From the Principal

Prep Interviews have Commenced

Enrolment interviews for new families with a child starting Foundation in 2026 commenced this week. Families who have enrolled for 2026 will receive their acceptance letter after the interview.  We have strong enrolments for Prep for next year. There are a few places still available for 2026. If you know of anyone who would like to enrol their child at our wonderful school please let them know to book a tour through the link on our website or ring the office for a tour. Please let any prospective families know  to book a tour. Our biggest marketing tool is word of mouth so please spread the word in our community how special our school is.

Our Working Bee

The First Working Bee for 2025 will be held on Saturday 24th May 2025

We will be holding our first Working Bee for 2025 on Saturday, 24th May.  A variety of gardening and odd jobs around the school will be undertaken to improve our school grounds.

Parents who attend 2 working bees per year, sign in and participate for the full 3 hours will receive a $250 credit towards the Maintenance Levy on their school fees.  

We ask all parents to bring gloves, hat, sunscreen and a drink bottle.  If you have a wheelbarrow, rakes or digging tools to remove weeds, please bring these along.

Please indicate your attendance via the notification on Operoo that will go out.

All are welcome to attend.

Ensuring a Good Start to the Day and to Life.

At St. Francis de Sales, we pride ourselves on fostering a learning environment where every student feels prepared, engaged, and empowered to succeed. One factor that quietly undermines this goal—but is within our collective power to address—is late arrival to school. 

When students arrive late, the disruption extends beyond the individual child. Morning routines and classroom dynamics are carefully structured to set the tone for the day. A late arrival interrupts lessons already in progress, distracts peers, and forces teachers to reorient, costing valuable teaching time. The ripple effect is real.

For the students who arrive late, the cost is even higher. They miss out on valuable Literacy learning and our data shows they start to fall behind.  Over time, habitual lateness can impact on academic confidence and these behaviours become more difficult to undo impacting future success.

We understand that occasional lateness can be unavoidable—traffic, emergencies, or the alarm did not go off as planned. But when late arrival becomes routine, it’s time for a collective response from both the family and the school to establish the expectations and routines essential for positive outcomes.

Let’s recommit ourselves as a school community to punctuality—not out of obligation, but because we believe in giving our students the very best start to every day. That begins with being on time.

School Uniform

It is now time to have all children in the correct winter Uniform. 

Some reminders:

• Please ensure children only have hair bows and ribbons in our school colours.
• Black school shoes need to be worn. 
• Runners are only worn on sports days. ( See Junior or Senior newsletters for PE days)
• Only black tights are permitted with the girls winter tunic.
• Jewelery should not be worn to school. Necklaces are an OH&S risk to your child.

It is important that parents support to ensure that children wear the correct uniform. 

School Photo Day - Tuesday, 27th May

Please check your child's school bag for your individual order flyer with unique code that went home recently.

All students are required to wear their full Winter uniform, including their red school jumpers. Please ensure your child arrives at school on time and is dressed neatly for their class and individual photos.

To avoid any disruptions, we kindly ask that you do not schedule any appointments for your child on this day.

Thank you for your cooperation and support in helping us capture these special school memories.

Staff News

I will be on Long Service Leave from Week 7 of this Term. I will return in Week 1, Term 3 for the start of our School Review. In my absence Angela Faiola will be Acting Principal. We have been working to complete our report for our school review. We intend to share our evidence of improvement prior to my leave with Paul Lewis  our Victorian Regulations Qualifications Authority (VRQA) reviewer and also with Stephen Russell who will focus more on the curriculum side of the Review. Everything is ready and we are proud of the evidence that we have to share about our school. More details of the review will be shared at the start of Term 3.

Christine White

Principal