Dear Parents and Carers,
Thank you to all who attended the Parent Information Evening. It was pleasing to see a great turnout and lovely to see parents coming back on site. We hope you found these sessions informative and helpful in understanding your child’s learning for 2023 and also a chance to meet the teachers. If you were unable to attend, I encourage you to contact your child’s teacher so they can send through to you any information they provided parents.
We have had a wonderful start to the year. The whole school has spent the first two weeks focusing on wellbeing. The Wellbeing weeks are an initiative that has been adopted by all the five catholic schools in the eastern region. It provides many opportunities for students to get to know their classmates, their teachers and develop strong positive relationships. Students look at ways they can be ready for learning and how the class and their learning will be organised. The whole school has been introduced to all components of our wellbeing program including meeting Bonnie our wellbeing dog.
This week we also had an opportunity to celebrate the beginning of the school year with a whole school mass. The theme of the mass was ‘belonging’. A sense of belonging is crucial to everyone as it helps with our wellbeing and overall happiness. It gives us a sense of purpose and meaning. It was special to be able to return to Mass and we thank Fr Roy for his continued support.
Last week our Little Stars Program began its very first play session for students who are 4 years old and will be attending our school. This play-based program provides the children a fun way to transition into school life and meet other students, building positive friendships as well as getting to know the teachers and the school grounds. Ms Shannon Thrift, one of our Reception teachers is running the session each Friday morning from 9am – 11am through the year. If you would like more information, please contact the front office.
Pick Up after School
It is important that I remind all families about the importance of following the safety rules around pick up on Birkinshaw Ave. if you are using this area for the collection of children please follow some every important and simple rules that we have in place. Lately we have noticed a few unsafe behaviours by drivers and pedestrians.
- Please do not attempt to do any 3-point turns in the school drop off or pick up zone, we encourage you to drive around the block and enter Birkinshaw Ave from Magill Rd.
- Please do not attempt to pick up children from the other side of Birkinshaw Ave – this has resulted in students crossing the road between moving cars and is very unsafe.
- You cannot queue around the corner of Magill Rd and Birkinshaw Ave –this is a solid yellow line and you can be fined by the council - if there are cars waiting for pick up you will need to drive on around the block and return later.
- Please do not cross over Birkinshaw Ave through the traffic in the Drop Off and pick up area – the Emu Crossing is available for a safe crossing.
To make the pick-up run smoothly and flow, we would strongly encourage all drivers to continually keep moving along the queue so that more cars can then collect students safely. If you have to get out of the car and assist your child into the car then we would recommend that you do not use the pick-up zone as you can park in the church car park or in the street and walk to collect your child.
If you have other family members collecting your child can you please let them know the rules that are used by our school to keep everyone safe. Thanks for your support.
Finally, I would like to remind you that next, Friday 24 February, the school will be closed for a Pupil Free Day, as staff will be attending a Professional Development session for the day.
Kind regards
Adrian Grbin
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