Principal's Message
Dear Parents, Guardians and Friends,
Term 3 is rapidly drawing to a close with some beautiful weather- I trust families are getting out and enjoying it- well within 5kms of home anyway. So far the noisy miners haven't tried to make their nest near the front door. If I do spot them you can be sure I will discourage them. I can't even begin to count how many times they swooped me last year!
On Wednesday night we held our Foundation Information Night for 2021. It was very different experience doing it via Zoom but it was certainly great from my perspective to see so many of our current and future parents online. I certainly miss seeing the many adults I usually say hello to each morning or afternoon. I was in the position on Wednesday night to announce that we would be having two Foundation classes for 2021. We accepted our 30th student earlier in the week. Currently these classes have 15 in each but hopefully many of our families (16 new families) may encourage their undecided friends to also join St Anne's. Two Foundation classes of about 18 students would be ideal! I know our new families for 2021 are already receiving our newsletter so again...welcome!
Equally with new families joining our school obviously at the end of the year we will have some of our families departing the school whose last child is completing Year 6. Other families may move on for a variety of other reasons. As I requested last week if you have a child at St Anne's and you will be moving to another school for 2021 can you kindly please let the office know. We are considering our 2021 class structure and it is vital to have accurate student numbers in determining this.
I met online with many of my principal colleagues to reflect around the theme of RUOK? This was something that was celebrated with our students enjoying some extra special activities yesterday. One of the principals mentioned that in his family they do ''Äcts of Gratitude'. These are acts of kindness done for someone outside the household that you might like to do something extra special for. Things like making a card, picking some flowers, making a cake etc etc. It is so easy at the moment to be looking inwards and focusing on ourselves rather than reaching out to others through little acts. I thought it was a lovely idea and something maybe some of our families may like to try.
I heard this quote recently which ties into the previous paragraph:-
"We make a living from what we get but we make a life from what we give". Winston Churchill. Maybe something to keep in mind.
The building project moves so quickly- please look at Mrs Trower's photos in the newsletter taken today for you to see.
This week in the Gospel we are challenged to consider to whom are you indebted? What is it we might owe these people? How do we make good on this? Equally is there a time when you felt wronged. What happened? What were your feelings? What was the outcome? Were you able to forgive the action and move on? Is there something that needs healing and reconciliation in your life? Maybe we could all work on that this week!
Look after yourselves and let your light shine!
May God Bless you.
Rod
School Attendance and Unexplained Absence
Please ensure you contact the school before 9:30am if your child is going to be absent or late by leaving a message on 9786 4736 and press #1.
If you are running late (after 9:00 am ) please attend the office to sign your child into school.
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 phone call or text message.
If parent does not reply or 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.