Dear Parents and Carers,

This is our last Newsletter for 2022. I want to take the time to thank you for your support this year in my first year returning to St Francis as Principal. I am extremely grateful to lead such an incredible school community and have thoroughly enjoyed working with you all. It has been a huge year with many challenges and change processes to manage. It seems like a world ago when we came into the school year with Covid plans and co-horting arrangements, terms with no whole school events or excursions, to now being able to operate with some normality is refreshing. Despite these challenges, our data collection and assessment indicate that our students have made significant educational gains that they should be incredibly proud of.

I want to thank the extremely dedicated staff at St Francis for their tireless efforts and commitment to the students this year. Working in a school is more than just a job it is a vocation. Schools are not easy places to work in and they require a real dedication to one's vocation to manage the complexities that exist in educating, shaping and forming young lives to be positive contributors to society.  

Semester 2 reports

Our teachers have worked tirelessly to produce our Semester 2 reports which will go home via Compass today. Many hours are spent planning, teaching, assessing, moderating, collating and entering data for our end-of-semester reports. I hope you find these documents useful records of your child’s learning. The grades and descriptors on the report are a measurement of a child's learning assessed against the achievement standards outlined in the Australian Curriculum. They do not take into account learning behaviours, attitudes and effort. I hope our PT interviews last week were able to provide you with some information related to these other critical elements of your child’s learning. If you have any trouble accessing these reports, please contact the school office.

Meet and Greet

Today our students spent some time in their new classrooms with their teacher and peers. We had a couple of absences today with staff unwell or unable to make it from their current schools. We will organise for these teachers to meet with their classes next week if possible.

Calander Link for 2023

We are moving to a digital calendar as our primary source of event scheduling. We will still send home a printed school Calander but with a reduced number of dates prepopulated. We will ask you to consult the digital school calendar and transfer dates if this is how you operate. Below are some ways to access the School’s digital Calander:

The digital school calendar is the most up-to-date representation of happenings in the School and is our one source of truth. There are a couple of ways to access this quickly:

• Through the Compass app or desktop webpage, by selecting the school calendar.
• The school Calendar tile on our School Webpage St Francis of Assisi Primary School - Calwell (stfa.act.edu.au) or the tab at the top of the website.
• Download a public .ical file to overlay the school calendar on your personal or work calendar. https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/saintfrancis.calwell%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics
• Directly visit the School Calendar browser public link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/1/r/month/2022/9/1?tab=oc

Kinder Orientation

We had our final Kindergarten Orientation last week, with many parents joining us in the hall, while their children settled into their new classrooms, to discuss life at school and network with other parents. Kindergarten 2023 parents will receive an email from me next week with copies of the slides and Kinder Assessment booking information. We have had some issues with the booking links, which we have been working through this week, that have prevented earlier distribution.

Principal Lunch Monday

We will have our Semester 2 Principal’s Lunch on Monday in the hall. Those students who have earned 90 ‘Gottchas’ for being caught living out our School Wide Positive Behaviour statements of Be Safe, Be Responsible, Be Respectful, and Be a Learner. Those students who have achieved this have been invited through an Event invite on the Compass Parent Portal, which has more detail related to the afternoon.

Christmas Carols 2023

Thank you to all the parents who attended our carols on the lawn outside the church on Monday. It was so nice to see our community back together after so long. We worked out the last time Carols occurred was in 2018. A big thank you to the Community Council for organising the food, drink & craft sales. A big thank you to Mrs Dimmock, who coordinated the singing with students and performed on the night and Mrs Cossettini for setting the sound for the night. Thank you, to our staff also for supporting the event by creating craft items and being present on the night after a long evening of Parent Teacher Interviews. 

Staffing 2023

We have several teaching staff leaving the St Francis community in 2023. Next week we will farewell these members of staff during our Farewell Mass. We wish the following people all the best with their moves in 2023:

Tiffany Reedy (Principal St Greg’s Qbn), Karen Western (Coordinator Holy Family), Debbie Cossettini (Librarian Holy Family), Andrea Gatt (Transfer for 2023 to Holy Family), Tim O’Brien (High School), Lauren Mewburn (Public Service), Michelle Marshall (Relief Teaching).

Our CSA team will be different next year, with several staff moving onto new opportunities, studying or graduating from university. We farewell the following members of our 2022 Green Room team: Tiana Cossettini, Briony Fleming, Emmie Hofsink, Jo Laidlaw, Madison Graeber-Browne, Grace Robinson.

A full list of the staff for 2023 will be included in the Parent Memo next week.

Blessings and best wishes

Sean Rutledge

Principal

Welcome to Week 9!

What a long but fast year we have had! I would like to take this opportunity to thank the community for all the support I have received in my first year here at St Francis. I know I have only been here for 12 months, but it feels like longer which is testament to the feeling of 'family' that is created within our community. I wish everyone a holy, safe and restful Christmas break, however long that is for you and your families. 

Christmas Eve Prayer

Loving God,

Help us remember the birth of Jesus,

that we may share in the song of the angels,

the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world.

Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.

Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,

and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,

and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,

forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

Source: https:www.acatholic.org.adventchristmas-prayers/

St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal

MONDAY will be the last day for collections for the St Vincent de Paul Christmas appeal. A HUGE thank you to those families who have already donated goods towards the hampers we will be creating as a school. I have placed the list of items below for those families who are still wanting to donate.

Thanksgiving Mass and Candle Ceremony

This year we will be combining the End of Year Thanksgiving Mass and Leadership Candle Ceremony. Everyone is welcome to attend this event which will be held on Wednesday 14th December at 9:30am in the school hall. We will also be taking this opportunity of being gathered together to announce the new School Leaders for 2023. We look forward to seeing you there.

Parish Christmas Times

Christmas Eve Sat 24 Dec - NO Saturday morning Mass or Reconciliation.

6pm (outside) grounds of St Francis of Assisi School, Calwell.

- Children/ families invited to dress up as part of the Nativity.

9pm Holy Family Church (also livestreamed)

Christmas Day Sun 25 Dec

Midnight Holy Family Church
8am Holy Family Church
10am Holy Family Church

Christmas Rosters are in the foyer. We still have some vacancies so please assist if you can.
Mon 26 Dec No Mass
Tues 27 Dec No Mass
Wed 28 Dec 9.30am SHC
Thurs 29 Dec 7am HFC
Fri 30 Dec 6pm HFC
Sat 31 Dec 9am SHC & usual weekend Reconciliation and Masses

Have a great week and Merry Christmas!

The Canteen is closed next week (week 10) for lunch and recess orders.

Thank you for your support during 2022.

Recently we had Ninja Kicks from the Secret Ninja School come in and work with our Year 1 students. The good news is that you can now have free access to the Secret Ninja School via you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMclGDc7eMk.

Secret Ninja Schools is a series of 5- 10 minute story-driven workouts that inspire kids to think creatively about how their bodies move, calculate risks and become curious about the world around them.  The sessions help open up your child's imagination. They exist in a wonderfully fantastic "anything is possible" world. We support this by providing story-lines that encourage curiosity and compassion. And the moves within the sessions will help build fundamental movement skills like balance, coordination and stamina. 

Click on the link or see the flyer below for more information.