Acting Principal's Report

Dear Members of the St. Cecilia’s School Community,

This week was nominated as Family Week for our staff and families. This initiative is a reminder to all of us that time spent with our families is invaluable. Although it was a shortened week with our school closure day and Melbourne Cup Day, it was a very fitting time to dedicate to having this additional focus on family, given the long weekend many of us were able to enjoy.

I hope that each of your families had the opportunity this week to connect and make the most of some extra time spent together. After some big weeks at school with our school review and school fair now behind us, it was an ideal time to refresh and prepare for an exciting conclusion to the year.

The coming weeks will see end of year assessments and student reports completed, Wellbeing week led by our 5/6 students, our Scholatic Book Fair, preparation for our STEM room redevelopment, our School Sports Carnival, 2024 Foundation Orientation sessions, Year 6 Graduation activities, our Year 3-6 Family Mass, Year 3 Camp, excursions, incursions and 2024 class announcements and orientation.

To find out more about all the upcoming activites make sure you read through the rest of the newsletter where many of these activities are outlined and stay tuned to our school app for all important updates as we close out the year.

Fair Wrap

What an incredible celebration of the St Cecilia's School community our 2023 Fair was!

Throughout the day and since, I have spoken to past, present and prospective families who unanimously agreed that the fair was a glowing endorsement for the school and the community.

I can not thank enough our parents and families, without whose support, such an event would simply not be possible. I would especially like to once again express our gratitiude to Kylie and the fair committee team, Bridie, Mark, Bec, Amalia, Dries, Belinda, Tanya and Sarah, who did such an incredible job organising and coordinating the event.

Sarah has worked hard on compiling all the incoming and outgoing funds and has been able to calculate that the fair raised over $33,000 dollars for the school community!

An incredible effort that will significantly contribute to upcoming projects including the development of the next stage of the landscaping masterplan and helping to add resources to our new STEM and Creative Arts Studio which will be completed over the summer school holidays.

Please have a look at some of the wondeful images from the fair on the Fair Wrap page. You will also find a link there to a feedback survey that Kylie has prepared.

These events simply do not happen without the support of you, our parents and carers, and I strongly encourage you to not be shy in offering your skills in any way that you can to support making our 2024 fair just as successful next year.

Year 3-6 Family Mass & Pizza- Sunday November 19, 5:30pm

Earlier this week details and a RSVP form for our upcoming Family Mass were sent out on the school app. These details have been included again on the Education in Faith page. We have had limited response so far, so I would encourage you to please respond either way as soon as possible so that we can effectively plan for the Mass. The Year 1-2 Family Mass was a great event and opportunity for families to connect, and no doubt the Year 3-6 Family Mass will be just as successful.

Wellbeing Week: November 13 - 17

Next week will be St Cecilia's Wellbeing Week. The year 5/6 students have been working hard on preparing wellbeing activities that they will run with the whole school on Tuesday November 14. There will be a focus on wellbeing throughout the week in the classroom and on the playground. The week will conclude with some fun dance sessions provided by Kinect 2 Dance, encouraging and reminding students that moving your body in all sorts of ways is very important to both a healthy mind and body.

School Fees

Just a reminder that school fees are now due. If you are yet to pay your fees or contact us regarding arrangements, please take action to update your fee payments as soon as possible.

You can contact myslef, Lucy or Sharon if you need any assistance with your fees.

Online Safety Information for Parents and Carers

The Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools (MACS) has sent information to principals highlighting online sessions which are provided by the eSafety Commissioner for parents and carers. These sessions are designed to help you understand what our children are doing and using online and how we can best keep them safe. I highly recommend you take advantage of this free webinar to keep yourself abreast of the latest information. Please note, you will need to register for this so please get onto it quickly.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and week ahead

Matthew Mooney

Acting Principal

St Cecilia’s School