Our theme for this year is

ACT! EMPOWER! FLOURISH!

Dear Parents,

It is hard to believe that this is our last newsletter for the year. But we certainly are ending with a flourish of activity. We had a wonderful Year 3/4 Sleepover on Thursday evening. An enormous thanks to the staff who stayed overnight and to those who came very early in the morning to help with breakfast. We were a tired but happy lot on Friday.

School ends for the year for students on Tuesday 15th December at 1.30 p.m. after our end of year assembly.

Staff finish at 3.30 p.m. on Wednesday 16th December.

We wish all our families a very Happy Christmas and a safe and restful break over the holidays. Mass times at St Kevin's for Christmas Masses are:

Fr Gerry would love to see you to celebrate his last Christmas with us before he retires in May.

Please note: We have just heard we can increase our numbers at Mass! Yippee!!!

We will still need to book on line but we are so happy to welcome so many more to our 5pm, 7pm and 9pm Masses.

2021 ORGANISATION:

Our class structure and staffing for 2021 is as follows:

Junior D (Prep/1) - Bianca DiGiovanni/Fulvia Gerosolimo

Junior TG (1/2) - Eva Tomazos/Fulvia Gerosolimo

Middle C (3/4) - Con Tomazos

Senior M (5/6) - Jarrod Mullavey and Julie Mullins

Senior C (5/6) - Sonia Costa/Danae Swinburne

All other roles and specialist staff will remain unchanged for 2021.

Cathy Chapman is retiring at the end of the year as previously announced.

All children will be getting their end of year reports this week. The year 5/6 children will be getting their reports on Wednesday 9th December, as they are heading off to camp on Thursday. All the other children from Prep to Year 4 will be getting their reports on Friday 11th December.

All children will be moving to their 2021 class on Thursday 10th December from 9.30 - 1.30 p.m. to meet their new teacher and classmates. Class lists will be sent home after the children have experienced their new class and taken part in their orientation session. We have decided to do this a little differently this year based on some observations we have made over past years.

PFA 2021:

An enormous thank-you to the members of our PFA in 2021. We have a couple of members who have their youngest child commencing in Year 6 next year and we are soon to lose them. Two of those members are Fiona, (Alexandria's mum) our President and Jo, (Eva's mum) our Treasurer. I am very pleased to be able to share with you that Suzanne (Mya's mum) and Jo (Kate's mum) have very kindly agreed to work with Fiona and Jo in 2021 to learn the ropes and take over the roles of President and Treasurer throughout the year. Thank-you so much for your generous efforts with your time and talents. We are very lucky to have you both on board!

YEAR 5/6 CAMP:

Our year 5/6 students and staff head off to Lake Dewar Lodge for camp this week on Thursday and return on Saturday. It is a lovely way to end a very disrupted year for our senior students and we are very grateful and excited that we have been able to go ahead with this fun and enriching experience for our children. I must thank the staff enormously for agreeing to go ahead with camp even when we were told we could only get a date that spilled into the weekend so close to the end of the year. Thanks for your dedication and for putting the children first to ensure they have a wonderful end to a very challenging year.

CHRISTMAS PERFORMANCE 2021:

This year we will be changing our arrangements for our Christmas performance due to the uncertainty about what we may or may not be allowed to do. Danae is working with the children to produce a Christmas play that we will premiere on Monday 14th December online. We hope our families will set aside an hour to sit together as a family in their home with all the staff in their homes to watch the wonderful performance and enjoy a Christmas drink and nibble together. Stay tuned for more information to follow.

SCHOOL ADVISORY BORAD:

Thanks also must go to the members of our School Advisory Board - who have met largely over google meets this year - but nevertheless had some very productive meetings. Our focus for next year is to grow our 2022 prep enrolment intake and we would appreciate all the help we can get in this field. Word of mouth makes up over 80% of enrolments in most schools and ours is no different. So YOU actually make up 80% of our marketing strategy. We need all our families to be out there in the community at every opportunity talking up St Kevin's. I know so many of our families already do this, but we are looking for an extra special effort in 2021 - so please get on board and help if you can. We have flyers we can give you to distribute or put in local businesses and are happy to hear your ideas on how we can further promote this wonderful school of ours in the Templestowe area. Our numbers will actually grow a little bit in 2021 but we are looking to grow even further in 2022 so please get on board and do your bit to help grow our community.

REMINDERS:

Stay home if unwell

One of the most important things that we all need to do to ensure everyone’s safety is to stay home if we are unwell. Even though Covid numbers are down to 0 at the moment anyone who has any cold or flu like symptoms, needs to stay home and get tested. If your child comes to school when they are unwell, they may pass their sickness onto others who then also have to go and get tested and isolate. We really don't want that to happen to anyone but especially not our teachers, as we need them at school working and teaching the children.

Please err on the side of caution if you are unsure about the health of your child and keep him/her at home even if only minor symptoms are evident.

SACRAMENTS 2020:

All children who were due to make a Sacrament in 2020 will have the opportunity to celebrate their Sacrament in 2021. More details and information will follow early next year once more details are known about numbers and the types of celebrations we are allowed to have.

2021/2022 ENROLMENTS:

If you are aware of anyone who has a child starting prep in 2022 please encourage them to contact us for an enrolment pack. If you have a child starting school in 2022 - feel free to access the enrolment form on our website or by accessing the link below.

Kindest regards

Frances Matisi

Principal

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