Principal News

Dear Members of the St Raphael's school community,

Over the last few weeks, we would like to thank all parents/ carers for your ongoing support in RAT testing the children on Wednesday and Sunday nights. Your support in isolating your children who have tested positive has kept our school community relatively Covid-free and has caused minimal disruption to the children's learning. After meeting with Catholic principals in our area, we are one of the few schools with minimal disruptions to the children and staff members.

We appreciate that the distribution of RAT tests has not been as smooth as was first promised. Due to ongoing distribution and delivery issues from various government organisations, we have not been given the appropriate number of RAT tests since the start of the school year. We have been working with Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, the Victorian Department of Health, RAT test distribution centres and couriers to rectify this ongoing issue for our school. This has been extremely frustrating, and we thank you for your support and understanding. If we receive our expected delivery today or tomorrow (24/02 and 25/02), we will distribute the next batch of RAT tests tomorrow (25/02) and ask you to continue to test your children on Sunday and Wednesday nights. A reminder to please notify your child's homeroom teacher immediately if your child tests positive and to isolate directly for seven days. You will need to inform the authorities. The homeroom teacher will follow our internal procedures to notify the school community and the authorities.

We have been asked whether it is possible to identify a positive case's homeroom rather than the whole year level. Unfortunately, due to confidentiality, we cannot provide this information. Also, our children work across multiple groupings in each year level and interact with each other daily. This makes it impossible to be specific about the homeroom.

School Review 2022

Our School Advisory Board (SAB) met on Tuesday night to discuss our upcoming quadrennial school review, which will take place on Tuesday 29th and Thursday 31st March. The SAB members will provide invaluable insight and input into the school review process. We will keep you updated when the review is completed.

A reminder that Monday 7th March is a whole school closure day as the staff complete final preparations for the school review. Theircare will be open on this day. Please book directly via the Thiercare website.

School Uniform

As mentioned in the last newsletter, all children must now be wearing their full school uniform. The Uniform Shop is open on Thursday 10th March (8.45 am - 9.15 am) and is taking orders via the school tub. 

As a condition of the ongoing enrolment of your child at St Raphael's, all parents have signed their commitment to support and abide by the school's Uniform Policy. Therefore, we ask for your cooperation by ensuring your child is wearing the correct school uniform at all times. If your child cannot wear their correct school uniform, please email or write a note to your child's homeroom teacher informing them of the exceptional circumstances.

School Fees

A reminder that all 2022 school fees and levies will receive a $200 discount if paid in full by 4 pm on Friday 29th April. If you are experiencing financial difficulties, you are encouraged to contact the school to make an appointment to discuss alternative payment arrangements.