLECTION  -  LINK -I have read the newsletter 19/07/22 

REMINDERS

Crazy Lunch day 27/07/22

Father’s Day Stall 31/08/22

All God’s blessings,

Gabee Leone

Principal