Principal's News

Dear Families,

On Monday afternoon I participated in an online seminar by the eSafety Commissioner. The staff will be completing the same module on the 19th of November.

Here is the information about the changes in social media age aligned with different apps and their description.

Change in Social Media Age - What does it mean for educators, families and students?

https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents/social-media-age-restrictions

Keeping our kids safe online: A partnership with families

Dear Parents and Carers,

You may have heard about upcoming government changes in the law regarding social media accounts for children under the age of 16, which will take effect on 10 December 2025.

We are committed to understanding these new changes and working with you to ensure our students have a safe and positive digital life.

Why are these changes happening?

The new rules are all about protecting our under-16s. Many social media platforms have inbuilt design features that can:

encourage too much screen time (like non-stop notifications or content that disappears)
expose children to upsetting, inappropriate or difficult content through their feeds.

Experts have linked these features to problems for young people, including increased stress, less sleep, and trouble concentrating.

What is the goal?

These changes give us all a chance to help our children by:

learning about the positive aspects of being online and the things they need to be careful of
building their digital, social, and emotional skills so they can navigate the online world confidently and safely
knowing where to seek help if they see or experience anything that worries them.

Are you ready to partner with us?

While social media platforms have the main responsibility to enforce the age restriction, we all play a part in teaching our children to be safe online.

The best strategies are:

Clear communication – talking openly with your child about their online activities
Effective teaching – helping them understand online safety rules
Positive modelling – showing what responsible and kind online behaviour looks like
Mindful timing – holding off purchasing your child a smart phone.

Quick facts about the upcoming changes

We will continue to update you as more guidance is provided. In the meantime, we encourage every family to subscribe to the eSafety Commissioner alerts so you can remain informed about the legislation change and ongoing digital trends.

Let’s work together to help our children become safe, skilled and responsible digital citizens, who can navigate the online world with confidence and care.

Important dates for Term 4

ICT Night for Year 3 Parents (Year 4 2026) Wednesday 12th of November 7pm - 8pm in the Library

Colour Run Friday 21st November 2pm - 5pm

Staff Planning Day for 2026 24th November - Student Free Day

Carols Night Monday 8th December 6:30pm - 8:00pm

Graduation 2025 10th December 6pm Mass

Head Start Wednesday 10th - Friday 13th of December

End of Year Mass Tuesday 16th December 9.15am

Final Assembly Tuesday 16th December 12:45pm for 1:30pm finish

Class Structures for 2026

The class structures for 2026 at this stage will be as follows. If there are any changes we will let you know before the end of the year.

Prep

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3/4

Year 5/6

Prep Orientation & Information Night

We are excited to welcome our 2026 Prep families and students!

● A Prep Readiness Night for Parents

● Prep Orientation Sessions

Our first 2026 Prep Transition Session on 6th November was a wonderful opportunity to connect. Parents engaged in discussions around Wellbeing and Religious Education.

Our next session will be held on 20th November, where we will be sharing information about our Literacy and Numeracy programs.

Thank you to all who attended the first session. Look forward to speaking to you at the second transition session.

Instrumental ABC Music Program COMING in 2026

This will be a trial ABC staff will liaise with our teachers and program to ensure students have the best opportunities.

Morning sessions, break sessions and after school sessions.

Enrol online now on our Website

www.abcmusicgroup.com.au/enroll-now/

We will work with ABC to device a timetable which minimises disruption to learning and in consultation with families.

2026 School fees

Any families who may require support please ring or email me.

gleone@sktemplestowelr.catholic.edu.au

Term 4 Assembly Dates

Wednesday 12th November 2.30pm - 3.15pm in the Church

Wednesday 3rd December 2.30pm - 3.15pm in the Church

Colour Run 21/11/25

Thank you to all the staff who accepted the challenge to be slimed!

The way it works…

All the names will be shared with the community. Then the community will donate $1 to slime the nominees.

The nominees with the biggest collection of donations get SLIMED.

The nominees are:

Gianni Montalto
Sienna Montalto
Lisa Booth
Gabee Leone
Lil Cesarin
Chiara Leone

Swimming for Prep to Year 4

Students in Prep to Year 4 will be participating in our Swimming and Water Safety Program at the Genazzano Aquatic Centre on the following dates:

Dates: 19th, 20th, 21st, 25th and 26th November 2025

Location: Genazzano Aquatic Centre

Transport: Students will travel by bus with staff supervision.

Session Times:

Grade 1/2PM & Year 3/4 classes:
- Depart school at 9:00am
- Depart Genazzano at 11:20am to return to school
Prep & Grade 1/2GW:
- Depart school at 10:35am
- Depart Genazzano at 1:10pm to return to school

We look forward to another positive and engaging swimming program for our students.

Uniform Update

Tuesday afternoon I had an opportunity to speak with the students about the importance of wearing the correct school uniform. I understand that the recent changes to PE days may have caused some confusion, but I’d like to remind everyone of our uniform expectations.

School uniform: to be worn with black school shoes
PE uniform: to be worn with runners
White socks should be worn with both uniforms

Please also ensure that students wear minimal jewellery, both for safety reasons and to maintain consistency across the school.

Thank you for your ongoing support and cooperation.

Linked is the St Kevin's Uniform Policy Updated in 2023 by the SAC Team

Values

Responsible

I treat all school resources with care.

Fortnightly Awards: After discussions with teachers, we are pleased to announce that this term students will receive a fortnightly award linked to our school values — Respect, Responsibility, and Resilience.

School Values Award.

This term the staff have decided to acknowledge students within our school who consistently display one or all of our school values. Our school values at St Kevin’s are Respect, Resilience and Responsibility.

Congratulations to the following students from each class who have demonstrated one of our school values over the last week. It is really wonderful to see so many students being resilient by challenging themselves and having a ‘can do’ attitude.

Well Done everyone!

Wellbeing Update

Hi Everyone,

Respectful Relationships

Thank you to the parents who came along to our Parent Information Session on the 30th October, on Topic 7 and 8 from the Rights, Responsibilities and Respectful Relationships Program. Our students are now taking part in lessons from Topic 7 which is about Gender Norms and Stereotypes and Topic 8 which focuses on Positive Gender Relationships. I have put together an outline (scope and sequence) of the lessons which the different year levels will be taking part in, including the Learning Outcome for each lesson and an Overview of the lessons.

Please click here to access the outline of RRRR lessons.

If you require any further information or have any questions, please contact me via my email fgeorge@sktemplestowelr.catholic.edu.au

Positive Behaviour for Learning

For the next two weeks, students and staff are focusing on the PBL expected behavior of “I treat all school resources with respect and care”. This behavior shows the value of Respect

At St Kevin’s we can show respect when we care for the resources and equipment in our school. These are some of the ways in which we can demonstrate this:

Using furniture correctly, sitting on chairs, not swinging on chairs and stools and keeping our feet on the ground
Returning resources to where they belong
Looking after sport equipment and returning it to the classroom or stadium
Treat books with care when reading them and return books to the library when you have finished reading them.

I hope that everyone has a great week.

Take care,

Fiona George

Student Wellbeing Leader

Seesaw

Staff News

Welcome Stephanie Sutherland to St Kevin’s! Miss Stephanie is teaching 2 days a week in 1/2 GS!

Congratulations Daniella! (Year 1/2 PM Teacher)

Daniella and Dean are having a baby! A little brother or sister for Leo?

We thank you Daniella for her continued work and wish her well with the pregnancy.

Daniella will conclude the year 2025 with St Kevin’s

and then go on Maternity Leave.

Retirement NEWS

Jo Matarazzo (Library Technician) and Aurelia Zardo (Learning Support Officer) have decided that they will both retire at the end of this school year!

This is a massive decision and we wish them both the very best in preparing for Retirement! I hope they find time to visit us next year!

Italian News

Ciao a tutti,

It's that time of year again! For the next few weeks we will be discussing Christmas, and the different traditions followed in Italy vs Australia during the festive season. While our preps are also revising some animals:

Natale:

Natale - Christmas

Babbo Natale - Santa Claus

La Befana - the Christmas witch

Lei porta - she brings

Lui porta - he brings

I regali - presents

I dolci - sweets

Il carbone - coal

Si gioca a tombola - we play bingo

Si gioca a cricket - we play cricket

Si mangia il panettone - we eat panettone

Si mangia la pavlova - we eat pavlova

Si festeggia con la famiglia - we celebrate with family

Si ascolta la musica di Natale - we listen to Christmas carols

Gli animali:

La rana fa cra cra - the frog goes ribbit ribbit

Il cane fa bau bau - the dog goes woof woof

Il gatto fa miao miao - the cat goes meow meow

Il pulcino fa pio pio - the chick goes peep peep

I hope everyone has an amazing few weeks!

Grazie, Chiara :)

SAC (School Advisory Council) AND PFA (Parents and Friends Association)

There is a bit of movement with parent completing their time on these two parent groups.

We have had some interest from new parents, which is amazing but we will require at least 2 new candidates for each of these groups.

If you are interested please email Suzanne (pfapres@sktemplestowelr.catholic.edu.au ) PFA and Renee SAC (chairSAC@sktemplestowelr.catholic.edu.au)

Presentations for information about both groups SAC 2025 and PFA 2025

If you require more information I am also available.

Have a fabulous fortnight, Gabee Leone