Dear Parents

What a wonderful celebration for Book Week we had during last week! Unfortunately I was away at a meeting during Tuesday but I was kept up-to-date with the many photos sent to me of students and teachers dressed as book characters. Apparently Judy Elliott as a parrot and Nikki Dwyer as ‘the old woman who swallowed a fly’ were quite a hit. Congratulations, parents, on putting the wonderful costumes together.

We also had an author visit on Tuesday from Samantha Tidy. Her book ‘The Day We Built The Bridge’ celebrates the building of Sydney Harbour Bridge and its place in history. Her new book ‘Our Bush Capital’ details the adventures of a child exploring Canberra. In the last few years, it has been fabulous to have local authors in our midst and to promote their work in our library. I would like to thank Liz Mihalopoulos for her preparation and organisation to make Book Week such a success.

I understand and sympathise with those who have be mixed feelings concerning the latest failed appeal by George Pell for historical child sex abuse. Archbishop Mark Coleridge, President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, wrote last week in response saying that they accept the latest judgement and remain committed to supporting the Catholic communities during this difficult time. While your child/children are being educated in a Catholic setting, I would like to assure the entire community they are of the utmost importance in our daily work and their safety is our highest priority.

Whilst next year's class teachers will not be announced until Term 4, our current enrolments indicate that we will have an extra Year 5/6 for 2020. This is an exciting prospect and confirms that our enrolments are slowly increasing.  A meeting to discuss this new class configuration will occur early in Term 4. This meeting will be open to parents throughout the whole school community who would like information on multi-age classes.

Thank you to all those who completed a satisfaction survey at the beginning of this term. The results have now been released and are very affirming. These annual surveys are a valuable tool in assessing our successes and highlighting areas for development. We are very proud of our academic achievements and are always open to reassessing areas for future growth.

You may have heard some of the discussion that is happening in the media around this year’s NAPLAN results. At the time, the platform for the online tests was overwhelmed and was unable to cope with the amount of students online at any particular time and therefore many students were disadvantaged during some of the tests. Some states didn’t even complete the tests online but reverted to paper. Whilst St Bede’s students weren’t directly affected, the concern is that data cannot be measured correctly when students are not sitting the test using the same platform. As a result, the release of this year’s results has been further delayed until Monday, 16 September.

We have under two weeks until the St Bede’s P&F Spring Gala at Pialligo Estate. I understand tickets are selling fast.  Ticket sales via Flexischools close tomorrow so don't miss out. Again, a huge amount of work has gone into this event so please support our school by coming along. Whilst this is primarily a community event, any money raised will benefit your child/children in the future. I would like to thank the fundraising committee for their dedication into making this a very special night. I am really looking forward to it!

Our bi-annual musical, this year ‘Sally Sells Seashells’, is now only a few weeks away. I hope everyone has saved the date in their diary – Thursday, 19 September in our school hall. The staff and students have been working hard all year on this production. Tickets will be available at the door - $10 per adult or $20 per family. This is a P&F sponsored event to cover copyright and the hire of sound equipment. We really appreciate their assistance in this area every two years.

Our school gate is now permanently closed during the day and overnight. This is due to our before and after school care using the school grounds from 7.30am until 6pm in the evening and, therefore, keeping the environment safe. Staff may park during the day in the carpark near the rubbish hoppers if this suits, however, parents are not to enter beyond the gate to drop off or collect students. The yellow marked area near the gate is for emergency vehicles only and should NEVER be a place to drop off/collect children or park cars. We would appreciate your assistance in this matter.

We are having a few issues with students being collected early on a regular basis to attend extra-curricular activities. All students should attend school for the entire day unless they have scheduled specialist appointments. Please keep this in mind when enrolling students in swimming lessons or sporting groups.

There is quite a bit of sickness around at the moment amongst both students and staff. If your child is unwell, please keep them home for a couple of days to recover. It is better to be at home resting than being unwell at school and infecting others at the same time. If students become ill during the day, we will contact parents to collect them based on an informed assessment of how unwell they are at the time.

On a happier note, Mrs Wells is the very proud and excited grandmother of beautiful twin boys. Their names are Arthur and George. Pop in and see her any time. She is very happy to share photos.

Next week is Sabbatical Week and we are celebrating fathers with a focus assembly on Monday. Hope you can join us.  

Have a lovely weekend

Regards

Julie