From the Principal

Dear Families

On Tuesday we celebrated St Mary of the Cross MacKillop feast day. When Mary was born in 1842,  her parents could not have guessed how special she would become. Mary devoted her whole life to following Jesus and helping others, especially poor and marginalised children. She opened up schools that were open to everyone including the rich and poor and where clothing and school supplies were provided to those in need. She began the Sisters of the Sacred Heart (Josephite) order of nuns whose charism was and continues today to ensure the dignity of all, be humble, compassionate, reach out to the marginalised and carry out the mission of Jesus. Sr Jose, lives by this charism as she works in our Parish.

St Mary of the Cross has left an amazing legacy and is a great example of assisting those in need, being inclusive of all, promoting education and following the gospel values. Mary MacKillop has several quotes that we can reflect on; 

 ‘Never see a need without doing something about it.

We must teach more by example than by word 

Find happiness in making others happy

Be eager in your desires but humbly patient in their accomplishment’

Next week, Tuesday August 15,  we celebrate the feast of the Assumption. We celebrate the end of Mary’s life, where she was taken body and soul into heaven to live with her Son, Jesus, forever. Our children will celebrate the feast day with mass at 11.40am.  

School Advisory Council

The SAC met last week and the following issues were discussed:

• Distributing lollies to celebrate birthdays
  • The SAC decided that the sharing of one packaged lolly was suitable and lolly bags should be discouraged. Lollies should only be distributed on special occasions.
• Swimming
  • The SAC agreed that children in Year 2, 3 and 4 will participate in the swimming program in Term 4. 
• Reports
  • The SAC agreed that the printed reports were very helpful to read with their children. An online report would also be suitable if it gave the same information as our printed reports. They also agreed that an online version should have the capability to  be printed at home.

The SAC also spent time familiarising themselves with the Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy which is on our website. The policy contains a lot of information about ways we can ensure our children are safe. The purpose of the policy is to demonstrate the strong commitment we have to the care, safety and wellbeing of our children. It provides an outline of the procedures and strategies we implement to ensure our child safe culture is always a priority. 

To ensure we are meeting the requirements of the policy we regularly review our practices to ensure we are committed to the safety and wellbeing of our children. We listen to our children and give them strategies to be empowered to know their rights and address any concerns they may have. 

The policy also ensures that we communicate openly and honestly with our parents about the safety and wellbeing of their children. We are open to listen to the views of parents about our child safety and wellbeing practices. 

Along with the SAC I encourage parents to provide feedback to the council members or myself. Your feedback will assist us to continually review and improve our systems to protect our children. 

The SAC will next meet on August 24. The Council members are Simone Watson, PC Grobler, Gayle D’Amico, Kat Taylor, Rose Jelinic, Hayley Giuliano, Rachel Bingham and Sarah Loversidge. They will welcome your feedback.

School Closure Day

Last Friday all staff participated in a professional learning day, focussing on writing. Our facilitator, Amanda Bartram, led us through various strategies to assist our children to be successful writers. We were encouraged to give our children choice, time and make connections with published authors. A focus was on the effectiveness of the conferences we have with our children by not scribbling on their work, honouring approximations and giving them nudges so they can edit their own work. I look forward to reading our children’s writing to see their creativity and imagination. 

2024

We are beginning to plan for 2024 so if you are not intending to return to St Anne’s, I ask that you let us know and to put this in writing. Your cooperation will be most appreciated. 

Japanese Visitors

Next week we are hosting Japanese students at our school. They will be at St Anne’s on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. I wish to thank our host families for supporting this program. This will be a great experience for both our children and the Japanese visitors. I am sure you will make them feel welcomed to our school community.

In Sympathy

Our thoughts and prayers are with Ms Elizabeth Grieve (teacher in 4G and music), as her Father passed away overnight after a long illness. 

 Positive Behaviour For Learning

Our focus for Term 3 continues to encourage our children to be safe. Our goal has been for all our children to use their feet, hands and objects safely. Our focus in our Social Emotional Learning Vertical lessons will be on using strategies to move into the ‘green zone’ If our children are in the green zone where they are calm, able to make rational decisions and be happy then they will be safe as well those children around them. 

At home you can support us by encouraging your child to use strategies to move into the green zone, such as taking deep breaths, moving to a quiet space, thinking about what is working well. If we work together then our children will be safe at school in the classrooms and playground.

God Bless

Ms Noelene Hussey