Dear Parents,

As a school community we continue to be grateful for the opportunity to coordinate school community events, both during and after school hours, following the Covid restrictions in place as recently as last year. It feels as though there is a sense of new life in the community, as we can engage in person and in large numbers. While Covid is still evident in our school and broader community, we are able to plan ahead with confidence.

In relation to hosting out of school hour events, we are now required to provide greater consideration on the expectation of school staff and the demands on their time beyond their normal duties. There have been some significant changes in the new enterprise agreement for teachers in an attempt to address teacher workload. The new agreement recognises the increased workload when teachers are directed to attend activities and events beyond the 38 hour working week. This includes, but not limited to, attendance at school community events, camps, school productions and parent / teacher interviews. Under the new agreement, when teachers are directed to attend work after school hours, they will now accrue `Time in Lieu (TIL)’. This TIL needs to be acquitted by the school at a time that least impacts the students.

With the permission of our governing body, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS), we have identified opportunities to acquit this TIL. These opportunities include the school closure day before ANZAC Day this year (24th April), as well as the Monday before Melbourne Cup Day (6th November).

In addition to this, we have decided to finish each school term at 1pm, as we did last term. This also provides an opportunity for TIL for our part-time staff that work on this day.

As communicated last term, we understand that a 1pm finish does impact some working families, so we are committed to providing supervision of students until 3.30pm on the last day of term where required.

As a school we are committed to hosting out of school hour events, such as school camp, school production, parent information evenings and Sacramental preparation nights. The introduction of TIL requires greater consideration of the requirement of staff to attend. Despite the introduction of TIL, our staff continue to be fully invested in the life of the school and are willing to continue to support community engagement at every opportunity.

The introduction of TIL, and the potential impact on our ability to host out of hours school events, has been discussed at both our Parents’ Association and School Advisory Council. While the new agreement is yet to be finalised, we have been directed to implement TIL, retrospective from the beginning of the school year.

Thank you in anticipation of your understanding and support.

Head Lice - Year 3/4

A case of headlice has been reported in the Year 3/4 Level. Could I please encourage parents to regularly check their child for head lice. Please access the following link from the Victorian Department of Health for more information, including advice on the Treatment and Control of Headlice. https://www.health.vic.gov.au/infectious-diseases/about-head-lice

District Cross Country - HT Champions!

Last Friday 58 students represented HT at the District Cross Country event at Jells Park, Wheelers Hill. Despite the cold and wet conditions, these students represented our school with pride and tried their best. We are very pleased to announce that HT were the overall District champions, which is a wonderful achievement following our recent success at the Athletics District event. We are very proud of all the students! A number of students have also qualified for the Division Cross Country on the 2nd of June.

School Blog

Our students are responsible for a lot of the School Blog content, so please take some time to appreciate their posts. It is also a great way to find out about school events such as Camp, Production, Sports Events, the Arts …. And much more!

http://blog.htws.catholic.edu.au/

Warm Regards,

Adrian Scutt

Principal

Time to eXcel

Awards & Birthdays

Birthdays

Yellow Card Awards

Congratulations to the following students who were awarded Yellow Cards!