Dear Families,

Blessing of the Animals & St Francis of Assisi Awards

When: Friday, 16th October, 9.15 am (until 10.15 am approx.)
Where: Basketball Court

Who: Everyone, especially our beloved pets!

We will celebrate St Francis of Assisi’s Feast Day on Friday, 16th October. A part of the Feast Day celebration will be the Blessing of the Animals.

We invite our school families to bring along their pets to be blessed. Students can bring along a photo of the pet to be blessed if they are unable to bring along their pet or if their pet has died. It is important to note some safety requirements that we need to be mindful of for our Feast Day celebrations:

Pets must be on leads and small animals would be best left in their cages for safety
Parents must remain with pets at all times, especially the larger dogs. Parents are invited to sit with their child and pet amongst the class group.
We ask that large dogs are kept to the edge of our gathering area around the basketball court. Your child can sit with you.
All pets are to be taken home at the conclusion of the awards.

Following the Blessing of Animals, the St Francis of Assisi Awards are presented to two recipients from each year level. One boy and one girl will be recognised for their work in emulating the charism of St Francis throughout the year. Each student will receive an award and a beautiful citation written by their teacher to illustrate how they live out the Gospel values as St Francis did. We hope to see you all there with your beloved animals. All are welcome!

Repeat - School preparations for the bushfire season

Each year, we undertake a range of activities to ensure the safety of our school and to prepare for bushfires and grassfires.

An important part of this process is communicating to parents what will happen when certain fire danger ratings are issued to help ensure the safety of students and staff.

Our school has been identified as being at risk of bushfire or grassfire and is a Category 3 school.

Our school will close on a day forecasted as Catastrophic fire danger rating in the North Western fire district.

Closure of the school due to a Catastrophic fire danger rating will be enacted when the Bureau of Meteorology forecast and related public safety messaging are confirmed. Due to uncertainties in the forecast, the timing of this confirmation may vary. Information regarding potential or confirmed Catastrophic fire danger days will be communicated to you by text message and then by email.

It is also important to be aware that:

No one will be on site on days where the school is closed due to a forecast Catastrophic day.
Out-of-school-hours care will also be cancelled on these days.
All bus routes that travel through the Catastrophic area may be cancelled.
School camps will be cancelled if a Catastrophic fire danger rating day is forecast for the fire weather district in which the camp is located, or if the travel involves passing through areas that have Catastrophic fire danger.

Repeat - Keeping Our Bike Riders and Walkers Safe

The safety and wellbeing of our students is always our highest priority.

It has come to our attention that some students who walk or ride home are cutting through the paddock beside our school oval at the end of the day, rather than following the designated route and using the supervised school crossing.

This is of particular concern as the paddock has long grass and is not supervised. We are also seeing some students crossing the road away from the supervised crossing at a time when traffic around the school is particularly busy.

We ask all families to please have a conversation with their child/ren about making safe choices when travelling home from school.

Please remind your child/ren to:

Use the designated school crossing supervised by our staff.
Avoid cutting through the paddock beside the school oval.
Take their time and make safe choices, even if another route appears quicker.
Follow the directions and expectations of staff supporting students at the end of the day.

Saving two or three minutes is simply not worth risking a child’s safety.

As the adults in our children's lives, we all have an important role in modelling and reinforcing safe practices. Thank you for working in partnership with us and helping us ensure every child gets home safely.

Term 4 School Closure Days & Public Holidays

Please note that our school will be closed on the following days:

Wednesday 28 October - Bendigo Cup Holiday
Monday 2 November – Report Writing Day (as prescribed by CESL)
Monday 14 December - 2027 Planning Day
Tuesday 15 December – 2027 Planning Day
Wednesday 16 December - 2027 Planning Day

This means the last day of the school year for our children will be Friday 11 December. Our school will finish the 2026 school year at 3.20pm on this day.

P & F Meeting

All parents are invited to attend the Parents and Friends meeting tonight, Thursday 15 October at 7.30pm, which will be held in our staff room.

Repeat - Summer Uniform

All children will need to be in Summer uniform by Monday 19 October.

Please note that school hats will need to be worn from the start of Term 4 – Monday 5 October.

Assembly

1R & 1S will lead our next school assembly in Term 4 on Friday 23 Oct from 2.45pm in the Shed. All parents, grandparents and guardians are most welcome to attend.

Annual St. Luke Mass for Healthcare Workers

Calling all doctors, nurses, paramedics, allied health professionals, pharmacists, and healthcare related workers and students! Our parish will be celebrating our first annual ‘St. Luke Mass for Healthcare Workers’ from 6pm on Tuesday 20 October at St Therese's Church, Kennington.

This special liturgy honours the dedicated men and women who bring Christ's healing touch to the sick and vulnerable. A special 'Blessing of the Hands' Prayer will take place during the Mass, followed by light refreshments in our Welcome Area. Please join us as we pray for and celebrate your vital ministry of care.

Fdn - Yr2 Mini Athletics Morning

On Friday 30th October the students in F-2 will be having a ‘Mini Athletics Morning’ held on the school oval. We will focus on participation and encouraging students to do their very best while enjoying the morning.

The students will participate in a variety of events starting from 9.15am and finishing just before 11.00am. The students will compete in modified running events, hurdles, long jump, shot put and discus. Please note, there is no ‘winner’ awarded as such, as mentioned above, the focus is purely around participation and enjoying the activities.

We encourage the students to wear their house colours on the day (Clare- yellow, Francis- green, Backhaus- blue and Mackillop- red), this can include ribbons, face paint, coloured t-shirts etc. The students will participate in their year level.

It would be great to see as many parents and supporters there as possible cheering and encouraging the efforts of all students.

We will also have a coffee van for you to enjoy!

Memorial Service

On Friday 6th November at 11:45 am, we will hold our Memorial Ceremony at the Memorial Garden. During the ceremony, we will remember and pray for our loved ones who have died and will always hold a special place in our hearts. All are invited to join us for the ceremony.

Christ has no hands but yours.

Tim Moloney | Principal

Scholastic Book Club

Issue #7 of Book Club has been sent home with your children this week.

All orders are to be completed online by Thursday 22nd October.

Scholastic Book Club Issue #7

Remember to mark your order as 'Gift' if you would like the books to be kept in the office for Christmas gifts.

Thank You

Parent Bulletin

Term 4 Week 2 · 15 Oct 2026

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