Principal's News

Dear Parents and Carers,

Today our 54 Foundation students for 2023 visited our school between 11:30am and 1:00pm as part of their transition into Primary school. Our Grade 6 children spent the day at their chosen secondary school.

All other children moved up into their 2023 class group. All children give us the names of some friends that they would like to be with, our class teachers have made recommendations and now the classes are final. All children have been placed with at least one of the children they identified they would like to be with, no one will be with all of the friends they identified.

Inevitably some children may be disappointed that their very best friend is not in their class; however we have done our best to ensure that all 410 children are with at least one of the friends they nominated. 

It makes a very big difference if parents support us by explaining that the school has done its best and will always support all children to feel confident and happy at school.

As a side note a former student of mine from Sacred Heart in Casterton made an appointment to see me this week. Paul is now a sales rep for a company that designs and sells school signs. It was great to meet up with this now 40 year old man - he told me all he could remember of his time in my classroom was that I used to sing Paul Kelly songs…BADLY. A great dose of perspective for me.

Organising our classes each year is such a complicated process that has so many competing factors we are unable to make any changes once these classes are released.

KRIS KINDLE At Sunday’s Mass Fr Michael lit the second of the four candles on the Advent Wreath, the PEACE candle. How can we bring Peace into our hearts, our homes and our community this week?

One of our traditions in support of this is the Kris Kindle program. In every class the teacher will organise for the children to secretly draw out the name of a classmate from a hat. The children then commit to endeavouring to go out of their way to look after this person in small but special ways during Advent. They might simply ensure that they greet this person happily each day. They might invite them to play at recess or share their textas etc with them. In this way bringing a spirit of peace, joy and hope into our school.

The children are then asked to bring a small ($5) gift for this child to be placed under the class Christmas Tree. The gift should be wrapped and addressed as follows: “Merry Christmas ………” (insert the name of the child for whom the gift is intended) “from your K.K.”

GRADUATION Our Grade 6 class will Graduate from primary school at a ceremony at 6:00pm-6:30pm on Thursday, December 8th at the Jubilee Centre - Trinity College

Given that we have a smaller graduating class and no Covid-19 restrictions this year children may be accompanied by immediate family and grandparents if they choose.

We are very grateful to Susie Kidman who has booked La Porchetta for a meal and celebration following the official ceremony. Parents should have received details about this via a separate note. Please contact the school if you have not received this note and would like to attend La Porchetta’s.

END OF YEAR MASS  Our entire school will be attending the 10:00am Mass this coming Friday at St Mary’s Church. All parents and friends are welcome to join us.

EXCURSIONS Grade 6 children and their teachers will be walking down to the Lake Bowling Club on Friday following Mass to play lawn bowls, before walking to the Botanical Gardens to enjoy Fish and Chips for lunch. The children will catch a bus back to school before the end of the school day.

The Foundation students will be taking a trip to Kidz Kingdom between recess and lunch next Thursday, December 13th.

Grade 3s will be doing an overnight camp at the Good Samaritan Convent at Coragulac next Monday and Tuesday, the 12th & 13th of December.

END OF YEAR REPORTS The children’s end of year reports will be available for parents to read via PAM from Friday December 16th. This is the last day of classes for 2022. Our staff will be here on Monday December 19th upgrading their First Aid qualifications and on Tuesday December 20th packing up, cleaning up and preparing for 2023.

BEGINNING 2023 Some early notice, 2023 will begin for our teachers on Friday January 27th with training and preparation. 

Classes for the children will resume on Monday, January 30th.