Dear Parents,

Thank you for your support as I take on the role of Acting Principal for the remainder of the year. It will take us all a while to get used to Pat's absence, but in the meantime it is business as usual with an extremely busy few weeks coming up.

With Pat on secondment, we have needed to review some of our current leadership roles. Steele Anderson and Peggy McDonald will jointly take on the roles of Student Wellbeing leaders, as the first point of contact for any students who are experiencing social, emotional or behavioral concerns. Peggy will be taking on responsibility for children in Prep to Year 2, while Steele is taking on responsibility for assisting students in Years 3 to 6.

I am pleased to announce that Laura Zeeng has accepted the role of Wellbeing Leader (Curriculum). She will lead the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs at St Finbar's as well as various other projects associated with Student and Staff Wellbeing. Laura is nearing completion of a Masters in Educational Leadership, specialising in Wellbeing so she is well qualified for this new role.

Swimming Program - Weeks 7 & 8

Our school Swimming Program begins next week, thank you to all the families who have responded to the Operoo request for this. Please see the timetable for swimming below.

At St. Finbar’s we firmly believe that an intensive swimming and water safety program has a lot to offer our children in relation to water awareness, swimming skill development, water safety and self-confidence in and around water. As it is a part of the Victorian Curriculum, it is an expectation that all children participate in the program. If your child cannot participate, please write a note explaining the reasons and pass it on to your classroom teacher as soon as possible.

Please note that students who do not take part in swimming lessons will remain at school and will be supervised in another classroom for the time their classmates are off-site.

Parents are more than welcome to attend the swimming lessons, though are required to sit in the grandstand area of the pool and are not allowed to enter the pool deck at any time.

Lunch orders will proceed as normal for all year levels (though lunch may be earlier or later depending on the year level and the lesson time)

Life Ed at St Finbar's

Life Ed is Australia's largest preventative health organisation empowering children to make safer and healthier choices so they can live happier lives. Life Ed will be visiting St Finbar's over the next fortnight, and of course Healthy Harold the giraffe will be coming along as well. Unfortunately Life Ed no longer conducts their sessions in a van but will be held in a classroom.

This year's sessions will be:

Prep My Body Matters

Year 1 Harold's Friend Ship

Year 2 Growing Good Friends

Year 3 Friends and Feelings

Years 4, 5 & 6 Relate, Respect, Connect

LIfe Ed also offers parent webinars - please click here for more information.

2024 returning students

We are currently seeking confirmation from families in regards to the 2024 enrolment status for their children. If you haven't already, please complete the Operoo request by tomorrow August 18th. We have many families on our waiting lists for 2024 and we would like to let them know of availability of places as soon as we can.

Dad's Footy Match - Save the Date!

Please keep the afternoon of Saturday 2nd September free as our highly skilled and courageous St. Finbar's Dads take on the St. Joan of Arc Dads in the annual footy match. There will also be children's footy matches on as well as a longest kick comp for the Mums.

School Holiday event

If you're looking for something in the next school holidays, you may consider going to see The Resilience Project: 3 Happy Tricks at the Frankston Arts Centre, which complements the learning that the students do with the Resilience Project at school. More information and tickets can be found below. Martin is very engaging speaker, and I'm sure that this session geared specifically towards Primary school children will be both informative and entertaining.

Well done Matildas

There was much excitement around the school yesterday with the prospect of the Matildas making it through to the World Cup Final. The game didn't go our way but we are all very proud of the team and their achievements. What a great boost for women's sport this World Cup has been. There are some great photos on the Sports page of this newsletter.

Michelle Hill,

Acting Principal

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Book Week

Friday 18th August