St Francis de Sales Catholic Primary School Lynbrook Newsletter

From the Principal

Happy World Teachers' Day to our Staff

Today is World Teachers' Day and an important time for us to say thank you to our extraordinary staff of St Francis de Sales and show our appreciation and gratitude for all the above and beyond tasks they do each day to ensure the very BEST for our students. We are indeed lucky to have such a highly experienced and quality team.

 

Whenever we have visiting speakers supporting us on professional development, we always receive extremely positive feedback about how wonderful it is to work with our staff. Presenters find them open to new learning , professional and committed to improving their knowledge and skills. This week we have been asked if the MACS Mathematics team who have worked with us for the past two years can share our learning journey with others in MACS. They are so impressed with what we have accomplished in such a short time. Our NAPLAN data confirms our strategies are leading to improved student outcomes with upward growth trajectory in our trend data. Likewise the Religious Education MACS team always compliment our staff and love working with our staff as they are so receptive and keen to implement learning to benefit our children.

 

Special thanks to Ange our DP and Joanna our Learning & Teaching leader for our rigorous dialogue and for their love of our school. Thanks also to our Leadership team for giving their time to support our School Improvement Plans. As the principal, I am so proud of our staff and so fortunate to work with each one. Hats off to our teachers as they certainly make a difference.

Exciting additions to our Playground

Thanks to our Parents and Friends

We are delighted to announce that thanks to the great fundraising of our P&F Committee, we are soon going to have a number of very colourful new activites on our playground to brighten our grounds and engage our children. 

 

We were able to select a package that allowed us to select a number of different options. So we decided to ask our children what they would like. All our children who were at school early this week were part of the decision. 

 

We collated the results and I am please to announce that we will soon have the following activities added:

  • Four Square
  • Snakes and ladders 1-100
  • Mirror Me
  • Chess board with coordinates
  • A Fitness Activity Trail
  • Three new hopscotch
  • Number target

In addition the school will upgrade all the line markings on our existing courts. We will also be adding two extra large four square courts for our seniors who like to play a version of the game on larger squares.

 

As part of the external upgrade, we will replace our existing back boards for basketball as well. We anticipate this work will commence in November and so all our 2022 children will be able to enjoy these new activities. I am also in initial discussions with a landscaper to design the space between the new multi-purpose hall and Learning Space 2. 

 

We thank all parents who have supported the events of our P&F that helps us add great resources that all our students can benefit from. 

 

Twilight Market and Art Show

Start saving your $1 and $2 coins so you can support our many Action Teams that have stalls at the Twilight Market. Come along and enjoy some food and browse through the many stalls. This year we also have our amazing Art Show. It is nothing like seeing the art in person and heaps better than the Digital Art Show we had to have two years ago due to COVID restrictions. This is our first Art Show in four years held LIVE at SFS!! The staff and students have put a lot of effort into creating and displaying the beautiful art. Please come and support this great event.

 

Class Placements for 2023

Teachers consider a number of factors when developing preliminary Learning Space and Home Group lists. They consider academic ability; special skills, needs and talents; social competencies; students who work well together and students who may not work well together. Skills needed for building new relationships are also an important part of our educative process. Our children will get asked to name three friends and we will consider their requests and place them with at least one friend in their learning space. Parent input based strictly on student learning needs, is also considered.

 

Parents who have specific concerns about their child's learning needs for 2023, are invited to provide written information via email to the principal. Please be aware that parent request for particular teachers will not be accepted.  Please email principal@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au by 3pm Friday 4th November 2022.  

 

A request is taken into consideration with other factors but is not guaranteed. Please note that we are not able to consider information received after the 4/11/2022, as once class list are made up they are extremely difficult, if not impossible to change. The ultimate responsibility for student teacher allocation rests with the Principal. Our school processes are most comprehensive and professional with decisions always made in the best interest of our students.

 

Parents will be informed about their child's Home Group Teacher in Semester two's report in December. Students will meet their Home Group teacher for 2023 on Thursday 15 December at our whole school orientation morning.

 

Have a great long weekend. School returns on Wednesday 2 November. We look forward to our Twilight Market and Art Show on Thursday 3 November.

 

Regards

Christine White

Principal