From the Principal

Our Young STARS twinkled BRIGHTLY

Our 2023 Twilight Sports was held on a beautiful Autumn evening at the school grounds on Thursday 9 March. It was a great community event and lovely to see the great spirit clearly evident in each sports house, Mackilop - Yellow, Bosco- Red, Patrick - Green and Teresa - Blue. Our little STARS participated with great enthusiasm in every race and cheered their hearts out with loud and strong renditions of the cheer songs they had practiced together.

There were flat races, novelty events like sack races and relays. It was great to see so many toddlers take part and probably the most number of mums and dads eager to show their fitness and join in the fun.

The winning 2023 House was Teresa and the winners of the Spirit Award in 2023 was Bosco. A big congratulations to all our students for their participation in this FUN community event. Special congratulations to Cory the winner of our 2023 Year 6 Gift.

A BIG thanks to all our staff for their support in ensuring the event ran smoothly from start to finish. We are so grateful to have Lulli as our PE teacher and thank her for all her work in ensuring the children were ready for this event and that the grounds looked sensational with meticulously drawn lines for the track events. Thanks Kristy and Katherine for your help with the difficult task on marking the lines.

Massive thank you to Giuliana for all her behind the scenes coordination. There was clear communication and attention to detail to ensure a well run sports evening. Thanks to everyone with a special role. How great was it to see our seniors step into leadership roles on the ground to help staff.

Thanks to our P&F for providing students and staff with a free sausage and for running the sausage sizzle to provide parents and friends visiting a tasty BBQ sausage. We could not run such a successful event with all the help of the staff and parent community. We were very appreciative of the parents who generously gave their time to pack up everything. Many hands make light works was true and evident as marques were packed up in record time. Thank you.

Our little STARS shone brightly indeed. Well done St Francis de Sales school community for your support and for staying to not just support your child but to cheer and support every child till awards were presented. Your community spirit is spectacular!!

Catholic Education Week (12–19 March 2023)

This year, Catholic Education Week will be celebrated across the Archdiocese of Melbourne from Sunday 12 March to Sunday 19 March.

The week is an opportunity for our school to join all 334 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese to celebrate our distinctive Catholic identity, our achievements, and the role our school plays within our parish and local communities.

The theme for this year’s celebrations is

‘Forming lives of faith, hope and love in the light of Christ’.

Catholic education seeks to provide students with a high-quality education that is inspired by the example of Jesus Christ and fosters the development of the whole person, forming individuals with more than just skills, but with the virtues to live life as transformative agents in our communities.

Our school is planning a range of activities to celebrate the week:

Some of our students will attend the Mass of St Patrick for Schools held on Friday 17 March and celebrated by Archbishop Peter, followed by the Concert in the Park. Ten Year 6 students will be ambassadors representing our school at the St Patrick's Day Mass at St Patrick's cathedral. Several children wrote amazing persuasive letters applying to represent our school. Unfortunately each school is only able to take 10 students.
The Creative Arts Exhibition, which showcases the wonderful artwork of primary and secondary students in the Archdiocese of Melbourne, will run from Tuesday 14 March to Saturday 18 March and is open to the general public.
Congratulations to the following students who had their art work selected for the Catholic Education Week Art Show in the city.

Orlando P

Joshua G

Samarrah L

Pudamsee D

Leilani T

Bethany C

Group Prep Entry

The Creative Arts Exhibition will be held at the

Catholic Leadership Centre, 576 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne.

We have school tours at 9:10am on Tuesday 14/3 and Thursday 16/3.
Children may wear green on Friday 17th March.

St Patrick's Day - 17th March 2023

Wear a touch of GREEN!

Our junior student will participate in Positive start shadow puppetry workshop on 17/3
Our seniors students will be watching the St Patrick's Day Mass online and will be involved in a variety of FUN activities.
Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will participate in the 2023 NAPLAN writing test on Wednesday 15/3.
Our Year 3 and 5 students will be participating in the NAPLAN online reading test on Thursday 16/3.

Enrol Now for Prep 2024 at St Francis de Sales

Please submit your enrolment application for a sibling by Friday 17 March 2023.

Interviews for siblings to commence school in 2024 will take place in April, Term 1.

Please inform neighbours and friends who will have a child eligible to start school in 2024 to book a tour.

Word of mouth stories about our great school community is the BEST promotion.

Construction Update

Drainage works across Paterson Road commenced and all systems are go. There has been careful measuring to ensure the ply goes on like a work of Art! Paint works on wall has begun and it looks great. Tiles go on next week and the ply will also be laid. It all looks great and the project is well managed but a little bit over schedule currently. The date for completion has now pushed our to the 5 May. We are so looking forward to packing up and moving in as soon as possible.

We are tossing ideas for some landscape work and if funds permit there will be some new play spaces for our children that will appear later this year. Your support of P&F activities will make this happen. All funds raised will be allocated towards getting these dreams realised. Hopefully the area around the new building will develop into an amazing space to play and relax for years ahead.

Staff News

We have welcomed a couple of new staff members since the start of Term 1. We are delighted to announce that the following staff members have joined our school staff.

Katherine Slatter is our new Visual Arts Teacher. Katherine started with us on Tuesday 14 February. Katherine is an experienced Visual Arts teacher and is also an artist. We look forward to seeing some beautiful works of art popping up around the school as students complete their work.
Andriana Eleftheriou has joined our staff this week as a new Learning Support Officier. Andriana is working in Learning Space 1 with our juniors. Andriana is also a very experienced LSO and we are delighted to have her join our staff.
Elisabetta will be on sick leave for the remainder of this term and we pray for her quick recovery so she can join us for and well in term 2. Rita will be stepping in as the teacher LS1 juniors in Elisabetta's absence.

We wish Katherine and Andriana the very BEST as they join our staff team and get to know our school community.

Save the Date

Parent/Teacher interviews will take place on Wednesday 29 March. Bookings will open in coming weeks. Please save the day for this important dialogue with your child/children's home group teacher.

Regards,

Christine White

Principal