From the Principal

 Do all that you do with love ~

Dear Families,

Exciting news

Tomorrow is the start of Catholic Education Week. Mrs Hinds and myself will be attending the Leadership Mass led by Bishop Greg. I will be commissioned as a newly appointed leader in education and I look forward to celebrating this and sharing my commitment to serving our community with my colleagues from the rest of the Diocese. 

Each year, schools are asked to consider nominations for the Spirit of Catholic Education awards. These focus on staff who demonstrate the Spirit of Catholic Education in their work and every day lives. Last term, I shared this information with the staff at St Therese's and Mrs Hogan emailed back with a nomination and reasons for this.

I am delighted that as part of tomorrow's Leadership Mass, Mrs Joy Andrews, our Japanese teacher, will be presented with a Spirit of Catholic Education Award. 

Joy teaches Japanese at St Therese's and St Agatha's. She is an exceptional teacher and an extraordinary person who lives her faith and unashamedly expresses it in her day to day life. Joy says her name stands for Jesus, Others, You - and this is the order of importance she lives by. On top of her teaching, she uses her recess and lunch to teach TAIKO drumming to the grade 3 - 6 students, Joy goes above and beyond to include as many children as she can. Parents and staff are often suprised by the confidence and abilities discovered in seemingly quiet children who may otherwise have been overlooked. Many of our community will not be aware that Joy battles MS but this has not dampened her enthusiasm for teaching, she gives her all every day. Joy is a wonderful, caring staff member and an exemplary human.

Catherine Hogan

Congratulations Joy Andrews!

Cooler Weather

It seems that winter is trying to make an early appearance at the moment - the mornings are certainly more chilly than they have been. We are now well and truly into our winter uniform term and I think it is important to remind all of the children to wear a jumper in the mornings, it's a bit too cold for even me to be wearing short sleeves outside (and the staff regularly comment about me not feeling the cold due to my English blood!).

I also need to remind you that COVID is still very much active in our community. We have a number of confirmed cases and close contacts and I would like to take this opportunity to go through the steps to follow if your child is unwell.

• If your child is showing cold, flu or COVID symptoms they must remain at home. RATs are still available and you need to test your child.
• If your child is COVID positive, please let the school know as soon as possible. Your child must remain home until they are negative. If they are still showing symptoms and feeling unwell despite a negative test result, please keep them at home until they are well.
• If your child is a close contact, please also advise the school.

We have entered the season of coughs and colds and we all know how these spread quickly in the classroom. I know many of your children don't like missing school, but if they are unwell they must remain at home to prevent illness spreading through the rest of our community.

New Flags

On Monday, Cassandra Fernando MP, Federal Member for Holt, joined our whole school assembly. She brought with her a gift of new flags for our flagpoles. Sadly, the cockies and crows had been playing with out previous set and left them looking worse for wear. Our Community Spirit Leaders will be responsible for raising the flags in the morning and dropping them at the end of the school day. We look forward to seeing our shiny new flags flying high.

Walk to School Day

Tomorrow, Friday 19th May, is Walk to School Day. Mr Pawlukowski has been busy revving the children up and trying to increase the excitement about walking to school. We know it's a bit chilly at the moment but a brisk walk should get the blood pumping.

Our walk to school will start at the corner of Endeavour Drive and South Gippsland Highway at 8.30 tomorrow. Mr P and a number of teachers will be ready to walk to school with you. We do ask that parents and carers join the walk. For road safety we cannot have the children left under the supervision of the teachers before school. If you wish for your child to join in, we ask that you do as well. All family members are welcome, even those in prams and pushers!

Felicity Broughton

Principal