Good afternoon Families.
What a great couple of weeks we have had. I am so proud of and privileged to be working beside a team of people who go to such great lengths to provide such a diverse, stimulating and engaging learning environment here at St Luke’s. Every term is a busy term but this does not stop our teachers. My thanks goes to each and every one of them including our support staff and Debbie.
This message will work backwards over the past fortnight beginning with the 2024 St Luke’s Got Talent Show. We sure do and in fact- that’s an understatement! It was an absolute joy to watch so many children get up and entertain us for close to two hours. That is no mean feat and l know the families who joined us were very proud. The Year 6 children supported the event beautifully with our Library-Arts Leaders- Camilla, Joe and Nam- commenting on every act, we had a road crew- thanks to Chloe and Tia on props, and Mae on the audio-visual. Max was an awesome compere but the star who put it all together was our very own Performing Arts- Junior C teacher, Tayla Buxton. What a great way to spend a stormy Wednesday afternoon.
Last Monday, the school was closed but the staff gathered for a professional learning day. The focus was on Creating and maintaining positive school cultures. It was a brilliant day, led by our school leadership team and our work was guided by the research and work done by Tom Bennett who is a UK based educator, researcher and presenter. He works with the education sector on building positive behaviour practices through building positive school cultures. Research tells us, and psychologists recommend that children’s behaviour is formed through setting high expectations, being explicit in teaching children how to behave and using positive reinforcement as an incentive to want to behave. Part of maintaining a positive school culture is having school wide routines at school such as our Morning Circle Routine.
At St Lukes, each morning begins with a Morning Circle Routine. The purpose behind this is for children to be able to get ready to learn for the day. They may be entering school after a busy, sometimes even stressful time, getting ready for their school day. The circle routine offers them a chance to sit with their class friends, in a circle, to greet each other, to have a fun little ice breaker for the day, to hear about what is happening for the day and to meditate and pray. This is ten precious minutes at the beginning of the day that may change a slow start into a positive, energised embrace for the day ahead. We do need YOUR help to make sure this works really well. Please make sure your child/ren arrive at school before 8.50 am. Our circle routine begins at 8.50 am sharp and we don’t want our children missing a minute of it.
Something else we can work together on is making sure that our children grow up knowing that our school culture is built on kindness, diversity, inclusion and acceptance. There is no place for racism, exclusion, put downs and rejection. Please be aware and open to the fact that children do bring in the opinions and perspectives they hear outside of school hours. Sometimes, they miss the context some conversations hold and simply repeat what they hear.
MACSSIS- Thank you to the families who have completed the Melbourne Archdiocese of Catholic Schools School Improvement Survey. We have a week to go for as many parents as possible to complete the survey. It takes only TEN MINUTES.
This weekend, we have a Mass of Thanksgiving for all families who have had a child celebrate one of the sacraments this year. If your child has celebrated the sacrament of First Reconciliation, First Eucharist or Confirmation, please come along. Nina Grieve has a message with details later in this newsletter.
Recently, l was asked about Long Service Leave and how it works for teachers. In Australia, we are very fortunate that in most work sectors, employees accrue additional leave entitlement with years of service to an employee. In education, this is the case and you may recall l have mentioned in my messages when l am taking leave myself. This is in addition to the term break holidays. Employees often use LSL for special travel or events. We are always conscious of minimising the disruption to class routines and commitments.
Our recent Father’s Day Breakfast was full of fun, noise and food. It was great seeing so many Dads, Grand-dads and special men come along for some brekky and a catch up with other families. Once again, thank you for the generous help from staff, setting up, serving and packing up. Look out for the photos below.
All children have been enjoying learning a few rules and tips to build their table tennis skills. This has been possible through a Sporting Schools grant Domenic DeLeo secured. We have had a facilitator take our Year 3 to 6 children through clinics and Domenic has duplicated this with our Prep to Year 2 children. We’re looking forward to getting great use out of our mobile table tennis table in the years to come. Next week, one of our Dads- Rob Nurse- will be taking some cricket clinics with our children. He will be supported with some volunteers from Nunawading Cricket Club which is great. Another wonderful community connection that supports our school community. Thanks Rob and Domenic.
Our SRC has been doing a great job this term promoting the Child friendly version of the Child Safety policy. They have also been raising a little money through selling zooper doopers and popcorn. Some of the profits will go towards purchasing sand-pit toys for our much loved sand-pit.
I have been talking to children lately about breaches of the ICT Agreement signed by parents and children at the beginning of each year. Starting up ‘chats’ using school devices and school images or sharing youtube and other platforms material does not fit within the school’s expectations or agreement. Please monitor what your child is doing and encourage them to think carefully and always ask before sending or forwarding emails, photos and other materials. This is definitely something that requires strong partnership between home and school.
The only thing l have left to write is… Go Hawks and good luck to all the other teams playing this weekend. Make sure you have a good one.
Clare
Principal
principal@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au
