Principal's News

Our theme for this year

Dear Parents,

"Let us all commit ourselves to imploring peace, from our balconies and in our streets, may the leaders of nations hear people's plea for peace."

(Easter Sunday mass led by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Sunday, April 17, 2022)

02/05/22

Dear Parents And Carers,

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope you had a great break and a blessed Easter.

We already have had a busy week of events: the ANZAC Day Service, Alleluia Paraliturgy, Buddy Evening, School’s ANZAC Day Ceremony, Story Drama & Dance Time, MACS Principal’s Gala Evening and Bunning BBQ. Can you believe this is all in the first Week of Term!

It was lovely to be able to gather together and have the ANZAC Day assembly on Tuesday morning. Thank you Vanessa Dal Santo and Year 6 Leaders for hosting the Commemorative Service.

The Year 6 students supported by Sonia Costa most reverently and creatively recapped the Passion Story and then progressed into the glory of the Sacred Resurrection. We find hope and gratitude in the strength of Christ and his suffering which turns into rejoicing in his message that is embedded in the ALLELUIA message.

SCHOOL PHOTOS

School photos with MSP Photography will take place on Thursday May 12th. Parents have been emailed a shoot key and directions. Further instructions are detailed later in this newsletter. All orders are online. If you did not receive an email please contact the school office.

Children are to be in full Winter school uniform. If your child has PE on Thursday pack their sports uniform in their bag to change into after photos. The photos will be taken at the commencement of the day.

BUDDY NIGHT

On Wednesday Evening members of the SAC and PFA gathered to socialise and enjoy dinner to welcome new families to St Kevin’s. It was a special opportunity to come together and share my vision for the school, explain the Review process and encourage all to support and become involved and grow parent partnerships in our community. The students enjoyed the Magician and each left the evening with a special balloon. A massive thank you to Eva Tomazos for attending while on Long Service Leave and Robyn James for her ongoing support and positivity!

"None of us, including me, ever do great things. But we can all do small things, with great love, and together we can do something wonderful." – Mother Teresa

32nd SCHOOLS ANZAC DAY SERVICE

A commemorative ANZAC service for schools in the Municipality of Manningham was held at the Templestowe Memorial Park at the corner of Foote Street and High Street on Thursday the 28th of April. It provided local school children with a firsthand opportunity to commemorate all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. Each School in the municipality was invited to bring students and a special guest. So the St Kevin’s School captains Connor and Ruby and I attended this moving event. Each school had the opportunity to lay a wreath at the foot of the memorial and St Kevin’s was chosen to lay the first wreath which was quite an honour.

The program includes prominent citizens holding special duties. Governor (Dr) Daryl Moran an author and veteran completed the formal address especially to the students and he spoke about three actions that we need to do on ANZAC Day: Remembering all lives that have been lost, remembering to give thanks for example by participating in services and lastly to remember to move forward with hope to make Australia and even better place.

The Last Post was played, a military catafalque party and flags were raised. Even the sprinkle rain did not dampen the spirit of all involved and I know we definitely benefited from attending. “Lest We Forget’ I look forward to including the students' thoughts in the next newsletter.

STORY, DANCE AND DRAMA TIME

On Friday we had our Last Story, Drama and Music Time. Six children engaged in fun activities with Mrs Gerosolimo and Ms Swinburne. The children got a taste of school life. The feedback from attendees was so positive and parents are grateful for this opportunity.

There are two more OPEN Days

Monday 2nd May 11.30 – 1.30pm
Wednesday 25th May 11.30 – 1.30pm

We enjoy conducting personal tours and we look forward to welcoming new families in 2023. Current parents are our best marketing strategy. Please ensure you share your positive experiences out in the community. I know many of you have because many families have let us know and we all do appreciate your efforts.

Any current families please come and collect an enrolment form if you have children of school age next year. Return enrolment forms as soon as possible.

PRINCIPAL GALA EVENING

I graciously attended my first Principal Gala Evening with many colleagues in Catholic Education. This event usually occurs each year but has been postponed for two years. The highlight was participating in an amazing mass at the St Patrick's Cathedral. What a beautiful sacred and holy setting and it was so special to listen to Archbishop Comensoli’s homily live and be enchanted with the voices of the St Joseph’s Boys Choir. It was truly a treat to be able to sit with mentors and colleagues celebrating their achievements in Catholic Education.

INDUCTION MODULE - CHILD SAFE STANDARDS

In the next coming weeks we will launch a St Kevin’s Induction Module that will comply with all the Child Safe Standards. This Induction Module will need to be completed by all volunteers who work in the school. It is a short survey with opportunities to upload photos of credentials. It collates all the Child Safe Requirements information in one secure database.

YEAR 5 & 6 CAMP

On Wednesday 4th to Friday 6th of May the Year 5 & 6 students will be heading to Camp Rumbug in Foster. This will be our first camp for the year and the first camp experience for our Year 5 students. All health and safety requirements have been taken into account and actioned where necessary. The staff attending the camp will be Mrs. Tomazos, Ms. Costa, Mr Puls & Ms Swinburne. We hope you all have a wonderful camp, filled with fun and team building. Keep safe and we look forward to hearing all about your adventures.

BUNNING BBQ DONCASTER

Well what fun it was to support the P. F. A at Bunnings in Doncaster on Saturday afternoon. Thank you to all the beautiful St Kevin’s families who popped in (even helped with replenishing supplies on the day) and made such generous donations before the event and at the event. Other families came along to say hi and enjoyed the sausages and drinks. I am not sure if you are aware, it takes many hours to prepare, train and run this event. Led by Suzanne and Laura the team did an extraordinary job. I sincerely thank each person who helped and gave up their time to fundraise for our students.

On behalf of the school community I would like to thank he following volunteers on the day: Laura, Glenn, Alex, Jaye and Rob, Ben, Nancy and Wilson, Jim and Sandra, Marijke, Franca, Julia and Andrew, Suzanne, Jane, Gina, Emma, Carmen, Jo, Naho & Robyn.

Along with the PFA the school community would like also to thank the following families who donated items and/or money for the BBQ – this has helped greatly to keep our costs to a minimum:

Mangiavillano, White, Harman, Cannon, Young, Zammitt, North, Arai, Kral, Lane, Chu.

I would like to say a massive thanks to Bakers Delight Macedon Plaza who generously donated the bread. Roland and Nina are always so generous to the St Kevin’s Catholic Primary school community and are so thankful for all their help.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

At this stage we do not have an official changeover to our Winter School Uniform. But over the next few weeks parents may choose whether the children are in Summer or Winter Uniform depending on the weather. Please monitor the socks your child/ren are wearing with their uniform to ensure that they are the school colours. Please visit the School Office if you require some second hand uniform or go to https://www.aplusschoolwear.com.au/

21/05/22 VOTING AT ST KEVIN’S PRIMARY SCHOOL

Our school has been selected to host the Federal Election this year which is a great chance for us to showcase our great school and also a fundraising opportunity. Pencil in the date to vote and volunteer for our Sausage sizzle and Cake stall! More details to follow.

NAPLAN TESTING

NAPLAN testing for Years 3 and 5 will occur from 10th May - 20th May. Please ensure you read the letter sent out last week and let me or the teachers know if you have any questions. My stance on NAPLAN is that it is an opportunity for students to complete a standardized test, one which will give the school data on the Year 3 and Year 5 cohort. This is a snapshot and it is used to make comparisons in trend data across the years, most importantly it is whole school data and it will be analysed in triangulation with other data.

During the tests, all children must have headphones. Due to hygiene issues, children must not share headphones. We have some leftovers at school from remote learning last year but not enough for everyone. It is preferable for your children to use their own headphones, however, if this is an issue, advise your child’s teacher immediately.

Headphones serve two vital purposes:

1. To block out the ambient noise during the tests

2. Some of the items on the tests have audio accompanying the questions and students need to listen for the prompts.

Any questions/queries may be directed to your child’s classroom teacher.

It is so important that learning continues during NAPLAN days and students calmly complete these tasks. The staff will support the students and there will be some changes in the specialist timetable to ensure the best and most effective use of time slots. Changes to the timetable will be shared with parents in the next few days. Please ensure students are at school by 8:45am so they begin the day calmly and can participate in morning prayer and feel settled before commencing the NAPLAN work.

FAMILY ASSISTANCE for Holy Thursday

Thank you to all the St Kevin’s families who participated in the Holy Week liturgies.

TWILIGHT SPORTS

A massive thank you to Whitefriars for allowing St Kevin’s to use their beautiful facilities for our Twilight sports. Mark Murphy, the principal of Whitefriars, shared with me that he was in the first class of students at St Kevin’s in 1970. It is very important to build relationships and support each other in our community and it was lovely to meet Mark’s parents who are parishioners at St Kevin’s at the Holy Thursday service. On behalf of all the students, families and staff thank you again Mark for allowing us to use your well resourced oval.

FLOODING IN THE SCHOOL MUSIC ROOM AND DOWNSTAIRS BATHROOMS

The floor in the Middle building is still drying and we are hoping that new carpet tiles will be laid next week.

SUSTAINABILITY

Our goal to go paperless continues -

Please ensure you complete the online survey at the end of this newsletter.

STAFF UPDATES

This is Lea’s Cabotaje last week at St Kevin’s. Lea has been with us since the beginning of the year and supported students with their learning. I would like to thank Lea for all her help and care with the students and her dedication to supporting the activities that make St Kevin’s such a special and welcoming place for all our families. I wish her well with her new role supporting the young ladies at Santa Maria College. All the very best Lea. God bless!

SCHOOL REVIEW

The School Reviewer is Mrs Gaynor Robson-Garth. She is an external reviewer contractored by MACS. On Day 1 and Day 2 Mrs Robson Garth will conduct interviews with Staff, Leaders, Students and Parent Representatives. As soon as the timetable is shared I will advise the community.

VRQA Compliance will take place on

Term 2 Week 5 - Thursday 26th of May, 2022

School Review Day will take place on

Term 2 Week 6 - Day 1 Tuesday 31st of May, 2022

School Review Day will take place on

Term 2 Week 6 - Day 2 Thursday 2rd of June, 2022

Review Feedback Term 3 Week 1

Tuesday 12 July, 2022

COVID PRECAUTIONS IN TERM 2

The announcement of modified COVID procedures for schools was happily received, yet we must continue to be so vigilant.

There is very little difference in case numbers and hospitalisations from a month ago, so what has really changed? And with the onset of winter properly diagnosing the difference between a cold/flu and COVID can only really be established by a PCR test.

Some elements that families need to be mindful of over the next month:

1. We will continue to receive government supplied RAT tests over the next four weeks. Parents should continue to test their child twice a week (normally a Monday or Wednesday) UNLESS the child has had COVID in the last week whereby they do not have to take the RAT test at all. Please hold onto these RAT tests as you never know when you will need them and they are expensive.

2. If your child tests positive on a RAT, please immediately get them PCR tested just to make sure. If they are positive then they must be isolated for 7 days.

3. If your child is a close contact of someone who is positive in your family, they may come to school but must RAT test continually each morning for 5 consecutive days and must wear a mask to school each day during this time.

4. Students in Year 3 - 6 are no longer mandated to wear a mask, however if you feel it is safer for them to do so that is fine.

5. We will continue to use hand sanitizer during the day as this is a way of keeping all germs away from staff and students.

6. Parents may come to school assemblies and excursions and no longer need to show us their vaccination certificates.

7. We will continue to notify parents with push notifications when we have a positive case who has been at school.

8. Workers and Volunteers in Schools under the Pandemic (Workplace) Order 2022 (No. 8)

Education workers include volunteers that attend an education facility and that work in close proximity to children, students or staff.

This includes parent helpers, canteen or tuckshop assistants, reading helpers, excursion supervisors or classroom or working bee volunteers.

As such, any volunteer performing any work at a school is seen as an education worker and they must be fully vaccinated (boosted) or have an exemption. (Directly from MACS Guidelines 29/04/22)

COMMUNICATION DATA - I have read the newsletter

In the last newsletter I had a short survey for parents to complete at the end of the newsletter.

Congratulations to Parents of Year 5 & 6 students AGAIN!

You are the champion Parent group 3 times in a row!

You completed the most surveys.