Meet Our Staff

Compass Parent Portal

18 Oct 2021

Dear Families,

This is a final reminder that St Francis of Assisi Primary School is no longer sending emails and notifications through the SZAPP app.

All communication is now sent through the Compass Parent Portal. 

Please ensure you login using the username and password sent to your email address.  This can be done online and/or through the Compass app on your smartphone.

If you are having trouble logging into Compass, please email office.stfranciscalwell@cg.catholic.edu.au and we will be happy to help.

I ask that you please login to Compass and read the important information sent to all families on Friday.   This includes the phased return to school for students, including completion of a survey where appropriate.

Regards,
Kate Markcrow
Principal

Pass the Ball Video

17 Sep 2021

Dear families

If you had trouble accessing the 'Pass the Ball' video, please try with this link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zfIdeFP7eznaYgxMk9y1Mg_ICjwPg1Op/view?usp=drivesdk

Many thanks

Happy Holidays

17 Sep 2021

Dear Families

I wish to thank each and everyone of you for your amazing effort during this remote learning period. It has certainly been a testing time and full of challenges but what our community has achieved together is something truly remarkable.

To our students, thank you for engaging with your remote classroom. The teachers have assured me that you are doing an amazing job and are so clever with IT you could run the classrooms yourselves. The work that is being submitted by each of you is of a high standard and I am especially pleased to hear that you are listening to feedback and resubmitting work to ensure it is the best it can be. The kindness and helpfulness shown to each other is something I am really proud of.

To our teachers, thank you for the efforts you are going to in ensuring all our students are getting the best teaching possible. The hours of preparation, the late evenings, and the sleepless nights have not gone unnoticed. Your ability to change from a physical space to an online classroom and develop the necessary IT skills so very quickly have been remarkable. The students of St Francis are very lucky to have such dedicated teachers who are so selfless.

To our Green Room Team, thank you for the extra support you are offering to our students. I have not heard of another school who is going to as much effort as you to ensure that students learning is staying on track for our return later next term.

Finally, to our wonderful supportive parents, thank you for ensuring your children are participating and staying engaged. Our classrooms would not be able to work without you sitting beside your child and guiding them gently through this new space. From juggling your own work commitments to taking the time to send through emails of appreciation, I thank you. I am very blessed to lead such a vibrant, supportive community who work together to make the unimaginable happen.

We will inevitably have challenges but it is how we support each other that truly matters and that is clearly evident at St Francis of Assisi Primary School. Click the link below to witness our connectedness with each other in our 'pass the ball' video:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kv7bPsDzMeE0IRNbS9AUJUuDqs7TZdW/view?usp=sharing

Finally, I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday. It is very disappointing that we will not be able to see each other in person at the beginning of next term, but it does mean that we will have something truly wonderful to look forward to.

A reminder that after today, all notifications will be sent through the Compass Parent Portal so please ensure you have the app downloaded and you have checked that you are able to log in.

Keep safe and well and I will see you all in your virtual classrooms again next term.

Peace and Best wishes.
Kate Markcrow
Principal

Enrolment for Sacrament of Reconciliation

17 Sep 2021

Compass Parent Portal App

16 Sep 2021

Some families have had issues when trying to log into the Parent Portal through the smartphone app.

When you search for our school, you need to have a small o in the ‘of’ – our name on the app is St Francis of Assisi Primary School – Calwell

If issues persist, please email office.stfranciscalwell@cg.catholic.edu.au and we will do our best to help!

Adding Attendance Notes in the Parent Portal

16 Sep 2021

Dear Families,

Hopefully by now you have been able to log into the Compass Parent Portal with the login credentials that were sent to you earlier this week.  Please email office.stfranciscalwell@cg.catholic.edu.au if you are having trouble logging in.

Unexplained Student Absences 

We ask that you add an 'attendance note' to explain any unexplained absences for your child within the Parent Portal. 

This is done as follows:

• Parents will be notified on the right hand side of their Compass portal through My News for any outstanding unexplained absences/late for their child.
• By clicking Click here for more information parents are taken to a new page displaying all unexplained absences or late for their child.
• To explain an absence or late for their child the parent must click the check box to the left side of the absence they wish to explain and then the Explain with Attendance Note button.
• The Attendance Note Editor Box is generated and parents select a Reason for the absence/late and write any supporting comments.
• It has now turned an unexplained absence/late into an explained absence/late.

Alternatively you can email the school office.stfranciscalwell@cg.catholic.edu.au with details of any absences and we can add these for you.

Many thanks

Regards,
Kate Markcrow
Principal

Last call for pass the ball videos

15 Sep 2021

Last call for pass the ball videos! 

Please submit your video no later than 4.00pm today (Wednesday 15 September).

********

We want to see if we can 'pass the ball' all around our school community virtually!

This means that you and your family can be creative and 'pretend' to catch the ball from someone and then 'pretend' to pass the ball to the next person.

1. Use any type of ball to throw through a hoop, roll, catch or bounce.  Even a trick shot using family members.
2. Make sure the ball comes in from the left and exits out the right
3. This must be handed in by Wednesday 15th September by 5 pm
4. Video will be released for viewing Friday

Please post your video using this Google Form:

https://forms.gle/n99ffoN7pdTrexoD6 

(use your child's school email to log in if needed)

Thank you for taking part!

Friday Fun Day

15 Sep 2021

Dear Families,

This Friday is the last day of term. As such we have decided to put pencils down and close the computer and have a day of learning activities that do not involve the computer or iPad. We are hoping that this will be a positive experience for all our students and give them a fun last day of term.

We ask that all children wear their Footy Fever clothes on this day. This could be a hat or jersey or even their colours of their favourite team. It doesn’t even have to be football, how about soccer, netball or any other sport!

Day Plan for Friday

9:00am – Check-in for teachers to mark the roll

9:10am – Assembly for all students – Term awards will be presented

9:40am – Teachers will supply fun activities for students to participate in during the day.

Children to take a photo of them participating in their favourite activity and send in for Facebook - please submit your photos using this google form:

https://forms.gle/ZUDvpviVxgaWv9fXA

1:00pm – Check-out. Teachers will share a video with students – ‘pass the ball’ and wish the children a happy holiday.

Afternoon is free time for families.

Please note: There will be no Green Room Activities on this day.

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday break and we thank the teachers for all their hard work over the last 5 weeks.

School will return remotely on Tuesday 5^th October.

Kind regards

Kate Markcrow

Science Show - Thursday 16 September

15 Sep 2021

Tomorrow - Thursday 16 September - we are lucky enough to participate in a whole school science show.  

The Kaleidoscope Science - Great Big Science Show will commence at 10.00am tomorrow and go for approximately one hour.  

• We encourage families to use one device and watch together.  
• Children have been asked to stay on mute unless asked to participate.
• Children also need to use the virtual hand to raise instead of their real hand.

Please find below the Zoom meeting details for the show:

Join Zoom Meeting

https://zoom.us/j/95165037486?pwd=L2IvK0FteHlUUURyV3QvWUpPaHRsdz09

Meeting ID: 951 6503 7486

Passcode: 674485

Enjoy the show!

Lockdown Extension and Term 4

14 Sep 2021

Dear Families,

Thank you for your support over the past few weeks as we have transitioned to remote learning as part of the ACT’s health response to COVID-19.

Following advice from the ACT Government and Chief Health Officer, remote learning will continue for all Catholic Education primary school students during the first four weeks of Term 4 which begins on Tuesday 5 October.

Catholic Education will be working over the school holidays to develop further plans for a phased return to on-campus learning in Term 4 when it is safe to do so. Any plans will of course be completely subject to health advice, including in relation to case numbers and vaccination rates.

While I am sure this news will be disappointing to some, the Chief Health Officer has made this decision based on what we know about the COVID-19 outbreak in our community.

The health and safety of students, staff and their families, is our number one priority.

During remote learning, our school will continue to remain open to students whose parents are required to work outside the family home and who have no suitable care arrangements in place Those students will be supervised as they access the same remote learning program as their classmates. We will send out a survey for attendance during the holidays.

Please remember the most important thing you can do is support your child’s wellbeing. Keep in mind that children can express their feelings in many ways. I encourage you to speak openly with your children about how they are feeling.

If your child requires extra help and assistance, counselling is available through CatholicCare. To access the service, a booking request may be made by contacting (02) 6162 6100.

You can keep up to date with the latest health information and advice on the ACT’s COVID-19 website www.covid19.act.gov.au

Please contact us if you have any feedback about remote learning, or if you have any concerns.

I hope your family is able to spend some time together relaxing during the upcoming school holidays.

Regards,
Kate Markcrow
Principal