Welcome

Dear members of the St Raphael’s school community,

Welcome back to the start of another exciting 2019 school year. We trust that the January school holidays were a relaxing and enjoyable time with your family and friends. The children have certainly returned to school and look very relaxed and settled. The start of the school year has certainly been very calm and seamless. Our Foundation students have had a fabulous start and are very excited to be at school!

This year we welcome our new staff - Linda Pham (Year 3/4), Matthew Vernal (Year 5/6), Anna Camuglia (Year 1/2) and Aidan Baynes (Education Support Officer) - and our new Foundation students and their families. We also welcome the children and their families who have joined various year levels throughout the school .

This year certainly shapes as being an exciting year for our school as we continue to strive for excellence and the development of the whole child - academically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.

This year, I hope to post a short fortnightly ‘overview of the newsletter’ video on Vimeo of what is happening around the school. In this increasingly visual-oriented, digital world, I hope this improves the lines of communication to parents about what is happening around our school.

To view this week’s edition visit: School Newsletter #1, Term 1, 2019

I am really looking forward to working with you and our dedicated staff in making 2019 a rewarding and successful year for our wonderful children.

Kind regards,

Damian

Beginning of School Year Mass

We extend an invitation for all parents and grandparents to join us for our Opening of School Year Mass at 9:30am tomorrow morning. We have also extended the invitation to all Foundation students and their parents who have the first few Wednesdays off of this term. We have also invited former students of St Raphael's - our school alumni - to join us to celebrate the start of a new school year. Many of these ex-students were at the school in the 1950s - 1970s. Last year we created a more formal connection with these ex-students and were amazed at how many of them felt a strong connection to the school.

Playground Redevlopment

Last year we saw the redevelopment of the Parish Reflection Garden and Parish Garden as additional grass playground space around Fr Simon’s presbytery, the school mural on Breen Street, the school hall entrance and redevelopment and small projects to beautify the entrance to the school grounds. This year our big building project for 2019 will be the replacement and redevelopment of our existing school adventure playground. This redevelopment has been part of our landscape masterplan which has been initiated and supported by our wonderful parent volunteers on the Landscape Redevelopment Committee. In the coming weeks, we will be meeting with landscape companies to finalise the plans and hope that works will commence later this term/ early Term Two.

School Education Board [SEB]

The School Education Board [SEB] will be meeting for the first time in the coming weeks. The SEB is a group of dedicated parent volunteers who meet three times a term to discuss whole school improvement and provide parent voice on certain decisions where parent input is requested. An offer is extended to any new parents to come along and be a part of our SEB. Meeting dates will be forwarded in the coming weeks.

School Open Days and Twilight School

An experienced principal once told me that in education that there is no such thing as standing still. As we start 2019 we are already looking toward 2020 enrolments! As with any school, increasing and sustaining enrolment numbers are vital to ensure that the school can provide the necessary staffing and the best possible programs, resources and equipment for the children. This year we are particularly proud that our overall school enrolment numbers have increased to 303 students. This is the first time in over a decade that we have had 300 children or above. 300 enrolments are the ideal school population for a school of our size and, as a result, it increases our overall funding which will benefit all of the children throughout the school. At St Raphael's, we are committed to providing your child with the very best that we can offer. Sustained enrolment numbers mean more funding which equals more staffing, more programs, more resources, more equipment and better facilities. As a school community, the children deserve the very best and is what we all want for our children.

In this day and age, many prospective parents ‘shop around’ for a school of choice for their child. We have heard of some parents enrolling their child in up to four schools before making a final decision!

In order to attract enrolments, every government, independent and Catholic school in our area is proactive in inviting prospective parents to Open Days to view their school in action.

Our Open Days for 2020 enrolments as follows.

Twilight School Open Day Tour – Tuesday 26th February (3 pm and 5 pm).

School Open Days: Thursday 14th March and Friday 10th May (9:30 am and 12 pm)

No booking appointment necessary. All welcome.

The Twilight School was a new initiative that was introduced last year to give prospective working parents an opportunity to see the school and children in action. The children will commence school at 12pm and conclude at 6pm on the 26th February with tours being held at 3pm and 5pm.

Last year, the children really enjoyed the experience, however, we realise this may cause some inconvenience for our school’s existing working parents and may interfere with after-school activities. Following last year’s Twilight School, the school consulted the parent SEB to gain their feedback and they were unanimous in their support for this initiative. After School Care will be open as normal in the morning until 9am. If you are unable to make alternative arrangements or keep your children at home then they are welcome to come to school at 9am and be supervised in large groups by teachers until the commencement of school at 12pm. During this time they will be watching videos and supervised by the teachers.

After School Care from 3:30pm - 6pm will not be required on this day.

If you need to pick up your child for after-school activities please let your child’s teacher know in advance.

Year 5/6 School Camp

Good luck to our Year 5/6 children who will be attending a Leadership Camp at Queenscliff next Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th February. This is a wonderful way to get to know each other and develop the children’s leadership capacity and skills. We thank our staff and parents who will be attending the camp and we look forward to some great leadership initiatives throughout this year.

Positive Parent Advice

Throughout this year we will be posting some practical parenting advice articles written by national and international experts. Parenting in today's world is a difficult and complex task.

This first article looks at positive parenting and how you can respond to your child’s concerns about issues relating to school. To go up to school or not?

I welcome your feedback on any of these articles and hope they provide support in your difficult role as a parent, mentor and guide.

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