Dear Parents & Guardians
Welcome back!! While our testing for the children is really helpful and help the teachers set up for the beginning of the year, we are all really looking forward to the children coming back to school properly on Friday (or Monday for our Exploration (Prep) students). For me, while I enjoy having quiet time at school with no children or staff around, I do get to the point where I miss the noise and the activity.
We welcome all our new students, families and staff to St Lawrence of Brindisi Catholic Primary School. I hope you all feel welcome and are looking forward to being part of our school community. From the beginning of our school, we have placed a focus on the development of community and partnership at our school. Please remember to communicate with us if you have any questions or concerns. We are here to support you.
It was really lovely to have the new Exploration students at school on Tuesday. To see all our new children come into school so calmly is a testament to the work our Exploration team did last year during our transition process and just goes to prove that our extended transition program has been a real success.
PARKING & STAGE THREE
You will notice that our Stage Three building work has commenced (finally – just a few months later than expected). This is a timely reminder for parents and guardians to be vigilant and careful when driving and parking around the school. While I appreciate that sometimes you might be in a hurry, this cannot be at the expense of the safety of our children – this must always be our number one priority.
With the start of the building work, this is likely to place extra pressure on parking, particularly on Eumerella Boulevard (the road opposite to school). Please be mindful of this when coming to school. There is plenty of parking available in the streets around the school. I am also mindful that the construction of the new housing development in Weir Views on the land opposite to school might also start this year, which potentially might mean that Waterway Boulevard is going to become really busy, with lots of trucks using this road as well. Please be careful!
As a reminder:
- Please be patient.
- Please do not double-park, park on the grass verges or drop your children in the road. Parents and guardians must park before dropping their children off.
- Please do not park across the driveways of our local neighbours. We try to be good neighbours and this causes significant upset to some of local community. (Also, please do not use their gardens as a waiting area or play space for younger siblings at the end of the school day as this also causes annoyance).
- Please obey the speed limits around school and the follow the instructions of the crossing guards.
STUDENT-FREE DAY: FRIDAY FEBRUARY 9
Just a note that we have our first student-free day of the school year next Friday, February 9. This was announced last year and provided to parents and guardians when the 2024 calendar. The staff will be working with our external English curriculum consultant, Anne Bone, to continue our development of the bump it up wall writing strategy we started last year.
2024 CALENDAR
You will receive a 2024 Calendar with this bulletin. This should provide most of the important dates for 2024 so that parents and guardians have prior warning. Please read this carefully, noting that we have updated this to include the Challenge (Grade 5/6) Learning Community camp in February and the Curiosity Learning Community Camp (Grade 4 and Grade 5) camp in March. Please note that it is not always possible to plan so far in advance and some of these dates might change due to circumstances beyond our control.
2024 FORMS & FEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
The admin team will be processing a lot of new and updated information at the start of the year. It is really important that parents and guardians respond to any requests for information in a timely manner so that our records are correct. Please note that documents such as the Code of Conduct, Acceptable Use of Technology are a condition of enrolment required by our governing authority, Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools, and must be completed by parents or guardians.
If any of your personal details have changed over the holidays, you must let the admin team know straightaway so that we can update our school records.
Please be aware that there are time limits for certain documents such as Fee Assistance request. If you need to complete these documents, they must be completed and returned to the admin team before the due date. On that note, if you need any assistance with the payment of school fees and you have a Health Care card, you are entitled to make a request for fee assistance.
2024 STRUCTURES
Just in case you missed this in the communication last week, these are the structures and staffing for St Lawrence of Brindisi Catholic Primary School in 2024:
| Teaching Staff | |
| EXPLORATION (PREP) | |
| Exploration 1 | Skylah Ball |
| Exploration 2 | Renee Clapton |
| Exploration 3 | Grace Barrowcliffe |
| DISCOVERY (Grade One) | |
| Discovery 1 | Sarah Pace |
| Bridget Fairman | |
| Discovery 2 | Helen Saunders |
| Nicky Gauci | |
| Discovery 3 | Charlene Zhou |
| DISCOVERY (Grade Two) | |
| Discovery 4 | Kandi Barrowcliffe |
| Discovery 5 | Rachel Wilson |
| Discovery 6 | Jessie Minniti |
| CURIOSITY (Grade Three) | |
| Curiosity 1 | Jamien Russell |
| Curiosity 2 | Jenny Tran |
| Curiosity 3 | Melanie Allen |
| CURIOSITY (Grade Four) | |
| Curiosity 4 | Courtney Daly |
| Karina Romania | |
| Curiosity 5 | Kaye Mackinnon |
| CHALLENGE (Grade Five/Six) | |
| Challenge 1 | Thomas Punzalan |
| Challenge 2 | Natalie Bruzzese |
| SPECIALISTS | |
| Science | Jo Gianino |
| Visual Arts | Shannon Nolan / Jennifer Webb (from March) |
| PE | Steve Neale |
| Alessio Mantello | |
| Administration Staff | |
| Administration Manager/ Bursar | Emma Daniels |
| Administration: Risk & Compliance / General Admin | Julie Atanasovski |
| Administration: Enrolment | Helen Cohen |
| Administration: General Admin | Kristy Valle |
| School Cleaning | Lesley Brunn |
| Maintenance | Joe Zerafa |
| LEADERSHIP | |
| Bill Hill | Principal |
| Caroline Madigan | Deputy Principal |
| Lorraine Stevenson | Learning Diversity Leader |
| Jamien Russell | Religious Education Leader |
| Courtney Daly | Wellbeing Leader |
| Helen Saunders | Literacy Leader |
| Natalie Bruzzese | Languages Leader |
| Thomas Punzalan | Digital Education Leader |
| Learning Support Officers |
| Chelsea Cole |
| Sarah Kaltner |
| Connie D’orazio |
| Miah Presta |
| Roseanne Galea |
| Laura Park |
| Carly Madigan |
| Rhianna Babnik |
| Molly Kirkman |
| Raivang Urai |
| Jayoung Kwon |
| Christina Hoffman |
| Ruby Park |
| Zoe Talbot Auslan Support |
I look forward to seeing you all on tomorrow (or Monday, for our Foundation students). Yay!!!.
God bless,
Bill Hill
PRINCIPAL