Newsletter 20 - 25 November 2021
Principal's Page
Dear Parents and Guardians,
Perth Visit
Last week I spent 3 days at meetings in Perth. The first 2 days were spent completing my Beginning Principals Induction Program. I had the opportunity to collaborate with the many facets of CEWA including directors and consultants. The topics that were covered included Quality Catholic Education, Catholic Identity, Governance, CSPWA(P&F), Pedagogical Leadership, Finance, Capacity Building and Marketing Strategy and concluding with Wellbeing.
On Friday the Catholic Primary Principals from all over WA met for their AGM and farewell to retiring principals. The evening finished off with a lovely mass at St Mary's Cathedral.
Swimming Lessons
As swimming lessons came to a conclusion last week, I would like to congratulate PP-Year 4 students in completing 2 weeks of lessons. I was delighted to hear that so many of our students completed their stage. Thank you to the Aquarena and supervising teachers for the past two weeks which has certainly been very busy.
Christmas Gifts For Staff
Thank you to the many parents who are organising special Christmas gifts for their child's teachers. Please don’t feel obliged to 'have to' hand over certain amounts of money that have been requested. All of our teachers love what they are doing and the gift of your child each day in watching them grow and learn is a gift within itself.
Year 3-4 Classes 2022
Last week I sent a letter to all parents whose students will be going into Year 3 and 4 in 2022. A snippet of the letter stated:
Due to CEWA budget constraints and low enrolment numbers in our current Year 2 and 3 cohorts, we will be dropping a class for the 2022 calendar year. This means that next year we will be running 2 x year 3 classes, 2 x year 4 classes and 1 composite year 3/4 class. The composite class will have a mix of year 3 and 4 students. Mrs Lauren Waldock will be the teacher for this class.
I would like to add that no other year levels or existing school programs will be effected by this change. Should enrolments continue to increase, this will only be a short term measure.
Happy Days
David Tunchon
Principal
Religious Education
Fruit of the Spirit Focus
Goodness: The fruit of Goodness seems to mean that one has all the fruit of the Spirit – because they are just a ‘good person’.
I wonder how I might become more of a good person, Jesus? Help me to achieve this fruit by:
-naming some things that good people may do - at school, at home, in the community
-being considerate of other people: my teachers, my fellow students and ensuring all are safe
Year Six Graduation Mass
Mass to celebrate our Year Six students Primary School Graduation will be held at 5:30pm, Tuesday December 7th in the school undercover area. All families are welcome to attend this special evening.
St Lawrence's Parish Christmas Masses
The parish requests any families that can help:
Set up chairs midday December 24th and pack them away again midday December 28th in the school undercover area.
All families of St Lawrence students are invited to welcome Jesus on this special Christmas season.
Semester Two Reports
SEQTA Log-In
Semester Two reports will be made available via SEQTA Engage from Thursday 9th December 2021. Please test your SEQTA log-in prior to this date to ensure that you will be able to access your child/ren's reports when they are released. If you encounter into any problems, or have forgotten your log-in details, please contact the office on 9968 2000 and Louise will be happy to assist.
Year 6 Student Reports
Our year-end student processes are due to run on Monday, December 13th. As a result, after this date, Year 6 parents will no longer have access to their child's reports via SEQTA. We strongly encourage parents to access and download your child's report prior to this date.
Uniform Update for 2022
As you will all be aware, St Lawrence's will be transitioning to a new uniform in Semester 2 of 2022. The current school uniform will be slowly phased out over the following 18 months-2 years.
The faction sports shirts will not be changing, however the sports shorts will be replaced. Please see below for further details of the uniform requirements for next year.
Uniform Requirements - Year 1 - 6
All students in Year 1 - 6 can opt to wear the sports uniform daily (both old and new versions), or the current school uniform (Dresses and Greys), until the new uniform is available. This is to avoid any additional expenses incurred from purchasing the current uniform which will be phased out.
Second Hand Uniforms & Uniform Donations
Due to the redesign of the current uniform, there may be shortages of new uniform supplies next year. At this point, the main items affected are the girls dresses in sizes 7-12. As such, we are looking for donations of any good quality, second-hand uniform items you may have, to assist our students and their families. Alternatively, there is a second hand uniform Facebook page where you are able to sell any items you are no longer using - you can search for 'St Lawrence's Second Hand Uniform Facebook Group' and request to become a member.
New Uniform Design Update
Following on from the Uniform survey sent out earlier in Term 3, we are currently awaiting the production of the new samples. When these are recieved, we will have them displayed at the office and we will advise via the newsletter when they are available to view.
Socktober
Book Fair 2021
Administration News
Whole school Transition
Today, in preparation for 2022, from 11:05am-11:45am, children from Pre Primary to Year 5 will complete an activity in each of their next year level classrooms with the teacher who is in that room this year. Those in Larmenier (Kindy) completed their transition activities yesterday, Wednesday 24th November.
2022 Kindy Orientation and Parent Evening
Orientation on Wednesday 1st December begins at 4pm in the Larmenier (Kindy) Center. When children are settled, parents are invited to move to the Undercover Area for afternoon tea, followed by the Parent Meeting at 4:30pm approximately.
Booklist Due Date
A reminder that booklist orders are due this week. Electronic Orders need to be finalised online by 28th November and Paper Orders handed in to the Office by 26th November.
Geraldton Headspace
On Monday, 22nd Nov, representatives from Headspace spoke to our Year 6 cohort. During the session our students engaged in activities around the 7 Healthy Headspace Tips for transition to High School.
School Volunteer Morning Tea
It's that time again, when we would like to say thank you to all our fantastic volunteers and helpers who have supported St Lawrence's throughout the year. The School Volunteer Morning Tea will be held on Friday, 3rd December at 10.00am in the school staff room. If you would like to attend, please click on the below link and submit your rsvp. We hope to see you there!
2022 Kindergarten Enrolments
As we are now in the last term of 2021, please remember if you have a child born between 1st July 2017 and 30th June 2018, they will be eligible to start Kindergarten in 2022.
If you have not already enrolled them, please contact Louise at the office for an enrolment pack so we can ensure they are all ready for school in 2022!
Please note due to class schedules not all children were able to be in the fortnightly photo.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the following students who will be celebrating their BIRTHDAY soon:
Eloise V, Chavez T, Hunter P, Kyle J, Payton J, Loclan P, Pippa H, Emmerson B, Sadie L, Hudson S, Amber M, Spenczar M, Gabriel S, Archie C, Sienna W, George J, Evie T, Kerby M, Ezra R, Cylas S, Stella C, Hugo C, Nate H, Sabre H and Jesse C.
Water Bottle Reminder
Please remind students to bring their water bottle to school with them every day. We do have cups available at the office if a student has forgotten their water bottle, however we are giving out approximately 20-30 cups per day, over 100 per week! As we always strive to minimise our school's environmental impact, we would love to be able to reduce this number.
P&F News
Carols on the Green Raffle Tickets
A raffle book of 10 tickets should have arrived home in your eldest child’s bag this week. The books were distributed on Wednesday. A reminder that tickets are $2 each or $20 for a book. Please return ticket stubs and money in the envelope provided by Monday 29th November with all Raffles drawn at the Carols on the Green Thursday 2nd December.
Important – if you do not want your book please return to the Front Office as soon as possible. Please do not throw them away. This will provide an opportunity for another family to purchase more tickets. There are some great prizes this year to win, particularly 2 x $1000 vouchers of school fees, 2 x bikes, quickcliq canteen vouchers, electric guitar, Josh Kennedy signed Eagles AFL caps and footballs and lots of other fantastic prizes. There are over 40 raffles possible to win.
If you would like to collect another book when one becomes available, please contact the front office or Melissa Smith to put your name down for one.
Garage Sale on Super Sunday 28th November
This weekend is the combined fundraiser of the P&F Garage Sale and the Parish Morning Tea after the Children’s Mass on Sunday. The Garage Sale will commence at 9am through to 1pm and will be the items that were donated for the Pre Loved Stall for the 2020 Fete that was cancelled. All proceeds will be returned to the P&F. Morning Teas prepared by the members of the Parish Council will be available from 10am onwards with all proceeds going to the Church. It will be a busy day at school with the Book Fair in the library and Mr Tunchon conducting tours for interested families. Tell your friends and drop in to find yourself a preloved treasure.
If you or your friends are intending to drop in at the garage sale or for morning tea please consider parking away from the teachers parking area and the parallel parking on Chapman Rd closest to the Church. Despite it being a Children’s Mass the majority of the parishioners are elderly and need to be able to park in close proximity to access the Church. Mass will commence at 9am.
A very big thankyou to Megan Desmond for all of her hard work in organising this fundraiser for the P&F.
Carols on the Green Event information via Eventbrite
Information regarding ‘what’s on’ at the Carols on the Green next Thursday 2nd December will be sent to email addresses via Eventbrite. Next week all patrons for the Carols on the Green will be sent ‘housekeeping’ information to assist with your preparations for the evening. Please check your Eventbrite email inbox next week to look for this information. We are really looking forward to seeing you all there to relax, catch up with school friends and take a night off to celebrate the end of the year.
P&F AGM 2021
The AGM was held Monday 15th November in the Staffroom. At this meeting the activities of the P&F in 2021 were reported on through the President and Treasurer reports, outgoing Executive members acknowledged and the members of the 2022 Executive elected. Danielle Henderson and Melissa Smith did not renominate for their positions as Vice President and Secretary and we thanked them for their respective two and three year commitment to their roles. Margaret Devine, Nicola Tropiano and Julie O’Malley were unopposed for their positions of Treasurer, P&F Representative to the School Advisory Council and President. We will commence 2022 without a Vice President and Secretary as there were no nominations put forward for these positions at the meeting. If you are thinking of nominating for a position, please contact me to discuss.
Year 6 Big Day Out Lunch
It was voted on by the P&F Executive to donate funds and provide lunch to the Year 6 students for their Big Day Out at the Aquarena, celebrating the end of primary school. On behalf of the P&F and our members I would like to wish the year 6s all the best for their future endeavours and a smooth transition to high school life. Enjoy and have fun.
Take care everyone and enjoy the remainder of the term. See you at the Carols!
Kind regards,
Julie O’Malley
Community Notices
