Friday 7, March 2025

From the Principal's Desk

This week marked the beginning of the Lenten Season.

Our staff and students participated in Ash Wednesday liturgies with Fr Biju this week. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, which is a time defined by prayer and fasting in preparation for the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.

Lent offers us all a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God. In our busy world, Lent provides us with an opportunity to reflect upon our patterns, to pray more deeply, experience sorrow for what we have done or failed to do, and to be generous to those in need.

School Annual Implementation Plan (SAIP)

Each year we have key focus areas of improvement, and teaching staff work towards these goals during the year with dedicated staff meetings and Professional Learning that support growth in these areas.  Our three key areas of focus this year are:

• Staff will work collaboratively on developing a Reconciliation Action Plan for St Francis Xavier’s School.  In focussing on our First Nations Perspectives, we will also look at how we can support our First Nations students to increase attendance at school.   
• Establish clear, objective student-outcomes targets and timelines to measure the success of the implementation of the school’s explicit improvement agenda. This includes using DIBELS to assess student’s literacy and focussing on support of students using this data.
• Develop a whole school focus on Wellbeing and introduce Reboot, a Whole-Brain Framework creates the optimal conditions for learning and growth, and our 
  21 Core Tools that will help young people become more self-aware, responsible and resilient as learners.  Introduction of a Wellbeing Dog at St Francis Xavier’s School.

Senior Leaders Conference

This week I have been at the Senior Leaders Conference on Thursday and Friday, and I was joined on Friday by Debbie McGuinness and Kristina Armstrong.  These meetings are held once a term and focus on leadership aspects focused on supporting Principals and our Assistant Principals.

Blessings to all families for the week ahead
Narelle Harney

Assistant Principal Administration

As a school community, we all need to work together to ensure our students are kept safe especially during morning drop offs and afternoon pick-ups. Staff on these duties are still seeing some issues regarding these times. Our Stop, Drop and Go areas are clearly marked. To help traffic flow in the mornings and afternoons, please ensure you are following these procedures:

• Always remain in your car, do not leave it unattended. Stop, Drop, Go is not a parking area during the designated morning and afternoon times.
• Displaying your surname on your visor. If you do not have a name sign, please advise the office as these names help our teachers to move the traffic a lot faster as we can have the students ready for you to pick up.
• Proceed to the numbered pick-up area at Atkinson St or to the end of the Sydney St designated area, as your students should be waiting there.
• Getting out of the car to strap little one’s in and doing so as quickly as possible.
• Wait in the Stop, Drop, Go line and do not overtake cars already in the Stop, Drop, Go area as your students are called sequentially and this interrupts the whole flow.
• Collect or unload students only on the kerb or passenger side of the car.
• Park only in designated areas. The white lined area between the first Stop, Drop, Go position and Alfred St is not a parking zone and cars who park here stop the orderly flow of traffic.
• Not parking at the BP service station.
• Not walking in front of or between cars waiting in the Stop, Drop, Go line.

We are also starting to see an increase in extreme hair styles. Please remember that our policy which is agreed to upon enrolment is that students are to wear hairstyles that are sensible and appropriate to primary school aged children. Both male and female students with long hair (past shoulder length) must tie their hair back with either bottle green, gold, black or white hair accessories. This means that students should not have extreme hairstyles such as mullets or coloured dye.

The Year 6 Water Confidence lessons have been coming along swimmingly with all students enjoying their time in the water. It is lovely to see the development of students both socially and in terms of skills. Students will complete their Water Confidence lessons on Friday March 14^th.

Cross-Country training is well underway. Students are actively participating in training sessions. Our Year 3 and 4s are training Tuesday and Thursday and our Year 5 and 6s train Wednesday and Friday. Please remind your child/ren to pack their runners, hats and waterbottles.

Our Tier 2 Leadership team has been elected, and I am pleased to announce our Tier 2 Leaders for 2025:

Tier 2 Leaders will be presented with their Leadership badges at our next assembly on March 20^th (week 8) and parents are kindly invited to attend. Congratulations to all.

Here's to an environmentally friendly fortnight!

Kristina Armstrong

Assistant Principal Religious Education

What a wonderful start to Lent with our Ash Wednesday Mass at 9am with Year 4, 5, 6 classes as well as members of the community. Thank you to Father Biju for leading your first official services with our school. Father Biju also led our 11:20am Liturgy with the Year 1, 2 and 3 classes. It was wonderful to see parents and family members join us during the Mass and Liturgy. Father gave us three areas to focus on during lent: 1: Prayer; taking time to talk to God. 2: Fasting; giving up something to challenge ourselves in self control.  3: Alms Giving; looking for ways we can help others that have less than we do. After snack break, I took the ashes over to Prep and the teachers and I discussed with the Prep Students about Ash Wednesday and Lent. We spoke about Lent being a time (40 days - not including Sundays) of preparation and waiting. The students engaged well and were curious to see their crosses on their foreheads. 

Over the remaining five weeks of Term 1, our students will learn more about the Lenten efforts of Caritas Australia through Project Compassion. The theme for this year is “Unite Against Poverty”. Each class has a collection box on the prayer table in the classroom, and students are encouraged to bring in donations to add to the box. We will keep a weekly tally of the monies collected in each class - learning that ‘small change can make a difference’. If you would like to see some of the information shared with students, check out the focus countries via this Project Compassion Student Portal Link. Your generous donations this Lenten Season will enable Caritas Australia to provide life-changing support to communities facing poverty, food insecurity, lack of education, and water shortages, while building resilience against future challenges. Together, through faith and action, we can bring hope and opportunity to those most in need.

It is exciting for me in this APRE role when students come up and share their ideas on ways we can help the planet and each other. Last week, Ashley Cane in Year 6 came to Kristina Armstrong and I with an idea to participate in a local radio station's “Recycling Recruits” promotion. Ashley has planned ways as a school to build on the already awesome work some students and teachers have been doing with popper collection, and be in the running to win $1000 as well as Tammy and JB from Triple M broadcasting live from school. For 2 weeks from Monday 10th March until Friday 21st March - we will collect Containers for Change: bottles, cans and poppers containers. Our collection efforts will be taken to the recycle depot with the collection receipt handed into Triple M Radio Station and the winning school will be announced on air at a later date. You have to be in it to win it - so thank you Ashley for taking this initiative to bring this to our attention and being a recycling recruit.

Parents we need your help - Please donate your clean recyclable cans, bottles, and poppers for us to collect and add to our in school lunchtime collection. Collection points will be set up outside the Library. (breezeway area) 

If you recycle containers yourself, please keep the receipt and drop it off at the school office. This will count toward our school tally and save families from having to bring recyclables to school.

Upcoming events in the Calendar: Harmony Day Dress Up - Friday 21st March. 

Blessings, Debbie McGuinness 

Fr Biju Kuriakose Parish Priest

Dear Students, Staff, and Families,

As we step into this new academic year 2025 - 26, I warmly welcome everyone and pray for a year filled with new dreams, renewed enthusiasm, and abundant blessings. May this be a time of growth, learning, and deepening our faith as we strive to nurture Christian values among our children, guiding them to live with love, kindness, and integrity.

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the dedicated staff, under the inspiring leadership of Principal Narelle, for their unwavering commitment to shaping the hearts and minds of our students. Your efforts are truly appreciated and valued.

Let us work together to create a nurturing environment where every child can flourish and reach their God-given potential. Wishing you all a joyful and successful year ahead!

God bless,

Fr. Biju Kuriakose CMI

Leader of learning and Teaching

NAPLAN

NAPLAN assessments next Wednesday for all students in Years 3 & 5. The schedule for these tests is as follows:

Wednesday 12th 9am - 10am Year 3 & 5 Writing

Thursday 13th 9am - 10am Year 3 & 5 Reading

Monday 17th 9am - 10am Year 3 & 5 Conventions of Language

Tuesday 18th 9am - 10am Year 3 & 5 Numeracy

Students are currently familiarising themselves with the digital skills of the NAPLAN platform. During the testing period, all students will need a working set of headphones and Year 5 students will need to ensure that their headphones and iPads are fully charged.

If you know that your child will be absent on a scheduled test day, please let me know at mdonnelly1@cns.catholic.edu.au so that I can schedule catch up sessions. 

Meg Donnelly

Leader of Learning and Teaching

Mackillop Centre

Dear Families,

This week in the library, we celebrated Dr Seuss Day. Dr Seuss Day acknowledges the birthday of renowned children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel. Dr Seuss was born on March 2nd, 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts and studied literature at university. While he was studying, he realised his love of drawing wonderful characters. Geisel published his first children’s book in 1937. In the 40 years after WWII, Geisel wrote some of the most popular children’s books of all time, including ‘Horton Hears a Who!’ (1955), ‘The Lorax’ (1971), and ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ (1990).

I held the SFX Readers Cup trial on Wednesday. I would like to say a big thank you to the eight students (mostly from Year 5) who tried out for the team. Unfortunately, I can only select 4 team members, however if you were not successful this time, please try again next year. I would like to congratulate Billy, Evie and April from 5C and Kiera from 6B who were successful in making our team. This team will compete against about 40 other schools from our region at the competition in term 2.

Happy reading,

Mrs Ross, Mrs Havill and Mrs Reilly

Mary Amongst Us Awards - Week 5 & 6

PE News

Congratulations to the following SFX students for being selected for the TCC teams! 🎉

11-12 Year Old Rugby League 🏉
Kaigo & Carter 

10-12 Year Girls' Basketball 🏀
Maliya & Maiama

10-12 Year Girls' Netball 🏐
Sabria
Zulika & Spencer (Shadows)

10-11 Year Rugby  - Vic Jensen🏉
Kyle
Ben (Shadow)

Boys  10 - 12 Swimming Peninsula Team 🏊‍♂️
Hayden 

Well done on your achievement—we are proud of you! Keep up the great work! 💙💛

TCC Trials 

Trinity Coast Central School Sport (TCC)

Students born in 2015, 2014, and 2013 have the opportunity to participate in Trinity Coast Central Sport Trials, which provide a pathway to Regional Championships at the Peninsula sporting level in their chosen sport.

Process for Interested Students and Parents/Carers:

1. Refer to the attached list of trial dates.
2. Complete the TCC Trials Parent Slip, which has been sent to Year 4, 5, and 6 students. (Only students born in 2015, 2014, or 2013 are eligible.)
3. Download the Peninsula Student Booklet (attached to the Parent Slip or below).
4. Parents/Carers must complete the booklet in full, print it, and return it to the school for signing. Ensure all sections are completed and relevant areas are circled, or it cannot be signed.
5. Once signed, the Peninsula Student Booklet will be returned to the student, who must bring it to the trial.

Important: No signed Peninsula Student Booklet = No Trial.

For any questions, please contact Secretary.manunda@catholic.edu.au.

2025 Term Dates

Term 1 Upcoming Events

Please note this dates may change so please keep an eye out on the MYCE school Calander, Facebook and Broadcasts sent home to families. If you unsure please contact the office on 07 4037 9900. 

Prep Enrolments for 2026

Children who were born between 1 July 2020 and 30 June 2021 are eligible to attend Prep in 2026.

Enrolment applications for the 2026 Prep year are currently being accepted! Interviews for placement in the 2026 Prep classes are underway, with offers now being made to families.

A friendly reminder to existing families: please ensure that enrolment applications are completed, and interviews are scheduled for younger children transitioning to Prep. It's important to note that having a sibling at SFX does not automatically guarantee the enrolment process.

For those with family or friends seeking a high-quality education for their children, we kindly urge our school community to share your experiences with St Francis Xavier’s School and the positive impact of a Catholic education. Encourage them to reach out to the school at 4037 9900, explore our website, or visit us in person so that we can engage in a discussion about enrolling their child.

Tuckshop News

Mr Walsh runs our tuckshop to keep our little tummys happy. Tuckshop is open Wednesdays and Fridays each week. Menu is below

Place all your school orders online quickly and easily with Flexischools. Flexischools is a well-established organisation allowing you to place all your canteen orders online at any time.

Download the Flexischools app from the App Store or Google Play for details on how to set up your account. https://www.flexischools.com.au.

Volunteering

Parents, grandparents, and carers are always welcome to come and assist with the preparations in the tuckshop. Please contact the front office on 07 4037 9900 if you are able to assist.

Download the MYCE Parent App NOW!

Community News