Dear families,
Welcome to term 4! Even though it is week 3, it feels like the end of the school year will be upon us before we know it. There will be numerous whole school and class based celebrations over the coming weeks, including (but not limited to) Transition graduation, Instrumental evening, R-3 swimming lessons, 4-5 Aquatics, year 5 and 6 reflection days, School concert, Thanksgiving Mass and year 6 graduation. As a community, we look forward to these opportunities to come together and celebrate everything that is great about our school community.
I have been back at school for two weeks now, having enjoyed a very inspiring period of renewal leave. I had many rich opportunities to nurture my faith, to learn more about the church, and in particular about St Francis and the charism of the Franciscan brothers. My visit to Assisi was amazing and a very spiritual experience! I am looking forward to sharing my learning with the staff and students in the near future and hopefully school families will also notice and experience some new expressions of our story and faith, into the future. I am very grateful for the support of the staff in allowing me the time and space to have this experience, and particularly thanks Angela DeNadai, Corinne McKenzie and Nives Kresevic for their leadership during this period of time.
Families will hopefully have noticed some considerable progress with our new building in recent times, with brick work and exterior cladding going up, and significant interior ‘secondfix’ infrastructure such as air conditioning being installed. We are anticipating a significant amount of activity in a relatively short space of time from here, with interior walls, joinery etc beginning to happen. I want to acknowledge that school families have had to deal with less than optimal grounds and facilities this year, and while this hasn’t impacted on the quality of the teaching and learning, or unreasonably reduced our play spaces, over time, fatigue sets in and you just want it all to be finished……or maybe that’s me saying what is in my head! In any case, in partnership with our builders, Architect and the CESA team we are doing everything we can to bring the project to completion. I humbly seek your ongoing patience and goodwill as we bring this transformational project to fruition. Next week, we will send out a pictorial update, for families who don’t get in to school very often.
Last week, we enjoyed a highly successful annual sports carnival. We were blessed with amazing weather, and had a day full of fun, healthy competition and community participation. I sincerely thank James Goldy, James Daley and Maria Silvestri for their expert planning and delivery of the event, all the staff for their support of the PE team and the students, and Sarah McCabe, Charmaine Feiter-Norris and their team of volunteers for providing excellent catering on the day. Congratulations to the Red team for taking out the championship shield and the Green team for winning the Spirit cup. Many of the students who participated will have another opportunity to shine at Friday’s SACPSSA Athletics carnival at Santos Stadium!
During the term break, St Francis conducted a Vacation Care program for the first time. It was a highly successful venture, with very strong average attendance and an excellent program delivered by Alexandra Curtis and the OSHC/Vac care team. I am absolutely delighted with the outcome of the venture, and we are planning ahead now for the Christmas and pre-school period in 2024. Further details are imminent and as soon as bookings open, I strongly encourage families to book in, to avoid missing out on what has proven to be a very popular offering!
A reminder to families who haven’t yet returned their 2024 compulsory forms to do so as a matter of importance. The forms and reminders have been sent via szapp, for ease of completion.
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