St Luke the Evangelist School Newsletter

Welcome Families and Friends,

I always love the start of the school year. Fresh faces, new squeaky shoes and lots of laughter and energy for the term ahead. It was wonderful to catch up with many of you yesterday and l look forward to seeing many more people over the next few days. We have many welcomes to make this year.

Welcome to our Prep children and their families; they had the best first day with Brooke Madden and Julianne Kelly. We have many new families joining our St Luke’s community and we hope you are feeling the warmth and love St Luke’s is so famous for. We also welcome a number of new children and their families joining us in other year levels… Bella and Katie in Year 5, Hudson, Grayson, Stella and AJ in Year 4, and Christina in Year 2. 

Finally, we welcome three new staff members- Brooke Madden (Prep), Rosa Phillips (Senior School) and Domenic DeLeo who will take PE whilst Micaela Debney is on maternity leave. We are thrilled to have them join our team and community and look forward to them leaving their imprint on our school.

There have been many questions around the earlier finish time- 3.25 pm- beginning from Week 2. As a result of the 2022 Enterprise Bargaining Agreement that all MACS schools took on last year, schools are now required to ensure teachers are working to a strict ‘scheduled class time’ formula. This requires careful planning so that teachers and education support staff have a balanced work routine of face to face teaching time, planning time, meeting time etc…To avoid the disruption in the morning, in particular to our specialist and intervention timetables, we decided to finish the day five minutes earlier. I understand this may be disruptive for some families and apologise for this. I can assure you that we supervise children until parents arrive and if a parent is running later than 15 minutes, we always take the child into the office area to wait with Deb. A phone call will be made to check your estimated time of arrival. If you know that you will be arriving after 3:40 please ring the office to alert us. Thank you for your flexibility and understanding around this.

To clarify… Student Entry opens at 8.40 am and we ask all children to be in class by 8.50 am. Our very important Morning Routine begins at this time and learning begins at 9 am

We have an action packed Term One to look forward to. Please plot these dates on your calendar NOW.

• Welcome Picnic- Thursday 8th February: 5.30-7.30 pm on the school oval

• Beginning of the School Year Mass- Yr 6 Student Leadership Badges to be presented with morning tea afterwards: Friday 9th February at 9.30 am

• Ash Wednesday- in class liturgies: Wednesday 14th February

• P&F Meeting in the staffroom- everyone welcome! Thursday 15th February at 7 pm

• SAC meeting- see item in newsletter: Tuesday 20th February at 7 pm in the staffroom

• Twilight Sports: Friday 1st March 2pm- 5.00 pm

• Family Conferences (meet n greet/conversations):Wednesday 6th March 1.30pm- 7 pm

• Labour Day Public Holiday: Monday 11th March- school is closed

• School Closure Day: Tuesday 12th March- Staff Professional Learning Day

• Harmony Day/P&F Colour Run: Thursday 21st March

• End of Term 1/ School concludes: Thursday 28th March (Holy Thursday)

CLASS REPRESENTATIVES are a vital part of building our school community. We would love to have a parent representative from every class in 2024. Typical roles a Class Rep would have is sending out reminders or notifications to parents/carers via the class WhatsApp group about what’s happening in the class, maybe organise a social gathering like a playdate at the park after school occasionally, adults dinner out or oversee a special lunch treat day once in the year. It is not a huge role but can be very helpful for families.

Please consider this great opportunity to make new friends whilst providing wonderful support to our school structures. Even chat with a friend from the other class if you feel you need a buddy with you. Send me your names asap so we can get the ball rolling…

principal@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au 

Once a month special lunches will hopefully happen in the last week of each month. This suggestion was put forward by the P&F and the idea is that a class will be allocated a month for parents from that class to organise, for example a hot dog lunch, yummy wrap lunch or other type lunch for the children. There will be a structure created that helps parents bring it together so watch out for details to come.

Our School Advisory Council will be meeting for the first time in February. We need at least two new parents to join our council so please express your interest via email to me at principal@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au . It is so important to receive parents' perspectives, ideas and feedback and this is a perfect opportunity to do just that by volunteering to be on the SAC. I look forward to hearing from you.

We are thrilled to have had a very successful enrolment intake this year but it takes hard work and a combined community effort to achieve such results. In the upcoming weeks we will be doing a letter drop to our local area and need YOU to help with this. We also need YOU talking and promoting St Luke’s as the school of choice… word of mouth is our most powerful tool when it comes to encouraging enrolments so please, get talking…

Finally, l will be taking some Long Service Leave starting on Monday 19th February and return on Wednesday 13th March. My husband, Mark, and l are returning to India for a visit which will be very special. As always, the staff will step in and keep things running led by Julie Inglese and the Leadership Team.

Enjoy a wonderful weekend together.

Clare Ryan

principal@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au

Lukan theme 2024

Through our school vision, combined with the Gospel of our patron Saint Luke, we are called to serve others and live and learn in harmony. Our Lukan theme for 2024 is ‘Reach out in Love and Mercy’. This theme was drawn from the Parable of the Prodigal Son and reminds us that we are all on a mission to spread God’s message of love and mercy to everyone. We endeavour to link the concepts of love and mercy to our words and actions towards others - forgiveness, compassion, a friendly face, a welcoming gesture. Just as Jesus showed love and mercy to others, so we aim to follow in His footsteps.

Ash Wednesday 2024

Wednesday the 14th of February marks Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten Season. Our students and staff will hold classroom liturgies and Ashes will be distributed on our foreheads, reminding us of our mission ‘To reach out in Love and Mercy’. Ash Wednesday begins the forty day season of Lent that leads to Easter Sunday. On Ash Wednesday, we come together to remind ourselves that we don’t always follow God’s ways and to ask for continued guidance and forgiveness. 

Caritas Australia ~ Project Compassion Lenten Appeal

‘Aspire not to have more, but to be more’ Saint Oscar Romero

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent and also the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Each year, St. Luke’s fundraises for this important cause. 

Donations to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to alleviate poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice. 

We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. 

Look out for further information about this initiative in our newsletter throughout the season of Lent. 

On Ash Wednesday (14/02) each family will receive a Project Compassion box for donations. 

(You can also donate online ~ https://lent.caritas.org.au/) 

Each class also has a fundraising box in their classroom. During Lent, we encourage the students to give something up and place the money they saved into their classroom box.  

Please return Project Compassion boxes to school by the first week of Term Two.

Welcome - Beginning of School Year Mass - Friday 9th of February @ 9.30am

On Friday 9th February, we will gather together for Mass to celebrate the beginning of the new school year. Our school staff will be commissioned and our Year Six school leaders will be presented with their badges. We warmly welcome all parents and carers to join us on this day at 9.30am for the Parish Mass.

Thank you for your continued support.

Nina Grieve

Faith and Mission Leader

Term 1 = SUNHATS!   Please make sure your child has a school hat to wear EVERYDAY, our school has a No hat, No play policy.  Please remember to label hats and all uniform, so as we can return lost property to the correct family.

Please remember to pack a water bottle every day with fresh water.

Expressions of Interest

As part of the governing guidelines as set by the Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) board – our governing body, St Luke the Evangelist PS, Blackburn South has a School Advisory Council to support the principal, parish priest and leadership team of the school. We have outgoing members of the SAC and are looking for parents who are interested to join this dynamic group made up of our Parish Priest (Custodian of Faith and Mission), the principal and members of our parent and parish community.

While no particular expertise is required, the school seeks people with a range of diverse skill sets to best advise the principal, united by a desire to provide the best possible education for our students.

A balanced membership with parent voice on the School Advisory Council is well-placed to advise the principal about important matters, particularly those related to the school’s mission and students’ success.

The needs of the council will be given priority in terms of ensuring a balance of gender, cultural diversity and skill sets.

Therefore, we are calling on you to express your interest in being part of the School Advisory Council. If you are a member of the parish or have children in the school and wish to be part of this exciting development, we would welcome your application in writing to Clare Ryan (Principal) by Friday 16th February at principal@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au

Please see the attached flyer for thoughts from our current members.

Families with children in Prep to Year 4, please look out for the program flyer sent home this week.  The program starts this coming Monday 5 February.  Please see flyer for costs and registration.

LOST PROPERTY:

Please check the lost property cupboard in the office foyer if you are missing jumpers, jackets or food containers.  

SUMMER UNIFORMS:

We are now wearing the summer uniform.  Please apply sun cream in the morning before school.  School hats are compulsory. Term 1 = SUNHATS!  Please make sure your child has a school hat to wear EVERY DAY or else, No hat, No play.

CHILDREN ARRIVING AFTER THE BELL OR LEAVING EARLY:

As part of our wellbeing care of children at St Luke's, every class engages in a morning routine at 8.50 am.  This quiet, calm time allows children to gather together in a circle, to greet each other by name, to pray and/or enter into some Christian meditation and get ready for the day.  Please make sure you allow enough time to get your child to school BEFORE 8.50 am.

If children arrive after the gate and student entry doors are locked, parents/carers are required to walk their child/ren to the school office and sign them in on the VPass iPad.

If leaving early (before the end of the day), parents/carers are required to sign their child/ren out on the VPASS iPad.

Buy/Sell second hand uniform:

One of our parents has kindly created a Facebook group to buy/sell uniform with other parents.  Please search for:  St Luke's Primary School Blackburn South Buy/Sell Uniform on Facebook and click join group to start trading!