General News
Message Stick
Yaama!
We would like to welcome all of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families who are joining and returning to us this year at St Edward's. For the new families joining us, please see below to find the Aboriginal Education Assistants and Aboriginal Focus Teacher of St Edward's Infants and Primary Campus.
Amanda Gwalter Brittany Cloake Jarrod Peachey Sean Killeen
Infants AEA Primary AEA Primary AEA AE Focus Teacher
Special Announcements:
We would also like to announce we have some very exciting opportunities happening this year for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.
Welcome Back to School
It was so wonderful to see all our Year 1 - 6 students again on Tuesday for the commencement of Term 1! We look forward to welcoming our new Kindergarten students this Monday 6th February.
Just a reminder that all students wear their summer uniform Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Sports uniform is to be worn on a Wednesday and Friday. Please make sure all students come to school with their school hat, bring a water bottle, morning tea and lunch.
2023 Staff List
Principal: Dr Jake Madden
Assistant Principal/LOP: Mrs Alison Hatton
Assistant Principal/MaST: Mr Peter Flynn
Religious Education Coordinator: Mrs Sally Clarke
Leader of Pedagogy: Mr Andrew Millman
Leader of Inclusion: Mrs Amanda Sheridan
INFANTS TEACHERS PRIMARY TEACHERS
KA Mrs Lesley Ashton 3C Mrs Leisa Crane
KP Miss Grace Parker 3P Mrs Kizzy Pearson
KS Miss Stephanie Simmons 3R Mrs Denikah Shields
1C Mrs Marisa Cartan 4E Mrs Sharne Eddy
1E Miss Rachel Eastwell 4R Mrs Deb Rafferty
1H Mrs Cecily Hankin 4U Miss Kayla Urquhart
1L Miss Bridget Little 5CG Mrs Sally Clarke/Mrs Tash Gippel
2C Mr Sam Casson 5D Mrs Kirsten De Beer
2H Miss Taylor Ham 5Q Mrs Belinda Quayle
2W Mrs Alicen Ward 6J Mrs Jodie James
6K Mr Sean Killeen
6O Mr Nicholas O’Neill
Oral Language Specialist Teacher: Mrs Alex Brownsmith
Inclusion Support Teacher: Mrs Belinda Barry-Cupples
ACE Team (Additional Collaborative Educators) RFF: Mrs Natasha Marshman, Mrs Amanda Young, Mrs Victoria Vlasoff
Full Time Casual: Mr Karl Short
Educational Assistants: Mrs Katrina Ashford, Mrs Beth Barrett, Mrs Priscilla Collins,
Mr James Craswell, Mrs Kathryn Duffy, Mrs Mei Gan, Mrs Toni McIlveen, Mrs Jenny Maloney, Mrs Rachel McRae, Mrs Jo Munro, Miss Sara Sinclair
Sports Co-ordinator : Mrs Tash Gippel Librarian: Mrs Annie Madden
Librarian Assistant: Mrs Carla Michell
A&TSI Focus Teacher: Mr Sean Killeen
Aboriginal Educational Assistants: Miss Brittany Cloake - Primary; Mr Jarrod Peachey - Primary; Mrs Amanda Gwalter - Infants
Senior School Support Officer: Mrs Melissa Salvestrin - Primary
Assistant School Support Officers:
Primary: Infants:
Mrs Amanda Allen (Mon - Fri) Mrs Angela Sauer (Mon - Thurs)
Mrs Robin Wilson (Mon, Tues, Fri) Mrs Sue Kellett (Wed - Fri)
Mrs Hannah Barnes (Wed, Thurs) Mrs Hannah Barnes (Mon, Tues, Fri)
Ms Charlene Sweeney (Mon - Wed)
Infants Volunteer: Miss Kylie Fairlamb (Mon & Wed)
ICT Support: Mrs Katrina Krogh & Mr Leo Berman
Canteen: Mrs Nikki Bridge & Mrs Reya Erich
Maintenance & Groundsperson: Mr Chris Cartan
We also welcome back our School Crossing Supervisors for 2023. We ask that parents use the pedestrian crossing to show our children the correct procedure to follow in crossing the road at the designated pedestrian crossing.
New School Uniform Items - now at Lowes
A friendly reminder that all new St Ed's uniform items including hats and backpacks are now stocked at Lowes in Peel Street Tamworth. Our school will NO longer be stocking or selling school uniform items.
The ONLY items that can be purchased from the school via the QKR! App. are headphones and the basketball and netball uniform.
Also, don't forget both campuses have a Clothing Pool where you can pick up good quality second hand clothing items at very reasonable prices.
Word of the Week
At St Edward's we are always working towards our community being better tomorrow than they are today so we have started a new initiative "Word of the Week". The students will be exposed to a new word each Monday at Assembly and then challenged to use the word in context in the classroom. Each time a student uses our "Word of the Week" in the classroom they will be awarded a point and the student with the most points at the end of the term will receive a book to further expand their vocabulary.
We will publish our Word of the Week in the newsletter. Please support your child to use this word at home.
Week 2 Word of the Week
Kinder Parent Workshop - Thursday 9th Feb, 6.00pm
2023 School Term Dates
Regular attendance at school is essential for students to achieve quality life outcomes. Parents or carers of children of compulsory school age are responsible for ensuring their child attends school every day. Here are the school terms for 2023 for our students:
Term One: Tuesday 31st January - Thursday 6th April
Term Two: Monday 24th April - Friday 30th June
Term Three: Monday 17th July - Friday 22nd September
Term Four: Monday 9th October - Friday 15th December
School Hours & Supervision
The school grounds are supervised from 8.15am until the last bus leaves in the afternoon. No child is to be at school before 8.15am and all should leave the school grounds as soon as possible after 3.00pm.
School starts: 8.45am
Recess: 11.00am – 11.40am
Lunch: 1.20pm – 1.50pm
School finishes: 3.00pm
OFFICE HOURS
Primary & Infants Office: 8.30am - 3.30pm daily
Compass
Compass is our School Parent Portal. It will allow you to access up-to-date and meaningful information about our school and your child's progress. Compass includes many different features, including the ability to:
- Approve past absences for your child.
- Enter upcoming absences for your child.
- Access your child's Academic Reports.
- Access information regarding upcoming events and newsletters.
- Book your Parent/Student/Teacher conferences.
- View up-to-date class and school attendance information.
- Download, print and approve upcoming excursions.
- Update your registered email and mobile number (used for SMS alerts).
Attendance
Children are required to attend school from 8.45am to 3.00pm. It is essential that children are always present at school, except in the case of sickness.
Whenever a child is absent, parents are required to explain this absence through the Compass App. An SMS message is sent to parents on the morning of the absence if no notification of absence has been received before 10.00am. It is a legal requirement that you log in to Compass to explain all absences within 7 days of your child being away from school, however it is so much easier if you attend to this on the day as soon as you receive the reminder.
You will NOT be able to complete this task after the 7 days has passed which means they will be recorded as Absent Unexplained.
If you are having trouble accessing all of the Compass features, there should be a drop down menu on your home page which looks like 3 horizontal lines. Open this menu and choose 'open in browser'. This will help you access the school portal features.
Contacting Class Teachers
We encourage parents to contact class teachers by email between 8.00am and 5.00pm; Monday to Friday only. Please be aware, teachers need time to reply to your email as during the school day they are either teaching, on duty or in meetings. We love to hear from you but just not late at night. If a matter is urgent, please ring the school and leave a message for the teacher to contact you. Thank you for your cooperation in this.
INFANTS Canteen - Lunch time only
This year at the Infants Campus we will again be offering snack items and sips for Infants students to purchase on set days (see below). The Infants Canteen operates at lunch times only from 1.30 - 1.50pm.
St Edward’s School Tamworth - 2023 Schedule of Fees & Levies
School fees PER TERM (Terms 1, 2 & 3 only) for 2023 are:
· 1 child $482.00
· 2 children $867.60 (20% discount child 2)
· 3 or more children $1108.60 (50% discount child 3)
School fees ANNUAL for 2023 are:
· 1 child $1446.00
· 2 children $2602.80 (20% discount child 2)
· 3 or more children $3325.80 (50% discount child 3)
2023 Sport & School Activity Levy per child is:
Primary Students $70.00 per student
Infants Students $50.00 per student
St Edward’s Sport & School Activity Levy (SASA Levy) covers the cost of sport activities and extracurricular activities that students participate in and is in addition to School Fees.
New Finance System and School Fees
We have transitioned to a new financial accounting system and this has added functionality in the way you can make payments to the school including BPay and CompassPay (via the Compass app). Our current school's bank account will no longer be available to direct credit, therefore we ask that you make payments to the school via one of these new functionalities.
Term one fees will be issued by the Catholic Schools Office (CSO), Armidale very soon with your BPay details. Regular payments can be set up directly from your bank account via Bpay.
2024 Kindergarten Enrolments - ENROL NOW
Applications for Kindergarten 2024 are NOW OPEN. Please contact the Infants Campus for an enrolment pack. Enrolment Forms will not be processed until all supporting documents are received: Birth Certificate; Immunisation Certificate; Baptismal Certificate (only required if your child is baptised Catholic) and proof of student’s residential address. Please spread the word if you know of anyone with a child wishing to start at St Edward's School in Kindergarten in 2024.
St Ed's P & F Fundraiser - Sunday 26th February
Are you ready for the first St Ed's P & F fundraiser of the year??
Come along to 'A Day Trackside' at the Tamworth Jockey Club, in conjunction with the Country Championships Race Day, on Sunday 26th February. See flyer below for full details or for further information please email the P & F team at: stedspf@gmail.com
Gather your friends and family for a wonderful, fun afternoon out at the races! To purchase your tickets, please click the link below:
2023 Travel Passes
Esteem Kids
Before school care is available in the Infants Hall for both Primary and Infants students. It operates from 7:00am to 8:30am, Monday through Friday during term and breakfast is provided.
After school care is available in the Infants Hall for Infants students only from 3:00pm to 6:00pm Monday through Friday. PLEASE NOTE this year that after school care is now operating from the Primary Art Room for primary students only from 3:00pm to 6:00pm Monday through Friday. Afternoon tea is provided.
Families are encouraged to make enquiries or express interest by contacting William Wong on 0410 841 628 or email: info@esteemkidsgroup.com.au or visit the website at www.esteemkidsgroup.com.au
Please remember to contact (telephone or text) Esteem Kids St Edward's directly if your child is going to be absent on 0481 373 883. Thank you.
Parent Workshops.....
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St Edward's Primary Tamworth
