Dear Parents/Carers,

This will be the final newsletter for the term and it has been a hugely successful start to the year, after significant Covid-related-apprehension prior to commencement. Pleasingly, the return to school was not the catalyst for an upturn in Covid-19 cases within our community. This has allowed us to safely proceed with many of our ‘normal events’ and reestablish that sense of community and connection with one another. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our families for your continued support and assistance throughout this term. Our staff have once again been terrific in adapting to the circumstances and ensuring a safe and productive learning environment for our students.

Today we held the second of our Open Days and it was another successful one, with many local families showing interest in our school. As a school, we are working hard to raise the profile of the school, both in terms of ‘visibility’ and overall performance. When attending Open Days at St Agnes’, parents can come at a time that suits them and they are greeted and taken on a tour by our wonderful Year Six students. In groups of three or four, our students accompany adults around the school and talk about the wonderful things that we have going on in our humble Catholic primary school. This takes confidence and courage from these students; they are sharing their ideas and thoughts with people they don’t know, in an informal setting, without significant levels of coaching/instruction about what to say when and where. It is the ‘organic’ comments that come from our Year Six students on these tours that prospective parents enjoy most about our Open Days. They hear from our students first hand about what it is like to be a student at St Agnes’ and we couldn’t be more proud of the children in our school.

It is no secret that we are making every effort to grow our school and ‘word of mouth’ is more powerful in attracting prospective families than any flyer or billboard. As a school, we rely on current parents and students saying positive things about our school with friends, family, colleagues and other local families. We are grateful for those families who are active advocates for our school within local community groups and online. We have much to celebrate as a school community and the vibrancy present at the Fete ten days ago was a terrific example of this. As you may have seen on our social media pages, our school was recently recognised on a list of 125 Victorian schools for making significant improvements in NAPLAN from 2019 to 2021. While we are humble, we are also quite proud of this, given the challenges of these past two years. It is important that we share this good news because it speaks to the positive attitude of our students, as well as the commitment of our staff and parents to the education of the children. As a school, we are spending significant time and resources on improving teacher practice in the areas of Literacy and Numeracy, which will have a direct impact on student achievement and outcomes. We are proud of our growth, but we are always looking for ways to improve. Spelling is an area that was difficult to teach well during 2020/2021 and we are currently investigating what adjustments we can make to improve this area of our curriculum. Our current School Improvement Plan is focused on ‘explicit teaching’ in the areas of Reading and Mathematics. We are aiming to teach students ‘at their point of need’. We do this by completing regular assessments with the students to understand their strengths and grouping them with those who have similar learning needs. School-level assessments, as well as reference points such as NAPLAN indicate that we are making strong progress in these key areas.

Parents and Friends Committee Meeting

The first Parents and Friends Committee Meeting of the year was held last night at School. Thank you to those who were in attendance. We had representation from across the school, which was fantastic. A special mention to Lauren Karpathakis, who has put her hand up for the P&F Secretary role. As a result of this, we are looking for a Class Rep to take over from Lauren in Year 4. Please get in touch with Lauren if you are able to help out.

In the interest of shared leadership and responsibility, last night it was agreed that starting this year, specific events on the P&F Calendar would be organised and run by particular year levels. This model will ensure that every parent in our school has the opportunity to get involved and that the work is not left to too few. Class Reps will assist in generating support for each event, but it will be a year level responsibility. Some examples of this model include:

Prep Tea and Tissues at the beginning of each year - Year 1
Mother’s Day Stall on Friday 29th April - Year 3
Mother’s Day Breakfast on Thursday 5th May - Year 5
Disco on Friday 17th June - Prep and Year 4
Father’s Day Stall - Year 2
Father’s Day Breakfast - Year 6

The next P&F Meeting will be held on Tuesday 10th May.

End of Term One Activities

On Friday 8th April, we have a busy day planned as we celebrate the final day of the term and we help the students to understand more about Lent and Easter. It is a casual clothes day and there are a number of elements to the day, including the famed St Agnes’ Easter Bonnet parade, Easter Raffle Draw and our Easter Liturgy- please see the Parents &Friends page for more detailed information . Parents are invited to stay at school after drop-off for these events.

Also on Friday, as part of our social justice program, our students will lead and participate in Friendship Day activities. Each year level will run two stalls or games, which will be set up around the school. The two main aims of our Friendship Day are to promote friendship, cooperation and student leadership and secondly, to raise funds for Caritas Australia’s Lenten fundraiser - Project Compassion. There will be 10 different activities for students to participate in. Some activities include a sandcastle competition, vortex throw and three legged race. On the day if students would like to participate in a student-led activity they will need to make a donation to Project Compassion (50c or $1). Students are asked to bring no more than $10 (in coins) on the day to participate in activities. Through these activities, the students are learning more about Catholic Social Teachings - Solidarity and Preferential Option for the Poor. The students will run the stalls and games the whole time by themselves, and be expected to move around with at least one other student when participating. Thank you to Mrs Georgiou and the SRC for their organisation of the friendship activities and also to Mrs Gorski and the classroom teachers for their work with the Easter Liturgy.

End of Term One & Term Two Commencement

Term One concludes on Friday 8th April at 1.30pm.

Term Two commences on Tuesday 26th April, after the Anzac Day Public Holiday.

St Agnes’ School Fete

There are still some expenses to finalise regarding the Fete, so if you have expense claims outstanding, please pop into the office to collect a reimbursement request form so the final profit can be finalised. We will be able to share this in the first newsletter of next term. As previously communicated, the funds raised at the fete will be used to purchase new furniture for our refurbished classrooms. Currently, our students are sitting on gas-lift, swivel, wheelie chairs, which are far from ideal for student concentration during learning time. For students to engage effectively during class, static chairs are vital. Instead of waiting until post refurbishment, we will be utilising the fete funds and incrementally updating the chairs in each classroom as soon as possible because it is an urgent need. Please head across to the Fete page of the newsletter to find a word of thanks from our Fete Committee Chairs, Fiona and Clare.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will take place tonight (Wednesday 30th March) at 6.30pm in the Church. A reminder that all Year Three students who are receiving the sacrament should arrive prior to commencement. We are looking forward to being able to celebrate this sacrament with the children.

New Staff

In recent weeks, we finalised appointments for the vacant roles in our school. We have employed Nicole Bush to work alongside Judith Barton in Year Two. Nicole is an experienced teacher and will work two days per week, commencing in Term Two. We have also appointed Jenna Jansen van Rensburg as a Learning Support Officer. Jenna is currently studying to be a teacher and comes to us with two years in a similar role at Dingley Primary School. Jenna commenced work with us earlier in March and works predominantly in the Year 5/6 area. If you see these two staff in our school, please introduce yourself and make them feel welcome.

Mum’s Night Out - Save the Date

On Friday 13th May from 7.30pm, a St Agnes’ Mum’s Night Out has been booked in at F8 on Highett Road. Please mark the date in your calendar - Further details will follow closer to the date and in P and F news .

NAPLAN 2022 - Online

In May of this year, our Year 3 and 5 students will sit NAPLAN Online. This is the first time our students have completed this testing online as we are part of the last wave of the online rollout across the nation. All tests are completed using the school’s Chromebooks, with the exception of Year 3 Writing which is handwritten. The Year 3 and 5 students will complete the following tests:

Writing - Tuesday 10th May
Reading - Wednesday 11th May
Conventions of Language - Wednesday 11th May
Numeracy - Thursday 12th May

It is expected that all students complete NAPLAN assessments. Results will be received around September and an individual report will be provide to families displaying your child’s achievement. Please click here, for parent information regarding NAPLAN in 2022.

St Patrick’s Day Activities

Last week, we held a St Patrick’s Day Casual Dress Day where the children dressed in green for a gold coin donation. We raised $157.30, which has been donated to NSW Flood victims, via St Vincent de Paul. Thank you to all families for supporting this.

Term One School Fees

Please contact the office if you did not receive your 2022 statement. Term One fees were due on 04.03.2022.

Reporting of positive Covid-19 cases & Rapid Antigen Test Kits

Parents and carers can report that students have tested positive for COVID-19 by emailing me at lfoott@sahighett.catholic.edu.au. Additional rapid antigen test kits will be sent home with the children in the coming days.

Tuckshop

Tuckshop has recommenced on Fridays and orders can be placed online at https://www.salutecatering.com.au/tuckshop using the code: lunch2022.

Assembly

Assembly will again be held outdoors and parents are welcome to join. At assembly, there will be presentations from classes, student awards, birthday acknowledgments and special announcements.

Wed 30th March - Prep

Wed 6th April - No Assembly

Assembly will be held in the hall in Term Two and parents will be welcome to join, provided you are at least double vaccinated.

Kind regards,

Lachie.

THANK YOU FETE SPONSORS

THANK YOU
FETE SPONSORS