The beginning of Term 4 has been very busy at St Catherine’s.

Term 4 is a long term

Term 4 started with a Professional Learning Day for staff run by Dr. Margaret Carswell from ACU in Ballarat. Marg is a lecturer in Theology specialising in Scripture and the inquiry-based teaching of Religious Education in Catholic schools. The staff were engaged in their own learning as well as being assisted with the planning of their RE units for Term 4 .

We have also had Grade 6 swimming and the Grade 2 excursion to Scienceworks.

Camp Australia have started as our Out of School Hours Provider with what has been a very easy and seamless transition. With all new providers of all types, there will be teething problems but I assure you that Camp Australia have been very professional and easy to work with to resolve these issues.

Staffing News
We have started recruitment for 2024 and have been interviewing for classroom teachers with appointments still to be made and announced.

The Deputy Principal role has also been advertised with applications closing this afternoon.

Alexandra (Alex) Bland has taken over as the classroom teacher for 6LA6 this week and has hit the road running with swimming kicking off on her first day in the classroom. Her email is alexandra.bland@stcberwick.catholic.edu.au  for parents of the students in 6LA6, Rian is obviously still here so can also be contacted if necessary and is working closely with Alex to ensure the transition is smooth and as easy as possible for student and parents.

We welcome Vicky Donlan back after having baby Rowan earlier in the year. She has become the classroom Teacher for 4S6 for the remainder of the year. Vicky will again be part of our Leadership Team and will be the grade 3 and 4 Level Leader. Vicky’s email address is victoria.donlan@stcberwick.catholic.edu.au

I would like to congratulate Rian Prestwich and his wife, Sarah on the arrival of baby girl, Ruby.

The Sacrament of First communion
First Holy Communion Masses started on the weekend and will run through the next few weeks. This Sacrament is taking place during the Parish masses at St Michael’s. We pray for those students receiving this Sacrament and wish them well with this step in their Faith Journey.

Disco
The school disco took place on Thursday 7 September. This was not a fundraising event but we asked for a gold coin donation from each student to assist with covering the cost of the DJ for the night.
This was a very successful night, despite the rain. The DJ planned different age appropriate music and dance sessions for each year level goup. The students came out exhausted but on a real high, all saying they had so much fun. It was lovely to be able to provide this experience for the students. A huge thank you to the staff for dedicating this time and making this so enjoyable for our students. I thank the parents for their patience and flexibility as we were operating with limited spaces and unfortunate weather.

Footy Day
The last day of term 3 was our footy colours day. The students all joined in on the basketball court and got to stand up and dance when their team’s song came on. It was a terrific way to end the term.

Grandparents Afternoon November 10 2023
We will be having an afternoon dedicated to Grandparents and special others who play a similar role to our students on Friday 10 November. This is the Friday AFTER Cup day. More information will be sent out regarding this. The day will run on the same Friday every year.
Please make these special people aware so they can save the date.

Student attendance
We have a number of students coming after the bell most mornings. This impacts the
specialist subjects and also leads to missing vital instruction as our teaching starts at
8.50am.
Students on scheduled out of classroom intervention programs may also miss their sessions which will also impact student learning.

Regular late arrivals trigger our attendance/absence processes which means parents and carers will be contacted by classroom teachers at first but may be escalated to other governing bodies.

Due to the restricted car parks, we have had to close off the very end of the driveway to all cars except our contractors, admin and DOSCEL staff. We have regular visits from these people and need to be able to give access to them and if necessary emergency services. To allow this to happen and to keep our children safe, we have put bollards out to restrict access to allow the crossing near the chapel to be a safe zone for children to cross the driveway.
These bollards will be moved each morning at 8.30am and each afternoon at 3.00pm to allow traffic through when the chapel gates are open.

Student access and child safety
We request all students accessing the Administration Office and who may be coming in late do so via the SFX driveway. Students are to walk down the SFX side of driveway on the footpath and cross at the Chapel crossing.
We remind parents that the driveways are limited to 5 kilometres an hour for the safety of our students.

Hats and Uniform
Hats are needing to be worn at all break times and must be worn properly by our students to ensure that we are remaining a sunsmart school.
Summer uniform is to be worn for the remainder of the school year with sports uniform being worn on PE lesson days and SPECIAL sports days as notified by the office/classroom teacher.

2024 Planning 
Thank you to all those parents who have put in the separation requests for students in preparation for our 2024 class planning. This process has started and the background work is in progress. We are blessed at St Catherine’s to have a very professional and committed staff that plan together to ensure that the same learning opportunities are afforded to the students regardless of what class they are in, so please do not request individual teachers. All requests will be given the appropriate consideration; however, it is not a guarantee.
Your child/ren will be working with their classroom teacher to identify 5 learning buddies to assist with classroom placement for 2024. These are used to assist with selection but your child will be guaranteed 1 of these students to be in their class for 2024.

Students leaving St Catherine’s for the 2024 school year
If there are any students leaving St Catherine’s at the end of the 2023 year we ask that you notify the office as soon as possible by emailing enrolments@stcberwick.catholic.edu.au This assists the school with planning and ensuring that all students are sent home with relevant documentation and belongings.

Fees
Fee statements have been emailed today if you have not received your email please contact the office.

Out of School Hours Care Program
Please see the below flyer regarding our new OSHC Program - Bookings are now open!

Anna