St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School Lynbrook Newsletter

From the Principal

Intensive Partnership in Mathematics

Over the past two years our staff have been engaged in the MACS - Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Intensive Partnership in Mathematics. This work is directly linked to our School Improvement Plan and priorities determined from our recent School Review. We have been working with Jan Walker and Mark Mudge who have been our facilitators. This intensive has involved our staff participate in whole staff professional development days in Mathematics each year. We have also had Mark and Jan run two staff meetings each Term  for us on Mathematics where the focus has been to unpack the curriculum and look at the progression of learning from Foundation to Year 6 in various mathematical content areas from Number, Measurement, Space, Statistics and Probability. 

 

 

As a result of this intensive work in mathematics we have refined and changed a number of our school practices. Some of the developments have included developing a new scope and sequence for mathematics from F to 6. We have introduced a daily Mental Mathematics session prior to the days mathematical focus across the school. We have created a designated time for facilitated planing in Mathematics.  This means that the three teachers, one from each learning space that is working on the same level meet with Joanna our Mathematics leader to plan for the mathematics unit of work. The junior and senior teams in their triads, meet to discuss curriculum and progression of learning, key ideas in Mathematics to be taught, they determine the learning intentions and success criteria for the unit and determine pre-assessment tasks. The teachers then meet again in their triads to analyse the pre-assessments to plan a sequence of lessons based on the needs of their students as revealed by the assessment. At the end of the unit the teachers conduct a post assessment to determine the student growth and learning outcomes.

 

 

We have invested in updating our mathematics resources and can see great improvement in student engagement in mathematics. The Intensive Partnership in Mathematics has lead to greater consistency of teaching strategies across the school, enhanced differentiation to cater for student needs that leads to the use of efficient practices by students, improved student engagement and understanding. We will consolidate this learning in 2023 and update our school Mathematics Policy.

 

Earlier this term we had offered a mathematics parent night, however this had to be postponed due to a poor parent response. We plan to offer a parent session in mathematics early in 2023 and hope that we are able to share strategies with you to build our partnership that will further improve the learning for your child. Please look out for parent mathematics session in 2023.

Planning for 2023

 

We are at that time of the year again where we are planning for 2023. We know that some families unfortunately will not be with us next year, as they are moving house or area etc. If that is the case for your family, we are sorry to see you leave St Francis de Sales and our school community. Please ensure that you email the school principal@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au to inform us of your plans at your earliest convenience. We would appreciate an email before the end of October if this is already decided. This supports us with our planning for next year. We thank you for your support and understanding.

Staff News

It is with sadness that I inform you that Mrs Maureen Flanagan our school chaplain will be moving next year as her family is relocating to Geelong.  Maureen has been our school chaplain for the past four years since 2019. She has been a valued member of our staff and has supported many students and families in her role as School Chaplain. We have been very fortunate to have Maureen on our staff team and will definitely miss her at St Francis de Sales. We wish her the very BEST for the future and thank her for her kindness, gentleness, wisdom friendship and  all she has done over these years. Maureen will be taking some Long Service Leave and will be finishing at our school on Tuesday 11th November 2022.

 

This week we have appointed Mrs Lorinda Eden as our School Chaplain. Lorinda is an experienced teacher and school chaplain. She has worked in various Catholic schools and is currently a teacher at Casey Grammar and a School Counsellor at a primary school in Nar Nar Goon. We look forward to Lorinda joining our staff in 2023.

 

In addition, we are also equally sad to announce that Mrs Andrea Gargano will be retiring at the end of this year. Andrea has been teaching at St Francis de Sales for the past five years first as a junior teacher and more lately as a senior teacher. Andrea has given many years to Catholic Education and we are very grateful for her valuable contribution at St Francis de Sales and to the education of students in the Melbourne Archdiocese. We understand her decision and wish Andrea the very BEST as she prepares for a new chapter. We have been very fortunate to have Andrea on our staff team and will definitely miss her at St Francis de Sales.

 

We are also excited to announce that Claire Crane and her husband Nathan are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their fourth child in 2023. Claire who is currently working part time in the juniors in LS2, will be going on maternity leave at the end of the year.

 

 

 

I am also sad to announce that Meg will be taking a year's leave to move to Coffs Harbour to live closer to her parents and sister. While the door is open for Meg to return, we can understand that this may be a permanent move for Meg and her family. Meg has been part of our staff team for seven years. In this time, she has been worked in both the senior and junior teams. Meg has been a level leader and has made an outstanding contribution to our school. We will all miss her at St Francis de Sales and would welcome her back with open arms in a heart beat should she return to Melbourne. We wish Meg and her family the very BEST as they make the journey to re-locate to New South Wales.

 

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Melody Patton as a home group teacher for 2023. Melody is a graduate teacher and is very excited to commence her teaching career with us. Melody has a Bachelor of Science degree and has worked as a Chemical analyst at various pharmaceutical companies before embarking on a Master of Teaching degree. Melody has worked as a CRT with us in 2022. Melody was successful from an outstanding group of applicants for this position.

 

In addition, I am excited to announce the return of Imogene Laird and Mavis Brownfield who will return next year after taking maternity leave. We are delighted to welcome both these wonderful teachers back to our staff team for 2023. 

Prompt Payment of Fees is Essential 

 

Any outstanding fees need to be cleared by the due date on your statement which went home this week. If you are experiencing difficulties please make an appointment to discuss a payment plan with me.

Payment of fees is a matter of justice and fairness. 

 

Important Alerts

  • No school on Monday, 31st October as it is a Staff Professional Development Day
  • No School on Tuesday 1st November as it is a public Holiday for the Melbourne Cup.
  • Change of date. Year 6 Graduation Mass is now on Thursday 15th December at 6 pm
  • The End of Year School Mass  is on Friday 16th December at 9.15 am in LS3 
  • The Christmas Carols and Final Assembly in on Monday 19th December at 9.15 am
  • 2022 School Year concludes for students on Monday 19th December at 1:30 pm.

COVID Update

The Victorian Government has announced the end of the pandemic declaration and associated pandemic orders. New settings now apply from 11.59 pm on Wednesday 12 October 2022.

 

Changes to COVID-19 isolation requirements

It is strongly recommended that students:

  • who test positive for COVID-19 should stay home and isolate for five days
  • should not attend school after five days if still symptomatic
  • who are symptomatic but have not tested positive should not attend school.

Where students become symptomatic at school, they should:

  • be collected by their parents/carers
  • undergo testing for COVID-19.

This week we have had three reported COVID cases. One in the juniors and two in the seniors. I ask parents to continue to support us to minimise student and staff absence by following these recommendations for the health and safety of our school community.

 

COVID-19 reporting requirements

The Department of Health recommends that a person who tests positive for COVID-19 should inform those with whom they have recently been in contact, including their workplace, school and household.

 

Schools are still required to continue reporting positive COVID-19 cases to Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS).

 

Face masks

Staff and students who wish to wear a face mask may do so, and schools will continue to make face masks available for staff, students and visitors.

 

The Department of Health recommends that masks should be worn by a person who is a close contact of someone who has tested positive for COVID-19 when leaving home.

 

Additionally, the department recommends that masks should be worn by a person who has COVID-19 for 10 days after a positive test when they need to leave home.

Music Room Update

The paint on walls, instruments and electronic equipment has been cleaned. However despite steam cleaning being repeated two weeks in a row the paint on carpet tiles cannot be removed. We are looking at either replacing some carpet tiles or purchasing a rug. We will do this before children return to using this space.Kristy is still very concerned about some of her instruments and we are looking into the cost of replacing some of these. It would be a shame to take problematic instruments into a sparkling new music room in 2023. Unfortunately the senseless act of vandalism has consequences that has impacted our entire school community and has required unnecessary extra anguish and costs. If you do know something or are able to assist, we would appreciate that you let us know.

Multi-Purpose Hall Update

 

While the current wet weather continues to be an obstacle, the building is certainly taking shape. the brick work on the east side is nearly completed. Internally the electrical cables are in place. Ange and I did a walk around this week with our architect to check data points and GPOs were as we required. The frames for doors and windows are being installed and work is progressing well.

 

Fair funding for students to learn, grow and flourish 

With less than 50 days until the Victorian State Election, help us continue to spread the word that our students deserve equal access to the funding and opportunities they need to learn, grow and flourish. 

 

I’m pleased to share that the Liberals and Nationals Party have committed $175 million per annum over four years towards non-government schools for capital infrastructure, if elected in November. 

 

This multi-year investment will go a long way to ensuring that our students have access to school infrastructure that meets all the needs of a modern and evolving curriculum. 

 

While this is a significant step forward, we’re only halfway there. 

 

We are hopeful that the Victorian Labor Party will make a similar announcement in the coming weeks and call on all our parents and carers, family and friends of our students to show their support for our plan by advocating to their local Labor MP. 

 

Visit cecv.catholic.edu.au/funding to find out more about our plan to address increasing demand for a Catholic education and ensure that our schools have the right funding and support into the future.

 

Have a great weekend and I hope that the sun shines on us all after such a wet end to the week.

 

Regards

Christine White

Principal