From the Principal

Congratulations Meg

A warm welcome to Millie who was born last Saturday 6/6/2020 and weighing 3.4 kg.  A little sister for Grace.

Safety Update

Well done to all 3-6 children on their return to school. By and large it has been a smooth transition back. No doubt some were anxious but both parents and staff have worked well together to overcome this. Overall to see them playing with their friends and laughing and smiling has been great to see. It's great to now have all students back and some sense of normality.

Thank you to the majority of our parents who are doing a fantastic job in following all our safety processes. On the whole things are working very efficiently this week since our seniors commenced.

However there are a few issues around the drop off and pick up zones with an increase in traffic this week in this zone. So we have a few reminders and refinement that we need to make to improve the flow of traffic and the safety for all in this area.

• Parents are reminded that when you drive into or drive out of our school gate on Paterson Drive you may only do a LEFT turn.

This has always been the rule since the school commenced. Right now as we have an increase in parents using the drop off/Pick up Zone we must all follow this rule to ensure safety first and the smooth and efficient flow of traffic.

• In addition parents are asked not to get out of their cars in the drop off/pick up zone. We do understand if you have a young child this may be required if they need help to put on their seat belt. However we encourage everyone else to stay in their car so that we can keep the traffic flowing and avoid queues forming.

• Please only arrive at the designated time. As, if your child is not at the pick up point you will need to move on and do additional laps of the circuit.

Arrival times: 

• 8:25 am - A – K surnames.
• 8:40 am – L - Z surnames

Departure Times:

• 3:10 pm – A - K Surnames
• 3:25 pm – L - Z Surnames.

children should not be dropped off at school prior to 8:25 am. The school doors do not open and in these cold mornings it is far too cold for your child to be waiting in the cold unsupervised. Teacher supervision commences at 8:25 am which is 5 minutes earlier than before. It is not safe to leave your child unsupervised in the car park. Please use Before Care services if you need to arrive before this time.

Thanks once again for your support and for working in partnership with us to ensure the health and safety of our children, staff and community.

A lovely surprise

On Wednesday 10 June our staff were truly surprised at the lovely morning tea that greeted them as they walked into the staff room for the morning break. It was a delicious spread of treats provided by our Parents & Friends as a thank you to the staff. The surprises continued and later in the day when we were just about to start our staff meeting, we were astounded by the beautiful video of so many children and families who took great care to send us thank you messages. There were many gasps and oh and ah moments as each slide appeared. The kindness of parents means the world to our staff. We are deeply touched by your words and actions. We are truly blessed to be working at this school and with this amazing community. Thank you to all our parents and children. 

Annual Report to the Community

Each year in June all school write an Annual Report to the Community. This report addresses key school improvements over the past twelve months in the key spheres of the school.

• Faith Education
• Learning and Teaching
• Wellbeing
• Leadership
• Community

In addition a report by the Parish priest, Chairperson of the Advisory Board and Principal is included. Our Annual Report to the Community is now being proof read and will soon be sent to Catholic Education Melbourne. Once approved it will be published and released to our school community. This is expected to occur in early Term 3. The report for 2019 will be published on our school website and a copy will also be attached to the newsletter for parents to access. In this newsletter I am sharing with you my report which summarises some of the key developments over the past twelve months.

Principal’s Report from the 2019 Annual Report to the Community

This year has seen great growth and development at the school as we worked on our School Improvement Plan to consolidate and extend our five key priorities identified in our 2017 school review.

This year has seen us develop a new school vision statement that has been a collaborative process of dialogue with the entire community: staff, parents, students and parish. We have developed a school video to promote this vision which is easily articulated and now at the forefront of our actions.

A key change has also been in the development of a new learning architecture to enhance a culture of learning and provide opportunities to build leadership capacity. The introduction of six pedagogical leaders has enhanced communication and professional dialogue enabling improved response to student needs and interests. Teams are more responsive in designing learning that offers meaningful ways of exploring the significant questions and wonderings of learners. There is greater collaboration, reflective and creative thinking and learning at various levels across the school. 

Developing the capabilities across the curriculum continues to be a key focus and we are endeavouring to embed the learning from our participation in recent years in various projects, such as the Deep Learning & Animated Learners Project and the focus on RE: Partnering to Learning Collective. We have had a sustained focus and are consolidating our implementing of the Pedagogy of Encounter within our inquiry units. Our work at the school level on enhancing student engagement and student agency has challenged us to consider the opportunities we are providing to depth learning and enhance creative and critical thinking capabilities. We challenge deeper thinking through questions that challenge and help children make connections with their learning. At St Francis de Sales we have a strong focus on developing these essential capabilities. The schools learning environment has been established to encourage collaboration and a growth mindset. The personalisation of the curriculum with individual goal conferences helps to support student agency to take ownership and responsibility for learning. In addition, in response to our analysis of our mathematics data we are participating in the Exploring Mathematical Sequences of connected, cumulative and challenging tasks project with Monash University targeting our F-2 pedagogy.

The recent COVID-19 pandemic has challenged our delivery of the curriculum and during most of Term 2 restrictions resulted in remote learning. The staff response has been phenomenal and they have embraced the new online platform and adjusted to ensure learning continued. Digital technology skills soared at breathtaking speed and soon Google Classrooms, creating videos using screencastify and especially Google Meets were the norm. The face to face contact while different on Google Meets was valued by all. Parents out of necessity became true partners in the learning process and we all have a renewed empathy for the vital roles we play in the education of the children in our care. There have been many gains that need to be reflected on in order to retain and build upon strategies and processes that have been beneficial. We are thrilled to notice that learning has indeed continued while we have been learning online. We are seeing children not just maintain their levels but show growth. We look forward to closely studying our learning from this time of working online. One of the keys I believe is the quality of our communication, resulting in stronger than ever home school partnership and relationships. We certainly want to continue to strengthen these relationships and support this to flourish at St Francis de Sales as we return to face to face learning. St. Francis de Sales is a vibrant community and parents at this school are passionate about the school and the community. 

Special thanks to the members of our Education Board, Parents and Friends (P&F), class helpers, garden and maintenance groups for their contribution to the school.

I am honoured as principal to work with our staff, students and community to ensure St. Francis de Sales continues to be an innovative and highly successful professional learning community. To ensure we work in partnership to offer best practice and a quality contemporary learning curriculum within our Catholic school environment.          

Christine White

Principal