Week 8 - Term 4

Dear parents & caregivers,

The end is nigh! As we enter the first week of the Liturgical season of Advent, we also wind down to the end of our school year. Like the previous year, it has been a rather momentous one, with the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to impact our lives on so many ways. As Catholics and therefore people of hope, we look ahead to our world returning to some sort of normality, come the beginning of 2022.

Today, your children will have visited their new teacher  and class group for 2022. These moments are important transitions and learning experiences for children. While moving into new settings with new people brings a certain amount of uncertainty, it is also an opportunity for exciting new beginnings. Children will experience these moments of transition every year into the future, with peak moments being the end of Primary School and the end of Secondary school. There are opportunities to build resilience and skills for life!

I am pleased to announce our staffing profile for the 2022 school year, as follows:

Reception – Mrs Leonie Fitzgerald

Reception – Mrs Tania Palmato

Reception – Mrs Renee Cross

Year 1 – Mrs Gia Perin

Year 1 – Mrs Nikki Dytman

Year 1 – Mrs Karen Brandwood 0.6 and Mrs Sarah Battistella 0.4

Year 2 - Mrs Rebecca Demetto (Manno) 0.5  and Mrs Juliette Passerini 0.5

Year 2 – Mrs Marisa Brown

Year 2 – Mrs Cheryl Milde (NB-Cheryl will be on Long Service leave in term 1 and Mrs Rosslyn Stevens will take the class.)

Year 3 – Miss Emma Gill

Year 3 – Mrs Maria Silvestri

Year 3 – Mr Mark Bowman 0.8 and Mrs Angela DeNadai 0.2

Year 4 – Mrs Chantal Driver

Year 4 – Mr James Goldy 0.6 and Mrs Christie-Lee Hansberry 0.4 (NB-James will be on Long Service Leave in term 1 and Mrs Rebecca Pawson will take the class 0.6)

Year 5 – Ms Corinne McKenzie

Year 5 – Ms Ellie Ventrice

Year 6 – Mrs Mary Louise Stoddard

Year 6 – Mrs Libby Thomas.

As you can see, we have a number of new staff joining our team for 2022. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Sarah, Ellie, Corinne and Angela to our staff for 2022. I also wish James and Cheryl a restful Long Service Leave break and we will look forward to their return in term 2.

We are all looking forward to our Carols evening and picnic tomorrow. The children have been practicing hard and they sound fantastic! My sincere thanks to Miss Olivia Bozzon for her excellent coordination of the event. I would like to remind all families of the following:

• This will be a covid-safe event. This means that check in is a requirement of entry. We ask you to properly social distance while taking part in the event, and where this is not possible, we ask that you wear face masks. There will be check in stations and hand sanitizer at various points through the school.
• Upon arrival, children should remain with their families until called to the marshalling area.
• Before and during the concert, the playground and football goals are out of bounds-including for siblings. We need the children to be actively involved – both as an audience and in readiness for their performance.
• After each group performance, the children will return to families. Following the completion of the concert and from that point onward, all families are responsible for their own children – please note, teachers will not be on duty after the completion of the choir event.
• We respectfully ask all children and families to stay out of the Quadrangle area, unless accessing toilet facilities. This is because there is no supervision of this area.
• The event will conclude at 8.30pm. At that point, the stage company will arrive to demount the stage. As you can imagine, they will need sufficient space to do this, and so we ask that families leave promptly, to maintain a safe environment for all.

Student reports will be sent home on Monday 6th December. These reports are a summary of learning across the whole year, and take into consideration the semester one report. You are invited to clarify any aspect of your child’s report with your child’s teacher at any point prior to the end of the school year. My thanks to all of our wonderful staff for their efforts in preparing these documents-it is a very important, but also time consuming task!

While this would usually be the last newsletter for 2021, I will be writing to you one more time, next week! I am excited to inform you that we have been working on a communications App, which will be available for you to download, from next Wednesday! You will receive instructions on how to install the app on your apple or android mobile phone. While the App development will continue during the holiday break, there will be some information immediately available to you, once you download and install it. As we add information to the App, it will automatically regenerate. Stay tuned for more exciting developments in this space as we enter the new school year!

Have a great week everyone,

God bless,

Phil Schultz

Principal.

Dear Families,

Transition afternoon 2022 Classes

Today the students were placed in their classes for 2022 and spent part of the afternoon with their new teacher. The focus for all classes was beginning our Being Connected program which will continue in the first 2 weeks of the new school year.

The process for student placement began for staff many weeks ago. These groupings take a considerable amount of time to finalise and this process includes consideration of student learning, friendships, staff thoughts and priorities and other information gathered throughout the year.

Reports

Next Monday, we hope to distribute to all families the End of Year Reports.

These reports are a summary of your child’s 2021 academic year. As you share the report with your child, I encourage you to reflect together on their time at St Francis this year. What have been the positives? What is your child proud of? What have been some of their learning achievements? What have been the special blessings or moments that you have been able to celebrate or share with others?

OSHC

Thankyou

As we come to the end of the year, I take this opportunity to thank you as parents for your generous partnership with the school and the many contributions you make to the life of our community.   I wish each family a happy and peace filled Christmas, and pray that you experience God’s gifts of hope and love.  With many blessings for Christmas and the New Year.

God Bless,

Nives Kresevic

YEAR 6 REFLECTION DAY

As part of the Year 6 Reflection day, Year 12 old scholars Patrick Rawlins, Isaac Brown, Isabella Green and Tiana Fernandez addressed the Year 6 cohort about their secondary school journey and the changes and opportunities the students will experience as they too begin this journey.

The reflection day provided some ‘time out’ for the Year 6 students to reflect on significant times and feelings during their time at St Francis School.

Vinnie’s Christmas Hamper Appeal

Thank you for your overwhelming response to the Vinnies Christmas Hamper Appeal. Your generosity will ensure that those in need will receive a Christmas Hamper to share with their family to enjoy the blessings of the Christmas season. 

Advent-Staying Awake to God’s Message

The new liturgical year places us in the season of Advent.

Advent is a period of spiritual preparation often not much appreciated, little understood and often ignored as it gets swallowed up by Christmas.

Advent always signals a return to the beginning, but is always a new beginning.

How can we engage with the season of Advent, to prepare us for the birth of Christ, so that we will be able to accept it with the same joy as the shepherds on the first Christmas.

This Christmas, as you pause before the nativity scene for prayer and reflection, remember that, like each character in that scene, you are called to hear the Gospel, to believe it and then go out and become witnesses to this “Good news of great joy ... to all the people” of the world.

Unless Christ has changed our life and we have absorbed his ways, the infant in the manger will just be a cute baby displayed in a picturesque setting in department store windows and on greeting cards.

The words of St Caesarius of Arles, are as true today as they were in the 6th century; “Christ could be born a thousand times in Galilee, but in vain until he is born in me.”

This is my last newsletter as Assistant Principal Identity and Mission/School Chaplain at St Francis, as my tenure concludes in January 2022.

It has been a privilege to have had the opportunity to work with the students, parents and staff at St Francis School.

As we wait in joyful expectation during the season of Advent, for Jesus to come into our lives, may the love, peace and hope that Christ brought to our world, fill your life and the lives of those you love at this blessed Christmas time.

Go well and enjoy!

Peace and blessings,

Helen Wilsdon-Smith Assistant Principal Identity & Mission /School Chaplain