Dear Parents and Carers,

We are back! This newsletter is a long one, so grab yourself a cup of tea (or something stronger), your family calendar and make a note of all things that will impact your family.

All things considered, it has been a smooth start to the 2022 school year, with almost all of our students back in the classroom. We do have a small number of families in isolation at the present time and we are thinking of them. We look forward to seeing those students back at school soon. It is going to be an interesting Term One, but if we keep working together as a community, following the guidelines and taking a cautious approach towards positive cases and isolation, we will get through it. I encourage all families to organise a vaccination appointment for your child if you have not yet done so. Vaccination of students, staff and families will help to lessen transmission and protect our community. We are still waiting for an additional delivery of Rapid Antigen Tests to complete our first batch and will communicate with families when they arrive.

We have created a new Covid-Management page in this newsletter, where we will maintain the most up to date information regarding the guidelines for schools. One thing that is important to note is that in the event of a positive case in your child’s class, you will be notified by the school as soon as possible. There have been some recent updates to rapid antigen testing, isolation and management of positive cases in schools. These details are outlined on the Covid-19 Management page of this newsletter.

Each year, during the initial weeks of Term One, our teachers are very much focused on establishing routines, expectations and classroom rules with our students to ensure a productive learning environment for the year. We know that if students are connected well with their peers/teachers and understand what is expected of them, they are able to learn at a higher level than if these things were lacking. Through the ‘You Can Do It’ program, our students learn about the ‘five keys to success’ - Getting Along, Resilience, Persistence, Organisation and Confidence. Each term for the year, the students learn about one of these areas and this term, the focus is on Getting Along.

The students at St Agnes’ have done a great job so far in settling into their new classrooms, with their new teachers and we are looking forward to a very positive year. It was very exciting yesterday to see our new Prep students in the school for the first time and we are very proud of our Year Six buddies for their efforts in looking after the Preppies on their first day. In addition to the focus on wellbeing and routine early in the year, our staff are also busily completing some assessments with our students to ensure we can get into some targeted teaching and learning occurring in classrooms from Week Two. To assist with the transition into school, there are things that you can do to assist:

Establish a routine for morning and evenings - Children respond well to routine and boundaries. It is important that your child is getting to bed on time and getting plenty of sleep - It is recommended that primary aged children get 9-11 hours of sleep each night. Routines with breakfast, reading and homework in the evening will help your child make a settled start to the year.
Arrive on time - The classrooms are open from 8.30am each morning and the 20 minutes before learning commences is for children to get to know their teacher, spend time with their peers and most importantly, ready themselves for the day ahead. Parents are welcome to come in and say hello - A strong teacher/parent relationship is important for your child's success at school.
Keep the weekends quiet for February - Settling back into the rigours of school after the holidays can take some time, especially for younger children during the warmer weather. It’s good to give the children some down time on the weekends to recharge.

Staffing

We have a change in roles happening in our school office from 2022 onwards. Shannon Shine has increased her work days and will now be responsible for all things finance, including school fees. Naomi Field has reduced her working hours and will now be responsible for Enrolments and Communications (Operoo and Newsletter).

During the holidays we also had some additional staff changes.

Ms Debra Smith has accepted a role at St John Vianney’s Primary School in Mulgrave. Deb has been a Learning Support Officer at St Agnes’ for 14 years and is excited by a new opportunity in a new school. On behalf of the students and staff, I would like to thank Deb for her commitment to the students and families in our school, especially those with additional needs. We will farewell Deb with the students at Assembly next week.
Julie Grace (part-time Year 2 teacher) has also been granted leave for the 2022 school year on compassionate grounds. Julie has a grand-daughter who is quite unwell, so requested leave to care for her family. We wish Julie well for the year and look forward to seeing her again in 2023. Judith Barton will work full time in Year 2 for the duration of Term One.

We have commenced the recruitment process for filling both of these roles and look forward to welcoming new staff onto our team in the coming weeks.

Janine Moulton is on extended sick leave and is likely to be away for another 6-8 weeks at a minimum. Mrs Lauren Cummins has taken on the Literacy Intervention and Support to ensure our students in Prep-Year 2 continue to progress as expected.

Tuckshop

Tuckshop will commence on Friday 18th February and orders can be placed online at https://www.salutecatering.com.au/tuckshop using the code: lunch2022.

Parent Information Night - Alternate format - Tuesday 8th February

At the beginning of each year, we would usually hold an in-person parent information session for each class. Due to the community transmission of covid, we have decided to pre-record these presentations and email these out to parents to view at their own convenience. These sessions will cover the specifics regarding your child’s year level - from academics, to expected social behaviours and routines. We are aiming for a high level of detail in these presentations, but any outstanding questions can be directed to teachers afterwards via email.

Parent Teacher Exchanges - Tuesday 15th February

Parent Teacher Interviews will be in February and June. The first “exchanges” are on Tuesday 15th February will be an opportunity for you, as parents, to tell us about your child’s strengths, passions, social competencies and areas to be worked on. The interviews in June will take the format of the teacher reporting on the child’s progress. For the health and safety of all, these meetings will be held online using Google Meet. Teachers will send individual Google Meet links in the days before. Written reports will be provided prior to the June interviews and at the end of the year.

To book please click on the button below, the code for the event is: qcx5x. ;

The children will finish school at 1:00pm Tuesday February 15th to allow the staff to commence the interviews at 1:30pm.

Uniform

As most parents would know, we have high standards for our school uniform. It has been great to see a number of our students wearing the new woollen, v-neck jumper over their school uniform. 2022 is a transition year, but from 2023, this will be worn on the cooler days with the school uniform, instead of the navy blue bomber jacket. Students can wear either this year. In 2023, the navy blue bomber jacket will transition to be worn with the sports uniform only. Please note, the ‘parachute’ jacket is no longer part of the school or sports uniform.

One thing that has been noticed upon the return to school, is that we have a number of students wearing black runners with the school uniform. It is expected that all students wear black school shoes with their Summer School Uniform. Those wearing runners will have two weeks to rectify this.

See below the Summer uniform requirements for boys and girls:

Boys

Girls

Black Leather School Shoes

Navy school socks

Navy School Shorts

Short-sleeved blue school shirt, with logo

Navy school v-neck jumper or bomber jacket

Black Leather School Shoes

Navy school socks

Blue and white checkered Summer school dress

Navy, white or maroon hair accessories

Navy school v-neck jumper or bomber jacket

School Fees

This is the first year our school fee invoices have been generated by Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools Shared Services. We are currently working through these and you can expect to receive your 2022 School Fees Invoice by the end of next week. Please be on the lookout for these invoices and ensure payment is made promptly to avoid late payment fees. Please see Shannon in the office if you would like to set up a payment plan.

Year Six Leadership Roles

Our Year Sixes are busily writing letters of application and speeches for their 2022 leadership roles. Their speeches will be presented to Year 3, 4 and 5 students and staff on Thursday 10th February from 9am in the hall. This is a special occasions for our students, so parents are welcome to come along and watch these speeches. All parents are required to be fully vaccinated and wear masks. The positions will be announced at Assembly on Wednesday 16th February.

Sibling enrolments for 2023

We are asking those current families to complete the enrolment process for any siblings who will join our school in Prep 2023. Forms can be downloaded from our website or you can pick one up from the office.

Assembly

We will be holding whole school assemblies outdoors for the next four weeks and will be for students and staff only for the time-being. At assembly, there will be presentations from classes, student awards, birthday acknowledgements and special announcements.

Wed 2nd Feb - Year 4

Wed 9th Feb - Year 2

Wed 16th Feb - Year 3

Wed 23rd Feb - Year 5

Wed 2nd March - Year 6

Wed 9th March - No Assembly

Wed 16th March - Year 1

Wed 23rd March - No Assembly

Wed 30th March - Prep

Wed 6th April - No Assembly

Please see the Covid-Management and Term One Events pages of this newsletter for further information.

Looking forward to a great year!

Kind regards,

Lachie.

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