Principal's News

Courage, Faith, Love

Dear Parents and Friends of St Agatha's Primary School,

I hope you all enjoyed last weekend and spent time spoiling the dads or significant parent carers. Being a parent is such a hard and complicated job and I am forever grateful of the

 ways you parent with us to create the best school environment for your children. 

“GOD OUR FATHER, WE GIVE YOU THANKS AND PRAISE FOR FATHERS YOUNG AND OLD.

WE PRAY FOR YOUNG FATHERS, NEWLY EMBRACING THEIR VOCATION; MAY THEY FIND COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE TO BALANCE WORK, FAMILY AND FAITH IN JOY AND SACRIFICE.

WE PRAY FOR OUR OWN FATHERS AROUND THE WORLD WHOSE CHILDREN ARE LOST OR SUFFERING; MAY THEY KNOW THAT THE GOD OF COMPASSION WALKS WITH THEM IN THEIR SORROW.

WE PRAY FOR MEN WHO ARE NOT FATHERS BUT STILL MENTOR AND GUIDE US WITH FATHERLY LOVE AND ADVICE.

WE REMEMBER FATHERS, GRANDFATHER, AND GREAT GRANDFATHERS WHO ARE NO LONGER WITH US BUT WHO LIVE FOREVER IN OUR MEMORY AND NOURISH US WITH THEIR LOVE. AMEN”

National Child Protection Week

This year we celebrated the National Child Protection Week. The theme for the week is 'Every child in every community needs a fair go'.  St Agatha's have been focusing on child 

safety lessons this week in particular to bring a focus on creating awareness for our students on how to stay safe in physical and online environments and knowing where to go for support, focusing on them knowing their trusted adults.  I encourage you to continue the conversation at home about who your child can speak to if they feel unsafe online, at home or at school.  Liam Doherty and Cath Backhouse are the Child Safety Champions at the school and do a lot of behind the scenes work to ensure our child safe procedures are in place. 

Creating a safe environment for our students is always a priority. One of the ways we do this is by ensuring we have secure gates and processes for drop off and pick up. This week we introduced a change to pick up at the end of the day. The gates will open at dismissal time at 3:30pm rather than the usual 3:15pm. This is to ensure that we have teachers on duty monitoring who is coming through the gates and to keep our children safe. I thank you for your understanding!

Drop Off and Pick Up 

I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that students can be dropped off from 8:30am. Please do not leave students standing outside the school before 8:30am. The school day begins at 9:00am and finishes at 3:30pm. Where possible, please do not collect your child early on a regular basis. Students who regularly arrive late and are picked up early miss out on their learning and it also affects their attendance rate. Students are supervised after school until 3:45pm. 

Before and After School Care in Term 4

We look forward to introducing a Before and After School Care service onsite at St Agatha's in Term 4. More information about this exciting new initiative will be provided as soon as it is available.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Congratulations to all the students from Years 1 - 6 who participated in St Agatha's Got Talent Show! What a lot of talent we have at St Agatha's. I was so impressed at the confidence, skill and talent that our students showed bravely performing for the school and the parent community. A big thank you to Mr Block for preparing the students and giving our students the opportunity to shine on stage. My favourite part of the talent show was watching the rest of the students in the audience who gave their full attention and supported each act with respectful encouragement. It was truly a delight to witness!

Parent Survey

On Monday September 11 the Year Six students will conduct a parent survey. The purpose of this survey is to gather valuable information regarding parent involvement in school events. We believe that your insights and feedback are crucial in helping us understand why there might not be as much parent participation as we would like. The data collected will be utilised by the STAC Group to enhance the school experience for both students and parents.

This survey project is also an integral part of the students' current unit in Mathematics, focusing on Statistics and Probability. The students have been working collaboratively in groups to formulate meaningful questions. They have also learned about the art of questioning, including how to ask the right type of questions to collect accurate and relevant data.

We kindly request your participation in this survey. Your valuable feedback will help us understand your perspectives and make improvements to enhance our school community. We believe that a strong partnership between parents, students, and teachers is essential for a successful learning environment. Your cooperation in this survey project is greatly appreciated.

Survey Details:

Date of Survey: Monday 11th September, 2023

Time: 8:45 - 9:05am

Location: Courtyard

Duration: Each survey should take 3-4 minutes to complete

Next week is the last week of Term 3. We have a number of events on to finish off the term.

The Colour Run will be on Tuesday 12th October and Footy Day is Friday 15th October.

Please ensure you have read the information sent out on PAM for what to wear for both events!

I hope you all have a great last week of Term 3. Don't forget that the students return in Term 4 on Tuesday 3rd October. 

Michelle Bruitzman