What a Morning! St Roch's hosts Grandparents & Special Friends Morning

Last Wednesday morning over 120 grandparents and special friends arrived at St Roch's for a morning of connecting both with their grandchildren and each other. It is always such an honour to embrace these significant people into our school community for the morning. Grandparents and special friends enjoyed time in the classrooms, a delicious morning tea, were entertained by our Preps and won prizes at the Q & A. We were humbled to think that some grandparents had travelled from as far away as Columbia to be here for the morning.

Our teachers and students had worked hard to ensure that there was a true sense of the St Roch's welcome on display in the classrooms. Gifts had been made to honour our visitors and activities planned for the youngest and oldest members of our community to share. The was great discussion over a world map in many classrooms as Grandparents and Special Friends shared where they had travelled in the world. Thank you to our amazing staff for all of their preparations and careful planning of the classroom visits. We were so pleased to hear from many grandparents about how much they loved visiting us.

Enormous thanks to our Parent & Friends who were led by Ina Odak and Matt Stubbs the Year 5 Reps and all the parents who provided the incredible morning tea.

Grandparents & Special Friends Book Fair

Hooray to the Book Fair! We were delighted to be able to host a Book Fair again at Grandparents and Special Friends Day this year. The last Book Fair was in held 2022 and this year our Grandparents were as generous as they have always been, purchasing an amazing $1603.00 worth of books to be added to our Library collection. We are over the moon!

We thank all of the grandparents and special friends for their generosity and are so grateful that they love of literature! All of the books purchased will be displayed in the Library over the next few weeks so that students can find the book that was lovingly selected just for them.

Thanks also to Monique Stewart and Molly and Patrick Stewart for selecting the books on display from Jeffrey's Book shop in Malvern. Linda and Emily were so helpful allowing us to choose so many wonderful books. Please pop in and say hello if you are in Glenferrie Rd. Thanks again Jeffrey's Bookshop Malvern. Special thanks to Jess Mount, Hayley Thomas and Carmel Rozario for supporting sales on the day. The Art Room was transformed and was a hive of activity.

World Scout Day

Friday 1 August was World Scout Day and St Roch's acknowledged this event with a doughnut fundraiser after school last Thursday. As we have a number of students who participate in scouts, Sam Connellan arranged doughnuts to be sold after school as a fundraiser. This was really well received and $200.00 was raised. These funds will be added to the money the Year 6 students have already raised through icy pole sales to purchase a Gaga Ball Pit for the playground. Thanks to Harper, Leo and Zoe Connellan, Dominic Roberts-Critchley and Andrew and Michael Borromeo who helped Sam sell the doughnuts.

ICAS Assessments 2025

ICAS Assessments begin this week for the students in Year 2 - Year 6 who have registered to participate in this enrichment opportunity.

This online academic competition is designed to assess students’ higher order thinking and problem-solving skills in English, Mathematics, Science, Writing and Digital Technologies and supports our enrichment program at St Roch’s.

We wish all of the students who are participating all the very best best.

If you have any questions about ICAS please don't hesitate to contact me.

The following dates have been scheduled for the ICAS assessments to be undertaken.

Subject	Year Level	Date of Assessment at St Roch’s
Digital Technologies	2 - 6	Tuesday 5 August
Writing	3 - 6	Wednesday 6 August
English	2 - 6	Tuesday 12 August
Science	2 - 6	Wednesday 20 August
Mathematics	2 - 6	Monday 25 August

Term 3 Chess Club

Chess Club for Term 3 began last Wednesday 30 July and will be held every Wednesday from 11.00am - 11.50am for all interested students. Please consider registering your child for this great lunchtime club. Our students would be delighted to welcome your child into this club to build chess skills. They love teaching new students how to play chess! Please see details below to register and in the Extra Curricula page of the newsletter.

Gardening Club

Gardening Club will run throughout Term 3 every Wednesday at 1.50pm and is open to all students from Prep - Year 6. This is such a beautiful time for our students to increase feelings of wellbeing while learning about science and gardening as they dig in the soil and tend to the garden.

Even in Winter there is lots to do in our vegie patches! The sweet peas are growing and the students have been adding worm castings to build up the soil in readiness for Spring planting. Spring isn't far away.

We look forward to watching the students and Mrs Meseha's Winter vegetables growing in our veggie patches.

Dance Club

Dance Club with Maddie from Dance Fitness Victoria is held every Thursday at lunchtime. Dance Club is open for all students from Prep to Year 2. Registrations for Term 3 are now open.

Art Club

Art Club is being run by our very own Arts Leaders Michael and Evie and our Art Specialist teacher Ms Boers. This week there will be an activity especially designed for students in Year 3 - 6 with art activities on offer for students in Prep to Year 2. There is always a lot of fun being had in the Art Room.

Icy Pole Friday maybe getting a 'Make Over!'

Stay tuned for updates from Miss Allen and our Year 6 leaders who have been working on a more 'weather appropriate' after school fundraiser treat. More updates to follow shortly.

Nadine Bolton

Deputy Principal, Learning Diversity Leader and Student Wellbeing Leader

Physical Education

Division Cross Country