Welcome

Dear members of the St Raphael's community,

As the school year comes to an end we reflect on the achievements of 2019.

It has been a busy and productive year and we are extremely pleased with the new initiatives, projects and services that we have implemented throughout the year.

SMART Spelling Program

Online Essential Assessment for Maths

Headstart Week

Playground Redevelopment

School Hall Refurbishment

Change of Before/ After School Care provider

There are a few people that I would like to acknowledge and thank for their support, guidance, wisdom, dedication and commitment to our wonderful school community throughout the year.

To Father Simon Grainger for his support, guidance and spiritual leadership throughout 2019. We wish him a safe, happy and Holy Christmas.

Congratulations to our graduating Year 6 students. We wish you all the very best of luck in the years ahead and hope you all pursue their dreams.

We will be watching from a distance with pride in the knowledge that we have been given a special, privileged opportunity to play a small part in your lives and in shaping the person that you have become. You are always most welcome to come and visit us at St Raphael’s.

"Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places." (Roald Dahl, The Minpins)

Special thanks to Tina Colosi for her dedication, commitment and support that she has provided to the staff, children and myself in her role as Deputy Principal of the school. Tina has decided to step down from this role next year. Over the last 15 years, Tina has overseen the pedagogical paradigm shift here at St Raphael’s and has been relentless in her pursuit to improve student outcomes.

I am pleased to say that Tina’s passion for education and her knowledge of the curriculum will not be lost to the school as she will continue in a part-time role as Learning and Teaching Leader Teacher and will oversee the highly successful Italian Autonomous Language Learner Program in 2020.

Mrs Rosalba Squarcia and Mr Shane Giese will share the Deputy Principal role for 2020 - 2021. Rosalba has been appointed as Deputy Principal/ Religious Education Leader and Shane as the Deputy Principal/ Innovation & STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) Leader.

I congratulate Rosalba and Shane on this appointment and look forward to working closely with them to implement many new and exciting educational initiatives and to continue to develop whole school improvement.

Mrs Marlene Walters has decided to resign from her position as a homeroom teacher at St Raphael's at the conclusion of the 2019 school year. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Marlene for her work with the children at St Raphael's and her years of service and dedication to Catholic education.

In 2020, we are pleased to welcome back from maternity leave Mrs Emma Sbizzirri, Mrs Lauren Bell and Mrs Marcella Verrocchi.

A big thank you to all of the wonderful staff at St Raphael’s who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to educate and nurture your children. I am proud to say that our staff are an extremely dedicated, committed, caring and professional group of teachers.

As I reflect on the school year, the children have been involved in many wonderful learning opportunities and experiences as the teachers are constantly working towards improving student outcomes and developing the whole child - academically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.

A big thank you to our wonderful office staff, particularly Lynette Gamble, for being such a wonderful support to the staff, students, parents and I.

And grazie to Aldo Molinaro for all of his work in maintaining our school grounds throughout this year and ensuring that the children have a safe and pleasant environment to work and play.

Farewell to our departing families and children. We wish you every success for the future and hope that you have fond memories of your time as members of the St Raphael’s school community.

A huge thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers and parent helpers in our school. A special thanks to our parents who have worked on our playground redevelopment - Lisa Mancini, Fiona Legerrio-Christoff and James Leader. An incredible amount of time, effort and consultation with the staff, children, School Education Board and various contractors/ providers has been invested to realise the vision of the landscape master plan and the playground redevelopment. We look forward to opening the playground in the new school year.

To our Uniform Shop mums who have worked tirelessly to provide a great service and source good quality uniforms for our children. Your efforts in sourcing our new uniforms to uphold the school’s reputation in our community are greatly appreciated. We look forward to seeing all of our children in their new school uniforms next year.

To Rose Drazic and Maria Mennillo for coordinating the children's lunch orders throughout the year and to all of the parents who have cooked sausages, pizzas and provided the children with yummy treats throughout the year.

Thanks to all of our wonderful parent volunteers. It has been a huge effort by all who have given so generously of their time and talents to ensure that we offer the various programs and best possible resources and equipment to the children in our school. I have heard it many times from people outside our school community how our school's volunteer community sets us apart from other schools.

Many of these volunteer works have raised significant funds which have been used to replace and redevelop our new large playground area.

I would especially like to thank the parent volunteers on our School Education Board who have given so generously of their time to be the parent voice of our school community. The SEB’s support, input and advice has been greatly appreciated and valued. Together we have achieved some great outcomes this year and I thank you for your continued advice, input and expertise.

Finally, I would like to thank the wonderful children for making this such a happy and vibrant school community. All of our staff love coming to work with you every day. You should be very proud of your achievements this year. You are all respectful and unique individuals who make St Raphael’s such a special place!

I look forward to next year with great optimism and energy as we work towards providing the best possible education and learning opportunities for your children in 2020 and beyond.

Have a safe, happy and Holy Christmas with your children and families and we look forward to welcoming you back to the 2020 school year.

Headstart Week

This week we have commenced a new initiative called Headstart. It has been a great success with the children working in their new homeroom spaces with their new classmates and homeroom teachers for 2020. The children have settled so well and we congratulate them on adjusting to this new initiative. We hope that this week provides your child with a great opportunity to get to know the teachers and the children in their year level.

We also welcomed our new Foundation students and they too have settled very well in their first experience at school.

Our Year 6 students have done some fabulous work this week with visiting Year 7 teachers from surrounding secondary schools. We thank one of our mothers, Michelle Salera, for taking the Year 6 children for Year 7 Science.

Staffing

We are pleased to welcome back Emma Sbizzirri, Lauren Bell and Marcella Verrocchi from maternity leave.

Next year’s homeroom teachers will be:

Foundation: Lorraine Uzunovski & Jackie Moloney/ Lauren Bell

Year 1/2: Dee Panagiotaras, Carmel Pitt, Rachel Pearn & Emma Sbizzirri/ Marcella Verrocchi

Year 3/4: Rosalba Squarci/ Shane Giese, Linda Pham, Annie McNaughton/ James Downing

Year 5/6: Belinda Hirschauer, Martine Kelly & Matthew Vernal

Family Calendar

Our Family calendar will be sent home in the coming week which will outline all dates and events across the 2020 school year. We have endeavoured to get this out to parents before the end of the school year to assist you with planning and organising work commitments for 2020.

As part of Catholic teacher's multi-enterprise agreement, each year we allocate 4 - 5 whole staff professional development days/ student free days throughout the course of the school year.

In the past, these have been spread evenly across the four terms on suitable dates whilst trying to avoid clashes with other school events.

In addition to our regular weekly professional learning meetings and workshops after/ before school hours, these days enable whole staff participation in specific curriculum professional development opportunities as well as personal and spiritual formation.

In 2020, we will be holding our biennial staff conference on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th June. As a Catholic school, it is important for all staff to have an opportunity to focus on our ministry as employees in Catholic education and to ensure that all staff are provided with opportunities for faith formation through personal and spiritual reflection.

There are many events that take place throughout the course of the year and there is never a 'quiet' or 'right' time for whole school closure days. Dates are also dependent on the availability of presenters and experts. We understand that this can create issues for working parents but want to notify all parents before the end of the school year so plans can be made well in advance.

After consulting Fr Simon and our school leadership team we have decided on the following school closure dates for 2019.

Tuesday 10th March - Reading Professional Development Day

Thursday 4th & Friday 5th June - Staff Conference Faith Formation Through Personal and Spiritual Reflection

Wednesday 2nd September - Writing Professional Development Day

Monday 4th November - Report Writing Day

Friday 27th November - 2021 Planning Professional Development Day

We will coordinate with our OSH provider, Theircare to operate on these school closure days.

School Open Days 2020

Next year we will not be holding a Twilight School. The School Open Days will be held on the following days and times. We encourage you to share these with family, friends and neighbours who may be looking to enrol their child in school in 2021.

Thursday 27th February: 9:30am-10:30am & 12pm-1pm

Wednesday 11th March: 9:30am-10:30am & 12pm-1pm

Friday 24th April: 9:30am-10:30am & 12pm-1pm

School Advisory Board 2020

Next year, due to the proposed Catholic Archdiocese Melbourne governance changes in 2021, we will be forming the St Raphael’s School Advisory Board [SAB]. This SAB will replace the existing School Education Board [SEB].

There will be five parent representatives elected consisting of an elected president, secretary and three other parent members who will meet twice a term with myself and members of the school’s leadership team. These elected members will work on whole school improvement and provide support and advice to the school on a number of important issues.

At the beginning of next year an AGM will be called to elect these new members. All new parents are encouraged to apply.

In addition to the SAB, there will continue to be a number of sub-committee groups who will not be required to attend regular SAB meetings but will be responsible for a particular area of school improvement. Similar to this year, these members will coordinate volunteers who will work on projects and events throughout the school year. The representatives of each of these groups will meet regularly (as required) with myself throughout the school year.

Some of these sub-committees may include:

Fundraising/ Community Events (including Treasurer)

Children’s Lunches/ School Kitchen

Playground Redevelopment

Alumni/ Community Partnerships

ICT Support

We extend a warm invitation to any new members who would like to join the SAB or assist with any of the sub-committees for 2020 by emailing: principal@srprestonwest.catholic.edu.au

Literacy - Reading

Let's share a story....