Term 3 Week, 4 Bulletin
Dear Parents & Guardians
Firstly, thank you to all those in our community who came to celebrate our grandparent’s liturgy with us last Friday. It was lovely to see so many grandparents, parents and special friends there! Thank you!
There is some really important information that will be sent out with the newsletter today. It is really important that you read this carefully as this contains details on some significant changes to some school processes, notably regarding the end of the school day.
These changes reflect the new employment award that governs the pay and conditions for all staff in Catholic schools across three of the four Victorian Catholic dioceses. The environment for schools is very challenging at the present time, particularly for schools such as ours. It is increasingly difficult to find teachers which is a significant problem for schools like ours experiencing significant and sustained growth. Finding skilled, capable teachers that are the right fit for our school and will provide the best possible learning for your children is no easy task. The simple fact is that there are few teachers available, too many are leaving the profession and too few people are looking at teaching as a profession of choice.
It is vital therefore not just to create a positive school culture where our staff feel safe, happy and supported but also build a work culture that attracts people, especially young people to the profession of teaching. This is clearly bigger than just our school but requires the leadership of the Catholic system as a whole and the support of government, both state and commonwealth. We need to ensure that teaching is seen as a positive, rewarding endeavour, one that is manageable in terms of workload and rewards teachers fairly for the effort they put in (and from my observations, I can guarantee that our teachers put in significant hours and effort to nurture and educate your children).
This is the ultimate goal of the new award – to ensure that all our staff in schools are valued, acknowledged and get fair reward for the amazing work they do, something I know we all support.
BOOK WEEK
Keep remembering Book Week in Week 7, from August 21 – 24.
Also, please remember that Friday August 25 is a student-free day for all students.
BUMP IT UP WALL INFORMATION NIGHT
As part of our Book Week, we will hold an information night for parents and guardians to explain our new Bump it up Wall writing strategy and how this is being used in the classrooms to support and inform the learning and the progress of your children. This information night will be on Thursday, August 24 @ 6.00pm. I hope you make time to come along and talk to the teachers about how this is being used.
FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION
The Feast of the Assumption is a holy day of obligation in the Church year and consequently, we will be celebrating mass with Fr. Wilford, (our new Assistant Parish Priest) on Tuesday, August 15. I would really love to see lots of parents and guardians come to celebrate mass with us.
FEAST OF ST MARY MACKILLOP
August 8 is another very important day in the Australian Catholic Church calendar when we celebrate St Mary Mackillop, currently Australia’s only recognised saint. We have organised a liturgy for this day at 9.15am and again, I hope you come along and celebrate with us.
FATHER’S DAY
Please note in your calendar’s, Father’s Day on Friday, September 1. We will be organising something special for our dads, so I hope you all leave time in your busy schedules. More information to follow soon!!
FIRST 100 DAYS OF PREP
Just a reminder that tomorrow is our first 100 days for our Exploration students. We have a Exploration Learning Community assembly to celebrate this tomorrow at 2.30pm
ReLATE WELLBEING FRAMEWORK AND STUDENT-FREE DAY
As mentioned last week there is no school on Thursday, August 10 as our staff group engage in a professional learning session for our ReLATE Wellbeing Framework. KellyClub is available for those parents who require this service. Please contact the administration office if you need their contact details.
SMART WATCHES
To remain compliant with the policies and expectations of our governing authority, I am reminding our parents and guardians that children should not have mobile phones on them during the school day. For those (older) students who need to bring them to school, these must be handed into the admin office in the morning and collected at the end of the day.
Students are allowed to wear smart watches; however, these must be placed in to non-receive mode during the day; that is they must not be able to receive or send messages or calls.
STUDENTS LEAVING AT THE END OF THIS YEAR
As we are beginning to organise staff and resources for 2024, we ask if you could please let us know via email (office@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au) if your child/children will not be returning to St Lawrence in 2024.
Please disregard this message if your child is currently in Grade 6.
God bless,
Bill Hill.
PRINCIPAL