Principal's Message

Dear Families,

Welcome back to St. Finbar's for an exciting Term 2. As I walked around the school on Monday there was a real sense of calmness from staff and students as they settled into the rigours of another term of exciting learning and social and emotional development. The Preps, Year 1's and Year 2's have approached swimming lessons with confidence and the Year 3 and 5 students (and Staff) are busily preparing for NAPLAN testing in Week 4 of this term. We are again fortunate to to be participating in the online version of NAPLAN testing which is very well coordinated by our Learning and Teaching Leader - Ms Louisa Di Pietro. The school's ICT infrastructure is well prepared and will streamline the process greatly for our students. All tests, apart from the Year 3 writing test, will be conducted online via the NAPLAN Lock Down Portal. It is also fantastic that we will be resuming winter sports with our senior students. We can finally give our new footy jumpers a run!

School Improvement Projects

We have a number of school improvement projects running or just completed at the moment.

Over the holidays we installed new 85" LCD screens in all of the Prep to Year 3 classrooms (8 rooms). The old interactive whiteboards have had a long and serviceable life but it was time to upgrade them. While we did the new screens we also replaced the whiteboards at the front of the classrooms and modified some pin boards. We no longer need to turn off lights and close blinds to see these amazing new screens. Special thanks to Steve May our school handyman for his expertise in installing these new devices. We are in the process of furnishing the upstairs classrooms with new 85" screens as well.

The hall air conditioners are now installed and we are just finishing off the final electrical fit out. The air conditioners will be controlled via WiFi and an App which which will greatly enhance their effectiveness.

We will be replacing the bag hooks in the junior corridor over the coming weeks with portable lockers for all children. This will be much easier for all junior students to stow away their bags and belongings each day.

We will be having a minor upgrade to the new school P.A. system with the addition of a Bluetooth connection. Most devices these days do not have an earphone/sound jack to connect. This will enable us to play music or sound files easily for days such as ANZAC liturgies (Last Post and Reveille) or fun mornings, and most importantly the Carton theme song as required..... ;)

The new school playground has progressed well with the selection of a design by the students (with input from the staff). I am pleased to announce that we have gone with a design by a_space and it will compliment the blue and orange playground we already have. The old yellow and green playground will be removed in the coming weeks and will be replaced by an amazing space ready for all students to interact and play on. Please see attached below, concept photos and designs of the finished product. The playground should be installed within 6-8 weeks! Special thank to Chris from a_space for his great design work.

We will also be installing new carpet on both of the staircases in the coming weeks. This will enhance safety for all students and staff who use them many times each day.

Another project I am currently investigating is the re-painting of all lines in the staff car park. The lines are a little hard to decipher at times so clear marking of lines will enable all users of this space to identify correct car spaces.

The final project on my list for this year will be the installation of an elevator. This project has been a long time coming, but I am very confident we will be able to move quickly once our school master plan has been finalised. The benefits of an elevator are: safe travelling upstairs and downstairs for students with a disability and grandparents/older school members and parishioners. Safe movement of ICT infrastructure - i.e. laptop trolleys and easy movement of school supplies/ heavy boxes etc.

I will keep the community appraised of the progress of all of these projects in the coming weeks.

Mother's Day Breakfast & Lunch

Our amazing P & F will once again be holding the Mother's Day Breakfast and stall on Friday 7th May. On this day we also have our Mother's Day Lunch please see the attached Flyer for booking details.

Trybooking breakfast link here Trybooking lunch link here

School Winter Uniforms

At the commencement of Term 2 students may wear either the FULL summer uniform or FULL winter uniform (please do not mix and match the uniforms) until the end of next Week 2. From Monday 3rd May, ALL student must be in FULL WINTER UNIFORM. I would like to thanks Mrs Cath Davies-Gray for her amazing work in the uniform shop.

ICON Transition

From Monday 26th April St. Finbar's School will begin the transition to the ICON network. ICON stands for Integrated Catholic Online Network. It is a collaborative program of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria (CECV) involving Victorian Catholic schools and the four Catholic Education Offices. ICON aims to support systemic improvement in an evolving education environment.

The ICON technology platform will provide new ways of working for schools that optimise student learning and school administration. Teachers, staff, parents and students can access the ICON applications that are relevant to them through a customised portal.

More detailed information about ICON can be found on the ICON Support Site.

Upcoming Events

Friday 23rd April - Year 3-6 House Cross Country Championships

Tuesday 27th April - Board Meeting

Tuesday 4th May - P & F Meeting

Friday 7th May - Mother's Day Breakfast, Lunch and Stall

CSEF Funding

Please find attached below the annual CSEF funding paperwork for any families that require it.

School Closure Day

On Monday 17th May we will be having a school closure day. On this day the staff will be undertaking their compulsory first aid training. All staff will be onsite for this very important professional development. Out of Hours care will be available on this day.

God Bless,

Pat Berlingeri

Principal

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