Dear Parents and Guardians,

School Closure Day - Monday 23rd November

Monday 23rd November will be a student free day to allow teachers to engage in professional learning and planning for 2021. Beyond Edu Care will be providing a care program on the day. If you need to access this please contact Beyond Edu Care directly.

School Advisory Board AGM and Annual Report to the Community

On Wednesday 18th November via Google Meet, members of the school advisory board, St Simon’s School leaders and members of the parent community met for the School Advisory Board AGM and reported to the community. During this meeting St Simon’s School leaders and parent representatives shared summaries of the learning experiences, programs and initiatives undertaken this year.

In 2021 our school and parish will be undergoing significant change in relation to the parish-school governance structure. The change will shift the role of the employer of the School from the parish priest to a new company entity called Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS). More information about this reform can be found here.

This new structure seeks to take the components from existing roles and arrangements within the parish and the school, like parents' association, school advisory board, the parish priest and the principal, and strengthen these through clearer role descriptions and statements of responsibility.

After consulting with Fr Kevin, I have made the decision to postpone the formalities of this year's AGM and replace it with an invitation to current board members to continue their role as members of the Interim St Simon’s School Advisory Board. I am pleased to inform you that many of the current board members have taken up this invitation.

The interim school advisory board would be a "flat" arrangement where the roles of chairperson, deputy chair etc would be temporarily removed to allow a review of the purpose and structure of the board in light of the new governance framework.

This review would also examine the selection process of the board, roles and duration of service as well as development of terms of reference for the advisory board in light of the new governance framework.

During this interim time, the role of chairing the meeting will be fulfilled by Fr Kevin and myself as parish priest and principal.

If you would like to know more about this work in our community please contact me via the school office.

Sun Smart!

As the weather starts to warm up it is timely to revisit our SunSmart Policy. All students need to wear a hat at school for outside activity and come to school with sunscreen applied on exposed parts of the body. If your child has a skin sensitivity to sunscreen then please send an appropriate sunscreen product. The school has a supply of sunscreen within each class level, office and first aid areas.

School Assembly

Here is the link to the school assembly, Thursday 19th November

God bless

Tom Wursthorn

Principal

Book Club Issue 8