Principal's Message

Dear Families, 

It’s been a wonderful term and we thank you all for being a significant part of the growth that has happened in our classrooms. 

You would have received your child’s report yesterday afternoon via the nParent Portal. Please follow the instructions that have been sent home via Audiri and Seesaw for easy access to the reports. If you cannot view your child’s report, please email Daniel Cook and Elizabeth Sarpa so that they can assist you with any issues. 

dcook@sogsgpark.catholic.edu.au OR esarpa@sogsgpark.catholic.edu.au

A very big thank you to our parent working group from last year who assisted in working through various samples of reports, to assist in making a decision around our new reporting structure. Both Daniel (P-2 Maths Leader) and Elizabeth (P-2 Literacy Leader) have been working tirelessly with the staff to ensure a smooth transition for our staff when using the new reporting format, and for that we thank them!! 

As we come to the end of the term, I do have some exciting news to share with our community!

New Deputy Principal

Over the last few weeks we have advertised and interviewed for a new Deputy Principal/Learning and Teaching Leader and I am so very excited to congratulate Elizabeth Sarpa, who is currently our years P-2 Literacy Leader on the appointment of DP beginning in Term 3. Elizabeth has been a wonderful asset to our team when she joined us at the beginning of last year and we are very much looking forward to working with her more closely in this new capacity. The Deputy Principal role will also include the Learning and Teaching role which involves working closely with all curriculum leaders to ensure that we have a shared understanding around our learning and teaching framework, embedding a practice of Explicit Instruction as well as time for discovery and curiosity.  

Farewell and GOOD LUCK

Miss Rosanna Accaputo will be leaving us at the end of this Term. For family reasons, Rosanna will be moving to Queensland during the Term break. We thank Rosanna for her passion around building awareness of sustainability practices as well as working on building such positive relationships with her students and families.  I know that we will all feel Miss Accaputo’s absence as she has been such a wonderful staff member and teacher, but we wish her all the very very best on her move. 

From Term 3, Mrs McNamara will be teaching 1A until the end of the year. Mrs McNamara is a teacher at SoGS, who has been on maternity leave for the first half of this year. We welcome Mrs McNamara back for the remainder of the year. 

Farewell and thank you

For the last few years we have had Stef Harris has been collaborating with us as an ABA therapist and for the last term as a co educator in Year 3. Stef will be leaving us at the end of this term. We wish her all the very best and thank her for everything she has done with our students over the last few years. 

BABY NEWS!!!

There is definitely something in the air at SoGS with three staff members leaving us to begin their maternity leave later in the year!

We congratulate Mrs Dianne Pettenon and her partner as they await the birth of their third child. Mrs Pettenon will be with us until the end of Term 3, continuing to work three days a week and then from Term 4, Miss Katie will be moving from teaching 1B 2 days a week to teaching them full time.  We wish you all the best Mrs Pettenon, and we can’t wait to meet your new little baby!

Mrs Belanti and her partner are also eagerly awaiting and preparing for the birth of their first baby due in Term 4. Babies are always such exciting news and we wish Mrs Bellanti all the very best in the coming months. We also can’t wait to meet your new little baby. Details regarding who will be taking Year 2A will be shared later in the year. 

Congratulations also to Ms Santilla and her partner as they await the birth of their first baby also due in Term 4.  We are very excited for Ms Santilla and wish her all the best in the coming months! Details regarding who will be covering Prep B will be shared later in the school year. 

School Newspaper

Our School newspaper crew have been working so hard on getting our first edition ready! We are nearly ready to launch our first official SOGS-TASTIC NEWS. We will be sending an online link as well as selling any hard copies. There are lots of stories to read, riddles to solve, mazes, word finds, quotes and a teacher feature! Hard copies will go on sale on Friday for 50c a copy. Students can purchase a copy from the Year 3/4  area at lunchtime.

Emailing Staff

Many of our staff have noticed an increase in the frequency of emails that are being sent and although we welcome open communication, some parents are following up with two or three emails a day if they do not receive a response to their email. Please be mindful that it is difficult for teachers and staff to get to their emails during the day as they are in the act of teaching. As per our new EBA, teachers are only entitled to a half hour break for lunch and are then often on yard duty.  As per communication that goes out at the beginning of the school year, please allow 24 to 48 hours for a response to an email. If you require urgent assistance, please email info@sogsgpark.catholic.edu.au so we can action your request. We ask for your patience in awaiting a response to an email. If an email hasn’t been responded to within 48 hours, then please resend if concerns haven’t been addressed.  Due to the number of illnesses we have experienced this term, where we know that a staff member will be away for an extended period of time, we will advise parents via Seesaw so parents are aware not to expect a response if a teacher is on sick leave. 

Car Park

Once again we ask that parents drive slowly in the church car park when they are dropping off or picking up their children. Please do not drive through the middle of the car park if using the kiss and drop area, but rather drive around the outside of the designated car park once your child has been dropped off.  I have contacted Hume Council to ask for assistance with traffic flow on South Circular Rd and Burnleigh Drive. Over the next few weeks someone from the council will be out to survey traffic flow and will then make some recommendations on how we can improve this at drop off and in particular pick up time. 

Term 3 Focus

Our teachers have been planning our curriculum focus for next term, which will be a HISTORY focus! We will be sending a term overview home in week 1 term 3 so that parents have a rough idea of content and concepts we will be covering. 

Year 4 Camp Information Evening

WELCOME OSH CLUB

Osh Club is officially starting in Term 3. All week, we have been receiving parcels and packages of exciting new toys, activities and furniture that OSH club have purchased for our before and after care students. What an exciting time ahead. Thank you to those families that attend the information evening. There were some questions regarding a holiday program for our families. Although this is something that we are striving for, it will not be running these holidays. To clarify, some parents thought that EXTEND had been running a holiday program here at SOGS, however this has never been the case as we were told that there were not enough numbers to have a holiday program. If you have not yet registered for Term 3, please do so via this website: https://www.oshclub.com.au/

We want to wish everyone a happy and safe break and we look forward to seeing you all on Monday 15th July. 

Thank you,

Carmela D'Amato

LIVE AUDIRI Calendar- DID YOU KNOW? You can change the view of how you see upcoming school events?

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