Principal's Report
Welcome
Dear members of the St Raphael’s school community,
I trust that you enjoyed the Melbourne Cup long weekend with your children. As we enter the second half of the last term of the school year it is an opportune time to reflect on the many wonderful events and achievements that the children have participated in throughout course of the year and to look forward to the remaining few weeks of the 2018 school year.
The recent St Raphael's Feast Day on Sunday 19th October was a wonderful day and a testament to the wonderful school and parish community we have here at St Raphael’s, the attendance at our NSIT school review feedback information night on Wednesday 24th October with Mr Tony McGruther and the Trivia Night last Friday evening organised by our wonderful SEB Community Events team and parent volunteers. A huge thanks to these parents for organising and attending such a terrific social event for our parent community. According to all reports, it was a fantastic evening with some spirited competition and a lot of fun for all!
Also, to our new Foundation students and their families. It has been wonderful to welcome you all into our school community for our Foundation Induction Evening, Orientation Days and upcoming Teddy Bear’s Picnic.
Staffing 2019
We are pleased to announce our homeroom teachers for 2019.
Foundation: Lorraine Uzunovski & Jackie Moloney/ Melanie Pizzonia
Year 1/2: Shane Giese, Dee Panagiotaras, Anna Camuglia & Emma Sbizzirri
Year 3/4: Annie McNaughton, Linda Pham & Rosalba Squarci
Year 5/6: Belinda Hirschauer, Martine Kelly, Marlene Walters & Matthew Vernal
We warmly welcome Anna, Linda and Matthew to our school community and hope that their time with us is personally and professionally rewarding.
Final staffing for 2019 will be announced in the coming weeks.
NSIT Review Feedback
On Wednesday 24th October, Mr Tony McGruther detailed some of the findings from our recent extensive and exhaustive school review process. Tony is a highly respected and experienced former school principal who now works for the Australian Council of Educational Research. At the meeting, Tony outlined to our SEB and parents in attendance an overview of commendations and areas for improvement in our school coming out of the process that was undertaken in August by himself and educational consultant, Ms Meredith Nolte.
A school review should never be undertaken to ‘achieve a score’, however, Tony did mention that in his findings and review of over 100 Australian government, Catholic and independent schools that have used this NSIT school review process that St Raphael’s would rank in the top 5 - 10% of schools throughout Australia.
We are really proud of this feedback from such an extensive, evidence-based review process. In accounting terms this would be known as a 'forensic audit’ that looked at all aspects of the school from highly-effective learning and teaching practices, leadership and management processes and school-community partnerships. This affirmation has come from many hard years of work with a clear focus on school improvement and a resolve to offer the children the best possible progressive, engaging and comprehensive education.
We have already commenced the process of looking towards developing a whole school improvement plan for the next four years as we continue to build on the affirmations and commendations and seek to continue our improvement in effective learning and teaching.
For more information please visit: https://www.acer.org/school-improvement/improvement-tools/national-school-improvement-tool
Sports Day
Unfortunately, our 2018 School Sports Day scheduled for Friday 2nd November had to be cancelled due to inclement weather. We have contacted Darebin Council and many of the sporting grounds and athletics tracks are unavailable. We have managed to secure Zwar Park on Friday 7th December. It will be a fantastic and fun-filled day for all of the children.
We will be asking for parent volunteers to assist with walking the children to and from Zwar Park on this day.
Alumni Lunch
Last year we were made aware of a large group of ex-St Raphael’s students who had been meeting on the first Wednesday of December at the Excelsior Hotel in Thomastown for a catch up/ reunion lunch. We contacted this group of people who were more than happy for us to come along and join them for this informal lunch. Lorraine Uzunovski, Emma Sbizzirri and I attended and when we arrived we were warmly welcomed by over 80 ex-students from various eras ranging from 1940s - 1980s.
It was a fabulous lunch and we extended an invitation to them all to come back to St Raphael’s for a ‘Back to School Day’ which was held earlier this year in February. This was a great occasion with a massive turn out of nearly 100 people who came and recalled stories and tales of their schooling days at St Raphael’s.
We have since made a commitment to keep the connection going…..”Once a St Raphaelian, always a St Raphaelian’.
If anyone is interested in attending (or knows of an ex-student who might be interested) then please join us on Wednesday 5th December at 12pm at the Excelsior Hotel, Mahoneys Road, Thomastown. No booking required.
Kindergarten Visits
We have recently hosted kindergarten visits from local kindergartens and early child care centres in our area. These visits have been really well received with many parents of these kinder children commenting on our innovative approach to learning and teaching and the engagement levels of the children in their learning. Below is an extract from the most recent newsletter of the newly-opened Explorers Early Learning Centre in Murray Road.
School Fees
We understand that some parents may have overlooked that this year's school fees were due at the end of third term. Parents who have not reconciled their 2018 school fees or who have not made an appointment with me to discuss their repayment options will now need to be contacted directly. If you have still not reconciled these fees can you please do so ASAP.