Principal's Report

Manuela Watson 

Dear Parents and carers,

St Fidelis School and Parish is really a unique and special place. It is a hidden gem amongst residential homes in a beautiful leafy suburb of Moreland. Surprisingly however, whilst visiting kindergartens in our local area to promote our wonderful school many people in our community did not know we existed. It left me feeling rather puzzled and bewildered and I found myself wondering, Why don’t people in our local community know we exist? After all, St Fidelis offers such a comprehensive curriculum, specialist subjects, a variety of learning opportunities, beautiful playground facilities, highly experienced and dedicated teachers, and supportive parents.  

I have a strong connection with St Fidelis, as a mother of three children who attended St Fidelis, as a Deputy Principal and now the Principal. I know St Fidelis is a great parish and school so why doesn’t our community know that!!

This week whilst interviewing the new Foundation families for 2020 my wondering was answered. One of the questions I ask the parents is, “Why do you want your child to come to St Fidelis?"  These were some of their responses:

“I could see my child fitting into St Fidelis”

“The students were so engaged in their learning”

“The students were so happy and friendly”,

“The teachers welcomed us into to their room”

“The students were not afraid to speak to us”

But the most overwhelming responses were:

“IT JUST HAS A GREAT FEEL!”

“I JUST DON’T KNOW, BUT IT JUST FEELS RIGHT!”

“I CAN’T EXPLAIN IT, IT FEELS RIGHT, IT HAS A LOVELY FEELING…”

You need to experience something to understand it. The new families who have attended our school tours and our information session saw St Fidelis in ACTION. They witnessed FAITH in ACTION. Is that not our mission as a Catholic School? Therefore, if you are speaking to friends or neighbours in our community about St Fidelis ask them to come and take a tour. You need to experience something to understand!

I want to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and teachers and students to continue to take up the invitation to be Church to each other and to witness to this in the wider community.

Manuela,

Have a Great Week

Mother’s Day

To all the mums and grandmothers in our school community. We hope you had a lovely day with your family on Sunday and that the time spent together was very special.

Mothers Day High Tea

Congratulations to the Parents and Friends Committee on another successful Mother’s Day High Tea. It was very well attended and there were many happy faces and long chats.  On behalf of the school we appreciate all the extra time and effort you spend to ensure that this is a very special morning for the mums and grandmothers. It was great to see so many parishioners and past St Fidelis mothers at this event. Thank you again.

Parish Education Board:

Last Tuesday evening, St Fidelis Parish Education Board held the first meeting for 2019. A summary of the first meeting and its members will be shared to the community in the next newsletter.

Trivia Night. 

There is still plenty of time to gather some friends or join a table for the Trivia night this Friday May 17th. It's great to see so many families having booked a ticket and some parishioners as well. If you have any donations to offer, the committee are still collecting these until the end of the week.

2020 Foundation Enrolments:

Current school families with a child to begin school in 2020 are asked to contact Ann or Jane and collect an enrolment form.

NAPLAN

Our Year 3 and Year 5 students will sit The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) this week. NAPLAN has been part of the school calendar since 2008. At St Fidelis, NAPLAN is another piece of ongoing evidence that assists us with tracking the progress of your child in literacy and numeracy. NAPLAN consists of tests in the four areas: Reading, Writing, Language Convention (spelling, grammar and punctuation, and numeracy. These will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week.

Camp Australia

Last term Camp Australia asked families of St Fidelis to complete a survey to sort feedback about their program. I met with the Camp Australia coordinator last week to discuss the results.  Unfortunately, only seven people participated in this survey.  The Camp Australia team leader, the regional coordinator and the daily carers have met to discuss the results and implement a program in response to the feedback. Some of the areas that they have improved and implemented are: more cooking and art activities, planned and scheduled visual display of the weekly program, purchasing of new equipment ($3000.00) such as board games, art and craft material and a more consistent carer. At this stage we will continue to engage with Camp Australia as our out of school hours care provider.

SACRAMENTS:

First Holy Communion: Saturday June 15 at 2pm

Tomorrow night, May 14th, 7pm - 8pm - First Communion Family Night.

Confirmation - August 16th at 6:30pm

Confirmation will take place on Friday August 16th at 6:30pm. More information about the Family Faith evening and Confirmation day itself will be shared with families by the end of the term.

Dates to Remember: School Closure Days Term Two

Professional Practice Day Friday May 31st Staff will be working on student assessment and reporting on this day. There will be no school on Friday May 31st.

Student Led Conversations - Wednesday June 19th (Parent teacher student conversations)

This year all year levels will participate in Student Led conversations. Feedback from teachers and parents in 2018 recommend that a 20-minute time-slot for these conversations is required to ensure an authentic learning conversation to take place between parent, teacher and child. All conversations will take place on one day from 9:00-7:00pm. No school on this day. More details to follow later this term.

Year 1/2 Level Mass

Thank you to the families and teachers who attended the Year 1/2 level Mass on May 5th.  Celebrating the Eucharist is a particular form of prayer in the Catholic Tradition. Mass is an opportunity for engagement and expressing of our Catholic Identity. This is a way of enriching our relationship with God, with self, one another and our world.

Whole School Prayer: 8:50am in School Hall

It was lovely to see parents attend our Thursday Morning Whole School Prayer. A reminder that the purpose of Whole School Morning Prayer is