Dear Parents

Catholic Education week started last on Friday and concludes this Friday. The theme being “ I am making all things new” Rev 21:5.

The Diocese celebrated the beginning of Catholic Education week with a Mass held at each end of the Diocese. Both Rian and I were commissioned as newly appointed Principal and Religious Education Leader at the mass held  at St Thomas The Apostle Parish Church. 

The year 6 student leaders travelled by bus up to St Michael’s church yesterday with Rian and myself to celebrate mass with the parishioners. The leaders conducted themselves in an exemplary manner. They were the perfect ambassadors for our school.  They should be very proud of themselves. 

We will also have a special liturgy on Friday for Catholic Education Week. This will be run by our student leaders. We welcome parents to attend as we do with all our assemblies. If the weather is inclement we ask parents to join their children in classes for the liturgy.

National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week is in week 7 

Year 5 students have embarked on camp this morning and are heading off to Lady Northcote Camp. They will spend 2 days at the adventure camp and one day visiting Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. I hope they have packed warm clothes, it gets pretty cold out there. I thank the staff who have volunteered to attend and are spending time away from their families to do so.

Year 2 level mass will be celebrated in The Chapel next on Thursday, 30 May at 9.30am.  Parents of year 2's  are invited to join the students for this mass. We also extend an invitation to all members of our school community. 

National Simultaneous Storytime Day took place today and many of our students wore their Pyjamas and dressing gowns to Snuggle up with the book by Aura Parker  “Bower Bird Blues”. 

Mother’s’ Day.

The Mother’s Day Stall ran a little differently this year.  It was lovely to see the teacher’s setting up the stalls in the classroom and playing “shop assistant” for the students.  Children already planting seeds with mum in pots to watch their plant grow, to jewellery stands saying, "mum can never have enough jewellery". We had many positive comments about the set up.  The quality of the gifts and the students delight in the giving of these gifts, artworks and cards on Mother’s Day.

Building:

There are background works going on at DOSCEL regarding the building at the front of the school. At this stage I have nothing more to report but once we have information I will share it with the community. 

Staffing

We have engaged a teacher for 2M8. Mrs Alice Li will start officially in the grade on Monday 27 May.  She has been in to visit on Monday this week and will be coming in again on Thursday. 

We have also employed Miss Ella Bell as the teacher of 6LA5. She will start in the grade on Monday 3 June but will be in for most of Monday 27 May to get to know the students. I welcome any parents of 6LA5 student to call in before school to meet Ella and introduce themselves. 

We welcome both Ella and Alice to the St Catherine’s community. 

COVID and staff illness 

Our school community has again been hit hard by illnesses of all kinds. Our staff have also been hit. We have COVID amongst us and remind all staff and students that if they test positive we ask them to stay home. If they are unwell or have any symptoms of COVID, they should not attend school. 

I assure you that splitting classes is our last resort but at times we have needed to do this to ensure the appropriate supervision and consistent learning of all children.

Absences

We ask all parents to enter student absences in the SIMON platform or to call the office to inform us of an absence. If children are absent with no communication,  our absentee process is triggered and contact with carers will be made. If your child is arriving after 8.50 am they MUST be signed in at the office by an adult. Phone calls will be made for parents to come and sign children in if they are not escorted into the office. 

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 St Francis Xavier side of driveway on the footpath and cross at the Chapel crossing behind the bollards. 

We remind parents the driveways are limited to 5 kilometres an hour for the safety of our students. Staff are on hand to assist until just after the bell. All students who are late should be walked into the office by an adult and be signed in for legal reasons. The orange arrows are areas where they need to wait for a staff member as there can be car traffic.

Crossings and Parking

We ask that all students and parents are using the crossings that are clearly marked and manned as these are safe ways to cross road. The council have also notified us that this is a concern  and have  asked  that parents and students use the designated crossings when crossing Ridgemont Drive and Meadowlands Way. 
We are aware that parking can be problematic but also ask that parents do not park in the Great Beginnings child care Centre carpark or block the entrances as there are cars coming and going from here at all times. 

Whole School Positive Behaviour Approach 

A SIMON email went out regarding our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support on Friday of last week. As a reminder: 

• At St Catherine’s we are safe.
• At St Catherine’s we show respect. 
• At St Catherine’s we are resilient.

Parent Access

We understand that, during COVID, access to the school was restricted. We are trying to provide more opportunities for families to have access to the school. Times have changed about this and we as a school have to adapt. The fact that our driveway goes through the middle of the school grounds also creates many risks in the afternoon to all of the members of our community. 

Please be assured that you can walk students into school in the morning and come onsite in the afternoon around the rebound wall.

We are endeavouring to provide special opportunities for parents to come onsite. We have our Assembly this week celebration Catholic education Week on Friday afternoon.  Please see further details below.

If  you ever have any concerns or want to chat with staff or leadership, please contact the office to make time to meet that suits everyone. 

NAPLAN

The preliminary NAPLAN scores have been released to schools but individual reports will be sent to the school around the 15 July. Once these have been received we will distribute them and notify parents that they are coming home. Please file these as some secondary schools request these on enrolment. 

The process for accessing this information has changed and is more  complex due to confidentiality. It is much easier for all parties if the original reports are retained and submitted on enrolment application. 

Student Attendance 

Our classes start at 8.50am, students are expected to be at school and ready to start instruction at 8.50am. 

Any students coming after the bell are impacted as they can miss vital instruction and the beginning of Specialist subjects. Students on scheduled out-of-classroom intervention programs may also miss their session, as many of these start as soon as the bell goes in the morning.

Any student arriving late must be signed in by a parent or carer via the office. This is a legal requirement and we have noticed many more students arriving after 8.50 am.  As a part of our continual review of our processes and procedures, we will be following up with parents and carers.  Classroom doors open at 8.30 am.

Regular late arrivals will 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. 

Hats and Uniform 

All students should be wearing the winter uniform as we are well into term 2. Hats are not necessary but recommended.

School closure day

A reminder that there will be a school closure day on Friday 28 June, for staff Professional Learning the data day mentioned above. 

Out of School Hours Care Program

 If you’re interested in your child participating in the Holiday program offered, please click on the below link.

 2025 Enrolments

We are currently taking 2025 Enrolments. If you are an existing family please get your forms in asap to guarantee you a spot.  Our Prep numbers are increasing fast and we are conducting multiple tours a day. If you know of anyone considering St Catherine’s for their child please ask them to contact the Office for a tour.

Mother's day Pictures

Our Canteen runs from Wednesday - Friday. To register please follow the following link Quickcliq registration,  then once registered you can login to Quickcliq.  When registering if your child is in Prep you will need to click foundation.  Your UID (student ID) number can be found on the home page of your Simon App. For further information please see the attached flyer.  Ordering cut off times will be the day before at 8pm, to receive your child's order the very Our next day, any orders placed after 8pm will automatically be placed with orders placed the following day, this allows for time to purchase any extra items needed on the day.  For those children with dietary requirements there will be a folder placed in the school office outlining ingredients of certain items. Please see the attached Menu, which will also be available when ordering through Quickcliq.