Principal's Message
Dear parents, students and families,
Our Parents and Friends (PNF) committee hosted a number of the Foundation parents for a coffee morning on Tuesday. It was a great joy to see a number of our longer term families both supporting and making welcome our new families. The reality is that these faces you are seeing around you now are likely to become the friendly faces you bump into in the future not just at school but at church, basketball and other sports, at the beach, at the shops, at birthdays and wherever else the families of our parish interact. This connection creates a very warm and caring environment for your children to grow up in but also for you as parents. Though my boys are now 23 and 20 I feel very connected to the Mornington and Mt Martha community and most of this has been through my sons and their activities.
Our Opening School Mass was held last Friday. The students certainly showed great respect. It was great to share the Mass with so many families and see our Year 6 Leaders awarded their badges.
Our first assembly of the year was held Monday and these will continue fortnightly, commencing at the new time of 2.45pm. As always parents are warmly invited to join the school at these times.
Our Camp Information Night was held on Wednesday night and we appreciate the number of parents who were able to attend. Our Year 5 and 6 students will be attending the Urban Camp between Monday 6th and Wednesday 8th March.
A reminder that next Thursday 23rd February we will be holding initial meetings where parents can meet with your child's class teacher on-site. You can book your 10 minute timeslot between 3.40-8.00pm at https://www.schoolinterviews.com.au and enter the event code jhnra. The aim of these meetings is for you to share as much information about your child with the teacher, look at some potential goals and to discuss how your child has settled into their 2023 class.
Monday 27th February at 9.30am is our first OPEN MORNING for prospective 2024 Foundation enrolments. These tours are aimed at new parents wanting to join our school community for the 2024 year. Please let anyone you know who may be considering our school for their child/ren to ring the office for further details. We have a very big group of siblings already for 2024 so there really are limited spaces. Great to know that so many local families want to join our community.
Other dates to be aware of in the next month or so are:-
Shrove Tuesday 21st February
Ash Wednesday 22nd February
House Cross Country Friday 3rd March
School Closure Days- Staff PL on Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum development on the Thursday 9th March and RE with musician Andrew Chinn looking at the Liturgical calendar on Friday 10th March.
May peace be with you
Rod Shaw
Principal
School Attendance and Unexplained Absence
Please contact the school if your child is going to be absent by leaving a message on 9786 4736 and press 1. Please give details of your child’s name and class with areason for their absence such as: unwell, appointment, holiday or family reasons. Alternatively an email can be sent to office@saseaford.catholic.edu.au with cc to the child’s teacher.
If you are running late, (after 9:00 am) please attend the office to sign your child into school and collect a late pass.
If you are picking up your child early you will need to collect them and sign them out from the office.
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 text message.
If parent does not contact the school after receiving the text message, the school will contact the parent by phone. If the parent 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.
Democratic Principles
The six (6) principles of Australian democracy include:
(a) elected government; and
(b) the rule of law; and
(c) equal rights for all before the law; and
(d) freedom of religion; and
(e) freedom of speech and association; and
(f) the values of openness and tolerance