Dear Parents/Carers,                                                                        

Welcome to a new academic year. I trust that you and your family were able to celebrate Christmas in a special and joyful way. 

We particularly extend a warm welcome to our new kindergarten children and families new to our community. We also welcome our new staff members; Miss Stephanie Kingsley and Miss Shanae Slattery.

We are a “can do” community and I’m sure both will experience the beauty of St Paul’s hospitality which was so very evident when I came to the school at the beginning of 2018. 

I would like to share with everyone our focus areas for 2024. Some, you may notice, begin to happen very early this term, others will become more evident as the year progresses.

We will implement considerable teacher training in the area of student writing and the creation of texts. We are also continuing to focus on student attendance and engagement.

In the week beginning Monday, 26 February 2024 (Week 5), parent teacher meetings to discuss student progress in reading and Mathematics through the PAT assessments are planned. At this meeting each parent will be given a data report that maps your child's progress in Mathematics and English to take away. From this meeting, it is a wonderful opportunity for you to now clearly, early on in the year, focus areas that the teacher will need to work on with your child.

These meetings are only 15 minutes in duration and should a further in depth meeting be required, this can be arranged after these initial meetings.

Last year, as a school we spent considerable energy on improving student absence Our plan is to continue to monitor this closely. Student performance in our National Testing was significantly impacted  by student absenteeism throughout 2023 and I will share this data with you in the coming newsletters.

St Paul’s plans to continue our focus on building student number fluency and applying related mathematical content to solving mathematical problems.  Our National Testing data identifies the continued need to enhance teacher content knowledge, especially in Stage 3 Mathematics outcomes as well as assisting teachers to create challenging realistic problems that enable the students to apply this content knowledge.

In addition, the K-6 Mathematics and English Syllabus has been revised and will need to be implemented this year.  This will require ongoing professional learning for all staff throughout the year. 

Finally, every five years, schools go through a process of review. The school Cyclic Inquiry process is an opportunity for the school community and its leadership to stop, reflect (inquire) and celebrate its improvement and growth journey and to identify a limited number of major strategic priorities that will further enhance student growth and improvement.

This process examines the evidence based growth in the culture of the school as a faith and learning community. This will be led by an external panel of educators, involving interviews, observation and collaborative discussion with the school leadership team, staff, parents, clergy and the wider community. The panel also spends time in classroom learning walks.

It is my hope that our improvement agenda can be followed through. The school cyclic inquiry process makes for a large school agenda, but out of this will come clarity of purpose for change as we create and implement a new strategic plan for our school community.

Opportunity to Meet with Your Child's Teacher

As stated earlier, students data meetings will begin in the week beginning Monday, 26 February 2024. However, Meet and Greet Meetings are still available for you within the first four weeks of the term either at your request or the request of your child’s teacher. If you would like a Meet and Greet meeting feel free to arrange this with your child’s teacher through the office. These can either be done over the phone or in person. Please contact the office as soon as possible to arrange a time with your child’s teacher. Quite often these meetings are beneficial should your child suffer from anxiety, there has been a significant change or loss to the family or simply because you would like to directly meet your child’s teacher at the beginning of the year to create a positive working relationship. I am very aware in most cases, such a meeting is not needed either by the parent or the teacher and this is why we have chosen to make this on a needs only basis. You may find that it is necessary to arrange a Meet and Greet Meeting for one of your children but not the other, and that is perfectly fine and understandable. Due to this meeting not being formally timetabled, the same information about homework, timetables, sport days etc will be sent home in a thorough grade Outline for term one.

Student Supervision

A reminder to all parents that morning supervision begins at 8.30am, when the school gates are opened and afternoon bus supervision ends with the last bus leaving at 4.00pm. Supervision on area two, in front of the canteen finishes at 3.40pm.

Your child should not be dropped off at the office area on a regular basis before 8.30am.

Last year some children were at school at 8.00am and were sent to the office. This is beyond our regular hours and is an unreasonable expectation. It would be expected that you take them to ASPIRE like other parents do and pay for this service that is available to you. If you are going to be late for any reason when picking up your children, please contact the school office. The phone is attended until 4.30pm, after this time it will go directly to the message bank and will not be followed up until the next morning. Ringing after this time to make appointments to meet with teachers or members of the Leadership Team would be an unreasonable expectation and will need to wait till the next morning after 8.30am. Teachers have considerable administrative responsibilities to attend to, various meetings, lesson planning to complete and unfinished marking that weighs heavily on them. Please be mindful of this when you ring and expect to speak to them beyond these times.

Haircuts

Please ensure your child's haircut meets the requirements outlined in our school handbook as stated below. It would be good to read this to your child before taking them to the hairdresser. Perhaps take a copy to the salon would be helpful.

HAIR

Students are required to wear their hair in a neat and tidy manner.  Haircuts should be of an even grade. Hair should be well brushed and combed and it is assumed that hair will not be in such a condition as to invite comment. Ribbons must be school colours. No oversized bows and hair embellishments.

BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING:

• Extreme styles, bleaching, colouring or dyeing of hair are not permitted.
• Gel, mousse and hair spray or other substances should not be used.
• There will be no undercuts, steps or shaved lines within the hair.
• Nothing shorter than a Number 3 comb is acceptable.
• Hair should not extend to cover the eyes or beyond the shirt collar (boys).
• Boys hair should be of a length not to attract attention. ‘Man buns’ are not permitted at St Paul’s.
• Students who do not abide by the haircut requirements will be asked to fix the identified problem.
• Long hair is to be tied back or plaited. Ribbons and bands of school colour are to be worn. 

I will be monitoring students this week and approaching any student who does not meet these requirements.

School Fees

Online Enrolments - 2024

The CEODoW has moved all schools to a new online enrolment platform, called Funnel, removing the use of all paper forms.

Please take note, particularly for sibling applications. The online application form is  accessible from the home page of our school website.

https://www.spcdow.catholic.edu.au/

Insights & Surveys

Please ensure you have actioned the '2024 Acceptance Use of Technology Agreement' and the '2024 Consent for the use of students image and/or work' via insights in your compass parent portal. (Tip sheet attached)

From the Handbook - ANAPHYLAXIS POLICY

We have several children in our school who are allergic to nuts. Their allergies are life threatening so we ask all parents to refrain from sending their children to school with peanuts, peanut butter, and peanut products.

Please refer to the “Anaphylaxis” Policy below.

Ash Wednesday - Lent - Project Compassion 

The season of Lent begins on Wednesday, 14 February 2024 with Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is so called because ash, made by burning Palm crosses, is mixed with oil and used to make the sign of the cross on a person’s forehead.

Talk to your children about the meaning of Ash Wednesday. In the Old Testament, the ashes represented repentance. Ashes are a public sign that we desire to live in Christ and to follow Christ. The ashes also symbolise grief for our sins.

 Lent is intended to be a time to renew and prepare ourselves to receive the fullness of the resurrection. Yet before there can be the joy and exuberance of new life, first there must be death - death to selfishness, death to mean-spiritedness, death to anything that serves ourselves rather than others. To prepare our minds and hearts for the joyous celebration of new life and energy of Easter, we can experience Lent as a kind-of spiritual makeover time. Personal pledges to forgo favourite foods, to fast, to give to charity and to extend our prayer time are simple and effective ways to re orientate our hearts towards life and love. 

Lent is a significant period on the church calendar and at St Paul’s we will enter into the spirit of Lent in various ways. We will begin by celebrating Mass on Ash Wednesday for classes of Years 3 to 6. Our Kindergarten, Years 1 and 2 classes will attend a liturgy where they will receive the Ashes. On Thursday, 22 February 2024, we will celebrate by attending another liturgy to help us further focus on Lent. All classes will focus on a Lenten unit in their RE lessons. We will also be encouraging our students to support Project Compassion during Lent.

On Tuesday, 13 February 2024 two of our student leaders will accompany Mr Reardon and myself to attend the annual Caritas launch for Project Compassion. On St Patrick’s feast day, as it falls during Lent, we will ask students to wear something green with their uniform and bring an extra donation for Caritas.  

Each class will receive a Project Compassion box to keep in their prayer spaces for the duration of Lent. This box serves as a reminder to us all to keep our brothers and sisters from around the world in our prayers and to think about what money we can go without in order to support them. Should you like to keep a Project Compassion box in your homes during Lent, these will be made available from the church. Donations to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. In support of Project Compassion, we are asking all students and staff to help us raise money and offer hope to the millions of families who fight for justice, peace and survival every single day. 

The theme of Project Compassion 2024 is ‘For All Future Generations’ and reminds us that the good we do today, extends to impact the lives of generations to come. It invites us to make the world a better place by working together now and finding long-term solutions to global issues.  We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through prayer, fasting and almsgiving in support of Project Compassion. 

Embrace Project Compassion 2024.

Maria Debrincat

Religious Education and Pastoral Care Coordinator

Waste Free Wednesdays

St Paul’s is committed to being an environmentally friendly school. We encourage all students to bring a waste free lunch every Wednesday. On this day, we ask parents to pack a lunch for their child that contains no throw away packaging. Rather, we recommend using a bento style lunchbox where each food can be contained in its own section, or using re-usable packaging such as containers, bees wax wrappers, silicone zip bags. Some of the benefits of Waste Free Wednesdays are outlined below:

• Reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill.
• Reduce the rubbish within our school grounds.
• Cut household spending. Buying foods in larger, bulk packaging is more cost effective for your family.
• Consider healthier options to include in school lunches.

Each Wednesday, class teachers will award one playground token to every participating student. The tokens are counted towards the House Cup at the end of the term. The winning house receives additional play time at the end of the term. 

Help St Paul’s. Help the Environment. Waste Free Wednesdays.

2024 Canteen Price List

Pancake Day - Tuesday, 13 February 2024

Please ensure you have returned the pancake order forms and payment by Friday, 9 February 2024.