Dear Parents, students and the wider community,

With lockdown extended until at least Thursday 19 August I'm sure we all probably have a sense of de ja vu. I imagine many of you enjoyed the Olympics recently and celebrated the great performances of our athletes. Sport is something I love. Now that the Olympics have ended I have started watching ''The Voice'' as music is another one of my loves. Earlier this week I was absolutely taken aback when a 12 year old girl stepped up and let loose. Wow-could she sing!! Then I thought, that could be one of my kids at school!! Yes parents, I know they are your children but I get to think of them all as mine to care for each school day anyway!!! It is amazing the God-given talents your children have that I love hearing about, or seeing, that suddenly I become aware of in a conversation with the child or when a staff member lets me know. As such I know our Choir Leader Kassie and Mrs Carr are setting up a "St Anne's Has Got Talent" virtual experience for our students. I loved seeing their performances last year and look forward to again hearing and seeing our students share their talents.

First Holy Communion on Sunday 15 August at 2.30pm has now been postponed due to lockdown. The Parish Sacramental Leadership team will endeavour to find another date again for this important occasion. We are still hopeful that the children of the Parish, and Parish schools will be confirmed, God willing, on Sunday 22 August. This will be obviously subject to very limited numbers which is sad. Please continue to pray for our students and their families who are currently preparing for these important sacramental occasions. This Sunday the church celebrates the Feast Day of the Assumption of Our Lady. You may like to read more about this on the Religious Education page of the newsletter.

In staffing news Mrs Trickey will spend the next 3 weeks on leave. Mrs Trower will be in the office each day. Miss Jemma Malgaard concludes her teacher training this week with 1/ 2 C. We thank her for her commitment and wish her all the best for her future. It has been a very challenging time to be a trainee teacher but she has had an excellent mentor with Mrs Chiodo. Next week we welcome another student teacher in, Miss Emilie Wilson, who will be working with Foundation H (Miss Holmes). We warmly welcome Emilie!

Our senior students were to play against Mahogany Rise PS today which has been cancelled. Next week we are set to play against Seaford Park PS. Like everyone else I am only hopeful this will proceed. Go St Anne's!!

For those with a student currently in Year 5 it is important that you put in an application for enrolment with your secondary school/s of your choice. I know that seems way off in the distant future as the students will begin in 2023 but it is my understanding, that at least for state secondary schools, that these applications are due by Friday 20 August.

Looking ahead there are a variety of activities that will be postponed or cancelled. One of these that we greatly look forward to is Book Week. Mrs Brooking is currently trying to set an alternative for this much loved week.

Our Foundation Information Night was scheduled for Wednesday 18 August. Though we did last year's on-line we would really like to do this face to face. As such we will re-schedule this to be on-site for Thursday 2 September at 7pm.

Our School Education Board were due to meet on Thursday 19 August but we will cancel this and next meet at our scheduled 14 October meeting.

The staff yearly retreat was scheduled for the 26 and 27 August with an early finish for students on Thursday 26 and a school closure day on Friday 27. We believe, given the circumstances, this will do nothing for student wellbeing or our families as hopefully we will have only just got students back to school by then. As such we have postponed this event until the 28 and 29 October. We also had scheduled the Monday 30 August as student-free for staff development on-site. This day will go ahead as a student-free day as it is important that this occurs to ensure our school keeps moving forward. If we happen to still be locked down at that stage staff will work together and not provide a remote learning curriculum for the day.

To the students at home learning I would like to say I have enjoyed attending some of the google meets this week and looking at some of the work on Seesaw. Make sure you keep doing your best and all the teachers can't wait to see you back at school as soon as we can!

May God bless you and your family and may you enjoy some opportunities to relax as a family. We don't have a lot of choice at the moment!!

Rod Shaw

Principal

School Attendance and Unexplained Absence

Please ensure you contact the school before 9:30am if your child is going to be absent or late 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:

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.

Learning Diversity

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Helping Children With Emotional Wellbeing