Leadership & Management

Week 9  Term 4

Dear Parents and Carers,

The Advent season, within the Catholic Church has begun. Advent is a time of waiting, a time to prepare to celebrate the coming of Jesus celebrated at Christmas. It is a time also to consider what the presence of Jesus, the Christ means to us today. Advent encompasses the four Sundays and weekdays leading up to the celebration of Christmas and it is a time of preparation for our heart and minds for the anniversary of the Lords birth on Christmas. 

At St Fidelis, one way new we celebrate Advent is by putting up an Advent Wreath and lighting candles each week. Our Advent wreath is located at the front foyer of our school and in the centre space of the SLA. It is in a prominent space in order for students, parents and visitors as a reminder of the liturgical season and the meaning Advent. 

The children will begin learning about the significance of Advent and the wreath and using some thinking routines such as SEE, THINK, WONDER to elicit their wonderings and questions for further inquiry. Our Whole School Prayer focus will continue to focus on the significance of each week of Advent.

Congratulations - Christmas Card winner

Congratulations to Kiara (3/4GT) who achieved best in school as the St. Fidelis winner by Lizzie Blanthorn MP, state member for Pascoe Vale. Kiara won a $50 voucher at Pictures and Pages bookshop.

Lizzie was given a tour of our new building works.

First Eucharist - Congratulations 

Yesterday, one of our Year Four students, Sierra, celebrated her First Eucharist at 11:00am Parish Mass. This is a very special event in Sierra's life and for her family. Thank you to Fr Linh for making the Mass an extra special celebration for Sierra.  Sierra was presented with her First Eucharist certificate at this morning's assembly.

Reconciliation Celebration

This Saturday our Year 3 Students will celebrate their First Reconciliation at St Fidelis Church. In the Roman Catholic Church, people go to Reconciliation also known as confession, to say sorry for the wrong in their lives and to experience God’s healing through forgiveness. We keep these students and their families in our prayers this week. 

Professional Learning

Professional learning with Kath Murdoch continues this Tuesday with our team and curriculum leaders. This day will be spent looking back at our achievements in 2021, auditing our Curriculum and mapping our Inquiry concepts, Numeracy and Religious Education for 2022.  This time with Kath is invaluable and we are fortunate to have a strong partnership with Kath, which we will continue with in 2022.

Staff leaving St Fidelis in 2021

Di Manthos

At this time of the year, the staff share with me their employment intentions for 2022.  Di Manthos our current Deputy Principal, Literacy  and Learning Leader is  leaving St Fidelis at the end of 2021.  Di will take up a part time position at St Mark's Fawkner in 2022 as Literacy Leader.  Di has made a wonderful contribution to the St Fidelis Community in her numerous roles and she will be truly missed. I wish to thank her on behalf of the St Fidelis' Community, teachers and students and wish her all the luck for her future,. 

Di's role of Deputy Principal, Literacy, Learning and Teaching role will be announced in next week’s newsletter.

Mark MacGregor

Mark MacGregor has been a member of St Fidelis Community since the beginning of 2019. Mark has been a Year 5/6 and 3/4 teacher and Religious Education coordinator in his time at St Fidelis.  Mark has made a wonderful contribution to the students and families during his time here. Mark has taken a position at Holy Trinity in Sunbury much closer to his home. I wish to thank him for his contribution to the St Fidelis community he will be missed by all. 

Maria Delaney

Maria Delaney who has only been part of the St Fidelis Community has decided to retire and pursue some of her other interests. I want to thank Maria for her contribution to the St Fidelis Community and I wish her all the best for her future. 

Cherrie Arnold

Cherrie has been with St Fidelis for six months this year. Cherrie job-shared in Year 5/6 with Michelle Casamento this second half of the year.  I want to thank her for her hard work and dedication starting during COVID and online teaching. She did a wonderful job in such difficult circumstances.  Cherrie has been successful with a Fulltime Position at St Monica’s Moonee Ponds. We wish her all the best and thank her for her contribution to the St Fidelis Students and their families.

Andre Botoulas

Andre is currently an LSO at St Fidelis. He is currently studying teaching and will use next year to continue with his studies. We would like to thank Andre for his enthusiasm in learning and contribution to assist the students St Fidelis.

Moonee Ponds Community Christmas Trees

If you are in Moonee Ponds, take a look at the Christmas Trees that the students along with Mr Frazzetto decorated for the community. They can be found inside Moonee Ponds Central (near Coles) and Moonee Ponds Central (near KMart) 

Well done to all the students!

Italian Day & Sports Day

This  week the students will engage in two Whole School Activity Days.  Tuesday they will engage in Italian Day and Thursday our Annual Sports Day. These whole School events build a sense of community and are great ways to celebrate our specialist subjects in our school. You can find detailed information about both days in todays newsletter. 

Class List Allocation

At St Fidelis, we encourage all children to achieve the fullest possible development of their intellectual, social, physical, emotional and spiritual needs. We aim to provide the highest quality education in a supportive, inclusive and caring learning environment for each individual child, working to their strengths and focusing on areas that need attention. As an integral part of the process of creating positive learning environments, we strive to achieve the best possible class placement for every child. St Fidelis, therefore considers the allocation of students to classes in each year level to be a very important process. For this reason, a very clear and detailed system is followed for determining each class composition. St Fidelis believes that such a system will enhance the educational environment for the students.

When devising class lists, the following aims are integral to St Fidelis:

Balancing the classes in the Year Level of:

• Gender
• Academic abilities
• Behavioral traits
• Learning styles
• Age of the student
• Class size

The staff will also consider:

• Friendship groups
• Social / emotional needs
• Teaching styles
• Student interests
• Medical issue
• Personal / family background (if applicable)

It is not the intention to:

• Move a whole class group up from one year to the next, where all of the students in the class stay as the same cohort of students for the class in the next year level.
• Place all new students in one class – they will be split amongst the classes of that year level

Through information from the staff, it may be necessary to:

• Keep certain students together because of social/emotional concerns.
• Separate certain students owing to the negative implications of them being placed in the same class.
• Place certain students into a class where the child and teacher have similar learning/teaching styles.

The Process:

• At the beginning of Term Four the Learning Diversity and Wellbeing Leaders meet with all staff to begin considering allocation of students for the following year 
• The Year level Teachers meet with their respective Year level teaching teams to collaboratively allocate all students in their year level onto the class grouping in the Class Creator Program. 

The class teachers present the suggested class lists to myself and the Wellbeing /Learning Diversity Leader to carefully discuss these suggested class lists. During all discussions student friendship requests, parent requests and teachers professional judgments are carefully considered and implemented if appropriate. The final confirmation of class lists is made by the Principal and Wellbeing and Learning Diversity Leader. 

• Class lists and teacher allocation are presented to the students on the last week of Term Four, at which time they will have a Transition Morning with their new teacher and class friends. 

The Transition Morning will involve:

• The current class teacher informs the students of the teacher for the following year.
• The students then move to the new class teacher’s classroom for a 90 minute activity to get to know one another a little more. 

Parent Input:

St Fidelis will create balanced classes according to the educational and social information we have about the students. In week five of Term 4, parents are asked if they believe they need to communicate any information that could impact on their child’s placement to the Principal by a given date. 

The class teachers will endeavour to place each student with a friend, who may not be the child’s first choice, but a peer with whom they are friendly and known to interact well in the classroom or playground setting.

However, when creating the class list, St Fidelis will consider all information about a child that the parent may have communicated to the teacher, Principal or Wellbeing Leader throughout the year.

Changes to Class Lists 

Owing to the careful process for devising the class lists, once the parents have been informed of their child’s class placement, the class placements are considered final. Changing one student at the request of a parent can mean that many other changes also need to take place to continue to meet the needs of all of the other students. Parents should understand that it is a complex balance that cannot just be solved by moving their child. Many other changes are likely to be needed in addition. 

Parents are welcome to talk to the Principal about their concerns but changing a student placement would be extremely rare. The Principal, Wellbeing Leader and the classroom teacher will work with the parent to help students adjust to their new class.

If your child is unhappy with their class placement, we encourage parents to talk to them in a positive manner and to model how we want them to face disappointment now and in their future. Learning how to positively deal with disappointments builds resilience in children.

Teachers will be allocated to classes once staffing is finalized. On Monday December 13 students will Transition to new class and teachers from 9:30am  -11:00am. Thank you for your support with this important process.

FEEES ARE OVERDUE 

There are a number of families who have their last child leaving at the end of 2021 who have NOT finalized their school fees. Can you please finalise all payments this week (unless prior arrangement have been made with Manuela). Thank you to all the families who have paid their fees in full. Our school relies on school fees for many recurrent costs so prompt payment is appreciated.

These are the ways you can pay your fees: 

• Credit card over the phone or in person
• Direct Debit using bank details below
• By cash coming into the school using COVID Safe Protocols

Please call the office and Ann will arrange credit card payment over the phone or alternatively if you prefer to pay by direct debit, please use the bank details below. If any families need to discuss alternative arrangements for the payment of fees, please contact me directly. Included are the Bank details for your ease of payment:

Have a lovely week, 

Manuela