From the Principal

Be in it to WIN it!! - MACSSIS 2026

Survey opens Monday, 31st August

The BEST Prizes ever offered!!

Extra Play, Icy Poles, $100 Gift Voucher

This year we are introducing a reward to each Home Group that gets all parents to respond to the survey!!

30 Minutes of extra play time for each Home Group that achieves 100% of parents in the Home Group completing the survey.
The Home Groups with 100% responses or the Home group with the most responses gets an ice-pole each.
Parents who copy in the office via the admin email are also entered into a raffle to win $100 gift voucher

Prizes will be drawn and awarded in Week 1, Term 4.

Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys (MACSSIS): will be held from the 31 August –18 September 2026

We encourage all parents to take a few minutes to provide us your feedback and support as we use this information from students, staff and parents to set our goals and to improving our school.

Letter regarding the MACSSIS Survey to our parents.

How to ENTER

Parents just need to take a screenshot that the survey has been completed and share the email with the Home Group teacher or send it to admin@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au. If you have more than one child please send the details to each child's Home Group teacher.

Please ensure you provide:

your name
Your child's Name
Your child's Home Group.
the screenshot (with your email visible) of the evidence that the survey was completed. .

Teachers will keep a record of surveys completed.

All Home groups that get 100% completion will win the REWARD!!

In addition parents who also submit their evidence to the office will go into a raffle for a $100 gift voucher.

Parent Teacher Interviews - Thursday, 17th September

Please note: Students will be dismissed from school at 1pm on this day.

Parent/Teacher interviews will be held in your child's Learning Space from 1.30 pm til 8.00pm. You can book your interview time through nMeet on the NParent Portal. Bookings open today (Friday 28th August) and you will also be notified via email. You can then go to NPortal and access nMeet to select your child's interview time.

Each interview is allocated 15 minutes with your Home Group Teacher to enable you to discuss your child's progress. Your child is also asked to attend, as their goal setting will be discussed at this time.

If you wish to meet with a specialist teacher, please email them directly to organise an interview for Thursday, 17th September or an alternative time.

Email addresses for specialist teachers are:

lbarbakos@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au (Physical Education)

mjunkeer@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au (Visual Arts)

mjewiss@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au (Student Wellbeing)

rlenko@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au (Student Wellbeing and Mental Health Leader)

dwilenberg@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au (Music)

rsoysa@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au (Environmental Science)

AN SFS SYMPHONY OF STORIES!

CELEBRATING BOOK WEEK 2026

This year’s theme CBCA Book Week Theme, ‘Symphony of Stories’ encourages us to imagine books as individual instruments in a massive, vibrant orchestra. The theme explores how diverse characters, genres, and voices combine to create a single, harmonious, and magical reading experience.

Just like an orchestra books can also have a:

Harmonious blend: joining together like instruments playing a collective composition.
Unique voices: every story has a distinct sound, whether it is bold, quiet, chaotic, or soft;
and a Collective community: different characters come together to play an important role in every story.

On Monday, students and staff at SFS created their own ‘symphony’ as they gathered to celebrate Book Week with our annual costume parade. The music, laughter, energy and enthusiasm shared by all made this one of our best parades to date, with families joining in to cheer on both students and staff as they paraded in their costumes. Thank you to our staff, parents and wonderful children for getting into the spirit once again this year and organising such colourful and creative costumes inspired by their favourite books.

It was definitely a great way to start the day, with activities continuing in the learning spaces. Children gathered in home groups to read and explore one of this year’s CBCA Shortlisted books, creating some fantastic art pieces based on the book shared. Families will have the opportunity to see some of these masterpieces at our Art Show in Term 4. Time was also spent reading together, with children across F-6 partnering up to share and read some of their favourite books.

SPECIAL THANKS to Joanna for her passion for Literacy and this day, as well as for all her work in organising the activities and coordinating this event. Thanks also to our staff for their enthusiasm and contribution in helping make this day a success and so much fun for our children at SFS!

REMINDER TO PARENTS

Decommission of nForma for Parents App

We would like to remind parents that the nForma for Parents app will be decommissioned at the end of this month.

From 1st September, all parents will need to access the new app through the current nForma Connect app.

Many parents/carers have already downloaded and transitioned to the new app. However, if you are still accessing the old nForma for Parents app, we kindly ask that you download nForma Connect as soon as possible to ensure you have uninterrupted access. All parents/carers would have been prompted to upgrade/update via the old app.

We thank you if you have already followed these steps and if not, please do as soon as possible to avoid any access issues.

Starting from the 1st September, any absences left on the phone line will not be checked or accepted by the school. You must report your child’s absence by using the nForma Connect app. If no notification and reason is recorded you will receive an SMS to provide a reason for the absence of your child.

SEMPER DENTAL VAN is visiting St Francis de Sales on Thursday, 3rd September.

Students can receive a convenient, in-school dental check-up. Eligible families may be covered under the Medicare Child Dental Benefits Schedule (CDBS) while affordable options are available for all other families.

Please complete your child's consent form here:

Angela Faiola

Acting Principal