From the Principal

Welcome

Dear Parents and Carers,

As you will read in this newsletter it's been a busy couple of weeks! There has been a lot happening in and out of the classroom.

Ash Wednesday

This week marks the commencement of Lent, a significant period in the Catholic Church leading up to Easter. Over the next 40 days, we are encouraged to reflect on our lives, especially regarding the importance of forgiveness. Lent reminds us there are times when we must extend forgiveness to others, and there are also moments when we seek forgiveness ourselves. In both instances, forgiveness fosters peace of mind and contributes significantly to building resilience. All students participated in Ash Wednesday liturgies this week across the college.

Parents/Carers and Student Survey

The St Anne's College Advisory Council has distributed the Parent/Carer Feedback Survey to families. Your input is vital to our school improvement initiatives, and I look forward to collecting insights from our community as we work towards implementing positive changes at St Anne’s College. The feedback will be reviewed by the Advisory Council and will play a significant role in shaping the college’s future direction. You can access the survey by clicking here.

Year 6 Surveys

Thank you to everyone who has completed the Year 6 family survey. The survey remains open for those who have not yet participated, and an email containing the link was resent this week. Additionally, our Year 6 students have provided their insights through a survey regarding their transition to secondary school. This feedback has been extremely valuable as we prepare for the Year 7 information session scheduled for next week.

Year 7 Information Session

Our Year 7 Information session is taking place next Wednesday, 12 March at 7pm.

We look forward to sharing information on our Year 7 program and what St Anne's College has to offer in our secondary school.

The session is open to prospective Year 7 families and anyone who is interested in finding out more about St Anne's College. Please share advert with anyone who may be interested.

St Anne's Advisory Council

The College Advisory Council recently convened and discussed the following key topics:

Buildings and Grounds: The meeting included a tour of the new buildings and classrooms.
School Fees: We plan to conduct a comparison of our fees to ensure they are reasonable and align with other Catholic schools.
2025 Parent/Carer Survey: Feedback gathered from this survey will significantly influence decision-making and help identify our priorities moving forward.
Communication: We engaged in a discussion about the strengths and areas for improvement in our college communication, focusing on soliciting parent feedback and enhancing our communication strategies in the future.
A review of Child Safe Standard 1 - Establishing a culturally safe environment.

Swimming Success

A selection of students recently represented St Anne’s College at the GMDSSA Swimming Carnival. Overall, St Anne's College finished fourth with 234 points, behind Notre Dame, GSSC and Cobram Anglican Grammar. It was a huge achievement for all involved being the best score and placing for St Anne’s College in the seven years we have been competing at this event.

The results were as follows:

Rhys: 1st 50m freestyle, 1st 4x50m freestyle relay
Clay: 1st 4x50m freestyle relay
Alick: 1st 200m freestyle, 1st 50m freestyle, 1st 50m butterfly, 1st 50m breaststroke, 1st 50m backstroke, 1st 4x50m freestyle relay, 18-20 year old Age Champion
Elizabeth: 1st 200m freestyle, 2nd 50m freestyle, 1st 50m butterfly, 1st 50m breaststroke, 1st 50m backstroke, 3rd 4x50m freestyle relay, 16 year old Age Champion
Noah: 1st 50m freestyle, 1st 4x50m freestyle relay
Karolina: 2nd 50m freestyle, 2nd 50m breaststroke, 2nd 50m backstroke, 3rd 4 x 50m freestyle relay
Jakob: 2nd 50m freestyle, 3rd 50m backstroke
Charlotte: 3rd 4x50m freestyle relay
Zoe: 3rd 50m freestyle, 3rd 4x50m freestyle relay

Rhys, Clay, Alick, Elizabeth, Noah, Karolina and Jakob are eligible to proceed to the

Hume Region Finals on Friday, March 14. This will be our largest ever representation!

Curriculum Article

Many of you may be aware that the Melbourne Archdiocese has recently implemented changes to their curriculum, similar to those being introduced at St Anne’s College with Magnify Sandhurst. The following article, published in The Age last week, outlines the positive impact these changes have had in schools: Catholic schools reap the benefits of ‘back to basics’ overhaul.

Anthony Butts

Principal