Principal's Message
Dear parents, students and families,
‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light on my path’ Psalms 119:105 was our theme for our yearly retreat last Thursday and Friday. Over prayer, we contemplated what this means to us as educators of your children. We considered this on Thursday as we spent two sessions of the day completing scripture study - a formula for reading the scripture with staff from the MACS Religious Education Leaders for the Southern Region helping to guide us with support from Mrs Thomas and Mrs Winduss. In the afternoon we revisited the Principles of Catholic Social Teachings, with a deeper look at the 'Preferential Option for the Poor' which is our focus in third term, and looked at how we could use these to enhance our students' understanding and growth in this area. On Friday we had representatives from the Kinder Communities Program work with our entire staff. They said they are often called to assist schools who need to develop in this area but were pleasantly surprised to be invited to work with a school such as ours that has wellbeing as such a central core of how we operate. The basis of their workshops was to empower Primary School students on how to intervene safely against bullying, understand emotional and mental regulation, help everyone feel secure and create a more inclusive culture in their school. Effective bystander education takes time and ongoing effort-through this we will continue to support our students to be an upstander rather than a bystander.
As we did not have a newsletter last week I want to take the time to look back and acknowledge the efforts of our many students who attended the District Field Events on 4th June at Ballam Park. I understand that everyone had a great time and there was a fair bit of success. Well done! Thank you to Mrs Ary who does such a good job of organising our sports program.
I have noticed that we have started to have some early arrivals of students in our yard. This means that these children will be unsupervised until duty is commenced by staff at 8.30am. Please contact Moira at Happy Kids in our Hall (0418 329569) if your children need supervision at school before 8.30am for any reason.
Next week is Week 10 and the highlight of it is our annual Italian Day on Wednesday 19 June. Signora Morina has been working her magic and I'm sure everyone is looking forward to this great experience. On Thursday 20 June we will have a class from the local NIDO Childcare Centre visiting to help our students learn more about supporting the local community. On Friday 21 June we are holding a 5/6 Student Leadership Workshop. We hope this helps them grow in their abilities to be even better role models for our younger students.
On Wednesday 26 June 3.40-5.55pm and Thursday 27 June 1.10-5.40pm we will be holding our second lot of parent/teacher interviews for the year. These interviews are at school and for all students. These meetings will provide an opportunity to reflect on the report you will have just received and discuss goals for the second half of the year. Parents with students in Years 3-6 are welcome to include their child as part of the discussion.
The smooth running of our event relies on all parents keeping to the timetable. Meetings will begin at your commencement time and run for just under 15 minutes. Please consider other parents and end on time. If you need more time with a particular teacher, arrange a separate meeting or phone call.
To book your spot/s please go to https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au/code/fwawx.
With interviews commencing at 1.10pm on Thursday 27 June school will conclude at 1pm on this day. Thank you for making arrangements.
God Bless
Rod Shaw
Principal
School Attendance and Unexplained Absence
Please contact the school if your child is going to be absent by leaving a message on
9786 4736 and press 1. Please give details of your child’s name and class with areason for their absence such as: unwell, appointment, holiday or family reasons. Alternatively an email can be sent to office@saseaford.catholic.edu.au with cc to the child’s teacher.
If you are running late, (after 9:00 am) please attend the office to sign your child into school and collect a late pass.
If you are picking up your child early you will need to collect them and sign them out from the office.
As per our policy this will be our morning routine for absences:
Parents will be contacted as soon as practicable on the morning a student is absent via a text message.
If parent does not contact the school after receiving the text message, the school will contact the parent by phone. If the parent is unreachable the emergency contacts will be contacted by the school.
If there is still no response, and the school feels that the child is in danger, the police will be contacted.
Ongoing unexplained absences or lack of cooperation regarding student attendance will result in a formal conference being organized. Unresolved attendance issues will be referred to D.H.H.S.
This is a legal requirement.
Democratic Principles
The six (6) principles of Australian democracy include:
(a) elected government; and
(b) the rule of law; and
(c) equal rights for all before the law; and
(d) freedom of religion; and
(e) freedom of speech and association; and
(f) the values of openness and tolerance