It has been wonderful to welcome our students back for the beginning of Term 4 and also to see our parents and family members with us in the school yard once again. I trust that you all enjoyed a relaxing holiday break and had the opportunity to spend some quality family time together. We can look forward to a full and productive term ahead with a number of significant community events planned. I would like to remind parents that when you do come into the school yard, masks are to be worn and physical distancing is to be observed. At this stage we still cannot permit parents inside classrooms.
Over the holidays a number of our families joined in the festivities of the Montevergine Festa, the Blessing of the Pets and the Feast of St Francis of Assisi. It was a great example of our Catholic and cultural traditions being woven together in a rich and meaningful way. This Friday will present another opportunity for us to acknowledge and celebrate the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, our patron Saint, when we come together for Mass.
With this newsletter you will see the Term 4 calendar. Of course, in this changing landscape of COVID-19 we will continue to be mindful of the latest health advice and restrictions, but we certainly hope that we can host the number of community events listed in this calendar. There will need to be restrictions for parent/carer attendance at some events. Please stay informed in advance of the details for these events.
At a glance, we have these events to look forward to this term with parents welcome to attend:
Friday Community Prayer – beginning Week 2
15/10 9.30am – St Francis of Assisi Mass
25/10 2.30pm Assembly led by RCH & RP – 1 parent per family from RCH and RP only
1/11 9.30am All Saints Day Mass
15/11 – 18/11 Swimming Week at the ARC R-4 – only 1 parent per child per session
Week 7 26/11 Blessing of Cribs Liturgy and Whole School Picnic – (more details to come)
Week 8 Thurs 2/12 Sports Day – only 1 parent per family at any given time
Church Car Park Safety
Late last term both Fr Eldridge and Parish Staff spoke to me about their concerns regarding parent usage of the Church car park. Unfortunately, some of our parents are parking in the Disabled car parks without a permit and are driving without due care and at an unsafe speed in the car park. I understand that, at times we are in a rush, but we can never compromise the safety of other people due to our time pressure. This car park is offered to us for our convenience but we must observe safe and respectful usage if we wish for it to be available to us. Every member of our school and parish community has the right to be safe when accessing this car park. A reminder that this space does not operate as a ‘Kiss And Drop’ in the afternoon and parents must collect children from the gate. I urge everyone to please be very mindful of your safe usage of this car park.
School Attendance
Towards the end of last term, I was reviewing our school attendance data. In general, we have quite good percentages of attendance, but we do have much room for improvement. Why is this important? Well, at St Francis of Assisi, like every other Catholic School we commit to the same vision: to develop thriving people, capable learners, leaders for the world God desires. We want every child to be literate, numerate and effective communicators, to be knowledgeable, inquisitive and innovative, to be confident and careful creators and users of ICT, and much, much more. It stands to reason that we can only achieve this when every child is present at school and learning as much as possible. We understand that there can be genuine reasons for children’s absences. We also know that habits of non-attendance can be detrimental to a child’s social and educational development. Take this scenario for example:
If a child is away roughly 1 day per week:
This means they are away 10 days per term.
Over the course of 1 year, this means they are away 40 days. This adds up to 8 school weeks of absence – almost 1 whole term.
If this absence rate is maintained over 2 years, then they miss 80 days of school. That is 16 weeks of absence – over 1.5 terms.
If this absence rate is maintained over 3 years, then they miss 120 days of school. That is 24 weeks of absence – over 2 terms.
And so on it goes….
I could also do the same equation for the student who arrives late to school 15 or 30 minutes each day. This adds up over the course of the week, the term, the year.
It will be almost impossible for this child to ‘catch up’ on the valuable learning that is missed. The social and emotional connections and extra-curricular opportunities are also missed.
It makes for a difficult task for this child to become a thriving, capable learner and leader for the world God desires, as per our mission.
Whilst we understand that illness and personal circumstances can preclude school attendance, we want to improve our general school attendance rate and punctuality at school, for the benefit of every child. We really look to your partnership in this regard, in order to maintain a strong attendance rate. If there is an attendance concern that you have for your child, please speak to the class teacher or myself so that we can do our best to support.
I wish everyone the very best for the Term ahead! We look forward to sharing with you many rewarding community events that are in store for us.
Belinda Burford
Acting Principal
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