From the Principal

Welcome to the 2023 School Year

We are excited to commence the 2023 school year at St Francis de Sales. This week it was great to welcome back our staff on Friday 27 January, our Year 1 to 6 students on Monday 30 January and our Prep students on Tuesday 31 January. Everyone has settled back into school life and we are looking forward to a great year together.

Our Preps did really well on their first day of school. They were all really well prepared for their BIG day and their giant step into school life. They were all smiles, eager to participate in school activities and make new friends. They all looked very smart and grown up in their new school uniform.

Our Prep parents enjoyed a cuppa and chat after dropping their children to school. They all did very well and can be so proud of themselves. We welcome all our new children and parents and look forward to forming a strong partnership as we work together in 2023 and in the years ahead.

In the Light of Christ

We commenced our school year with Mass in Learning Space 3 celebrated by Fr Desmond. Our theme for 2023 is, "Forming Lives of faith, Hope and Love in the light of Christ" The children prayed and participated respectfully. We reflected as well on our wonderful saint St Francis de Sales who is known as the saint of kindness. We pray that we all have a wonderful year and that the light of Christ burns brightly in all of us as we embrace our saint and act with love, kindness and respect for one another in 2023.

Staff are response ready - DRSABCD

On Friday, our staff all successfully completed a St John's Ambulance First aid course and obtained accreditation for :

HLTAID009 Provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation
HLTAID010 Provide basic emergency life support
HLTAID011 Provide First Aid

Update medical Information

Parents are reminded to review and update their child's medical information on Operoo. If your child has a medical condition e.g asthma, anaphylaxis, diabetes etc we need an updated medical management plan added to Operoo. If your child is on any medication we require a Medication Authority Form (see link) which is also available from the school website. Please ensure medication is current for the 2023 school year and has not passed the expiry date. All parents are to sign and confirm their child's profile even if there have been no changes made to medication, address or phone numbers.

CHANGE TO SCHOOL DAY IN 2023

A new employment agreement came into affect in 2022 for all State schools and in all Catholic School in the Sale Diocese. The 2022 new award addressed the workload demands on teachers by a restructuring of working hours. State schools and Catholic schools in Sale have changed their school hours.

The new Victorian Catholic Education Multi-Enterprise Agreement for Melbourne Catholic Schools is close to being finalised and is expected to be in place in early 2023. As outlined at the end of 2022, after discussing it with our staff and our School Advisory Council we decided it is preferable to make the change required for the start of the 2023 school year rather than make changes to our routines sometime after the year commenced.

We have thus commenced 2023 making a small adjustment and have altered our finish times at St Francis de Sales by five minutes. In 2023, we will finish school at 3:15pm.

Please note that

Playground supervision before school is from 8:30 to 8:45am.
Playground supervision after school is from 3:15pm to 3:30pm.

Before School

All school gates will open at 8:30am ( including the driveway gate)
A staff member will be on playground supervision before school play from 8:30am - 8:45am.
Children may play on the blue playground and the basketball courts before school. All other play areas are closed including the rainbow playground.
Students may enter their Learning Space from 8:30am.
Staff supervision of students before school will commences at 8:30am. A Junior and Senior teacher will be on before school supervision duty in each Learning Space.
The school day will commence with Morning Gathering at 8:45am. (Parents are invited to join morning gathering.)

After School

The school day in 2023 will finish at 3:15pm
After school supervision will be from 3:15pm to 3:30pm.
Children may play on the blue playground and the basketball courts after school. All other play areas are closed including the rainbow playground.
Kharisma Kids will continue to operate until the school supervision starts and from the end of the school day.
Kharisma Kids will be offering a short stay concessional rate. Most parents are entitled to Childcare subsidy of up to 45% of the price.

Please email me at principal@sfslynbrook.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions.

Building News - Traffic Detour

On Monday 30th January the first day of school, there is proposed road works planned on Patterson Drive to install a new storm water drain. Cars will still be able to use the drop off zone however after turning right out of the drive, cars will not be able to proceed along Patterson Drive towards Matilda Drive. Cars will need to detour around the road block by using Alymer road to Henning Drive if they wish to proceed towards Evans Road or will need to use the train station parking lot to bypass road works.

The road works may be in place from a week to two weeks as part of necessary site works to install a new storm water drain and connect it to the main line across the road from the school. I will provide updates via the school app as plans become finalised.

Staff News

Over the holidays we have had a few staff changes. In mid January Louise Hyde our Visual Arts teacher informed me that she has accepted a position as a full time Visual Arts teacher nearer her home. Louise has been with our school for many years and we wish her all the very best in her new role. We have been successful in employing a very experienced artist and Visual Arts teacher. Katherine Morgan will be joining our staff on Tuesday 14 February after giving her current employers the required notice period.

We are also delighted to announce that we have appointed Andriana Eleftheriou this week as a Learning Support Officer. Andriana is a very experienced LSO with years of experience at Southern Autistic School. Andriana will join our staff team on Monday 6 March, after she also serves the required period of notice at her current school.

We are excited to welcome new staff members who commenced this year at St Francis de Sales. Melody Patton in Seniors in LS3, Nuri Gil in Juniors in LS1, Filomena Erderly our LOTE- Italian teacher and Anju Dasanayake who is a new LSO currently working in LS2. We also welcome back Rita Karamalis who will be working with us every Monday, Imogene Laird in LS3 Juniors and Mavis Brownfield in LS 2 Seniors who have returned to St Francis de Sales after maternity leave.

Parent Information Night

We look forward to seeing all families at our Parent Information Night next week on Wednesday 8 February at St Francis de Sales.

The Parent Information Evenings will be held in the Community Room.

Junior school meeting will commence at 6:30p.m.
Senior school meeting will commence at 7:30p.m.

This will give parents who have children in the Junior and Senior school the opportunity to attend both meetings. This is a very important meeting for all parents to attend. Information about your child’s learning, curriculum, reporting, continuation of learning procedures and expectations, and date for sacramental programs (Seniors) will be given out. Teachers will be available after the meeting if you have any further questions. An Operoo notification has been sent today for you to accept the invitation for the event.

We look forward to working in partnership with you in 2023. Let's get the year off to a great start and we look forward to seeing you at the Parent Information Night next week on Wednesday.

Have a great weekend.

Regards

Christine White

Principal