Term 2 Week 1 Bulletin
Dear Parents & Guardians,
Today marked a very special day for our school as we celebrated the Official Opening of our Stage One building with Mr Sam Rae, MP for Hawke representing the Commonwealth Government, Bishop Martin, Western Region Auxiliary Bishop for Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese, Cr Lara Carli, Mayor of the City of Melton, members of the leadership at Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools and many other special guests.
Our celebration was an important milestone in the life of our school. It was another chance to celebrate the beginning of a new school community. The thing I took away from it all and the first thing our distinguished guests mentioned to me was the children at St Lawrence and how well they behaved. To watch the children, sing our school song and sign the words of the song using Auslan still makes me catch my breath; the representatives of the council admitted it brought tears to their eyes to see how engaged our children were.
COMMUNITY TEAM
On the Easter Community Picnic, we had a number of parents and guardians who expressed an interest in joining a School Community Team we are hoping to start this year as a sub-committee of the School Advisory Council. Please let me know if you are interested in joining. This is not a big commitment – we would probably be looking at one meeting a term after school.
STAFFING UPDATE
Over the school holidays, we have been very busy addressing some of the staffing challenges that have been impacting our school and, I am glad to say that we have made some progress in this area. Sadly however, Melinda Fraser who was teaching in Discovery 4 has decided to resign from her position at St Lawrence of Brindisi due to some health issues. We are sorry to see Melinda go and thank her for her work in the short time she was a member of our community.
Melinda will be replaced by Sarah Pace who will be working three days a week and Skylah Ball (who was already on staff) for two days a week. We think that this will be a positive partnership for these children for the remainder of the school.
We also welcome Kandi Barrowcliffe, who will join our school as our Discovery 2 teacher from the beginning of Week 4. Unfortunately, because we were unable to find a teacher for this class at the end last year and consequently had to use a relief teacher, Rosina Pollino during Term One. We thank Rosina for her support of this class but we are now happy that we have managed to find an experienced and capable teacher to support these children for the remainder of the year.
We also welcome Steve Neal and Alessio Mandello to our school. Steve will take on the sports teacher role and Alessio will also be teaching some of our classes, mainly in sport. These two new teachers will be a great addition to our community. Lastly, you will notice a new, smiling face in the office as we welcome Kristy Valle to our team as one of o
ur administration staff. You will also note that in the final weeks of Term One, we also employed Raivang Urai as a Learning Support Officer. Rai will also work in our admin team providing translation services to Burmese community.
MOTHERS DAY
Last year, we missed out on celebrating Mother’s Day due to the COVID restrictions. This year, we are planning to do something special to celebrate this, but given that this is so close to the beginning of term, please be aware that this is a short turn around for this. I apologise if we pick a date that does not work for all of you and that we have not provided more notice. I will be working with the staff to organise something for a day next week. I will send more details when this has been clarified.
STUDENT LEADERS 2023
At the end of Term 1, the Year 6 students who wanted to be school leaders, planned and presented speeches to their peers. The cohort voted for the student they wanted to represent them. Teachers also watched the recorded speeches and voted for our school captains. The students did a fantastic job at capturing what leaders are and how they can impact a community. It is our pleasure to announce the 2023 School Captains:
School Captains
– Angel Fofanah
– Parthenia Rizk
School Vice Captains
– Gurleen Kahlon
– Declan Nsereko
We look forward to the positivity these students will bring to our school community.
Thomas and Jessica
Challenge Learning Community Teachers
2024 ENROLMENTS
Our enrolments for 2024 are now open. If you know any families who are interested in an enrolment for 2023 or 2024, please encourage them to contact the school office.
God bless,
Bill Hill.
PRINCIPAL