Principal's Welcome

John 10:14-15

 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Dear School of The Good Shepherd Families,

The Year 6 students presented a beautiful assembly yesterday where they shared the BIG QUESTIONS that they have been unpacking in Term 1 so far. This term, they have been unpacking what it means to be a DEMOCRACY as well as how each of our students can contribute as responsible citizens. Applying for the various leadership roles was a great way for them to share how they can be great contributors to our school community. Our amazing students also worked closely with Mr David Pietsch, our music teacher to create some new lyrics for the song “I Want It That Way’, by the Backstreet Boys. The song itself captures the essence of our school values and beliefs and that we not only carry our name, but we carry the SOGS name also. Enjoy singing along!

This week we find ourselves in the third week of Lent, a time of reflection about what Lent truly means to us. Pope Francis says that although Lent is a ‘time to act’ (in almsgiving, fasting and praying), it is also a time to PAUSE in prayer. In pausing, we are able to silence the noise and truly receive the word of God. I ask myself often, when do I pause during my busy day? When do I pause to pray? When do I pause to think about our school values of Belonging, Compassion and Growth? How do I act out these values? These are all such great questions that really do help me to reflect on what we all do and say as part of the School of The Good Shepherd community.

Last year we spent a lot of time unpacking the whole school value of Belonging. We asked the staff, students and families, what BELONGING looked like at our school.  We will launch our official posters on the value of Belonging at the end of Term 1.

In continuation, this year we are working on unpacking the value of COMPASSION.  We will start gathering data very soon based around what we think COMPASSION means. Look out for a survey early term 2!

On Tuesday night we held our very first, one of a kind Parish School Advisory Council meeting at St Carlo Borromeo. Our meeting was facilitated by MACS Faith in Mission staff, Simon Stevens and Kerry-Anne Porreca. Both Simon and Kerri-Ann were very excited to see the collaboration between our three schools and congratulated us on having the courage and foresight to meet as a parish team, whilst staying true to the respective characteristics of our own schools. We are looking forward to developing Terms of Reference for our unique group. 

Over the past 12 months, I have been in consultation with MACS and our own staff around the possibility of installing two new modulars (portables) to match the existing  Music room and Visual Arts room. These would act as our Italian room and STEM room.  At the moment, our Italian teacher, Mrs Zaffina has to carry books and resources from room to room rather than be able to set up a magnificent space for language learning. Likewise, Mrs Peel has been carrying around resources for her STEM classes from room to room. In doing this, it means that what they can teach is somewhat limiting as they can’t carry around huge amounts of resources needed.  The two new modulars, plus the existing portables would then be called “The Specialist Hub”, a hub where curiosity for learning is encouraged, just like in our classrooms. More updates to follow.

Here are some reminders from the last newsletter:

BIRTHDAY CAKE POLICY: Thank you to all of our families for following our new birthday celebration policy. We are extremely appreciative. 

As mentioned in our last newsletter, as a staff we have been discussing the various issues around birthday celebrations: affordability for parents, inclusion of students with allergies, classes having different levels of expectations etc. As a staff, we have made the following changes:

• School will supply each student the gift of a special pencil with the words “Happy Birthday love from School of The Good Shepherd”.  Each child will be presented with their gift in class and HAPPY BIRTHDAY will be sung. School will supply a happy birthday badge for each class for the birthday student to wear. .  
• To alleviate pressure on those parents that either can’t afford to bring cakes, lolly bags or non food items to each child and for those parents of anaphylaxis students who have to supply their own treats every birthday, we are asking parents to not bring cakes, lolly bags or non food items to school. 

Everyone loves celebrating a birthday and we are no different, so we will make their day special.  

SCHOOL CAR PARK

To ensure the safety of all of our families and students, we ask that you please be patient when driving in and out of the church car park. Parents who are waiting in the Kiss and Drop line, please remain to the right of the lane so that parents who are intending to park can still work their way through. When walking to pick up your child at the Kiss and Drop area, please walk in front of the yellow Kiss and Drop box rather than through the cars that are waiting. If we work together, we can maintain safety at all times. 

LATE ARRIVAL and EARLY PICK UP

We understand that at times you may be running late to drop your children off in the mornings. If you are running late, please park your car and physically walk your children in so that you can sign them in.   Likewise, if you are collecting your child early from school, we ask that you sign them out using the PASS TAB system before taking your child out. 

AUDIRI

We encourage all parents to download the AUDIRI app as this is our main means of communication for every day alerts, not connected to classroom learning. Please follow the prompt sheet to set yourself up on AUDIRI. Thank you to those families that use the forms on AUDIRI to let us know about absences. These forms then get sent to both the classroom teacher and front office so we know who is absent and why.

SCHOOL CALENDAR of EVENTS: Click on the Events icon at the bottom of the screen to see the school calendar of events.  Scrolling down will take you through the upcoming months. Dates are continually added. 

Parent Association: we held our very first Parent Association meeting last week and will have another meeting this Friday. We have quite a few fantastic ideas for events throughout the year which will be communicated as soon as they are finalised. 

Have a wonderful week ahead!

Carmela D'Amato