PRINCIPAL'S REPORT

Term 1 - Week 7

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Dear Parents/Carers,

The school has been a very dynamic place for the first two days of this shorter week, with the Fete now upon us. For those who have not yet experienced a St Agnes’ Fete before, it truly is an amazing community event.

When I think back to 2019, during my first weeks at the school, I was blown away by the way our community worked together for the organisation, set up and even afterwards for the couple of hours of celebrations. It is a lot of hard work, but events like this become part of the culture/fabric of a school and the benefits for your children and family are significant. The social aspect of our Fete is what makes it really special. Our school families work together to bring it to life and the connections made during this time can last years. This is evidenced by many of the returning faces that you will see on the day, particularly with those former parents running the Devonshire tea; all former St Agnes’ parents whose relationships have sustained. Not only do former students and parents love coming back to the school, it is also a time where prospective students, parents and families visit our school to get a feel for the place. Many of our Preps enrolled for 2025 have already indicated they will be coming along.

All funds raised at the Fete will go directly towards improvements for the students. In recent times, the Fete has financed the purchase of furniture post-renovation, resurfacing of the tennis courts, central basketball court and also the seating area in the middle of the school. This would be somewhere in the vicinity of $150,00 worth of improvements, which is incredible. The priority for the school in terms of funds raised from the Fete in 2024 will be to resurface the asphalt area in the central playground with astroturf.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all families for your contributions to the fete, both in terms of time/effort, spending and donations. Purchasing raffle tickets, blocks of chocolate, raffle prizes, sponsorship, time on stalls, borrowing trestle tables, marquees…the list goes on. I thank you also in advance for bringing your children along and allowing them to participate fully in the day. The smiles on their faces will make your day.

This event would not be possible without a group of volunteers working together on our Fete Committee. I would like to publicly thank our Co-Chairs, Amy Anderson and Shannon Shine, Georgia Sotiroski (Secretary), Bree Walsh, Alishia Boot, Amanda Schultz and Sarah Gardner-Bibby (sponsorship/donations), Jenny Cummings (stalls), Gerald Murphy (Treasurer), Anna Wassell (drinks), Lauren Karpathakis and Lorna Brett (food), Sinead Hawkins (books/toys) and Sally Forbes (food/drink/stalls). These people have all volunteered their time to attend meetings and drive this event forward. As a school community, we owe a great deal of thanks to these volunteers for their efforts. 

We are still looking for assistance on some of our afternoon stalls at the Fete on Saturday. If you have already volunteered, thank you. If you are yet to sign up for the roster, please see the link below. If you are able to do a second shift on a different stall, this would be tremendously appreciated. We are trying to avoid people being on stalls all day; many hands make for light work. I would like to thank many of our staff for getting involved in the stalls to help out on the day too. Please click on the button below for the stall roster and to register:

Our Fete is a public event, so there are some specifics to communicate to ensure the day runs safely and smoothly:

• There is one entry and exit point for the Fete - via the Locinda Street gates. This gate will be staffed from 10am-3pm, but the staff on this gate are not tasked with keeping children inside the school grounds. Their job is to assist people on arrival.
• All school buildings, with the exception of the hall, will be locked during the day and are out of bounds for all children and visitors.
• Parents are strongly encouraged to speak with your children about family expectations regarding the Fete. Parents are responsible for supervising their children, though parents of Year 5 and 6 children will have different expectations when compared to those who have Prep and Year 1 children.
• All community members are required to follow the safety guidelines for all rides and entertainment.
• The Junior toilets and Hall toilets will be open on the day for all visitors to access.
• Dogs are not permitted on the school grounds before, during or after the Fete for the safety of all attendees.
• Scooters and bikes are not permitted on school grounds during the Fete.
• All parents are encouraged to ensure you and your children are wearing hats, appropriate clothing and sunscreen.

As mentioned in this week’s Fete newsletter, we do require help on Friday afternoon to set up. We also need some assistance between 9am-11am on Sunday to clean up. All welcome and bring the kids.

To celebrate the day, all parents are invited to stay for a drink after the Fete. We strongly encourage all parents to find supervision for the children if you are intending to stick around for a drink. The bar will remain open until 6pm on Saturday evening, with last drinks at 5.45pm.

With some glorious weather forecast, our Fete is well placed to be an incredible day in the story of our school community. Thank you for being part of it.

Berry Street Education Model

Over the two school closure days last week, our staff were engaged in learning about Domains One and Two of the Berry Street Education Model. We are choosing to train all staff in this model because of the practical curriculum and strategies it provides. It complements Respectful Relationships and Peaceful Classrooms to round out our approach to Student Wellbeing. As they delved into Domain 1: Body, our staff learnt about self-regulation, de-escalation, being present and centred and also more about mindfulness. Day 2 was a focus on Domain 2: Relationships, where the staff learnt about strategies for building and strengthening student relationships, including the importance of teacher self-care in this space. 

One important aspect that stuck with me from the two days, was around the importance of consistent routine, structure and expectation for our students. If we maintain a high level of structure, with clearly communicated expectations, this gives all students the best opportunity to thrive. Hearing this again was particularly affirming for many of our staff because, as a school, we do this very well. See below, a video of our staff engaging in a ‘Brain Break’ which is a key classroom strategy from BSEM. Brain breaks are intended to increase the on-task stamina of students, rather than serving the purpose of classroom management. We will continue this work with Domains 3-5 of BSEM in March 2025.

Year 3 and 5 NAPLAN

Today, our Year 3 and 5 students commenced NAPLAN Testing. The children completed the Writing test today, where they were asked to write a narrative story. The children handled the test situation incredibly well, which has enabled them to put their ‘best foot forward’ with regard to effort. We are extremely proud of our students and know that each of them will do their best, which is all we can ask. There are three tests remaining, with Reading and Language Conventions tomorrow and Numeracy on Friday. I would like to thank Levi Otto, Jake McMahon, Amanda Baker and Louisa Di Pietro who have taken time to ensure the children are adequately prepared for this. 

Dads Night Out

Tomorrow night (Thursday 14th March), the St Agnes’ Dads Pot and Parma night takes place at the Highett RSL. The mighty Richmond Tigers will roar back to life on the big screen, as many of our dads will get together over a meal. This is a great initiative for new and ‘old’ St Agnes’ Dads to connect. Thank you to Bart Carroll for organising. If you would like to get involved, please contact Bart - 0421 877 991.

Victorian Association for Catholic Principals School Principals Conference

From Tuesday to Friday next week, I will be attending the VACPSP Conference in Lorne. There are many world-renowned keynote speakers educating and informing the 250 strong group of Catholic principals from across the state. It is also an excellent opportunity for me to network and learn from other school Principals. While I am away, Louisa Di Pietro will be Acting Principal.

Parent Advocacy

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for your advocacy in the local community. We are experiencing a very high level of demand for school tours and places for Prep 2025, with the majority of prospective families commenting about the wonderful things they have heard from those currently connected to our school. Again, this is very affirming to hear as many people contribute to making our school an incredible place of learning and community. Although not locked in at this stage, we are likely to go to two Prep classes in 2025 and the more families we have enrol early in the year, the more certain this becomes. Please continue to spread the word!

Playgroup Session Two

This Friday from 9-10am, we have our second session for St Agnes’ Playgroup. This fortnightly play session is designed to connect current and prospective families who have children starting school in the next two years. These sessions take place in theHall and are led by our Junior Leader Amanda Baker. 

Prep Resilience Seminar - Wednesday 20th March at 7.00pm

On Wednesday 20th March, we will be hosting an information night on resilience for our Prep families and any families new to our school. The night will be facilitated by student wellbeing expert Georgina Manning, with a focus on how parents can help children to be resilient young people. It is essential that at least one parent from each Prep family attends, but it would be even better if both parents could be present. I have heard Georgie speak on many occasions and each time I take away something different to help me be a better parent to my children.

Important - Change of date for Grandparents' Day and Visual Arts Show

As many of you will know, our inaugural Visual Arts Show in 2022 was a great success. It is happening again this year, but we have decided to made some adjustments to our school calendar to have it coincide with Grandparents' Day. An art show is a significant undertaking, so we are aiming to maximise our visitors by bringing it together with Grandparents' Day. The new dates are as below and they won’t change again.

Whole School Visual Arts Show - Wednesday 27th November

Grandparents Day - Thursday 28th November

Tracey Law - Leave

A friendly reminder that our Year 4 teacher Mrs Law will be taking leave from this Friday, 15th March until the end of term. Tracey requires surgery to repair an injured shoulder and hopefully will be back on deck at the beginning of Term Two. Amanda Baker will be teaching Year 4 during Tracey’s absence.

Sacrament of Reconciliation - Thursday 21st March, 6.30pm

We wish our Year 3 children well as they prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Thursday 21st March. Each of the children has been preparing for this over the past few weeks, with the reflection day yesterday. All families are asked to be prompt for a 6.30pm commencement and remember the liturgy is a time of reflection and contemplation.

St Agnes’ Sports Carnival

With our Swimming Carnival now a fixture in Term Four, our Sports (athletics) Carnival is now in Term One. On Tuesday 26th March, all children from Prep-Year 6 will participate in the St Agnes’ Sports Carnival, held at the Rowans Road Athletic Track, Moorabbin (Bricker Reserve). The children have been preparing for their events in PE lessons throughout the term and are very excited for the day. The children are to wear their sports uniform for the day and can wear a touch of their house colour with their uniform - hair ties, wrist bands, ribbons, coloured zinc etc. We encourage all parents, grandparents and toddlers to come along. There is the much anticipation about parent and toddler races happening again, so dress comfortably! Fingers crossed for a beautiful Autumn day.

End of Term Activities - Thursday 28th March

Term One concludes on Thursday 28th March at 1.30pm and the children can wear casual clothes. We start with the famous Easter Bonnet Parade at 9am, followed by the draw of the Easter Raffle. After this, we will move to the Church for the Easter Liturgy and, following this, the children will move into the Friendship Day activities. Each class has organised activities for other students to participate in and the focus of the day is on friendship and connection, while also raising money for Project Compassion. There will be a coin line competition using all of the coins collected in the class Project Compassion boxes. More information to follow.

Assembly

Assemblies are in the Hall on Wednesday afternoons at 2.40pm. Parents are welcome to attend. At assembly, there will be presentations from classes, student awards, birthday acknowledgements and special announcements from student leaders.

Wed 20th March - Prep

Wed 5th April - Year 6 - Leadership

Enjoy the rest of your week and see you at the Fete!

Kind regards,

Lachie.