Dear families,

A few important details to share with you all this fortnight.

Remembrance Day

Yesterday, our school visited the Rushworth Remembrance Day service. I was incredibly proud of how the students conducted themselves with reverence and respect. Thank you to Sofia and Ruby who represented our school in the laying of our wreath and thank you to Amelia, Pippa, Ruby, Sofia, Charlii and Ollie for helping me to make our wreath.

The visit to the service coincided with learning experiences within classrooms.

Magnify Sandhurst

This fortnight, Thea and I have been planning how our timetable, and what learning, will look like for 2025. In conjunction with the Magnify framework, we will be looking at and auditing all the ‘extra activities’ that we have throughout the year. As a school, we will be making our literacy and numeracy learning time more sacred and endeavor to minimize disruptions to this time. This may mean that school events will sometimes occur later in the day as they have this year.

As a school, we have a much greater focus upon implementing and embedding all of the resources and practices available to us. 2025 looks to be a very exciting year that will really up the ante in our learning and teaching for all students to grow and thrive.

Staffing and structures 2025

Over the past month or so, we have been working through budgeting and planning our structures and timetable for 2025. I am pleased to say that we will retain our three composite classrooms. We have also appointed several staff to various positions.

Last week, I sent correspondence regarding the appointing of Mrs. Angela Fiske-Kealy into the role of Senior Leader – Learning and Teaching. Angela’s position is a fixed-term to replace Thea while she is on maternity leave. Angela will commence at the beginning of the year and Thea will work on various projects until mid-late Term 1.

Last week, we also had a vote at our consultative meeting which resulted in an elevation of role for Mrs. Katherine Jamieson. Katherine will be Senior Leader – Learner Diversity and will work closely with Angela Fiske-Kealy in shared senior leadership. This will be especially integral while I am on paternity leave early Term 1. This elevation in role is recognition for Katherine’s dedication to our school/community and comes with additional responsibly as our intervention model will change with the rollout of Magnify.

Finally, I have appointed Mrs. Bianca Brook to the role of Mental Health in Primary Schools for 2025 for 2 days per week. This is a very exciting position for 2025 as it allows Bianca to enhance mental health practices and education for staff, students and families as well as connect families with support services. Bianca will receive training for the role next year.

We currently have a 0.4FTE (two days per week) advert for a teacher to come in and provide time for these teachers to have within these roles. Please feel free to share the advert with any teachers whom you may know.

https://careers.ceosand.catholic.edu.au/jobs/teacher-fixed-term-part-time-st-mary-s-school-rushworth-vic-australia

I would also like the opportunity to share our staffing of classes for 2025. Please note that, while this is likely the final structure, it may depend upon our provision for allocating the aforementioned two days.

F/1/2 - Mrs. Angela Fiske-Kealy

3/4 - Mrs. Bianca Brook and Mrs. Kerry Morse

5/6 - Mrs. Katherine Jamieson

Child Safe/OH&S

Last night, all of our staff underwent CPR and Anaphylaxis training as per our obligations. While we hope that we are never faced with an incident, it is crucial that we are well-prepared for the unlikely event.

In the next week, we will also perform an Emergency Drill at some point as part of our termly operations.

St Mary’s Fete

We hope to see lots of families at our upcoming fete. We are still asking for donations and mystery jars. The evening promises to be really entertaining and is a great opportunity to raise funds for the school. These funds will help us to continue with school camps and excursions in the future.

Attendance

As you know, our school strives for 95% attendance for all of our students. If a child misses just 10 minutes of school per day, that equates to nearly 6 days per year. Through SIMON Everywhere, we have set up monthly reminder percentages to be generated and sent to families to enable you to monitor your child's attendance.

In my experience, families often do not realise how much their children have missed unless it is continually monitored.

As always, please do not hesitate to contact or come and see me if you have any questions or queries.

God bless you all,

Vin Ryan