Dear Parents & Guardians,
CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK: 10–17 MARCH 2024
Catholic Education Week is being celebrated in Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne from 10–17 March 2024. This annual event is held to promote the special ethos of Catholic schools and to highlight the great things that take place in Catholic schools every day.
The theme for this year’s celebrations is ‘In the Light of Christ’.
Catholic education strives to make a difference in the lives of those in our schools and in the wider community by challenging young people to live out the message of Jesus and walk the way of the gospel to reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society.
There are 331 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne that educate around 114,000 students and employ more than 16,000 teachers and staff, and most will celebrate Catholic Education Week in some way.
HARMONY DAY: MARCH 21
Next Thursday, March 21 is Harmony Day. Harmony Day is a way in which we can celebrate the cultural diversity that is such a wonderful, vibrant feature of our school community.
This year, we are planning a range of activities on Thursday to celebrate this special occasion. Parents and guardians can support this by:
- Ensuring that your child comes to school wearing either their traditional dress from their culture OR something orange.
- Bringing their cultural food for their recess food for that day (please note that given the potential risk concerning food allergies and religious dietary requirements, we will not be able to let children share food)
You would have a received a notice from the admin team asking you to indicate your family background. We are looking to plot the countries that represent all the families in our school and see how many languages make up our school community. It would be appreciated if you could return this information so that we don’t miss any families and their cultures.
2024 NAPLAN SCHEDULE
GRADE THREE:
Thursday, March 14: Writing
Monday, March 18: Reading
Tuesday, March 19: Language Conventions
Wednesday, March 20: Numeracy
GRADE FIVE:
Wednesday, March 13: Writing
Thursday, March 14: Reading
Friday, March 15: Language Conventions
Tuesday, March 19: Numeracy
We would ask that you make every effort to ensure that your child is at school on these assessment times, barring unavoidable absences like student illness. We will schedule catch-up sessions for those children who are absent, however, it will be difficult to provide catch-up sessions for all the tests that need to be completed if children are away for all of them.
CURIOSITY GRADE 4 LEARNING COMMUNITY EXPO
While it is wonderful to see lots of parents and guardians at our school assemblies, I have long had a preference for Learning Community Expos. Expo’s are a way to highlight and celebrate the learning of all the children in that Learning Community and to actively engage parents and guardians in the learning of their children.
This year, we have made some changes to our Learning Community Expo process and will run a session for parents and guardians from 5.00 – 6.00pm so that those of you who are working have the opportunity to attend. The children love to show their parents or guardians what they have been learning so I hope all of our Grade Four parents and guardians make every effort to come.
EASTER PICNIC AND EASTER EGG HUNT
Wednesday, March 27 is the date for our annual Easter Picnic and Easter Egg Hunt. Last year, the children had a wonderful time, and we are hoping to repeat this in 2024. We would love to see all our families attend our picnic at 6.00pm. With the nicer weather and later evenings at the moment, this should be a lovely opportunity for our school to gather as a community and celebrate the start of Easter and the end of Term One. I hope we see you there!
PARENT & GUARDIAN COMMUNICATION
As a school we endeavour to communicate with parents or guardians promptly, professionally and respectfully. We have high expectations of our staff in this regard.
We have noticed that a number of parents and guardians are contacting teachers using the Seesaw app. Seesaw was really designed for teachers to show parents and guardians some of the learning their children were doing at school. When we use too many different forums for communication, it confuses this process and can potentially lead to missed or miscommunication. If you have concerns about a matter at school, we would ask that you contact the school via email, by calling the school to speak to Caroline or me or by catching up with the relevant staff member at the end of the day.
We would also note that we have had made it clear to our teachers that they should be responding to emails and calls from parents and guardians within 48 hours. We are also mindful though that our staff have lives outside of school and they should not be answering any emails or calls from parents or guardians outside of their work hours unless there is a very specific or important reason for doing so. Please do not expect them to respond to your communication if this is sent after 5.00pm or before 8.30am.
2025 ENROLMENT
Although we are still in Term One, we now need to begin our process of planning for next year with the start of our Enrolment process for new enrolments in 2025. If you have a child starting school next year, it is critical that you let us know as it makes it difficult for us to plan if we don’t know about this until late in Term Four when the majority of enrolments have been decided.
If you know someone who is interested in enrolling their child in our wonderful school, they will need to complete the expression of interest on the front page of our website.
SCHOOL PHOTO DAY
A reminder that tomorrow is school photo day. We would like to see all the children at school for their photo’s so please avoid making any appointments for them tomorrow. Please try to make sure your child comes to school with a clean and correct summer school uniform.
PROJECT COMPASSION UPDATE
It has been absolutely amazing to see all of the Project Compassion fundraising efforts that have happened so far at Saint Lawrence of Brindisi. From students purchasing water droplets for display and discussing the need to use water wisely through to some very generous online donations, the response has been overwhelming! This week, I am happy to announce that as a final Project Compassion fundraising effort, we are going to hold a casual dress day. To acknowledge all of the amazing fundraising efforts from all students, a free sausage sizzle will also be provided as part of this day. The details of this day are as follows:
Date: Thursday, March 28
What: In addition, for a gold coin donation, all students will be encouraged to wear casual clothes. All the money raised on this day will be added to our Project Compassion fundraising tally. At the end of the term, I look forward to sharing with you all the total of our fundraising efforts. A gold coin donation is required to come to school in casual clothes, however all students will receive a sausage (regardless of gold coin donation).
This week, I wanted to share the personal story of Memory – another one of the many people the funds we are raising will go to support.
Jay Russell
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION LEADER
Fourth Week of Lent
(Week beginning Monday 11 March)
Memory is 26 years old and lives in rural Malawi. As the eldest child in a low-income farming family, Memory had to take on many household chores and farming activities to support her parents. They struggled to pay for Memory’s school fees and school supplies, and Memory often had to walk to school barefooted.
With the support of Caritas Australia and its partner the Catholic Development Commission in Malawi (CADECOM), Memory was able to enrol at a technical college where she learnt technical skills in carpentry. She undertook a three-year carpentry course, with CADECOM supporting part of her tuition and boarding fees.
Memory became the first female carpenter from her village. Today, she works as a carpenter at one of Malawi’s largest hydroelectric power stations. With the income from her job, she can provide financial support to her family and inspire other young women in her community so that they may have the opportunity to succeed in a male-dominated industry.
Watch Memory’s Story
Please donate to Project Compassion.
Together, we can help vulnerable communities face their challenges today and build a better tomorrow for all future generations.
You can donate through Project Compassion donation boxes at school or online by accessing the QR code.
God bless,
Bill Hill
PRINCIPAL