Grandparent’s Day

Thank you so much for the many emails, messages and phone calls regarding Grandparents Day last Friday. It was fantastic to see so many people here and enjoying the musical talents of our students. 

Grandparents Day is certainly one of our biggest community days of the year. We love welcoming grandparents to our school, so they can see what the grandkids are up to. We had many visit from all over Australia and many Great Grandparents too!

Although the weather was miserable, we did manage to have a shared morning tea with all our special visitors in our learning spaces. Thank you to everyone for your patience with this.

A big thanks to our Mrs Anne-Marie Dimmock for her work in preparing for this day and to Mr Peter Collins for being a fantastic MC on the day.

HOLY WEEK

With Holy Week and Easter occur during the term break we will commemorate this special time in the Church’s liturgical year with our Holy Week reflections on Thursday 11April. Each grade will present a part of the story to the rest of the school through art. Each class will take a tour of each of the stations, you are most welcome to join your child at this time. The day will culminate with a whole school reflective prayer liturgy in the Peace Garden, weather permitting. 

Ninja Colour Run

The Ninja Colour Run is on Friday 12 April and it is approaching fast. We had a fantastic launch and the children are truly excited. There are many incentives for the whole school and wonderful prizes for children to win. Our goal this year is to raise $15 000.

All information, including sponsorship cards have been sent home and we encourage all families to seek sponsorship for your child. Take it to work, ask friends and relatives. All money raised goes directly back to the students. Our new groundsman Jeff, has many ideas on how we can improve our playground for the children. He has already started, by putting in synthetic turf in the Peace Garden.

We look forward to a wonderful day. If you can help on the day please return the volunteer slip to the front office. Thank you.

We suggest that all children are provided with either sunglasses or goggles to keep the children’s eyes protected on the day. If you do not wish your child to be squirted with colour, please inform the class teacher

Open Community Council Meeting

Last week we had the first of our two Open Community Council Meetings. Although it was not well attended, there were many great conversations. We did start work on our new strategic plan and this will continue at our next open meeting in September.

We also launched our new Communication Strategy between classroom teachers and parents which outlines some changes in the way we communicate. Below is a summary of these changes. If you would like the full outline, please email the office for a copy.

• A change to our Parent Information Night
• 3-Way conferences will now be Parents Teacher interviews for our children in Kindergarten to Year 2.
• Week 10 each term, the newsletter will do a term in review for each grade.
• Teachers will touch base with parents twice a term about how a child is progressing in the classroom. (This is not a full report about a child but rather a snapshot on something they may have achieved during the week.)
• We will move from Skoolbag to SZapp from the beginning of Term 2.
• Teachers need to have a work/life balance and as such will not answer emails or messages after 6pm.

Communication needs to be sent but also received for it to be successful, therefore there are some responsibilities that need to come from the home to ensure that all members of our community are getting the necessary information. Below is some important points to remember when communicating with a staff member.

• Respect a teacher’s working hours in terms of response times to emails and phone calls and to not expect communication during class time or after 6pm.
• Emails may not be answered immediately – there could be a 48 hour turn around
• Urgent communication needs to come through the front office, either by email or phone
• That all communication received from the school is acted upon
• The teacher is the first point of contact for issues regarding their child’s learning or social needs.
• For any unresolved issued the coordinator is the next point of call.
• Demonstrate respect for the school and staff in all communications including digital technologies and social media.
• Request a formal interview time with your child’s teacher when there is a concern to be discussed.

Open Day and Enrolment Period

The Catholic schools formal 2019 enrolment period is between Monday 6 May May and Friday 31 May.

Our Open Days are on Monday 6 May and Wednesday 29 May between 9.30am and 11am and/or 4 and 6pm. Please let friends know of this enrolment period and share your positive experiences of the school with others. Your feedback is still the defining advertisement for St Francis of Assisi Primary School and the main reason new families tell me they want their child to attend. Our school is truly about ‘people’, ‘community’ and ‘quality education’.

Information packs will be available from St Francis of Assisi at the start of next term which will explain the new online enrolment process for all Catholic schools. Spaces cannot be guaranteed, even for siblings, if the applications are not returned by the end of the enrolment period. Please pass this information on to anyone you know who may be considering enrolling their child in an ACT Catholic school.

A reminder too that this enrolment period includes enrolment for Pre-Schoolers at the Parish Early Learning Centre, situated at Holy Family Gowrie.

Tuggeranong Swimming Carnival

On Tuesday this week, many of our students represented our school at the annual Tuggeranong Swimming Carnival. It was a very successful day with our team performing well and enjoying themselves in the process. A big thank you to Matt Smith for organising our team.

Catholic Schools Soccer Carnival

We wish our 50 students – 5 teams all the best as they participate in the annual Catholic Schools Soccer Carnival, at Calwell Playing Fields this Sunday. This is always a great day with the emphasis on having fun and playing with school mates. A big thank you to the many parents assisting with coaching and managing, as well as Mrs Lauren Macdonald and Miss Lauren Mewburn who have organised our teams for the day.

Uniform Reminders

Thank you for your support with school uniform this year. A reminder that full winter uniform is required for Terms 2 and 3. A copy of our ‘School Uniform and Student Appearance Policy’ is available on our website and I encourage all families to familiarise yourselves with correct uniform and appearance requirements. Please ensure your children are ready to go for the start of Term 2.

We have had quite a few children coming to school with patterns shaved into their hair. Please know that all children at St Francis of Assisi need to have their hair neat and tidy with no shaved patterns. Your assistance and support with this is very much appreciated.

Awards Assembly

The first of our awards assembly will be held this afternoon at 2pm.   Children will be selected from each grade who have displayed a willingness to be a shining example to others in our 4 school rules; Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful and Be a Learner and another 2 for living in the footsteps of St Francis by being a ‘Peacemaker’ and being Sustainable.

Year 6 will host this award assembly and present our current school rules to the rest of the school.

Congratulations to the following children who are our first award recipients.

CROSSING SUPERVISOR SURVEY – CLOSING SOON

A School Crossing Supervisor program has been introduced in the ACT at a selection of school crossings to assist children to cross roads safely by directing traffic with a stop sign and providing instructions to students.

To help determine if the program is successful, Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS) has engaged First Person Consulting to evaluate the program. One of the ways that they will be doing this is through surveys to help capture attitudes to children travelling actively (i.e. walking or riding) to school. 

To complete the survey please click here, or copy and paste the following link into your browser: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4856202/School-Crossing-Supervisor-Survey-Participating-NEW-Schools-Feb-19

The survey should take about five minutes. The survey will not collect any identifiable information, and all responses will be kept confidential. You may have completed a similar survey last year. Please note that this is a follow up survey and we would appreciate your input again.