From the Principal

Dear Families,

Congratulations  to our Year 6 children who were Confirmed on Sunday. When the Bishop lay his hands over our children and then sealed them with holy oil they were confirmed with the Holy Spirit. The theme of the celebration was a quote from St Catherine of Siena ‘Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire’  We hope our children can be guided by the Holy Spirit to be courageous, be wise, be understanding, and show right judgement to be able to live out this message from St Catherine. 

I would like to thank our teachers Katie Pollard, Monique McIntyre, Alison Brochert - Krohn, Kayla Wilson and Greg Lane. I would also like to thank Cath Woodhouse, our Religious Education Leader for overseeing the program. Lyn Plummer, our Parish Pastoral Assistant, did an amazing job behind the scenes, ensuring the celebration was very meaningful for our children and families. Thank you to Bishop Terry Curtin, Fr Denis Stanley, Deacon Steven Fernandes and the Parish altar servers for celebrating with us. 

I would also like to thank our families for your support and assisting your children throughout their preparation to be Confirmed.  

Tomorrow (Thursday) our school will be closed for our children as our Staff prepare for our School Review which will occur early in Term Three. They will engage in a self assessment and reflection process on our school’s improvement and performance over the past four years. This data will be used by our school reviewer to assess our progress and assist us to set goals for our School Improvement Plan for the next four year cycle. 

We will assess ourselves in five spheres that are the core drivers for school improvement.

These are;

• Education in Faith
• Teaching and Learning
• Student Wellbeing
• Leadership and Management 
• School Community

Data that we received from parents, staff and students late in 2022 will be used as well as academic results such as NAPLAN will be reviewed to assist us to plan for further improvement. We will be working with consultants from Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) who will guide us through the review process.

Congratulations to Luca in 6 Blue for representing St Anne's at the Sunbury Rotary Spelling Bee last Tuesd night, which is a competition open to Year 6 students to promote improved literacy in our local area. 

Luca diligently practised his list of words for weeks to prepare for the Bee, and his efforts showed on the night. He was calm and composed while spelling words such as psychological, enzymes, parochial and interim. Congratulations, Luca!

Next week we celebrate Reconciliation Week .  The 2023 theme is, Be a Voice for Generations. This encourages all Australians to be a voice for reconciliation in tangible ways in our everyday lives – where we live, work and socialise.

For the work of generations past, and the benefit of generations future, we hope that celebrating weeks such as this is that in the future we will be living in a more just, equitable and reconciled society. The dates for National Reconciliation Week remain the same each year; 27 May to 3 June. These dates commemorate two significant milestones in the reconciliation journey— the successful 1967 referendum, and the High Court Mabo decision respectively.

Our Year 3 children’s Inquiry Unit is ‘What Would it be Like to Live in a Different Country’. As part of this unity they are looking at the Indigenous Culture. They have read the picture story Sorry Day and they have reflected on the ways they can show respect to them.

Our school will celebrate NAIDOC week in July, next term.

Positive Behaviour For Learning - PBL

We continue to focus on being responsible which means we will be playing safely with our friends. Our children are encouraged to realise that when playing at school the results of the game do not matter, it is the way we play the game that is important. We encourage our children to follow the rules, accept going out or missing a goal or not getting the ball passed to them. Even though there are times this can be difficult for some of our children. I am pleased that many of our children are showing how responsible they can be playing in the school yard and enjoying themselves with their friends.  

At home you can reinforce this positive behaviour with your children, by reminding them that winning is not as important as the way they play the game showing positive sportsmanship.

God Bless

Ms Noelene Hussey