Laura Jane's Message
A message from our St Gabriel's Principal
Dear Families,
The season of Lent offers time for us to reflect as we prepare for Easter. We are invited to reflect through Prayer – deepening our relationship with God through conversation and quiet reflection, Fasting – making small sacrifices that help us grow in self-discipline and gratitude and Almsgiving – thinking beyond ourselves and supporting those in need through generosity and service.
We look forward to our Holi and Easter end of Term Colour Fun run. This will take place on Thursday 2nd April. There is more information coming soon with details of this event. Our colour fun run is a celebration of Term 1 and acknowledges the Holi Hindu festival and Easter, celebrations of faith, hope, love and joy.
This is an important reminder for all families to complete an enrolment form if your child is starting Prep with us in 2027. We have been overwhelmed with enrolments this year and we want to ensure that all siblings are accounted for early on. You can access an enrolment form on the school website.
Our school Gates open at 8.30 for a calm start to the day!
Powered Reading in Hubs begins at 8.30, we encourage all families to make the most of this opportunity as often as you can. We understand that some mornings can be tricky or particularly busy. When you can, please try to arrive close to 830 so your child can be a part of powered reading. During powered reading, educators are reading with children and focusing on your child’s reading goals. At 8.50, the school gates close and Getting Ready to Learn begins in the hub. This is an important daily routine that focuses on ensuring that all children feel calm, connected and ready to start the learning for the day.
Parent Volunteer Sessions
There are two parent volunteer sessions running this Monday 16th March:
Session 1: Onsite at St Gabriel’s at 9.30am
Session 2: Online via Google Meet at 7.00pm
To be a parent volunteer at St Gabriel's you must:
- hold a current Working with Children Check
- have attended a parent volunteer session
- have read and signed the Child Safety Code of Conduct.
Please complete the form attached to register for one of these sessions.
We continue to see parents compromising the safety of the children during drop off and pick up times. Please read this information and prioritise driving safely and following the traffic rules around St Gabriel's.
Safe Drop off and pick up of Children
The safety of all children and families is our absolute priority. We continue to see some families making unsafe choices and not following road and traffic safety during drop off and pick up. We appreciate that there may be time pressure, however, it is not worth an injury to a child or another member of our community. We ask all parents to prioritise the safety of all during drop off and pick up times.
Here are some important reminders:
- Drive at a safe and legal speed
- Park in the designated areas, following the council signage
- Do not block school or local residents driveways
- Avoid U-Turns as these create an increased risk of accidents
- If your child has to cross the road, you should get out of your vehicle and assist your child safely across the road.
The educators are at the gates to ensure that all children leave the school safely with the right parents and family members. We look forward to seeing an immediate improvement in safe behaviours at drop off and pick up.
MACS Care
We are delighted to be supported by Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) to enhance our Child Safe practices this year. MACS have launched MACS Care which is a dedicated website designed to ensure that child safety is at the forefront of our minds each day in our school. We want to share this with you so you will notice that we have a new section in our newsletter each month - Child Safety. In this we will share information about one of the Child Safe Standards with you. We encourage you to prioritise reading this as it will help you to learn more about the standards and also to know which standard our school is focused on for that month.
In this month's newsletter, you will read about:
