Dear parents, students and families,

Last Friday our senior students played a Lightning Premiership against our local schools at Mahogany Rise PS in the Pines. The students absolutely excelled with both the football and netball teams winning the shields and our T-Ball team finishing third. Our teams will next play on Tuesday 10th October at JPC against the local Catholic Schools in another round robin day.

Last Saturday we held our Trivia Night. With a Studio 54 theme some of the costumes had to be seen to be believed. Thanks to the hard working P and F team for their work in putting this event together whether it was through sourcing donations, setting up, packing up, decorating or a role on the night- sensational. We were joined by a few parishioners which was wonderful to see. Thanks also to the families/companies that donated goods on the night- I'm sure the prizes and silent raffles were a hit. The next, and final big event for the year, is our Market Day on Sunday 19th November.

This week is an incredibly busy one for the school. Mrs Winduss, has organised for a variety of organisations to attend the school to speak to the students during Health and Safety Week. These have/will include Vic Police, Responsible Pet Ownership, Metro, St John's First Aid and Fire Rescue Victoria. A great opportunity for our students to learn a lot from these organisations about keeping themselves healthy and safe!

On Tuesday we held our annual Fathers Day Celebration Morning which was incredibly well attended. Thank you to our dads, grandfathers and special visitors who found time to attend. Thank you to the staff for coming up with such a wide range of great activities, our LSO's for cooking the sausages and one of our mum's Lorna Hazelman for bringing her coffee cart.

Wednesday, the students were able to pick up a surprise for dad from our Fathers Day Stall. Thank you to the P & F team who oversaw the purchase and sale of the gifts, as well as set up and pack up.

On Thursday our Fire Carrier Leaders attended McLelland Gallery with other leaders from our cluster of schools for a day of learning. We look forward to these students sharing their learning with the other students in the future.

Tonight our Foundation teachers will be holding the 2024 Foundation Information evening and I thank them for this as well as our current and new families who will be attending the evening. It really starts to formalise the Foundation Transition for 2024.

Tomorrow musician Drew Lane returns to our school to work with the Year 4, 5 and 6 students on composing our school song. This will add another special part to our overall culture and to have student involvement makes it even better.

The weekend Masses of the 2nd and 3rd of September will be times when our students intending to be Confirmed in the faith are able to continue their enrolment for this. Confirmation is on Sunday 22nd October at 4pm for our students.

We have received our 2019-2023 Review documentation and I am pleased to share our success and future goals that have been a result of the recent process. You will find this further on in the newsletter. Using the Review the Leadership Team have already completed our School Improvement Plan for the 2024-2027 period. Pleasingly our major directions are areas we are already well underway with.

Next week the highlights include some of the Year 5/ 6 students atteding a Hoop Time competition under Mrs Ary's leadership and on Thursday night our students will present their Circus Skills performance after developing their skills each week. I thank Mrs McArthur and her team for their leadership of this evening.

Today is my last day at school for a while. On Sunday many of the Peninsula Principals will be sharing a pilgrimage together from Sarria to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. We will use our morning and evening Liturgies as opportunities to reflect on the 'godincidences' we experience during each day. 'Godincidences' is of course not a word but a term used by our accompanying spiritual guide Ange Virgona for the times in the day where we experience God. I look forward to staying in regular contact with the students over the final two weeks of the term and sharing some reflections gathered while walking the jouney of St James. I will then be joined by my wife and taking a period of Long Service Leave which will extend into November. The school will be lead by Mrs Thomas in my absence with suppoprt from our Senior Leadership Team Mrs Chiodo, Mr Sullivan and Mrs Winduss. The school is in very capable hands so I wish everyone well until I return on Wednesday 8th November.

Hope you have a great weekend and God Bless you all

Rod Shaw

Principal

School Attendance and Unexplained Absence

Please contact the school if your child is going to be absent by leaving a message on 9786 4736 and press 1. Please give details of your child’s name and class with a reason for their absence such as: unwell, appointment, holiday or family reasons. Alternatively an email can be sent to office@saseaford.catholic.edu.au with cc to the child’s teacher.

If you are running late, (after 9:00 am) please attend the office to sign your child into school and collect a late pass.

If you are picking up your child early you will need to collect them and sign them out from the office.

As per our policy this will be our morning routine for absences:

Parents will be contacted as soon as practicable on the morning a student is absent via a text message.

If parent does not contact the school after receiving the text message, the school will contact the parent by phone. If the parent is unreachable the emergency contacts will be contacted by the school.

If there is still no response, and the school feels that the child is in danger, the police will be contacted.

Ongoing unexplained absences or lack of cooperation regarding student attendance will result in a formal conference being organized. Unresolved attendance issues will be referred to D.H.H.S.

This is a legal requirement.

Democratic Principles

The six (6) principles of Australian democracy include:

(a) elected government; and

(b) the rule of law; and

(c) equal rights for all before the law; and

(d) freedom of religion; and

(e) freedom of speech and association; and

(f) the values of openness and tolerance

Father's Day Photos