Principal News
Welcome
Dear members of the St Raphael's school community,
I trust that you are all keeping well and managing to get some work done from home as you continue to do an amazing job supporting your children throughout this challenging time. The children have been doing an incredible job and I know many are struggling with this daily online environment. They have been truly remarkable. As a staff we too are growing weary of remote home online learning, however, we must all continue to adhere to the restrictions that are in place so that we can overcome this virus and hopefully return to some sense of normality in the not too distant future.
Whilst I have not heard any official news of when we will return to on-site school, we are all hoping that the children will be able to return at the commencement of Term Four. The staff have been working hard behind the scenes and meeting regularly online to plan and design experiences for the children that will be fun and engaging when we eventually do return to on-site school.
We are very conscious that the children will need to reconnect with their friends and teachers and are looking at many innovative and diverse ways that we can support them when they do return to school. We appreciate that it has been an incredibly difficult time for the children and our priority for when they return to school again will be to make them feel connected, safe and happy being back at school again.
Despite the much-needed recent rain, it has been an incredibly cold and bleak few months and I thought I would share with you a couple of images that represent hope and optimism for the coming months as we come out of this difficult lockdown period.
At home, across my back verandah, we have an ornamental grapevine that provides us shade from the hot summer sun with its large green leaves before turning a beautiful amber red colour in Autumn and eventually dropping its leaves for the cold winter months. To me, this is a representation of the 2020 year! The vine has been dormant since just before we went back into Lockdown 2.0.
Last weekend, I decided to give the back verandah a coat of paint whilst the grapevine was still dormant and devoid of any pending growth. I am so glad that I did! To my surprise, in the last few days with the warmth of the spring sunshine, the grapevine has started to sprout leaves and is coming back to life! In only three days it has really started to burst back to life!
To me, this new growth signifies the hope that we too will all bounce back and flourish from this challenging time. Hopefully, the difficulties that we have experienced this year will make us a more considerate society and give us renewed optimism and hope as we focus on what really matters in life.
Father' Day 2020
This Sunday we celebrate Father's Day 2020.
We hope that Sunday is a fantastic day for all of our dads, albeit a different one, where many families cannot be physically together to celebrate with their dads. If this is the case, let this be a time to stop and reflect on how much we love and value our fathers and the important role models they are in our lives.
To all the dads/ grandads who are no longer with us, we keep them in our thoughts and prayers this Sunday.
We look forward to welcoming all dads and grandfathers to our Zoom whole school assembly this Friday 4th September at 1:30 pm. The teachers will share the Zoom meeting link on your child's Google Classroom page on Friday morning. Please also encourage any grandfathers to join us by 'Zooming' into our assembly. We ask that all of our dads sit on-screen with your children during this assembly.
Please spoil your dads on Sunday and give thanks for all they do for us.
Parent Support
Throughout this period you have done an amazing job supporting your children throughout remote online home learning. Below I have provided a couple of links to websites on ways you can continue to support your children throughout this time and what a return to on-site school may look like for your children.
New student wellbeing resources
SchoolTV has generously shared a special report video with the CECV as part of its Coronavirus series.
In this presentation, Riding the Corona Coaster, Dr Michael Carr-Gregg explores how the uncertainty of not knowing what will happen next may impact students, families and staff in school communities. He examines increasing concerns regarding mental health issues such as anxiety, depression and substance abuse among young people, and emphasises the importance of promoting help-seeking behaviour and reducing stress levels at home. Dr Carr-Gregg provides tips for parents/carers on looking after their wellbeing during this challenging time.
https://schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-riding-corona-coaster
UNICEF
https://www.unicef.org/coronavirus/what-will-return-school-during-covid-19-pandemic-look
Foundation 2021 Induction Evening
On Thursday 3rd September at 5 pm we will be holding a virtual Foundation 2021 Induction session. Our 2021 Foundation students and their parents are invited to attend this important information session which will detail school readiness and the procedures for the commencement of the 2021 school year. This is also a great reminder to our whole school community of that life will return to some sense of normality and we look forward to welcoming our new Foundation students and their families into our wonderful school community next year.
If you are a parent of a Foundation 2021 student and do not have the meeting details then please email: lgamble@srprestonwest.catholic.edu.au
Catholic School Funding
I would like to draw your attention to a recent article published on the ABC News website titled “How the Catholic school system takes from the poor to give to the rich”.
In this article, it refers to the system of government funding distribution across Catholic schools in NSW.
As a Victorian Catholic school, we receive 80% of federal and state government funding as compared to all government primary schools who are fully-funded by state and federal governments. This 80% government funding covers our staffing costs. The additional 20% shortfall in funding for Catholic schools is made up by parent contributions through fees and levies which enable us to pay for ongoing operating and utility costs (lighting, heating/ cooling etc...), resources, equipment, maintenance, upgrades and to provide various educational opportunities for the children.
Our school fees and levies are based on our SES score of 102 and our parent's capacity to contribute. We are always conscious of keeping the costs of fees and levies as low as possible and that every year we consult with our school accountant, representatives from the CEM Finance Team and School Education Board (and recently formed School Advisory Board) to ensure that our fees and levies are representative of our SES, remain affordable whilst still being able to provide the necessary resources, equipment and learning experiences for the children.
Over the last two years, even with CPI increases, we have not raised our school fees and levies to ensure that that we continue to support our parent community through these challenging economic times.