Principal's Message

Dear Parents, students and the wider community,

Generally each week on Friday mornings at least two classes in our school share Mass together. This morning was no exception and I thank Mrs Lacey and Miss Tsiaousis for leading this week’s Mass in our Hall with the 1/ 2 LW students and Fr Benneth.

This week we also enjoyed Health and Safety Week. The students heard from representatives from St John’s First Aid, RACV - with a focus on road safety for children, Market Fresh with a focus on healthy eating, Responsible Pet Ownership and Safe Train Travel from Metro Trains. Awesome life skill learning for our students!

On Wednesday morning between 7:30 - 8:30am staff, fathers (and significent people) and children all enjoyed a bacon and egg breakfast to celebrate Fathers' Day. I hope all the dads, grandpas and father figures had a great day last Sunday. I thank the staff for their very early attendance at school in driving this community event. I hope this was enjoyed by all that could make it. I know I certainly did.

Our Leadership Team of Miss Holst, Mrs Carr, Mrs Thomas, Mr Sullivan and myself met with our School Reviewer, Mr Gilbert Keisler, and CEM Principal Consultant Tony Levett on Wednesday. The feedback we received was thorough from Gilbert and he commented on what an excellent school we have in so many ways and how fortunate our students are. We then spend the remainder of the day working on our drafts of the School Improvement Plan 2020-2023 and our Annual Action Plan for 2020.

The CEMSIS survey has commenced and I request that all parents who have received an invitation to complete it please do so. This survey provides us with an opportunity each year to check in on how we are progressing as a school and what might be our future directions.

Today our senior students were to attend the annual Seaford District Lightning Premiership at Seaford Park PS. Unfortunately we received a call from the District Sports Coordinator at 8.30am to notify us that it was cancelled due to the forecast weather. Our students, with luck, will have another opportunity to attend a Lightning Premiership against the local Catholic schools at John Paul College next term.

Please be aware a family in our school has children who have been diagnosed with Influenza B. Please be advised that if your child shows any sign of illness please keep them at home and have this checked.

Looking ahead to next week Mr Peter Vyverberg, who is chair of our Parish’s St Vincent de Paul chapter, will discuss this group’s work in the Parish. Our Lap-a-thon on the last day of term will raise funds to help provide Christmas baskets of food for the needy in our Parish.

Next Wednesday some of our Year 3/ 4 students will be involved in a regional Hoop Time competition we wish them the best of luck and hope they have a successful day.

Next Friday we begin to welcome our Foundation 2020 students with a ‘Super Starter’ session at 2:30pm. We have many new families joining us next year and we look forward to making their involvement very positive from the outset.

Please check all uniform over the weekend to ensure you have not ended up with something that does not belong to your family. If this has happened could it please be returned to school so it can be returned to the owner.

A reminder that since spring has begun and hats are now compulsory in the playground.

No hat, no play.

God bless

Rod Shaw,

Principal

School Attendance and Unexplained Absence

Please ensure you contact the school if your child is going to be absent by leaving a message on 9786 4736 and press 1.

If you are running late, (after 9:00 am ) please attend the office to sign your child into school.

As per our policy this will be our morning routine for absences will be:

Parents will be contacted as soon as practicable on the morning a student is absent via a phone call or text message.

If parent does not reply or is unreachable the emergency contacts will be contacted by the school.

If there is still no response, and the school feels that the child is in danger, the police will be contacted.

Ongoing unexplained absences or lack of cooperation regarding student attendance will result in

a formal conference being organized. Unresolved attendance issues will be referred to D.H.H.S.

This is a legal requirement.