Welcome to Week 8. The term is flying past at a rate of knots! This week our teaching staff are busy in preparation for parent/teacher interviews to be held next week. At this time, we are not sure whether they will be face to face or via the phone. Either way, you will be able to make a booking through the on-line booking system sent home last week. These discussions are very important in supporting your child’s learning journey. I would like to think that every family will make a time to meet with the class teacher/s to hear about your child’s successes and learning challenges in order to better support them in their learning and social development. Please see the link via the newsletter to secure a booking. Whether the interviews are face to face or via phone I’m sure you will have a great opportunity to review your child’s progress.
Every Day Counts
St Francis of Assisi school has a policy of encouraging 100% student attendance – all day, every day. COVID has certainly challenged attendance in the past few weeks with greater absenteeism for illness across all classes. School absenteeism for prolonged periods and truancy can impact significantly on students' learning and wellbeing. Research shows that, higher student attendance is associated, on average, with higher student achievement. Additionally, attending school every day helps children to build social and emotional skills such as communication, teamwork and resilience.
Every student absence requires a valid reason for absence. Acceptable reasons for non-attendance include illness, especially in COVID times with students required to remain home if they are showing cold or flu like symptoms; significant medical treatment, participating in a school or regional sporting or other event, or attendance at a significant family event such as a funeral.
When a child is absent for any reason, the school must be informed by telephone, email, note or personal contact from a parent/guardian. Verbal explanations, by a student or sibling, are not adequate. If there are unexplained absences, the school will contact parents via text, to ensure that parents are aware of the absence. Our preferred medium for being informed of a student absenteeism is via Skoolbag, email; info@sfoa.catholic.edu.au or via telephone, 8178 9900 on the day of absence between 8 and 9am. Your support in having your child at school as often as possible is one of the keys to their success. Please open this door to learning for them by having them at school as often as possible.
School Board 2022
Nomination forms for participation on the SFOA School Board have been sent home via Skoolbag and email. As explained on the nomination form, School Board membership is a wonderful way for our parents to share their interest in the development of our school, be part of a policy and procedure development team and become more familiar with the financial management of the school. Our Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday 29th March, hopefully face to face, in the Resource Centre. If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else (with their consent) please fill in the form and submit by Friday 25th March. We will share a summary of the AGM in the next newsletter.
Have a great week.
James Meiksans
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