St. Augustine's School Newsletter

The Principal's Desk

Dear parents, families and friends,

 

Welcome Back.

We enter the final term of 2022 and for the first time in two years will complete a full year of schooling. Term 4 is going to be a very busy and exciting term with the Swimming Program, School Concert, Confirmation, Year 6 Graduation and Big Day Out as well as the Orientation Program for our Prep Class of 2023.

 

There are a number of house keeping items I need to cover this week.

 

Classes 2023

Term 4 is when we create the class groupings for 2023. A very important, carefully conducted, long process that can be quite challenging at times. This year we have registered with a new online program called Class Solver. This program will greatly assist teachers and school leaders in creating the class groupings for next year. Being a digital program, it will be able to collect, collate and cross reference all student data that teachers and school leaders input. In the past this task was fully done manually and would take a great deal of time. What Class Solver will enable us to do is to create very balanced class groupings that incorporates friendships, student needs and parent requests. 

Any parents with requests for next year are invited to email me these requests. With Class Solver aiding us in this process, we will endeavour to accommodate all needs and requests. However, it must be kept in mind that not all requests can be met. For example, one parent may request for their child to be placed in the same class as another child, while at the same time the other parent has requested that these children be separated. Even Class solver itself will do its very best to accommodate all requests, suggestions and conditions, however, sometimes it is not always possible to meet all requests.

 

Birmingham Street Park Construction

The construction (destruction) of Birmingham Street is in full swing. Whilst all this work, disruption and organised chaos is going on, I remind everyone of some simple little strategies that can help:

  1. The gate next to the church will be used for morning arrivals and afternoon dismissals. I invite and encouraged all parents and carers to come into the playground and courtyard once the gates are open. Younger siblings can play on the playground and adults can use the seats and benches throughout the yard.
  2. With reduced parking and drop off spaces at the moment it may be worthwhile parking along some of the Active Paths to School routes and walking short distances. The strip along the school, Somerville Rd/Pentland Parade is available to parents for drop off and pick up. Normally staff park here as it is all day parking, but I have requested staff to park in Avoca Street and the Parish car park.
  3. If you arrive and can't find a parking space, don't stress! We won't close the gates in the morning until 9.15am and teachers will wait with students until they have been collected by a parent or carer.
  4. Watch for bikes. There are a number of cyclists who are not following the designated bike routes set out by the council and riding to fast. Unfortunately this has been a problem we faced daily in Birmingham Street. In particular be extra careful if using the walkway that goes through the space between the church and the presbytery as this one place cyclists are riding where they shouldn't be.
  5. Please do not park in front of the church or in the space between the church and the presbytery. These spaces are parish property and are only used for parking for masses such as weddings and funerals. It is also dangerous to be reversing out of these spaces when there are lots of children and family members in the area, which is quite congested, especially at afternoon dismissal.

OSHClub

The St. Augustine's OSHClub Program has been voted Number 1 in Victoria. This is an absolutely amazing achievement and very well deserved. For those of you that utilise this program you will agree with this rating. We congratulate Poppy and the team for this achievement and thank them for all the hard work and diligent care they provide to the children of St. Augustine's.

 

Ladies Day

A reminder to mums, aunties, nans, grandmas, carers etc to book your tickets for the Ladies Day on Saturday 12th November from 12pm onwards at the Railway. Tickets are $70 per person and includes a 3 course lunch and a glass of fine bubbly on arrival.

 

School Assemblies

Due to the very busy term ahead, including two weeks of swimming and also concert preparation and rehearsal time, there will be reduced assemblies this term. The revised assembly dates and focus for this term are as follows:

 

Tuesday 11th October - Italian 

Monday 31st October - Arts

Tuesday 22nd November - STEM

Tuesday 29th November - PE

 

We look forward to seeing you at these assemblies.

 

Lunch Orders Term 4

Thank you to all families that completed the survey on Lunch Orders. For this term and moving into next year we will continue with two lunch order providers. Wednesday will be Classroom Cuisine and Friday will be Beavers Tail.

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Matthew Stead

Principal