Hearts on Fire

With our hearts on fire with the love of Jesus.

Hearts on fire, let’s spread the word.

Hearts on fire, feel the Spirit blazing.

Hearts on fire, called to live the Good News in this land.

Setting hearts on fire.

Today we pray for our 2021 Confirmation candidates who will be Confirmed at St Kevin's Church by Fr Desmond Moloney at 5:30pm.

We pray for......

We ask God's blessings to be with them always and that their hearts be filled with love and fire to go out to the world and make a difference.

We are so grateful that we have been able to celebrate this sacrament with the minimum of restrictions and that each child could have all those they wish to join them in this important Sacrament.

A big thanks to Rozeta for her brilliant coordination and preparation for this and all our 2021 sacraments. Despite the complications of COVID, we were able to celebrate each sacrament this year. Amazing achievement.

Thanks to Fr Desmond and Fr Anil for their support of our children and our school. Thanks also to our staff for helping our children prepare. This preparation begins from Foundation and is built on each year in partnership with parents. The strength of this partnership makes all the difference to the child. Congratulations to the parents and sponsors, your role is critical as the key people providing support and guidance on this journey.

Time to pause and celebrate.

Special Delivery

This week we took delivery of a long awaited parcel. In fact 5 parcels!! Our brand new Samsung air purifiers have finally arrived. We have distributed them across the school and had them switched on and working immediately.

They look great and are super quiet.

We look forward to receiving the rest of the allocated air purifiers soon. We have been promised another 12 to make 17 in total.

We are very grateful to the government to have another way of keeping our learning spaces safer for our staff and students.

Tenders opened

On Thursday the tender from builders invited were opened. The tenders documents are in the hands of MACS and our architects, who will examine them thoroughly before a meeting in a couple of weeks to nominate the winning tender. We cannot wait for this next step and to have a builder announced. The excitement then really commences as our builders move on site and construction commences in 2022.

To save some costs we will be removing the low cyclone fencing behind the portable on the 14 December at 2:30pm. If you can help please let Lorenza know at the school office or send an email principal@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au

BUSHFIRE AT-RISK REGISTER (BARR)

We have recently been informed that our school is now listed on the Bushfire At-Risk Register (BARR). We are now considered as being at high risk of fire danger for the 2020–21 bushfire season. Inclusion on the register means that the school will be pre-emptively closed in the event that the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issues a Code Red Fire Danger Rating warning for the weather district in Central Melbourne where we are located.

If a code Red Fire Danger Rating warning is given for central Melbourne , we will inform parents via the school app of the closure.

Where possible, three (3) days notice of a planned closure will be provided. However, experience indicates that a Code Red fire danger rating day may be forecast at short notice. Parents and guardians should expect that in some instances less than three days notice may be provided.

Once the final decision to close is confirmed at 12 noon the day prior, this decision will not change – regardless of any changes in the weather forecast. This will help limit confusion and help families plan for how their children will be cared for when their school is closed.

When a school is closed in response to bushfire risk, no one, including staff, contractors and other users, will be permitted on site.

Parents must ensure they download the school app to their smart phone so that emergency notifications are received.

A list of likely and actual school closures for the day of code red in central Melbourne will also be made available on the MACS website and on the Department of Education and Training (DET) website.

MACSSIS

Our 2021 MACSSIS data from the surveys carried out in August 2021, arrived on Thursday. A quick glance of results is very pleasing. It is great to see the many areas of growth and strength for our school. Areas where we as a school perform better than the average response of other Catholic schools in Melbourne that participated. We will now commence the process of rigorous analysis of the results from staff, students and parents. We look at our strengths and the opportunities for further growth and focus. This is one key set of data we rely on to help us finalise our new School Improvement Plan from our recent review and monitor the effectiveness of our goals and initiatives. It will also help us reflect and make the adjustments we need to make to shape our 2022 Annual Action Plan.

I am very grateful for everyone who participated. Your time and effort to respond is so appreciated. It will definitely inform our plans for 2022. We are getting to the final stages of shaping our School Improvement plan and our 2022 Annual Action Plan.

Prep Information Sessions

This week we have held two Prep orientation sessions for our 2022 students starting school next year. It was also an opportunity to have a chat with their parents about getting ready for school. Thanks to our P&F who also provide easy access for the purchase of second hand uniforms.

The sessions also has given us a chance to test out our processes for checking vaccination certificates and QR code registration for events.

We look forward to trying this out with bigger events that are being considered for the final weeks for the school year. It is reassuring to find that the vast majority of parents 95% + are vaccinated and the process has been relatively smooth. Fully vaccinated adults and children over 15 will be able to welcome to attend events planned.

Some end of Year Events that are planned are....

Step into SFS Party for 2022 Preps - 1 December 9:15 -10:45am
Year 6 Graduation - 10 December at 6pm
End of Year School Mass - 15 December at 9:30am
Christmas Carols - 15 December at 11:30am

In 2022, we hope to be able to invite parents back into the school for events and assistance. We will commence the year with our annual St Francis de Sales Picnic.

Put it into your diary and come and get the year off to a positive start.

SFS School Picnic -

4 February 6-8 pm BYO picnic and drinks

School Grounds

Class Groups for 2022

This year we are using Class Solver a new app to help with the complex task of organising class groups for 2022. There are a multitude of factors that are taken into account when we place a child in a group. These factors can be added into class solver and the data base will retain key information for future years. Some of these factors included academic ability, special skills and talents, social competencies, gender, students who work well together and those who may not work well together. Skills needed for ‘building new relationships’ are an important part of our educative process. Please note that friendship groupings are considered. Children this year were given the opportunity to write down five friends that all have equal weight in groupings. Each child will have at least one friend in their learning space.

Parent input, based strictly on student learning needs, is also considered. Parents were given the opportunity to place requests in writing by the 30 October. Please note that requests are not guaranteed and other factors may be of higher priority. Requests for specific teachers for obvious reasons just cannot be accepted at St Francis de Sales or in any school.

Organising class groups for 2022 are at the final stages and no further requests can be accepted.

Information about class groups for students will be released with the Semester Two report on Friday 10 December. Children will meet their teacher for 2022 at an orientation session on Tuesday 14 December at 9:30am to 10:30am.

Christine White

Principal

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