Principal's News
Dear Parents and Carers,
Welcome to Term 3! I hope you and your family had the opportunity to find time to rest and relax over the school holiday period. Our students have returned very settled and I have had the pleasure of observing excellent teaching and learning taking place in classrooms around the school this week.
The holidays allowed for a number of projects to take place around the school, with our fairy tree receiving a considerable cleanup, the roof and glazing were also installed on our Yrs 3 & 4 renovation. Next week we should see the internal sheeting of walls begin. Next week, I aim to give you a video update to show the building's progress.
NAIDOC Week
NAIDOC week nearly always takes place in the school holidays, and so for schools, it is usually celebrated in the first week of Term 3. Yesterday we celebrated NAIDOC week with a prayer celebration in the school hall. Mrs Sharee Thoms did an outstanding job of breaking open this year's theme, ‘For Our Elders,’ through the use of storytelling, song, cultural practices and picture books. Today our Indigenous Students attended the Archdiocesan NAIDOC Mass for schools at St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka. Sharee Thomas and I will be attending with the children.
Upcoming Parent Events
On Wednesday night, we had a successful parent engagement session run by three of our Inclusive Education team members, Coordinator Kristy, Wellbeing Officer Susan and Counsellor Tessa. They covered theory outlining how the brain responds to big emotions and shared practical strategies for parents to use that home. These are consistent with the practices we use at school and allow shared language between home and school. We know that an effective partnership between home and school leads to better student outcomes, so I thank the 30 families who were in attendance.
On Monday, 7th August Week 4, we will run our next parent engagement workshop, Peaceful Relationships. This will be run by one of our parents, a trained psychologist and counsellor who will focus on self-regulation, conflict management and communication in relationships within the family unit. This is free to our families and BASCA will provide care for anyone who requires it. Please use the link below or scan the QR code to sign up. For more information, click on the youtube link.
https://bit.ly/PeacefulRelationshipsWorkshop
Kristy Everding and I are currently training to become accredited facilitators of the Cool Kids program, which we hope to run for our SFA community at the end of 2023 or early 2024. By becoming registered trainers, we hope to reduce some of the most significant barriers to accessing the program: a long wait list, cost and length of commitment due to the distance of providers from the family home. Keep an eye out for updates on this program later in the year. For more information about the program, visit Macquarie University - Cool Kids Anxiety Program (mq.edu.au)
Staffing Update
My wife and I are expecting the arrival of baby number 3 at the end of August. I will be taking some leave from Week 5 until the beginning of Term 4 to be with my family and new baby. Mrs Annie McArthur will be the Acting Principal during this period and will do an outstanding job at leading the school in my absence. We are currently running an internal process to appoint an Acting Assistant Principal and Coordinator during this period.
Sharee Thomas will leave us next week to join a pilgrimage of teachers from the Archdiocese to attend World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal. World Youth Day is a Catholic festival of Faith that occurs every 3 years and is located in various locations across the globe. It is a meeting of young people from all over the world with the Pope, who celebrates mass with around 2 million faithful and is an opportunity to celebrate unity amongst the global Church.
After an internal selection process, Mrs Amanda Ducker will be the Acting Religious Education Coordinator while Sharee is overseas. She will leave on Wednesday next week and will return at the beginning of Week 5.
ELC Update
Today we have reached a significant milestone in our ELC project with the pouring of the concrete slab. Please find attached some pictures of the pour onsite today.
Blessings and best wishes for the week ahead
Kind regards
Sean Rutledge
Principal