Good afternoon families and friends,
A pinch and a punch for the first of the month! September, here we come. Spring is here, the wonderful AFL finals begin and the holidays are just around the corner. We’ve had another bumper fortnight and will be making that mad dash to the finish line for Term Three with many packed days to come.
Last weekend, Archbishop Peter Comensoli visited the parishes of St Timothy’s and St Luke’s. He began his visit with a combined meeting of the two school leadership teams from both schools. He met with the staff and students at St Timothy’s before coming to St Luke’s. It was lovely seeing our children engage with him and he with them. There were some curious questions, a little shyness at times but overall a very warm welcome from our community. Our school captains, James and Emily, the faith and Mission leaders, Iris and Lexi and the Social Justice leaders, Matilda and Knox spoke beautifully to greet him in front of our school group. The staff also enjoyed sharing lunch with Archbishop Peter. I was fortunate to have some time to speak candidly with him about the joys and challenges being faced by educators and the education system these days. He was very grateful and appreciative of the beautiful communities he visited at St Timothy’s and St Luke’s and was very complimentary of both.
The Comedy Night went ahead with an enthusiastic group who made up the audience. Thank you to the P&F who went all out to make it a great success, despite smaller numbers than anticipated. Some good feedback was given regarding timing for such an event in future years to encourage a sell-out success.
Our recent school closure day was a rigorous, productive day when staff reflected on five domains of St Luke’s- Faith, Learning and Teaching, Well-being, Community and Leadership and Management. A rating was given in each area, evidence considered and an awareness of where we need to move to next. As l have mentioned before, we are preparing for a School Review and the school reviewer, Kylie, will look at this and check it against the evidence we provide before making recommendations for future directions for St Luke’s. The review dates are 13th October as an initial visit for VRQA and then two full days on 17th and 18th October to complete compliance and to scrutinize our policies and processes. Some parents will be invited to meet with Kylie to share their perceptions of our programs, process and community.
Our annual Father’s Day breakfast was overflowing with Dads, Grand-dads, special men and LOTS of KIDS. We loved having you, we thought the paper plane challenge was a hoot and congratulations to Jacob and his dad, Leigh for creating a sensational plane that flew the longest distance. What champs you are!
Thank you so much to the families who have completed the MACSSIS survey this week. The recently distributed email to every family about the survey actually feeds into our review process.The data collected is totally confidential and unidentifiable but forms strong data for the domains mentioned above. We really need each family to complete the survey so we can learn what we are doing well and what we can do better. Only one adult in each family received the email with the login link and unique pin. Please complete the survey by 15th September. Thank you.
Recently children participated in some learning and action around the National Day of Action- Bullying, No Way! This is an annual event on school calendars and in Australia when awareness, understanding and action is brought into the spotlight. It takes a team approach in schools to ensure bullying is addressed immediately and effectively. St Luke’s relies on partnering with families to support children who may feel they have experienced a bullying incident and the child/ren whose actions may identify as bullying. Strong, clear messages are essential for children and adults about what bullying looks like, feels like and sounds like.
Staffing News… Ronnie Etheve will be taking some much anticipated Long Service Leave in Term Four. We thank Ronnie for the fantastic work she does as our Intervention teacher here at St Luke’s and we are truly indebted to her for the support and the expertise she has brought to her role over many years at St Luke’s. Make sure you stick to the three Rs, Ronnie- rest, relax and rejuvenate over your much deserved break. We’ll see you next year.
Another piece of staffing news is that Micaela Debney will be taking some leave as she and her husband and boys welcome another little Debney into the world early next year. Micaela will finish the 2023 school year here at St L:uke's. Congratulations to Micaela and Will and big brothers, Freddie and Max.
IMPORTANT:
Finally, to our School Production update. Thank you to all the families who have booked tickets. As the Audiri notification (formerly Skoolbag) said today, the matinee performance advertised will now be an opportunity for people who can go in the afternoon- toddlers, grandparents, other family members to attend for free, allowing more people to attend in the evening for those bigger families.
If this is you, please go back in and book tickets (free) for the afternoon session. We will refund those people who booked and paid for the afternoon session.
If you have not received the costume letter sent out last week, check attachments to this post.
Hope you managed to get a glimpse of the supermoon this week- it literally was super duper.
Have a great weekend and a big shout out to our Dads, Grand-dads and special men in our lives; make sure you get super spoilt this weekend.
Clare Ryan
principal@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au
