Good afternoon, families,

LENT – Pope Leo

Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday. It's a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord's Resurrection at Easter. During Lent, we seek the Lord in prayer by reading Sacred Scripture; we serve by alms giving, and we practice self-control through fasting. We are called not only to abstain from luxuries during Lent, but to a true inner conversion of heart as we seek to follow Christ's will more faithfully. We recall the waters of baptism in which we were also baptised into Christ's death, died to sin and evil, and began new life in Christ.

We are halfway through Term 1 and the end of summer. It is all going so quickly.

I will be on Long Service leave for the next 2 and a half weeks. I am going to South India and once again doing cooking classes along the way. Tanya Stefanec will be the Acting Principal.

Grazing box

All students are allowed to graze in their classrooms during learning time, while sitting at their tables. The lunch boxes are not allowed in the classroom as they are an OH&S. Students can only graze from their small grazing container, which they can bring into the classroom. If they do not have a grazing container, then they will be able to eat at lunch and recess time. Students are given enough time to eat, but often they spend too much time talking and not enough time eating.

Traffic in the carpark after school

The traffic in the car park at pick-up time has been extremely dangerous this week. I am very concerned that a child will be hit. Every car MUST complete the whole circuit and NOT cut through the car park.

District Swimming Carnival

Thank you to all our wonderful swimmers for the great job they did yesterday. Thank you to all the parents and grandparents who came along to support the team. Thank you to Mr Wood and Mrs Crisp for adding their voices to the St Louis Cheer Squad. Also, a huge thank you to Mr Andrew for all the early hours spent at our training sessions and for working hard to select our amazing team. Well done to everyone who competed. We are so very proud of all of you.

2027 Prep School tours

The next two tours are on Thurs 5 March at 11.35 am & Friday, 20 March at 2.30 pm. More information can be found under the enrolment section of our website, where you can also book a tour.

Kilbreda visit

Next Tuesday, some staff members and students from Kilbreda will be coming to visit our Year 5 girls. This is a great opportunity for them to learn more about high school at Kilbreda and to ask any questions they might have.

NAPLAN

We are getting close to the start of NAPLAN in years 3 and 5. The test window starts on Wednesday, 11 March and runs to Monday, 23 March. The first day of testing is particularly crucial as it is when both year levels complete their writing test. This has to be the first of the exams and therefore can only be delivered on this day.

Thomson will send out more information to our Year 3 and 5 parents this week, including a schedule of the tests. A couple of important messages you will read are that all students must come with their Chromebooks fully charged and a pair of wired headphones. Bluetooth headphones are very unreliable in the testing platform.

Prep Welcome Mass

Thank you to Father Michael for celebrating our prep mass last Sunday. It was a beautiful celebration to welcome our prep families to the parish of St Mary’s of the Cross. Thank you to Mrs Douglas for all the work in preparing for this celebration.

Student Radio Show

Our Year 6 Radio Leaders are back on air on Southern FM this Thursday, 5 March. The show will start at 7 am and run until 8 am.

School Advisory Council (SAC)

At our first meeting for the year, we welcomed Father Michael to the School Council.

We discussed:

Tiered fee system that will be implemented at St Louis for 2027
School Review that will happen in August – Started to discuss the School Community (School Improvement Framework)

Important Dates

As always, please take a look at the Important Dates page of our Newsletter for important events that are coming up.

Enjoy your weekend

Carmel Stutterd

Parish News