ENewsletter

DIARY DATES

School Term Dates 2025	Term 4 Monday 06 October - Friday 19 December - Last day of term Tuesday 16 December

Term 4
Friday 14 November	Pupil Free Day - 2026 Planning
Wednesday 19 November	P&F AGM: 7.00 pm
Friday 28 November	St Luke's Got Talent (more to follow)
Monday 01 to Friday 05 December	Swimming Program Yr 1 to Yr 6
Thursday 04 December	Family Picnic and School Carols - 5pm
Thursday 11 December	Year 6 Graduation (Year 6 families only)
Friday 12 December	Mass of Thanksgiving and Morning Tea - 9.15am
Monday 15 December	Step Up Day
Tuesday 16 December	End of Term - 3.25pm finish

School Term Dates 2026	Term 1 Tuesday 27 January - Thursday 02 April (Students Return Wednesday 28 January) Term 2 Monday 20 April - Friday 26 June Term 3 Monday 13 July - Friday 18 September Term 4 Monday 05 October - Friday 18 December

A message from Clare

Good afternoon Families and Friends

It is always so good to come back to this community no matter how wonderful a holiday break has been. My thanks to Julie Inglese for leading so well as Acting Principal and to the Leadership Team and staff who start each term with renewed energy and commitment to your children and to our families. We are half way through Term 4 and have such an array of activities to finish off what has been a wonderful year.

VALE Fr James Staunton. At the beginning of this week, Fr James Staunton passed away. He was 94 years young and held a very special part of our St Luke’s community heart. As a former parish priest who built the parish- school community in his many years at Blackburn South, he left a wonderful legacy for all of us. We are a strong, faith filled community because of Fr Staunton’s spiritual and faithful guidance. So much so that when our Year 6 children in 2023 researched our St Luke’s story in search of names for our three house teams, Staunton was chosen as a perfect name for the blue house. In the words of some of our Year 6 researchers:

STAUNTON House will be represented by the colour BLUE because blue represents:

Faith,
Trust,
Wisdom,
Loyalty,
Confidence,
Intelligence AND we think every one of these words represents Father Staunton

Details of Fr Staunton’s requiem mass will be made available as soon as possible. It is hoped that our school will have some small part to play in farewelling Fr Staunton.

Congratulations to Dani Fusca and the P&F for an incredibly successful fundraising event. The Colour Run raised an amazing $10,768.25. Thank you once again to YOU, our families, for supporting this activity and getting into the spirit. I think the slime sessions were a huge success with Steph Pierce, Clinton Connane, Brooke Madden, Ted Morton and our very own Fr Alex all fallen victim to tons of slime.

At the upcoming P&F AGM, the committee will nominate a project that will use some of the funds raised. We’ll use the P&F Fundraising Survey results to guide us. See graph.

Along with other ideas noted:

Art incursions and resources, kitchen garden, lockers for Year 3-6, upgrade netball rings with nets, school music band- instruments, teacher, new books for the library

Redoing back garden/vegie patch and adding a fairy garden, chess club, #D printing,beginning a Catholic HS connections program where HS students visit to support art projects or programs

Our School Advisory Council AGM is approaching - Tuesday 25th November at 7 pm and we would love to have new members of our school community join the committee. We have two members who will be leaving as they have fulfilled their three year tenure. My personal thanks and on behalf of our school community, go to Simon Meehan who has held the position of Chairperson on the council for the past two years. Richard Yeung has also contributed his time and ideas to discussions and we are grateful for how these two members have continued to help shape the future for St Luke’s. The group meets twice a term mixing good discussion with lots of laughs and l know all members would agree that the content of each meeting does hold stimulating, interesting content and helps inform members of how and why schools run the way they do. Why not come along and see for yourself?

Parents & Friends will be holding its AGM on Wednesday 19th November at 7 pm. Please come along and consider whether you would like to join this vibrant, fun, dedicated team who create just the right mix of building community whilst also fundraising for our children so they can have an even better experience whilst at St Luke's. Bring a friend too. Everyone is welcome!

CLASS LISTS are well under way for 2026. Thank you to those parents who have sent me any class requests for 2026. Unfortunately, the period for parents to make a request has closed and I cannot take any new requests.

INTENTIONS for 2026: If your family is leaving St Luke’s and you have not informed me yet, please do so by Monday so we can account for this in our 2026 class lists. This does not apply to Year 6 children moving on to secondary school in 2026.

PREP 2026 ORIENTATION has begun and it has been wonderful to welcome ten siblings to St Luke’s next year and eight new families to our community. We are looking forward to the next two sessions when our Year 5 children will ‘buddy up’ with a Prep child and begin a beautiful friendship.

It takes a village to raise a child…is such a profound but accurate proverb from African culture. At St Luke’s, this is exactly our way of being and we rely on families and our local community to partner with us just as you rely on the community and St Luke’s to partner with you. Sometimes we have isolated incidents when children treat another child differently by what they say or do. Racist comments, derogatory statements and behaviour that excludes another person have a zero tolerance at St Luke’s. Sometimes parents will say that the language that their child may have said is not language that is used in their home. Sometimes, we need to look beyond the home to see where racist, non-inclusive and bullying behaviour is coming from. Our children can be so impressionable. It could be on-line (Youtube, chat groups, social media etc…), it could be the friends of older siblings who are present with younger siblings or it could be the varied people who frequent our sporting and outside -school clubs. Whilst it is reassuring to hear from parents that clubs their family is a part of, stamp out racism, bullying and anti-inclusive behaviour, unfortunately there are many clubs and associations that do not. Please make sure that you have regular conversations with your child about what such behaviour looks like, model to them how to call out such behaviour and PLEASE monitor what they are doing and watching on line. At all times, children need to have a voice and telling an adult as soon as possible after an incident is important to maintaining and enacting that zero intolerance. Children often feel scared of telling because they may attract more of the same negative behaviour or they feel they might get in trouble. Together, we need to break down these barriers for our children.

Please make sure you make note of the dates on the calendar. We want to finish the year off the way we started… with a sense of celebration, gratitude and joy and to do that, we want every family involved in:

SWIMMING PROGRAM: Years 1-6: Monday 1st December to Friday 5th December

FAMILY PICNIC & SCHOOL CAROLS: Thursday 4th December

YEAR 6 GRADUATION: Thursday 11th December- for Year 6 families ONLY

MASS OF THANKSGIVING & MORNING TEA: Friday 12th December at 9.15am

Year 6 Student Leadership Team will be named

STEP UP DAY: Monday, 15th December - for Years Prep to Year 5

FINAL DAY for students: Tuesday 16th December at 3.25pm

Thanks for reading through to the end of this super-long message. I hope you and your family enjoy a lovely weekend.

See you next week,

Clare

Swimming Program Year 1 to Year 6

Our swimming program is quickly coming up! The program will be held the first week of December (Monday 01 to Friday 05).

Children will need to bring the following items in a separate bag to their school bag:

a towel
a shopping / extra bag to put wet items into
thongs or slip on footwear (Students will change into these before they leave for swimming)
goggles (optional)
swimming cap (optional)

Additional information:

Please have ALL clothing, towels, caps, goggles and shoes/thongs clearly labelled with your child’s name.
All students will need to be able to independently dry and change themselves. Students will not be showering after swimming so shampoo and conditioner is not required (as was stated in permission letter on Operoo).
Students should wear their bathers underneath their school sports uniform for the week.
Please refer to the Operoo permission form for the class schedules.

School Communication Apps are changing

We’re excited to announce that we are consolidating our school communication platforms. We will be progressively moving to nForma (currently used for School Reports) starting with the ability for families to provide absentee notifications.

We will then move to include the ability for families to provide changes to family contact information and student medical information, as well as replacing school communication including notices and newsletters and incursion and excursion permission requests.

We understand that change can be challenging, but we want to reassure you that nForma is easy to use. We will be providing guides as and when we move functionality to nForma.

We are confident that a single platform will improve our ability to communicate with you and enhance your experience with the school community. As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Juniors: Around The Campfire

The Juniors had an exciting time at Camp! Especially getting up close with some fascinating reptiles! Here’s what they had to say about their camp experience.

1 / 2 CORAL

Willow	At the campfire I enjoyed the zooper doopers because I like the juice.
Daniel	I liked holding the dangerous snake and feeling the bumpy crocodile whose name was Bobby. I also liked when Frank the scorpion glowed in the dark.
Samantha	At Around the Campfire I enjoyed all the animals that we held and touched, especially Freddo Frog.
Lachie	I enjoyed the scaly reptiles and the slimy green tree frog. I especially liked the crocodile.
Harry	I enjoyed the reptiles because I like scaly and slimy frogs, snakes and blue tongue lizards.
Diego	I loved the dangerous animals, especially Bobby the bumpy crocodile.
Amy	I enjoyed the delicious zooper doopers and the quiz because I came 3rd!
Emily	I enjoyed the cold zooper doopers and also the scaly friends that Ranger Cort brought.
Ryan	I enjoyed holding the long, olive python because he was scaly and smooth.
Arthur	I liked the Kahoot quiz because Daniel and I got into first place and then we went to thirteenth place but we still had a lot of fun!
Sara	I liked the Kahoot quiz game because we all had fun.
George	I liked Around the Campfire because we got to wear what we wanted. I liked touching the reptiles.
Aveline	I liked the frog on your hand because he felt all slimy and gooey.
Heze	I enjoyed seeing the reptiles because we got to pat the crocodile, and we got to hold a snake too.
Emiliana	I really loved holding the long olive python because he felt very nice and his thickness was suitable for my hands. He felt really smooth and he looked shiny - he looked like one long big tail with a head!
William	I liked touching the snake because he felt smooth and he was heavy. I liked my potato cake and chips because they were delicious!

1 / 2 EMERALD

Eva	I like playing kahoot because we got to answer questions about the reptiles and we had just been to a reptile show.
Gianluca	I liked seeing the reptiles. The snake was my favourite because I had never seen one of those kinds of snakes. (olive python)
Sophia	I like playing kahoot because I like to answer questions. I am good at answering questions.
Max	I liked getting to touch the animals because it felt like I was in the wild. I like the feel of the scales on the lizard and snake - they felt like plastic that has just come out of the freezer.
Alexandros	I like having dinner with my friends. Potato cakes are my favourite.
Evelyn	I like seeing the reptiles because the presenter told us lots of facts about the animals. I learnt that the scorpions can change colour.
Floyd	I liked touching the crocodile. It felt smooth.
Matilda	I like playing Kahoot because I won even though some of the answers were a bit tricky.
Angus	I liked the reptile show because I like feeling the scales on the different animals. They felt plasticy.
Bella	I liked seeing the reptiles. The snake was my favourite because it was so long.
Julian	I liked playing Kahoot because I won. I also liked the reptile show. My favourite reptile was the olive python.
Chloe	I liked touching the animals. The blue tongue lizard was my favourite because I have seen lots of them and this is the first time I have seen this one.
Jamie	I liked eating with my friends. My favourite reptile was the snake because the snake was big.
Lily	I liked playing Kahoot because it was really hard and I love challenges.
Stelios	I like patting the crocodile because it felt soft. I was surprised because I was not expecting that.
Evie	I liked seeing and holding the olive python. My favourite part was when we all got to have a zooper dooper.

Middles Incursion: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Plastics

On Monday 20th October, students from 3/4 Teal and 3/4 Sage participated in The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Plastics incursion, conducted by The Gould League. During the session, students learned about the impact of pollution and plastic waste, as well as how different materials can be recycled. They were also informed about how long certain materials take to break down and what they can be repurposed to create. It was an engaging and eye opening experience that encouraged students to think more carefully about how their choices affect the environment.

Middles Incursion Reflections

3 / 4 Sage

Maxwell	It was excellent. I had oil and I had to pour it into a pretend lake. And then we had a timeline. I had a fishing line
Archie	It was fun learning all about the Earth. I had the cigarettes to show the pollution of the waterway. Everyone else had different stuff and when we were done we got to get a water bottle to see how dirty the water was.
Alexandra	I had a great time learning about the Earth and that there are many ways to care for it. I also had lots of fun putting in the oil and rubbish water that we always dumped in the ocean. I had a stupendous time.
Aubrey	It was an excellent day. I had dog poo and wee to show pollution being added to the lake. It was fun and I learned a lot of things.
Poppy	I learnt that fishing lines take 600 years to break down in the sea.
Dylan Sm	I learnt that a plastic bottle would take over 1000 years to disintegrate.
Reuben	It taught us to not litter and how long it took for plastic and cardboard to break down.
Florence	I thought it was fun but also a bit weird. I learnt that you should always put rubbish in the right bin and not dump rubbish in the ocean.
Tilly L	The plastic incursion was very interesting and it taught me a lot that I will never forget some good and some kind of weird.
Madison	I kind of saw there was so much plastic that I hadn't thought about in the environment and it seemed unhealthy for it, and with all the disgusting things that were in there.
Tilly K	I thought it was really fun but weird at the same time because we had a bucket in the middle of the circle filled with water representing a river and she read a story and we had little bottles of things in the story. It was fun.
Vanessa	I thought it was really fun. It taught me about how we need to protect our world and how long it takes to process things like fishing wire.
Isaiah	I learnt that you can do something to make the pollution stop and how long it takes for things to break down.
Oliver	I did not know what to expect,I thought it would be boring but it was actually pretty fun and they taught us about the environment,and not to litter.
Mila	I thought this amazing incursion was really fun!! We learned lots of stuff, like not to dump things and to pick them up. Then we had a container in the middle of our circle and we had to put some VERY devastating gross stuff in there! But it was lots of fun! I hope they come back again to do some new learning!
Mitchell	It was so cool. We learnt about caring for the environment.
Hannah	This spectacular incursion was science-y and was a bit absurd, yet fun! It was so excellent and the moment it ended, I learnt tons of science factual info which was bizarre!

3 / 4 Teal

Louis	In our incursion about recycling, I learned that about 8 billion pieces of plastic go into the sea every day. A plastic straw can take more than 600 years to break down in the ocean!
Ilaria	In our incursion we learnt about recycling. It takes 450 years for an aluminum can to break down in water.
Eliza	In our incursion about recycling I learnt that it takes 1000 years for a glass bottle to break down in water.
Michael	In our incursion I learnt that humans can pollute the ocean through rivers and leaving rubbish around.
Mitchell	It was so cool. We learnt about caring for the environment.
Lachlan	On the incursion about recycling, I learned that some rubbish can take a very long time to break down, and some things can break down in just one week. When rubbish is left on the ground, it can block the sunlight, and then weeds start to grow.
Thomas	In our incursion about recycling, I learned that some of our oceans are filled with a lot of plastic. It can take around 400 years for the plastic to break down in the ocean.
Ayden	In our incursion about recycling I learnt that 15 years ago plastic has doubled and oil comes from the ground. I also learned that tyres can be made into playgrounds.
Leo	In our incursion about recycling I learnt that 30% of all plastic in the ocean are plastic bottles. I also learnt that plastic bottles can take up to 400 years to completely break down.
Brooklyn	In our incursion I learnt that about 2 billion plastics go in the sea a day. I also learnt that coffee grounds can be recycled and turned into a jacket.
Athan	In our incursion I learnt that more than 100,ooo pieces of rubbish end up in the ocean a day.
Jack	In our incursion I learnt that you can recycle a can of sprite and maybe a month later it will be recycled into another can that you're drinking.
Issy	In our incursion about recycling I learnt that you can make an artificial arm out of bottle caps.
Georgia	In our incursion about recycling I learnt about all the stuff that pollutes rivers, creeks,and oceans.There are also 10c refund scheme that are on cans or bottles.
Maria	In our incursion about recycling I learnt that you can recycle and gain something yourself. You can recycle bottles for 10 cents.
Olivia	In our incursion about recycling, I learned that all kinds of waste end up in the oceans, rivers, lakes and creeks. Including things like plastic, wrappers, cardboard, glass and rope.
Janessa	In our recycling incursion, I learned that there are different ways to dispose of things. For example, if it’s cardboard, you put it in the recycling bin, but if it’s plastic, it often ends up in landfill. Recycling is really important because if you litter, your rubbish can end up in the ocean and harm animals.
Ava	In our recycling incursion we learnt about how important it is to recycle and all of the disgusting things inside a creek and how it gets there.
Clem	In our incursion about recycling we learnt that plastic can end up in the ocean. There is a garbage patch in the ocean about the size of Queensland.

MACSEYE- Vacation Care Program

We are very fortunate to be partnering with St Scholastica's, Burwood (Bennettswood) for VACATION CARE PROGRAMS. We will alternate term holidays to host the vacation care programs. Please consider and sign up if this is helpful for your family. The more people enrolled, the better programs the service can provide. We just need good numbers attending.

January's VACATION CARE PROGRAM will be held at St Scholastica's. There will be a variety of excursions, incursions and in house programs running in the last two weeks of January before the new 2026 school year begins.

St Luke's will host the first term holiday vacation care program.

Look out for details coming your way via Audiri.

Accepting enrolments for 2026 all year levels

Do you have family or friends that have children starting school in 2026?

If you have not completed an application for 2026 enrolment, please visit our school website and complete the online application form. The application will prompt you to attach any documents required for the application.

If you know of a family looking for a wonderful school, please promote our school and encourage them to attend a personal tour. Interested people can 'Book a Tour' or 'Enrol' on the homepage.

Please also encourage families looking for an alternate school for older year levels to consider St Lukes! We take new enrolments at any time.

Please note: To start primary school in 2026, children will need to turn 5 years old by 30 April 2026. Schooling is compulsory for children who have turned 6 years old.

Community News

Rosellas Netball Club

KANDO Martial Arts

Special offer for St Luke families!

Girl Guides... Join Now

School Housekeeping

SMART WATCHES & MOBILE PHONES

If a child wears a smart watch to school, it must be de-activated so the child is not receiving or sending messages etc...

Mobile Phones are requested to be left at the office in the morning and collected at the end of the day.

FOOD ALLERGIES:

Allergic reactions to food… can be harmful to our children. For that reason we ask parents to think carefully about what they are packing in their child’s lunch boxes. Occasionally, something might slip through and once aware, we take precautions to ensure the safety of every child.

We try to be an EGG and NUT free school due to the allergies of children within our community. We ask that parents respect this request and the potential harm this could do to children if brought to school.

Thank you for your care and attention to this.

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 SECONDHAND UNIFORM:

Join the St Luke's Primary School Blackburn South Buy/Sell Uniform group on Facebook to buy/sell uniform with other parents. We are trying to remove any items of clothing that have the OLD LOGO WITH South Blackburn or Sth Blackburn on it. Please do not purchase these items. Thank you.

Friday - School Lunches

Friday lunches are available to order from Classroom Cuisine. There are many options and varying prices. Orders are made and paid for on-line and delivered straight to school.

For details on how it works, latest menu, pricing and to create an account please visit www.classroomcuisine.com.au

Thankyou to our wonderful sponsors of St Luke's

Sponsors of Story Dogs

St Luke the Evangelist School Newsletter

07 November 2025 - Issue # 18

DIARY DATES

A message from Clare

Swimming Program Year 1 to Year 6

School Communication Apps are changing

Juniors: Around The Campfire

Middles Incursion: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Plastics

Middles Incursion Reflections

MACSEYE- Vacation Care Program

Accepting enrolments for 2026 all year levels

Community News

School Housekeeping

Friday - School Lunches

Thankyou to our wonderful sponsors of St Luke's

St Luke the Evangelist School Newsletter

07 November 2025 - Issue # 18

DIARY DATES

A message from Clare

Swimming Program Year 1 to Year 6

School Communication Apps are changing

Juniors: Around The Campfire

Middles Incursion: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly of Plastics

Middles Incursion Reflections

MACSEYE- Vacation Care Program

Accepting enrolments for 2026 all year levels

Community News

School Housekeeping

MACSEYE (OSHC)

School Uniform - Spartan School World

Friday - School Lunches

Thankyou to our wonderful sponsors of St Luke's