Dear Parents 

Welcome to Term 2 

I trust your Easter was lovely and the holidays restful. 

I have just returned from a five week holiday in Europe where I was fortunate to visit family members as well as do the tourist thing!

I thank Rian Prestwich who was Acting Principal and Rebecca Cox who was Acting Deputy Principal at this time. They did a terrific job and I thank them for their efforts during this time. It is never easy to step away from the school for that amount of time but this was definitely made easier knowing the school was in very capable hands. 

Fundraising for our Shade sails to the senior playground!

Our Cadbury Easter fundraiser was very successful we made a total of $8800 so far, this is a great effort and we thank all families who have helped us raise money towards the shade sails over the Jungle playground.

St Catherine’s Feast Day  on Monday 

Next Monday, 29 of April, is St Catherine of Siena’s feast day. We recognise this as an important day in our calendar as she is our patron saint. Students partake in activities within their year levels, with our Year 6 students teaching our Prep students about St Catherine.

The white lily is a sign of purity and is one of the symbols associated with St Catherine of Siena. According to the Bible, the petals of the white lily signify the purity and the radiant soul of the Virgin Mary.  This notion of purity had been associated with the lily flower since the ancient days. 

To help mark the day, we are asking students to wear all white or a splash of white with their school uniform. This could be in the form of a ribbon, hair ties, a shirt or a dress. We are not asking you to purchase anything especially for the day, rather to come as you are with what you have.

We look forward to seeing white around our school on the day.

Students will spend the day participating in rotational activities and learning more about St Catherine and her life devoted to the church. 

We will have an assembly in the afternoon starting at 2.50pm , weather permitting. Parents are welcome to attend this assembly and we will send a notification if this is cancelled due to weather. If cancellation happens student leaders will run this. 

Mother’s’ Day

There will be a Mother’s Day Stall which will run a little differently this year. Further details will be sent out for this and also regarding Mother’s Day or Special Person activities on the afternoon of the 10 May. 

Building

There are background works going on at DOSCEL regarding the building at the front of the school. At this stage I have nothing more to report but once we have information I will share it with the community. 

CDFPay - Fundraising and Special Events

Please note there is a flyer attached to this newsletter explaining how to set up CDFPay.  Our Mother's Day Stall is coming up, so please ensure you have created an account for payment of gifts.  More information will come out about this day shortly. 

Winter Uniform

It is now time to start wearing winter uniform.  We understand that there maybe days warmer than others and uniform orders are being completed so we have a 2 week transition.  Students will need to be in full winter uniform by the beginning of week 3.  Your child must wear black school shoes for general unform and their runners only on sport days. 

Staffing

We welcome new staff members 

Belinda Cadd and Yasmin who have joined the St Catherine’s team as Education Support Officers.

We welcome back Jasmine Bentley who has returned from Parental leave  for one day a week . She is working in 5LA2 on Fridays until the end of term and Gabby Mifsud returns from her Parental Leave. 

We have engaged a teacher for 2M8 and as soon as all contracts are signed and all boxes are ticked and this teacher is confirmed we will notify parents of 2M8. 

We are continuing to work through the recruitment process for a teacher for 4S3 and have readvertised this position. 

Recruitment is difficult for teaching staff at this time and we are exploring all avenues for recruitment to ensure we get suitable applicants.

Student access and child safety

We request all students accessing the administration Office and who may be coming in late do so via the SFX driveway. Students are to walk down the St Francis Xavier side of driveway on the footpath and cross at the Chapel crossing behind the bollards. 

We remind parents the driveways are limited to 5 kilometres an hour for the safety of our students. Staff are on hand to assist until just after the bell. All students who are late should be walked into the office by an adult and be signed in for legal reasons. The orange arrows are areas where they need to wait for a staff member as there can be car traffic.

We also ask that parents and students use the designated crossings when crossing Ridgemont Drive and Meadowlands Way. 

Whole School Positive Behaviour Approach 

A SIMON email went out regarding our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Support on Friday of last week. As a reminder: 

• At St Catherine’s we are safe.
• At St Catherine’s we show respect. 
• At St Catherine’s we are resilient.

Parent Access

We understand that, during COVID, access to the school was restricted. We are trying to provide more opportunities for families to have access to the school. Our Cross Country Day was a great way for families to come in and experience the fun. We do, however, have to have some boundaries for parent access and this is due to our commitment to child safety. We cannot have unrestricted access to the school for parents during these events. 

Times have changed about this and we as a school have to adapt. The fact that our driveway goes through the middle of the school grounds also creates many risks in the afternoon to all of the members of our community. 

Please be assured that you can walk students into school in the morning and come onsite in the afternoon around the rebound wall

If you ever have any concerns or want to chat with staff or leadership, please contact the office to make time to meet that suits everyone. 

Student Attendance 

Our classes start at 8.50am, students are expected to be at school and ready to start instruction at 8.50am. 

Any students coming after the bell are impacted as they can miss vital instruction and the beginning of Specialist subjects. Students on scheduled out-of-classroom intervention programs may also miss their session, as many of these start as soon as the bell goes in the morning.

Any student arriving late must be signed in by a parent or carer via the office. This is a legal requirement and we have noticed many more students arriving after 8.50 am.  As a part of our continual review of our processes and procedures, we will be following up with parents and carers.  Classroom doors open at 8.30am.

Regular late arrivals will trigger our attendance/absence processes which means parents and carers will be contacted by classroom teachers at first but may be escalated to other governing bodies. 

School closure day

A reminder that there will be a school closure day on Friday 26 April, for Time in Lieu for teaching staff. The Administration Office will also be unattended on this day.

Camp Australia will NOT be operating this day due to lack of interest from families.

Out of School Hours Care Program

Contact Camp Australia if you’re interested in your child participating in the Holiday program offered.

2025 Enrolments

We are currently taking 2025 Enrolments. If you are an existing family please get your forms in asap to guarantee you a spot. If you know of anyone considering St Catherine’s for their child please ask them to contact the Office for a tour.

Contact Details

School Sport Victoria Basketball

On Thursday 18 April, Destiny Windsor tried out for the School Sport Victoria Basketball team. Out of everyone in attendance, Destiny made the top 5 to progress to the next stage! What a fantastic effort by Destiny! We wish her well for the next try outs.

Our Easter Fundraiser was a great success!  Thanks to everyone who helped us raise money for our school.  Here are a couple of our winners!