Merry Christmas!

Dear members of the St Raphael’s school community,

As the school year comes to an end there are a few people that I would like to acknowledge and thank for their support, guidance, wisdom, dedication and commitment to our wonderful school community.

Father Simon

Thanks to Father Simon Grainger for his support, guidance and spiritual leadership throughout 2018. We wish him a safe, happy and Holy Christmas.

Year 6 Students

Congratulations to our graduating Year 6 students. We wish you all the very best of luck in the years ahead and hope that they pursue their dreams. Remember, take every chance, every opportunity and above all, be courageous.

We will be watching from a distance with pride in the knowledge that we have been given a special, privileged opportunity to play a small part in your lives and in shaping the person that you have become.

"Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places." (Roald Dahl, The Minpins)

Staff

Best wishes to Justin Delaney who is leaving St Raphael's to take up a Year 1/2 classroom teaching position at St Patrick’s, Geelong West. Justin came to us in 2016 from Holy Name Primary School and has been a Year 3/4 homeroom teacher and Leading Teacher of Religious Education and English. We wish Justin, Candice and their daughter Frankie every success for the future and thank him for his work during his time at St Raphael’s.

We would also like to wish Lauren Bell and Marcella Verocchi our best wishes as they take maternity leave in 2018. We hope that they enjoy this exciting time in their lives and we look forward to sharing their good news with our community in the new year.

A big thank you to all of the wonderful staff at St Raphael’s who have worked tirelessly throughout the year to educate and nurture your children. I am proud to say that our staff are an extremely dedicated, committed, caring and professional group of teachers. As I reflect on the school year, the children have been involved in many wonderful learning opportunities and experiences as the teachers are constantly working towards improving student outcomes and developing the whole child - academically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. Thanks also to Tina Colosi for her commitment in driving learning and teaching throughout the school. Tina has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that we are meeting the needs of all children throughout the school and I am grateful for her support, guidance and professionalism. To Lynette Gamble, thank you for looking after the chaos of our school office and for being such a wonderful support.

A special mention to all of the staff for their work during this year’s extensive and exhaustive quadrennial school review. This year we undertook the Australian Council of Educational Research’s National School Improvement Tool which brings together findings from international research and practices of highly effective schools and school leaders. The tool assist schools to review and reflect on their efforts to improve the quality of classroom teaching and learning. It supports school-wide conversations - including with teachers, parents and families, our School Education Board, local communities and students themselves - about aspects of current practice, areas for improvement and evidence that progress is being made.

The tool sets performance levels which enable schools to make judgements about where they are on their improvement journeys, to set goals and design strategies for improvement, and monitor and demonstrate school improvement over time.

The results of the school review are benchmarked across primary schools throughout Australia and we were delighted to receive performance level results which placed us in the top 5 - 10% of Australian schools who have undertaken this NSIT review process.

Departing Families

Farewell to our departing families and children. We wish you every success for the future and hope that you have fond memories of your time as members of the St Raphael’s school community.

Volunteers

A huge thank you to all of the wonderful volunteers and parent helpers in our school. A special thanks to our parents who have worked on our playground redevelopment. An incredible amount of time, effort and consultation with the School Education Board and various contractors/ providers has been invested to realise the vision of the landscape master plan. It has been an ambitious undertaking and I look forward to continuing this work with this group in 2019 as we continue with the final stage of the planned redevelopment works.

Thanks to Rodolfo Valenzuela, Maya Valenzuela and Luisa Castaldo for their efforts earlier this year painting and protecting the Breen Street mural. It is a lovely piece of artwork and certainly brightens up the entrance to and from the school for the children.

A big thank you to Aldo Molinaro for all of his work in maintaining our school grounds throughout this year and ensuring that the children have a safe and pleasant environment to work and play.

To our Uniform Shop mums who have worked tirelessly to provide a great service and source good quality uniforms for our children. Your efforts in sourcing our new uniforms to uphold the school’s reputation in our community are greatly appreciated.

To Rose Drazic, Maria Menillo and Fion Leggerio-Christoff for coordinating the children's lunch orders throughout the year and to Carol Coloe for organising the sausage sizzle lunches.

To all of the volunteers in the learning spaces, on excursions, camps, Father’s Day & Mother’s Day events, lunch clubs, Sports Day, Bunning’s Sausage Sizzle, Trivia Night, St Raphael’s Feast Day, sports day, Parish Garden Working Bees and all who have assisted at the various fundraising events throughout the year - way too many of you to mention and remember - you know who you are, a big thank you!

It has been a huge effort by all of these parents who have given so generously of their time and talents to ensure that we can offer the various programs and best possible resources and equipment to the children in our school. I have heard it many times from people outside our school community how our school's volunteer community sets us apart from other schools.

All of the various initiatives have raised over $30 000 which will be used next year to replace and redevelop our large playground area.

School Education Board 2018

I would especially like to thank the parent volunteers on our School Education Board who have given so generously of their time to be the parent voice of our school community – Jeremy Richards (President), Tracey Pace (Secretary), Filippa Brugliera and Gab Wood (Treasurer), Liliana Varvarigos and Sally Di Martino (Fundraising/ Community Events), Fiona Leggerio-Christoff and Lisa Mancini (Playground Redevelopment), Andrew Aquilina and Fiona Garnham (Grants & Funding), Pauline O’Connor (Alumni), Jim Liaskos & Nick D’ Ercole (ICT support) and Cara Fonua (Future Enrolments).

The SEB’s support, input, advice and parent voice has been appreciated and valued. Together we have achieved some great outcomes this year and I thank you for continually supporting whole school improvement, for your advice, input and expertise.

This year marks the end of Jeremy Richard’s time at St Raphael’s. I would personally like to thank Jeremy for all he has done to support the school and myself. He has witnessed many changes and the transformation of the physical spaces and the learning and teaching approach throughout the school. Jeremy’s unwavering support as the President of our SEB has seen it expand and flourish with a record number of members who are all doing wonderful things to assist with whole school improvement. Around six years ago, I recall Jeremy turning up to our first meeting as we began the process of reinstating our SEB. He was one of two people who turned up to this meeting! They say that you should always leave a position in better shape than when you started. Jeremy has certainly fulfilled this ambition. Jeremy, you will be certainly missed by all in our school community and I thank you on behalf of all our children, parents and staff who are all the beneficiaries of your leadership.

Next year we will continue the great work and thank Pauline O’Connor who is stepping into the role as President of the St Raphael’s School Education Board. We extend a warm invitation to any new members who would like to join the SEB or assist with any of the sub-committees for 2019.

Children

Finally, I would like to thank the wonderful children for making this such a happy and vibrant school community. The staff absolutely love coming to work each day to teach you to be the best that you can be. You should be very proud of your achievements this year. You are all respectful and unique individuals who make St Raphael’s such a diverse, enjoyable and fun school!

Once again, it has been an honour and a pleasure to lead this school community and I thank Father Simon, the staff, children and parents who have supported me throughout the year.

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2019 Homerooms

Today we announced your child’s homeroom for 2019 and today they met with their homeroom teacher for next year.

This time of year is always an exciting time and can also be a nerve-wracking time. Will our children be placed with their friends? Will my child be placed with the teacher that I want?

Homeroom placement of the children takes into account many considerations including their social and emotional needs, learning needs and the best fit with other children and staff.

At these times, we need to trust that each teacher at St Raphael’s knows and cares for your child. They have worked diligently on class lists for many hours trying to ensure each child will flourish in 2019.

Parents have an enormous role in how their child views the changes for 2019. A positive parent will reassure that any new change will be a blessing – an opportunity for new friendships to be fostered and a chance to learn from a teacher who will support and care for them. These parents will find that their child develops resilience – an essential commodity necessary for the future.

As a parent you have a choice – do I speak glowingly of the changes that my child faces, or will I model disappointment and anguish with my child?

We are very excited about what 2019 will bring for our school, our community and especially the children in our care.

Staffing 2019

We are pleased to welcome Anna Camuglia, Linda Pham, Matthew Vernal and Aidan Baynes who will be joining us in 2019. Anna worked at St Raphael’s many years ago before taking up an opportunity to work at an international school in Singapore. We are looking forward to welcoming back such an experienced and highly-respected teacher to St Raphael’s.

Matthew has been teaching at St Mary of the Cross McKillop and is also the president of the Coburg Little Athletics Club. Linda has recently completed her teaching degree at the Australian Catholic University and we look forward to welcoming her into our friendly school community.

Aidan is an ex-student of St Raphael's and will be returning to work in our school as a Year 1/2 Learning Support Officer. We warmly welcome Aidan back to our school.

Foundation: Lorraine Uzunovski & Jackie Moloney/ Melanie Pizzonia

Year 1/2: Shane Giese, Dee Panagiataras, Anna Camuglia & Emma Sbizzirri/ Kelly Moore

Year 3/4: Rosalba Squarci, Linda Pham, Annie McNaughton & James Downing

Year 5/6: Belinda Hirschauer, Marlene Walters, Martine Kelly & Matthew Vernal

Art: Allanah Sarafian

Music: Karil Torcasio

PE: James Downing

Facilitated Planning Release for Leading Teachers: Anna Candido

Year 3/4 Intervention Support: Alfie Colosi

Administration: Lynette Gamble and Christine McNiece

Learning Support Officers: Catherine Talarico (Foundation & Sustainability), Anna Fedele & Aidan Baynes (Year 1/2), Maria De Cata (Learning Resource Centre & Year 5/ 6)

I am also pleased to advise the following Positions of Leadership for 2019:

Religious Education Leading Teacher - Rosalba Squarci

English Leading Teacher - Tina Colosi/ Melanie Pizzonia

Maths Leading Teacher - Emma Sbizzirri/ Shane Giese

Walker Learning Leading Teacher - Lorraine Uzunovski

Student Wellbeing Leading Teacher - Annie McNaughton

Student Services Leading Teacher - Annette Marcon

Family Calendar

Our Family calendar will be sent home tomorrow, Wednesday 19th December, which will detail all dates and events across the 2019 school year. We have endeavoured to get this out to parents before the end of the school year to assist you with planning and organising work commitments for 2019.

As part of Catholic teacher's multi-enterprise agreement, each year we allocate 4 - 5 whole staff professional development days/ student free days throughout the course of the school year.

In the past, these have been spread evenly across the four terms on suitable dates whilst trying to avoid clashes with other school events.

In addition to our regular weekly professional learning meetings and workshops after/ before school hours, these 4 -5 days enable whole staff participation in updating first aid training, emergency management training, faith formation, specific curriculum professional development etc...

There are many events that take place throughout the course of the year and there is never a 'quiet' or 'right' time for whole school closure days. Dates are also dependent on the availability of presenters and experts. We understand that this can create issues for working parents but wanted to notify all parents before the end of the school year so plans could be made well in advance.

After consulting Fr Simon, our school leadership team and members of our School Education Board we have decided on the following school closure dates for 2019.

Day 1: Tuesday 12th March

Day 2 - 4: Tuesday 23rd April, Wednesday 24th April & Friday 26th April

Next year, ANZAC Day falls on Thursday 25th April. We had a school closure day scheduled for the first day of Term 2, Tuesday 23rd April. Considering ANZAC Day is also in the first week of Term Two we would like to close the school for the entire week following Easter. We will conduct three pupil-free professional developments days across the course of the week (Tuesday 23/04, Wednesday 24/04 and Friday 26/06) rather than separate closure days in Term 2, 3 and 4.

We believe this will give families the opportunity to extend their Easter holidays and with ANZAC Day on Thursday 25th feel that some families would take the Friday 26th as an extended weekend.

The benefit of having these three professional development/ school closure days in together is that it will be less disruptive for the remainder of the year. Some secondary schools take this approach for the professional development of staff.

Day 5: Monday 4th November (the day before the Melbourne Cup)

We will coordinate with Camp Australia to operate on these school closure days if they get the required numbers.

We fully appreciate that not everyone gets RDOs/ school holidays and the pressure that these closure days can place on working parents, however, we feel it will be less disruptive across the course of the year.

Twilight School

We would also like to announce that Tuesday 26th February will be our Twilight School Open Day. School will commence at 12pm and conclude at 6pm.

Dates to Remember

Term 4

8/10/18 - 19/12/18