From the Principal

The past two weeks have, once again, been filled with wonderful community events, learning experiences and extra curricular activities.

Thank you for taking the time to read the newsletter to find out what has happened over the past two weeks and what we have to look forward to in the weeks ahead.

Mothers Day

Last week we celebrated Mothers and special women in our students' lives. 

It all started on Monday last week when the Galilee Parents Association held two pop up Mother’s Day stalls. There was a buzz of excitement in the air as students purchased a gift for their mothers and special women in their lives. 

On Friday morning, Mothers and special women filled our hall for morning tea. Our Prep students did a fabulous job singing a beautiful song to our Mums. 

After morning tea, we gathered at St. Peter and Paul's Church for a beautiful service with Fr. Paul and Fr. Vincy. Our Year 2’s prepared the liturgy and did a wonderful job reading and singing. 

In the afternoon our mothers gathered at Greenfields in Albert Park and enjoyed a delicious lunch with great music in a wonderful location. The atmosphere was electric! It was lovely to see so many of our mums take time from their busy schedules to be with each other and celebrate being a mum together. 

We thank all volunteers throughout the week for organising and assisting with these events to make them as amazing as they are. 

Thank you to all the Mothers and Mother-life figures in our students' lives. Thank you for making our students' lives better, our school community better and our world a better place to be. We see you and the incredible things you do,and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you!

We hope you all had a special day on Sunday celebrating the incredible Mothers and Mother-like figures in your world.

Year 6 Camp

This week our Year 6 students attended Urban Camp in Melbourne. They spent four days and three nights exploring everything that Melbourne has to offer. The camp had a big focus on student’s learning about Government and Australian History. They had the opportunity to tour Parliament House, the Courts, the MCG, the Treasury and Old Melbourne Gaol where their learning from the classroom came alive. Dinner on Lygon Street was also a huge success!

This camp experience also had a focus on building students' independence as they prepare for secondary school. Students navigated their way around Melbourne by foot and public transport. This was an area identified by past students as an area they were worried about in their transition to secondary school. Giving students the opportunity and skills in this area was wonderful. 

Students have returned to school very happy with lots of wonderful stories to tell of memories made.

Next term our Year 6 students will attend their second camp for the year where they will experience an outdoor education camp with a focus on Indigenous perspectives. Students will also get to experience sleeping in tents.

Offering two camp experiences for our Year 6 students is a new initiative this year. We are surveying the students following these new experiences that will form part of our annual review process when booking camps for 2025.

School Uniform

As the weather gets cooler, it is wonderful to see students wearing their full winter uniform each day.

Some things to keep in mind now that we have transitioned to the winter uniform:

• Please ensure that tops worn under the uniform are not visible. For this reason a high neck skivvy cannot be worn under the uniform because it is visible.
• The only jewelry that can be worn to school are plain small sleepers and stud like earrings.
• Nail polish cannot be worn to school.
• Long hair (girls or boys) need to be tied back with navy blue or maroon hair accessories. 

Sacrament of First Eucharist

Last week our Year 4 students and their families gathered together for a Family Faith Night focusing on the Sacrament of Eucharist. Students and their families learned about the Sacrament and heard about the journey they will take at school and in their Parish as they prepare for the Sacrament. We would like to wish every student preparing to receive the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time, every blessing. 

Seeds and Sprouts School Transition and Readiness Program at Galilee

Next week we will be welcoming our ‘Sprout’ students to Galilee. These are a group of four year old children who are enrolled to attend Galilee in 2025. These children will attend an hour session each week focusing on transitioning to school.

This program was developed in 2019 by Holly Evans and Carmen Carnovale with the assistance of the School Advisory Council and a grant through the City of Port Phillip. The program is a bespoke program for students transitioning to our school. We have had rave reviews from families and teachers who have all reported that children’s confidence and readiness for school has improved by attending this program. The grant is no longer available for this program. At Galilee, we see the benefits for students who can attend and have decided to fund this program ourselves. It translates to a smoother transition and a more settled first year of school. 

The ‘Seeds’ students are our three year olds who will attend separate sessions that start in Term 3.

Stadium Update

As you will be aware from previous communications, negotiations regarding rectification of the stadium are well underway. We are coming to what we believe is the final stage of negotiations with contracts being drawn-up and reviewed by all parties involved. This week we have been able to meet with trades people onsite who are preparing to start work. 

In anticipation of work begining, Seb Greene has cleared the stadium and storage cupboards of all sporting equipment and Sandy Baptist has moved Performing Arts into the STEM room. Moving Performing Arts was seen as necessary because the room is so close to what will be a noisy construction site. 

A hygienist has continued to visit our site to monitor the stadium and ensure all precautions are taken to maintain a safe environment. This will continue throughout the rectification project. 

At this stage, we understand that the construction zone will be limited to the stadium. All materials going into the stadium and out of the stadium will occur after hours so that there is minimal disruption. 

We will inform our community when works begin in the stadium and we will update the community through the rectification project.

We would like to thank everyone for their continued patience, flexibility and understanding as we navigate the rectification of our stadium.

Semester One Student Reports

Semester One Student Reports will be available on Wednesday 26th June, 2024.  

Galilee’s Semester One Student Reports are in line with the reporting standards of Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. Details about what will be included in your child’s Semester One Student Report will be emailed to all families soon. Your child’s Semester One Student Report will be made accessible electronically, via a Parent Portal, for you to read and discuss with your child. Information about how to access student reports will be shared closer to the date. 

Grandparents Day at Galilee

Grandparent's Day at Galilee will be Monday 17 June. We would love to see as many Grandparents and Special People as we can on Monday 17th June. On Monday 17 June we will have a whole school School Mass, Morning Tea for Grandparents and Special People and tour of the classrooms. More details will be shared with you shortly. 

Fundraising at Galilee

We are very thankful for our generous community who give in a variety of ways. The Galilee Parents Association (GPA) run very successful fundraising events and activities that have enhanced the schools budget. Last year GPA fundraising events assisted with the schools budget to upgrade the Library and assisted the schools budget to upgrade devices for students in Year 2-6. This year we are using funds raised to enhance the school’s budget to upgrade the ipads in junior classes and upgrade the wellbeing hub. 

Galilee Communication Survey

Last term we sent out a Galilee Communication Survey to parents. We recieved 72 responses from our parent community. Based on the feedback we recieved, we are reviewing our communications channels to harness these more effectively so we can provide greater certainty around where to go for different types of information and clarify what parents can expect to see through the different platforms, applications and channels we have at our disposal. This information will be circulated in the coming months. 

These strategic initiatives always welcome specialist volunteer expertise - so if you are a communications specialist who would be willing to help, (in whatever capacity) please let Amy Burns or Richard Harding know and we can put you in touch with the relevant school advisory council member. Thank you to everyone that took the time to respond to the survey.

I wish you and your family every blessing in the coming weeks.

Amy Burns

Acting Principal