Dear Families

Welcome to a busy week with key events happening across the week.  Our week started with a House Team celebration day and finishes with our Andrew Chinn Concert.  At Andrew's live performance in the afternoon we will also take the opportunity in front of the whole school community to present student leaders badges to those children elected to special roles at the end of the last year.  For those people not familiar with the name Andrew Chinn, he is a well-known musician from NSW who has been providing schools with upbeat, kid-friendly religious songs for decades.  Every few years we have been lucky enough to have him visit, however a little bird tells us sadly that this might be his last year of country-wide shows.  So come along for a bit of a dance and sing-along.  On Friday we also have the Parents & Friends throwing a few snags on the BBQ as an end of the week treat and to celebration Andrew Chinn being in town.  We advise families to pack your lunch as normal, and enjoy a sausage or two as a treat.

On Monday afternoon Mrs. Burke coordinated our House Team Celebration.  In preparation Brooke and Cam worked with the students to prepare some fresh new house chants and dance moves, while Monday gave us all the chance to get dressed up in our house colours and spend some time with students from our house teams.  We have further plans to have similar days and events to teach and highlight our Positives Behaviours, but to also remember the importance of putting a joy into our busy lives.  Thanks to Brooke for her work on this as well as any staff and parents that contributed in any way. 

On Wednesday we held an incursion, World of Maths, where students worked together, engaged as a team to discuss strategies to help them develop problem-solving skills in order to build confidence in their maths abilities.

Last Friday and Saturday I had the privilege of attending the Diocesan Assembly hosted by the Bishop.  Along with almost 250 delegates we explored issues and priorities for the Diocese, Parish and School moving forward across the next five years.  It was a joyful and positive few days and I am optimistic about what actions will come from the review.

At the end of last year staff started to explore different ways to support parents and share the terrific work that is taking place in classrooms.  To provide more information to parents about your child, as well as the teaching and learning practices that are prioritised at St. Vincent's, we have added some additional opportunities for parents to engage with teachers.  We will now be conducting Parent-Teacher Interviews each term as well as exploring what different Information Sessions we can offer.  Parent-Teacher Interviews will be held on 11th and 12th March, and Literacy Information Session (Foundation - Year 2) on Tuesday 25th February.  I encourage you to take advantage of these sessions and we will love to hear your feedback around any of these ideas.

Again in 2025 we have partnered with the team from INFORM & EMPOWER to help staff deliver our Cyber Safety & Digital Well-being program.  The existing format of a live classroom webinar and follow-up parent information sheets will continue this year, with this year being the first year the Foundation Classes having live webinars.  Year 1-6 have their webinars this week with the Foundation sessions in early March.  I cannot strongly enough urge parents to take the time to explore the Inform and Empower resources.

At the start of the year it is a perfect time to put out expressions of interest for interested parents to join in with our Parents & Friends group or the School Advisory Board.  These groups are heavily dependent on the energy and passion of a few so please reach out to me personally or via the following eForm to express your interest.  We would love to hear from you!

Have a great week, Dave