Our theme for this year is

STEP UP! BE MORE!

Dear Parents,

Well, just when we thought we were motoring along nicely and enjoying some normality in life... look where we are again now, so quickly. I guess it is always good to appreciate how lucky we are in comparison to so many other countries, so I suppose there is no use whingeing - we just need to get on with it and keep our fingers crossed that Lockdown 5.0 doesn't last too long. At this stage all our calendar dates are on hold.

Unfortunately Maeve, Ben and Jacob will not get to represent us in the divisional cross country competition that was due to be run today and we have moved our Grandparents' Day celebration to the 16th September in the hope that we will be able to do it then.

If we are not back at school in time for our Bakers Delight Lunch on Friday, we will reschedule the lunch for a day when we are back. You will not need to do anything, we will just let you know which day it is, so that you don't send your child to school with lunch if you have ordered one.

Once we are allowed to have parents back at our assemblies again, we will invite Gerard Lewis, (our new Lay Leader), over to meet the children and introduce himself to those able to be present. Remember if you see the face below wandering around our school, don't panic - it is Gerard - so please say "Hi" and make him feel welcome.

Parish Priest News:

The Melbourne Archdiocese has officially announced that Fr Charles Balnaves will be appointed parish priest of St Kevin's Templestowe and St Gregory's Doncaster, commencing in September. Some of you may remember Charles as he was a parishioner and a deacon at St Kevin's a few years ago. We will warmly welcome Charles on his arrival and look forward to working with Fr Charles and Gerard Lewis as they support and lead our parish together.

Lockdown information:

Please check your emails and our school app regularly for updates on home learning procedures and any other important information we are asked to disseminate to you. I guess we are all pretty confident with accessing Google Meets and home learning activities, but if you have any trouble at all, please don't hesitate to ring the school office or email your child's teacher and we will help you. If you need a device for your child to work on at home, please send me an email and I can arrange one for you to collect from the school office.

We have just heard that the lockdown is going to be extended - not sure for how long yet - we will know tomorrow - but it may be for 2 - 3 weeks, we are hearing at this stage. Please access your child's work and google meets for the remainder of the week and subsequent weeks as you have been doing. Google meets will continue as well.

There is a prep spelling booklet that is part of the spelling lesson for Wednesday 21st July that is available in the home learning planner. If you are unable to print at home we have printed some off at school if you would like to come and collect one from the school office tomorrow.

Prep, One and Two students may also come and collect a workbook from the school office tomorrow if you would like one. This is not compulsory and you are welcome to keep using paper or books you have at home for your child's work.

Please send me an email if you meet the eligibility criteria for sending your children to school (e.g. permitted workers who are unable to work from home and have no one available to care for their children) for the rest of the week. Please include in the email your permitted work type, if you have not already done so this lockdown period, and the days you will need to send your child to school.

Sporting Success!

We have had some amazing sporting success this year - for a small school we are certainly punching above our weight when it comes to taking out the major prizes in a lot of different areas. In Term One, our Year 5/6 cricket and basketball teams won the district competition and will go on to represent us at the divisional level. Last week our Year 3/4 mixed basketball team won the Bulleen-Templestowe Primary School Basketball grand final with the support of Gisele our wonderful team coach and our Year 5/6 football team are also premiers this year and will go on to represent us at the district level later in the year. Thanks to Karim, our dedicated football coach. Apart from that we have Maeve, Ben and Jacob representing us at the divisional level of the cross country event, after placing in the top 10 at the district level. Please see Mr Puls' more comprehensive take on the great work our kids are doing in the sporting arena, in the "Wellbeing/Curriculum News" section of our newsletter. He has some wonderful photos there too.

Farewell Fr Gerry:

As a staff we farewelled Fr Gerry and thanked him for all his support, kindness and friendship over the years last Thursday with an afternoon tea in the staffroom. We sent him off with a retirement survival kit that had some rather interesting inclusions as you can see from the photos. It was a lovely afternoon and we will miss him very much.

Story time at St Kevin's

We were very lucky to sneak in our second pre-schoolers story time session on Thursday afternoon. Thanks to Fulvia and the Year 3/4 children for making our visitors feel very welcome and helping them to create some wonderful art works of the Little Red Hen.

Bread Bag and Tag Recycling at St Kevin's

Thanks to all those who saved and sent their bread bags and tags. We have collected an enormous number of bread bags and tags and they will be sent off to be turned into recycled goods. Hopefully we have collected enough to earn us some of the prizes on offer. The drive is now over and we are unable to take any further bread bags and tags. An enormous thanks to Ava and her hard working crew for initiating and organising our collection.

Covid Reminders:

You are very welcome to come into the office and direct all inquiries/messages to Robyn, but please do not enter the learning spaces.
Please ensure you and your children stay home if unwell and get tested
Continue to practise good hand hygiene

Student Absence Requirements:

2022 ENROLMENTS:

If you are aware of anyone who has a child starting prep in 2022 please encourage them to contact us for an enrolment pack. If you have a child starting school in 2022 - feel free to access the enrolment form on our website or by accessing the link below.

Kindest regards

Frances Matisi

Principal

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