It is hard to believe that we are already over half way through this term! Soon enough we will be in Advent and preparing our hearts and homes for Christmas. Already this term we have enjoyed a great variety of extra-curricular occasions ranging from Children’s University Graduation through to the Athletics Carnival and even visits from the Metropolitan Fire Service to our Reception children.

We extend our congratulations to the children who graduated in Children’s University last week at the ceremony in Adelaide University. This is always a very special celebration and a fitting way to acknowledge the children’s efforts across the year. We have been pleased with the interest and participation in Children’s University at our school and look forward to its continuous growth.

Congratulations to all students who competed  at the  Catholic Schools Athletics Carnival last week! Special commendation to Angelina who won Age Champion for Year 5 girls!

Yesterday we held a special Assembly for a presentation by Cleanaway to help us ensure correct practices with our use of the colour-coded bins for our litter. Whilst we were challenged by our technology and audio system, we hope that this message filtered through to our students. Of course, the best way you can support this is by sending along ‘nude food’ in your children’s lunch boxes, limiting the packaging and wrappers all together.

At Assembly we also acknowledged the wonderful achievements of our Year 5/6 students and teachers in Numerical Acumen. Congratulations to our 20 students who were presented with Awards to acknowledge their performance, dedication and improvement in Mathematics skills. The Awards given to students of St Francis of Assisi were:

• Casio Achievement Awards – Performance – Leonardo, Flynn, James, Jad, Abhir, Jacob, Alex, Ashton, Chanel
• Casio Achievement Awards – Improvement – Rehan, Michelle, Massimo, Ngor, Vanessa, Nawaab
• Casio Achievement Awards – Dedication -Orlando, Christian, Chloe, Sofia, Kaylee
• Motivated Class Awards – Mrs Chigwidden & 5/6C, Mr Horne and 5/6H, Mr Vorrasi and 5/6V
• Inspirational Student Awards – Performance – James, Jad, Alex
• Inspirational Student Awards – Improvement – Michelle, Vanessa, Nawaab
• Inspirational Class of the Year Awards (Upper Primary) – Mrs Chigwidden & 5/6C

This week we look forward to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for our student candidates. It was lovely to see them preparing for this Sacrament at Family Mass on Sunday. We extend our prayers to them as they make this step of commitment in their faith this week. At the Sacrament of Reconciliation they will be acknowledging their trust in God and knowing that they will always be loved and healed by God.

There are a number of events and activities occurring over the next few weeks so please pay careful attention to our communication forums: Skoolbag, Seesaw and emails so that you stay well informed. In particular, a reminder that next week is Swimming Week for R-4 classes so it’s time to get out the bathers, towels and goggles so they can all be labelled and ready for this week. With regard to the School Picnic day, we are seeking approval of a COVID safe management plan to accommodate our numbers. If this is granted, parent attendance will be permitted. We will confirm this as soon as possible.

Every year at this time our Staff begin the complex task of arranging the composition of classes for the next school year. As you can appreciate there are a number of factors that come into play in order for this to be done. We always have to balance the needs of the learning environment, taking into account: social dynamics and learner needs, balancing every potential contributing factor, so that the most optimal learning group can be formed. If you have a particular piece of information that you would like us to consider, in relation to your child’s needs, during this process, I invite you to put it into writing and submit to myself or James Meiksans by Monday 15^th November. Please note that we will not be able to process requests for particular class teachers.

James returns next week from his Leave and we are sure to see him looking refreshed and relaxed and ready to take over the helm for this last part of the term. I would like to extend my thanks  and gratitude to Emma Begg as Acting Deputy for her leadership and support over this time. Her professionalism and capacity for leadership has made for a seamless transition during James’ leave. We offer Emma our  congratulations too and best wishes as she takes up a new role of Head of Primary at Blackfriars in 2022. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your support of me in this role of Acting Principal during this brief time. It has been an absolute pleasure and privilege to lead this great community! When we have such a fabulous group of children and families, with an excellent team of Staff, the role of Principal is made so much easier!

I close with this quote from the Catholic Education Leaders’ Forum I attended last week: Every successful person begins with two beliefs:

The future can be better than the present

and I have the power to make it so.

Belinda Burford

Acting Principal

School Camps and Excursions

Our School Board has approved a new procedure relating to school camps and excursions and the consent accompanying these. In brief, school camps are an important component of your child’s education at St Francis of Assisi and as such they are deemed compulsory. This detail is provided within the enrolment information for students. The School Board has now approved the procedure for payment of school camps to be included within the School Fees for Years 5 and 6. This will enable a smoother and easier payment process for both families and school. Further detail about this will be extended to the relevant families in due course.

With regard to excursions, as you can well imagine, the logistics for taking a group of students outside of the school requires a great deal of planning and organisation. We absolutely value these experiences and know our children do too. The process of replacing paper consent forms with either QKR or Skoolbag electronic permissions makes the consent and information distribution and collection process so much easier. However, we have found that still there seem to be gaps in communication and keeping to due dates for payment and permission. This has meant that even on the morning of an excursion we are trying to get written permission from families so that a student can attend an event. This is obviously not a sustainable practice and creates undue stress on many people, not least the children. In Term 2 our School Board approved the proposal to streamline this process. The policy from Catholic Education requires schools to receive written permission for children to attend an excursion ONE WEEK earlier than the event.

Beginning Term 1 2022 we will be reinforcing this policy and adhering to the due date. The QKR portal will not be re-opened after closing date. Skoolbag or other permssions cannot be accepted after the due date. We will be providing further information about this to all families so that you will be very aware of the process. We seek your support to make this process so much smoother.

New Uniform

Last week you would have received a letter from myself, on behalf of the Uniform Committee, advising that we have approval to proceed with the new uniform, with a transition phase commencing January 2022 and concluding by December 2023. This is indeed a great accomplishment for our Uniform Review Committee and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for all their work and support over the course of this year. Last week Ms Verringer and myself met with the Staff from JS Sports/Belgravia to discuss the supply details and completing final details on the designs. We hope to be able to write to you all with further information including design images and order/fitting details over the course of the next week. We will also release a new Uniform Policy that will accompany the new uniform. There will be very specific expectations around the transition phase and which uniform items can be worn by students. As we transition to new uniform, it will be very important that we are consistent with our expectations and we are seeking your full support in doing this. Please await further information very soon.

Belinda Burford

Student times for arrival and departure

A reminder that students cannot arrive at school prior to 8.30am unless they are booked into OSHC. We have had a number of students being dropped off early after 8.00am. There is no supervision provided for students at this time apart from the OSHC service.

At the end of the day, from 3.30pm any students who are not collected will be taken to OSHC. We encourage all families to register children in OSHC for those occasions when you are unavoidably late, or need to drop children very early to school.

This week we have 20 students making their First Reconciliation in our St Francis of Assisi parish. The students have been preparing for their sacramental journey by learning about the unconditional love and forgiveness of God and how we as Catholics renew our spirit through reconciliation and examination of conscience. Your prayers are appreciated for our children on their faith journey. The Family Commitment Mass we celebrated on Sunday was a reminder of the Eucharist being central to our faith.

Yesterday I met with our local Vinnies team and we have started our preparation for the involvement in the Annual Christmas Appeal. Our Mini Vinnies will be launching the Christmas Appeal this week in Community Prayer. Look out for notices regarding what donations are required this year to support this annual appeal for those in need.

This week our students will be completing the Classroom Pulse Check In which is a wellbeing tool that every child in Catholic Education SA completes each term. This tool helps us gauge our students emotional and learning needs and we are able put into practice strategies to improve wellbeing from this data.

This week our Year 5/6 students will lead the school in a liturgy to acknowledge Remembrance Day. We look forward to this occasion to honour the contributions made and lives given in service of our country. 

Wellbeing News

If you’re like me, you will be feeling that end of year burnout as a parent. Term 4 is always so busy and our own children and struggling to get through to the end of the year. This week I am sharing with you an article written by Megan Blandford from ‘Essential Kids’ about how to avoid this burnout.

What to do when end of year parenting burnout hits

The end of Term Four can drag for kids and parents alike. Call it what you will – burnout or simply Term Four – lots of us are feeling the fog in our brains and the weight on our shoulders at this end of the year. We can see that our kids are exhausted near the end of a big year of school, but us parents are just as fatigued.

Parenting expert and psychotherapist Dr Karen Phillip says this is pretty common.

"Towards the end of the year parents can experience a type of burnout," she explains.  "No doubt the year has been busy, so much running around with the kids, running the home, looking after others, working, and the list continues."

We certainly underestimate the energy and emotional and mental space that all these activities take during the year. And the problem is that, just as we're ready to wind down, we're expected to ramp our efforts up again.

"By year's end we want to stop and have a break, yet Christmas is upon us, so more work is needed this time of year," says Phillip.

"Gift buying, planning, parties, organising Christmas breakfast, lunch and dinner, wrapping, planning – and fatigue is upon you again."

Do you have end-of-year burnout?

Phillip says end-of-year burnout boils down to one thing: "Burnout happens when we fail to allow ourselves time to recharge during the year."

Yep, that sounds familiar. For me, the result of a big year of commitments and looking after everyone else has culminated in my impatience, feeling ready to throw in the towel for many of the commitments I have, and honestly I think I could sleep for a week straight.

The burnout might have hit you differently. "When we're burnt out we become irritable, annoyed over minor things, frustrated, our mind fails to focus as we are so tired," says Phillip. "Physical and mental exhaustion hits and everything starts to feel like an effort."

How to ease the burnout.

While many of us would like to just run away, there are more realistic ways to ease the feeling of burnout at this time of year.

• Get out! The best way to deal with burnout is to escape parenting responsibilities for a short time. "To manage burn-out we need to have a night out or better still a weekend away, just you and your partner, no kids," suggests Phillip.
• Get as much sleep as you can.
• Spend some time alone. "Safeguard your 'me time'," advises Phillip. "When you can get even 10 to 15 minutes a day to yourself to walk or sit quietly and relax, things start to rebalance."
• Ease the pressure and put things back into perspective. "If you are a perfectionist this adds additional pressure, so adjusting your own self expectation may remove some of your self imposed pressure," says Phillip.
• Listen to your own advice. When my daughter was feeling like her life was out of control recently I suggested, "Take a bit of time to cry and feel frustrated, and then we'll do some problem solving." "There is no solution," she replied. "There's always a solution."

We'd all do well to remember that at this time of year.

Melissa Canil

2022 SCHOOL FEES  

The School Board has ratified the 2022 school fees and there has been no increase to the 2021 fees.

For 2022, Year 5 Camp fees have been added to the fee billing to allow the cost to be spread over the whole year and the Year 6 fees include Camp and Senior Uniform cost, again to allow a spread over the full year.

A PAYMENT PLAN AGREEMENT will be emailed to all families and hard copy sent home with the eldest child in the family on Wednesday 10^th November. It is a Catholic Education requirement that we receive a completed fee payment commitment from each family by the due date. Due date Friday 19^th November 2021.

2022 School Fees

CATHOLIC EDUCATION SCHOOL FEES PROCEDURE

Catholic education have introduced a School Fees Procedure for all Catholic Schools, which will result in changes to our fee collection billing, payment time lines and debt collection.

• Payment plans are now a requirement for every family, as mentioned above.
• It is an expectation that the fees will be paid in accordance with the payment plan chosen by you.
• Remission request, other than school card will now require completion of a fee remission request and associated documentation.
• Debt collection may occur for outstanding balances as at 30^th November of the current school year unless there is a formally documented payment plan in place and approved by the school.

The school’s fee policy is being updated to reflect these changes and will be taken to the next Board meeting for ratification.  Once this has been done, families will be advised of how to view / access this.

If you have any questions regarding this information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Jo Sayers – Business Manager

PH 81789997  (Tuesday – Friday) - please note that I am not at school tomorrow Tuesday 9^th

Email: jsayers@sfoa.catholic.edu.au   anytime.

It's that time of the year again for all library books to be returned to the school library.

All school library books need to be returned by Monday 29th November (week 8) as there is no holiday borrowing over the Christmas break.

This year there will be two Gingerbread house for the classes who return ALL of their library books. Reception - Year 2 and Years 3 - 6 classes will go into a draw to win a gingerbread house on December 6th at the end of year assembly.

If your child/children have overdue books they will need to be returned or paid for by the 29th November to allow their class to be entered into the draw.

Any questions or queries about your children's borrowing come and see me or call the school

Ph; 81789900

Thankyou

Debbie Harrip

Please follow the link to the latest edition of the Southern Cross Newsletter, 9/11/2021