Loving God,

Thank You for the blessings of this term.

As we enter the holidays, grant our families rest and renewal.

Guide us into the new semester with patience, keeping our children safe,

our mornings calm, and our school community connected.

Amen.

Semester 2 Timetable Update:

A Balanced Approach to Morning Safety and Community Feedback

Dear Parents, Carers, and Staff,

As we wrap up the first half of the school year, I want to extend my deepest gratitude to our entire school community for your patience, engagement, and constructive feedback during our before-school timetable trial throughout Terms 1 and 2. This new morning drop-off model was initiated after a 2025 audit of our previous Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) practices revealed a structural shortfall, specifically highlighting that our teachers were inadvertently working more face-to-face contact hours than legally permitted under workplace regulations. The revised morning routine directly addresses this compliance issue, ensuring we fully meet our legal supervision obligations to our staff while successfully maintaining a safe, purposeful, and settled start to learning each day for our students.

Change is rarely easy, but it is necessary as we strive to create the best possible environment for our students. Over the past two terms, we have carefully reviewed the survey data from both parents and staff, and engaged in extensive consultations across all levels of our community. This included our teaching team, our full staff, the School Advisory Council (SAC), our Parents and Friends (P&F), Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS), the Independent Education Union (IEU), our Parish, and the City of Kingston.

Our ultimate goal has been to find a balanced solution - one that respects staff working hours under the MACS framework, honours our union and Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) expectations, protects the smooth flow of family morning routines, and above all else focuses on the safety of our children.

Listening to Our Community: What the Data Told Us

The trial revealed some significant divergences in perspective between school staff and our parent community, particularly regarding the morning drop-off window:

Morning Safety & Gates: While 83.4% of staff felt the entry process was safe, 66% of parents expressed anxiety regarding the closed gates between 8:20 AM and 8:30 AM, noting the safety risks for families waiting on busy main roads (Springs Road/Bunney Road).
Student Readiness: 70.8% of staff believed students were settled by the 8:45 AM bell, but 60% of parents described the line-up areas as congested and chaotic, adding anxiety to the morning routine rather than calming students down.
Community Connection: While staff felt they had adequate check-in opportunities, many parents - particularly our Prep and Year 1/2 families - shared a sense of lost community, feeling "shut out" and anxious about their child's transition into the school grounds.

We heard you loud and clear. In particular, we listened closely to parents regarding the impact of the gates opening at 8:30 AM. Working alongside our school leadership, and the City of Kingston to monitor the traffic and safety implications around our perimeter, we know that for families managing tight morning schedules on busy surrounding roads, even a few minutes can make a massive difference to student safety and peace of mind.

We recognise that a successful morning starts with balancing physical energy and emotional readiness. Before school, children have the opportunity to play and run outside, allowing them to burn off energy, socialise, and wake up their bodies. Following this active time, we also understand that many children experience anxiety during the morning transition into the classroom. As always, if there is an issue, please discuss this with your class teacher. Our dedicated 5-minute settling time inside classrooms is specifically designed for reducing student anxiety by offering a gentle, predictable buffer. With music playing and doors open, students can unpack and ground themselves in a familiar space before the official bell rings. By balancing physical play with this supportive indoor routine, we aim to reduce stress and help anxious students feel secure, regulated, and emotionally ready to learn.

Additionally, under the new schedule, our wet weather procedure has been updated to provide a more comfortable experience for students. In the event of rainy weather, students will now go directly to their classrooms (from 8:30 AM) instead of gathering in the hall. Leadership will monitor conditions and make the official call on any given day, ensuring a smooth and dry transition out of the elements.

The New Semester 2 Timetable

In direct response to feedback received from our school community, we have modified the schedule for Semester 2.

Time Event / Activity

8:25 am Gates open

8:25 am – 8:40 am Students drop bags and play on playground (see map)

8:30 am – 8:40 am Teachers preparing in classrooms

(Students enter classrooms if wet weather is announced)

8:40 am Classroom doors open (music begins to play)

8:40 am – 8:45 am Student classroom settling (Parents welcome)

8:45 am School Bell (Parents exit to allow morning routines to begin)

8:45 am – 8:55 am School Prayer / Class Prayer / Attendance

8:55 am – 11:00 am Teaching and learning commence

A Balanced Solution for a Stronger Community

Moving the gate opening to 8:25 am is a small but impactful shift designed to improve our morning routine and enhance student safety. By getting children off the bustling footpaths of Springs and Bunney Roads earlier, this change provides families with a wider, less congested 20-minute window to drop off safely. Staggering arrival in this manner actively addresses parental anxieties about road safety, eases traffic congestion, and reduces the morning rush, allowing for a much calmer and more peaceful transition onto the school grounds. With this 20-minute window to arrive, there is no need to come earlier; we encourage families to assist traffic flow by spreading arrivals over the whole time so that children are ready and settled in class, ready to learn by 8:45 am.

Please note that this 8:25 adjustment optimises our operational capacity while ensuring strict, non-negotiable compliance with our Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) and recent audit mandates. Because we were required to implement this safety update to meet these compliance standards, we have completely exhausted our available resource limits. Consequently, this timing is final and no further accommodations regarding staff hours can be made.

We believe this finalised schedule strikes the perfect balance: it honours the commitments, workloads, and working hours of our dedicated staff while keeping the safety and wellbeing of our students and families at the absolute centre of what we do.

To help families and students visualise these morning changes, we have updated our school layout. A map of the new bag locations and teacher duty zones can be viewed below. For most classes, the bag locations will be right outside the classrooms. To assist in locating the correct area, class teachers will show children their bag area tomorrow. Your child will also be sent home with a map highlighting their specific area.

Thank you once again for your invaluable feedback and for working in partnership with us to keep our school community safe, connected, and thriving.

Regards

Brian Martin

Principal

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