St Luke the Evangelist School Newsletter

Good afternoon families,

Our day of JOY… the Italian Festa Day was such a wonderful day for our children and families. Thank- you, Signora Rosa Phillips who did such a great job organising a range of activities that reflect what an incredible culture the Italians enjoy. Tarantella kept the children captivated with the story and dancing, the soccer skills lead by Ramon Wilkinson, Violet and Louis got the kids moving and the Bocce group did some great drills to teach the children the finer things about this age old game. Angela and Dani wet our competitive appetites with their bingo calling. It was really wonderful to see so many families pop in for an hour or two and enjoy the festivities.

Launch of the Vision for Engagement
On Wednesday evening l attended a MACS launch for the Vision for Engagement- the next area for Catholic schools in the Melbourne archdiocese to embrace for the overarching Vision for Instruction. We had speakers from schools, the Honourable Deputy Premier of Victor and Minister for Education- Ben Carroll, our own Executive Director- Dr Edward Simons among others who spoke about how the MACS Vision for Engagement is for all students to be actively engaged in their learning, equipping them to thrive and to make meaningful contributions to the world. I am looking forward to unpacking this with staff, families and children with the help of Gabrielle Carter - our Student Wellbeing Leader.

Curriculum: The Reading Collective, that our school is a part of, met again on Thursday to continue to unpack the Science of Learning through the lens of a rich core knowledge curriculum. This is our next step in implementing and starting to imbed our explicit instruction and at our next pupil free day on Monday 23rd June, our teachers and LSOs will be working on developing a Term Three unit for the social sciences.

Please make sure you save the date for our Term Two Learning Expos on Thursday 3rd July from 2.30 pm to 3.25pm. It is an exciting opportunity for our children to showcase their learning. Make sure you pop into the renamed STEM lab adjoining the Discovery Centre to check out the wonderful work Megan Bunter has been doing with our budding STEMists. Signora Phillips is also showcasing her outstanding Italian program inside and outside the Cultural Hub. Make sure you go and have a peek. Please encourage grandparents and others who collect your child/ren to arrive a little earlier and pop in. You will have time to roam to other siblings' rooms.

Community: Our ever enthusiastic P&F Association has just released tickets for the Sports Trivia Night on Saturday 26th July beginning at 7 pm. Of course to add to the fun of the night there will be games in between rounds with gold coins required. This is a wonderful opportunity to build community, laugh until you cry and support our school all in one go. Please get a table together or simply book a smaller group. Everyone is welcome however, this is a function for people over 18 years of age. See you there.

Faith and Mission: Please keep the following Confirmation candidates in your thoughts and prayers this Friday as they are confirmed in the Spirit this Friday evening. Olivia, Bradley, Katia, Ella, Katie, Hugo, Minah, Lachie, Olivia, Evie, Talia, Oliver, Sophia, Louis, Lucas, Violet, Ethan, Jayden, Fernando and Luca have been preparing over these past weeks along with their friends, Billy, Lizzie, Vivienne, Bella and Charlene.  May the Spirit strengthen you to live the gospel as young faith filled Catholics.  Thank you to the Senior school teachers for their support, to Nina Grieve for her co-ordination and to Fr Alex and Bishop Trinh for their inspiring stories.

Have a wonderful week ahead; those holidays are just around the corner.

Clare

On Thursday, June 5th we celebrated Italian Day. The students looked great in their coloured costumes in green white and red. We had Galileo Galileo and Michelangelo join us along with a couple of Sophia Lorens and we must not forget Andrea Bocelli!

The activities for the day included. Bocce, Soccer, Tombola, Learning the Tarantella and making gladiator helmets. After lunch we enjoyed gelato and were introduced to our ‘Super Gladiators’ alias our wonderful preps.

There were a number of winners for the best costume in each year level as well as most effort and most creative. 

A big grazie to:

• Ramon Wilkinson and his assistant coaches Violet and Louis for running the soccer

• Dani Fusca and her mum, Angela for running the tombola

• The families who came along to view the activities 

• The wonderful staff who supervised and ran the activities

• The students for embracing the Italian culture and participating so beautifully 

Some of the comments from our students:

Preps:

• My favourite part of Italian day was the tarantella. Because it was fun dancing.  Harvey

• I loved playing soccer with my buddy.  Olivia

• We got to play Bocce and eat ice cream.  I really like Bocce.  Stella 

• I liked the dancing it was like tap dancing.  Aidan

Samantha & Emiliana: 1/2

We did lots of fun activities including the Tarantella dance. Our favorite part of the day was the Tarantella. Our teacher taught us simple steps to complete a dance. We liked the story that she told us as well!  We ate rainbow gelato and it was delicious. 

Michael: 3

My favorite part of Italian day was Bocce because we had to try to get the bigger balls closest to the small white ball. I also loved that I got an award and I can’t wait for more gelato.

Ava S: 4

Italian day was a blast! Honestly, my favorite part was the gelato and it was rainbow! It was so cute when the preps dressed up as gladiators.

Ciao,

Signora Phillips

Thoughts on the Melbourne Museum Excursion

Jimmy	My favourite thing was the train ride because I had the opportunity to tell jokes with my friends and see the city.
Louis	My favourite thing was all the different things I learnt. The best thing that I learnt was that chickens and dinosaurs are related.
Ilaria	My favourite part was the 600 000 million year exhibit because there were dinosaur bones and I like dinosaurs. It was really cool when we saw a relative to the T Rex, a chicken.
Eliza	My favourite thing was looking at the gold and gems. Because I've never seen them before.
Michael	I liked playing on the playground because it was bigger than any playground I've played on before.
Lachlan	My favourite part was the bit where we got a picture running out of the mouth because the photo looks really funny.
Thomas	My favourite part was looking at the fossils and looking at them with my friends to see what they were made of.
Ayden	My favourite part was seeing the gold gems and minerals because I liked how there was so much light coming out of them.
Leo	My favourite part was the forest gallery because we saw the cute parrots and it was a fascinating sight.
William	I liked exploring the Gondwana Garden because of all the animal habitats that were there. I also liked looking at the huntsman, it was very camouflaged.
Brooklyn	When we got to play at the park because we got to play tag because it meant i could play with my friends.
Athan	My favourite part was seeing the tyrannosaurus rex because it was really cool to see something so old.
Jack	My favourite part of our trip to the museum was visiting the playground.
Issy	My favourite thing was the beautiful forest gallery because there was lots of nature and different types of animals.
Georgia	My favourite part was the activities in the weather and climate room because we got to have a go at using Canva to design signs.
Maria	My favourite thing about the excursion was looking around at all the old stones and gems because they were really pretty.
Olivia	When we saw the dinosaur bones cause it was really interesting, cool to see how big all of the dinosaurs were.
Janessa	My favourite part of the museum was the forest gallery because of all the animals that were there.
Ava	My favourite part was the spider viewing in the forest gallery because it looked really creepy and I almost had a heart attack when i saw it.
Sarah	The best park was looking at dinosaur bones because we got to learn about prehistoric animals.
Clem	My favourite part was the spiders in the forest garden because they were scary.
Maxwell	My favorite part was when we were on the train because I had lots and lots of fun. But my most favorite part in the museum was when we were at the dinosaurs and the forest gallery. It was splendid.
Maddie	Our excursion was the best!!!  We went to see lots of different things but my favorite was the forest gallery. I loved that it was so quiet and peaceful, you could hear the relaxing sound of water tinkling down into the creek. I closed my eyes and listened. It was beautiful!
Archie	My favrourite part was the train ride and the rain forest. I like how we got to explore the forest gallery - the cave was the best part. When it was time to   go, me and Jimmy played tik tak toe. We went past the MCG and then we got back home.
Alexandra	My favourite part of the excursion was the huge forest gallery. When we got in, it felt like we were in a real, beautiful and relaxing forest. We could all roam around so I spent some time reading all the interesting and exciting facts. It was clearly the best excursion EVER!
Noah	When we arrived, the class saw a splendid fountain. I even saw a coin in the fountain. My favorite part was in the Gondwana Garden when we played a scavenger hunt on Mrs Grieve’s phone.
Aubrey	I really liked when we took the train from Blackburn to Parliament station and walked to the Melbourne museum. The Forest gallery was so fun.
Poppy	I liked the 600 million year exhibit because there were lots of cool stuff like dinosaur eggs and fossils. I also like the Forest Gallery and the train ride. And my dad came along as a helper which was cool.
Dylan Sm	On  the excursion, my favourite part was the train and the forest gallery. In the forest gallery, we saw  real animals and plants, I especially liked  seeing the skinks. On the train ride, I got a seat but on the way back I didn't get a seat. When the train started up again, everyone let go of the railing and I nearly fell backwards!!
Dylan Sp	During the excursion, I saw the longest snake ever. On the train, we got to see the MCG - it felt like I was going to the footy. In the forest gallery, I got to see the fish.
Reuben	My favorite bit of the excursion was looking at sharks and an immense snake statue. I also went to see dinosaurs, some were vast, some were tiny and some even lived under water!
Chiara	I really like the 600 million year gallery because we got to watch a dinosaur movie - and everyone kept racing the dinosaurs. I also liked the cool animals in the Forest Gallery and the Bowerbird nest.
Florence	I really enjoyed it when we went on canva and we were creating little messages. We also added little photos which I thought were splendid. This was a stupendous excursion and I would love to go back again and again for the rest of my life. It was so fun.
Tilly	As I was on the train, it was so fun when we started and stopped. We arrived at parliament station then walked to the melbourne museum. My favourite exhibition was the rainforest adventure.
Madison	One of my favourite parts of the excursion was the rainforest and I really loved the fish which Sophie and I named them fishy, they were so cute! We explored the dinosaur fossils and other animals. We ate our food and had a stupendous time!
Tilly	As we stepped into the museum, we saw all these precious bones, but as we walked closer, we saw a beautiful rainforest exhibit. In our next enclosure we saw lots of immense dinosaur bones like T REX!  Then lastly, at the end the day, we looked at a cool slideshow. It was a great excursion and I’d do it again any day.
Vanessa	On the excursion to the Melbourne museum we went on a train, it was a very peculiar feeling going up and down. Once we got out of the train there was still a 16 minute walk so we headed off, it was exciting, but scary when we went on the steep escalator. Once we actually got into the museum, my favourite parts were probably the peace and quiet in the garden, the exploring in the rain forest and learning new stuff about fossils.
Isaiah	I loved learning more about the weather and being with my friends.
Oliver	‘MCG MCG!’, we all said  as we went past it. We were going at around 140 km h on a train. We were on our way to the museum. It was so fun. Soon we were arriving at parliament station and we walked from there to the Melbourne museum and unpacked our snacks. Then we went inside and through most of the museum such as the forest gallery and the dinosaur exhibition.
Mila	We were on the train on the way to the vast Melbourne Museum. The first thing we went to was this place called the forest gallery. It was SPLENDID! It had cute fish and lots of Insects, I had SO MUCH FUN! Well I would say it was a big day!
Mitchell	When we stepped into the Melbourne Museum, I wanted to go to forest gallery so we went there. Isaw lots of fish. After that, we went to 600 million years exhibit and there were bones of dinosaurs. Then we went to Gondwana Garden. We accidentally opened the children’s playroom.
Hannah	As I frantically stepped into the vast Melbourne Museum, I glanced around captivatingly and recognised that there were loads of enthralling exhibitions. The special part about it was specifically the breathtaking Forest Gallery which was so exquisite, I was deeply mesmerised!
Sophie	I LOVED the rainforest gallery. It was amazing. I especially loved the fish in the little tanks which Madison and I adored so much… I meant too much!

The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) is provided by the Victorian Government to assist eligible families to cover the costs of school trips, camps and sporting activities, so that a family’s financial circumstances are not a barrier to student participation.

If you hold a valid means-tested concession card or are a temporary foster parent, you may be eligible for CSEF.  A special consideration category also exists for asylum seeker and refugee families. 

The allowance is paid to the school to use towards expenses relating to camps, excursions or sporting activities for the benefit of your child.

If you wish to apply for CSEF please contact the school office to request an application form.

The final date to submit an application for the 2025 school year is Wednesday, 02 July 2025 as Centrelink must validate applications by Friday 04 July 2025.

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. As stated in the Family Handbook 2025:

We are 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.