St Francis of Assisi News

Term 4 Issue 16 14th November 2024

NOONGAR SEASON OF KAMBARANG (OCT-NOV)

PRINCIPAL'S POST

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

With only just over 3 weeks left of the 2024 school year, it enters what we like to call the 'crazy period'. Annual community meetings, class lists, graduation mass and Christmas Concerts are all on the agenda over the next few weeks. Add in our Year 6 camp and Summer Carnival and it's fair to say it is a sprint to the finish.

Congratulations to our P&F for an amazing fundraiser on Friday with the Colour Run. The kids had a great time and the cooler weather held out for an afternoon of colour explosion! Final fundraising numbers will be shared soon with the highest individual and class being announced at this Friday's assembly. Prizes will be coordinated by the P&F and distributed later this term.

ANNUAL COMMUNITY MEETING - TUESDAY 19th NOV 3pm

On Tuesday, we will hold our annual community meeting of the School Advisory Council and P&F Executive in the school hall to conclude the year. Parents are encouraged to attend and recap on the school year, both financially and academically. Reports are prepared and delivered by both bodies and we also announce the class teachers for 2025 along with associated school fees. The meeting will take place at 3pm in the hall and should run for less than an hour. During the ACM, the P&F Executive and SAC Executive for 2025 will also be announced. Thank you to those individuals who nominated themselves.

BOOKLISTS 2025

In 2024, we introduced a Book Fee levy for our parents in order to reduce the burden on parents over the summer period. There was a very favourable response by parents to not only the reduction in cost, but also the benefits to their family and children. This will again be applied in 2025 where parents DO NOT need to source stationary. Rather, parents pay a book fee levy and the materials are delivered in bulk to the school and sorted for your child to access. The associated school fees and levies will be communicated at the Annual Community Meeting on Tuesday 19th November at 3pm.

CLASS LISTS & TEACHER REQUESTS 2025

In preparation for the 2025 school year, discussions and meetings are taking place with teachers, students, support staff and leadership. Many hours are spent taking a very measured and balanced approach when preparing these lists and placing children in classes. Classes are always evenly distributed according to academic, social and emotional needs. As communicated in the last newsletter, meeting all parent requests is not possible but please be assured we strive to provide the best learning environment for every single one of our 470 students, including your individual child and all decisions made are in the best interests of the children.

INSTRUMENTAL SCHOLARSHIPS 2025 - YEAR 3-6

Thanks to Polygon Music, we will once again be offering two families the opportunity to have 12 months of music tuition provided free of charge for their child to learn either drums, guitar, electric guitar or keyboard. Our instrumental program runs once per week in small groups and is open for any child in Year 3-6 in 2025. The scholarships are funded by both Polygon Music and SFOA and aim to support families in financial distress whose child would like to learn an instrument. Should you be interested, please complete the attached application form and return to Mr Cunniffe at mark.cunniffe@cewa.edu.au Applications close tomorrow, the 15th November.

YEAR 6 CAMP

Our Year 6's are currently enjoying their Year 6 Camp at Kerem Adventure Camp. A very big thank you to the staff supervising the children, Mr Gorman, Mrs Bond, Miss K, Mr Clarke and Nurse Kym. School camps are a fantastic part of the Year 6 school year and often a lifelong memory the children enjoy. Over the three days and two nights, staff are on duty 24/7 and despite popular belief, are not paid for the additional duty of care to ensure it is a safe and memorable experience. They give up their time with their own children and families to support our school and I wish to acknowledge their commitment. The Year 6's will no doubt come home very tired tomorrow afternoon but with a lot of stories to tell.

ACADEMIC REPORTS S2

The Semester Two Academic Reports will once again be released via Seqta Engage on Wednesday 4th December. For any parent wishing to access this report, you will need to have your Seqta Engage Username and Password. If you are unsure of any of these details, please email ithelp@stfrancisbutler.wa.edu.au.

CITY OF WANNEROO SURVEY

The City of Wanneroo is reaching out to ask for your help in making our roads safer for students in the City of Wanneroo. Your valuable feedback is crucial to their efforts to improve road safety and promote walking and cycling to school in our local area. They are conducting a survey to better understand the challenges and find solutions to create safer environments for our children to get to school. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey at:

https://yoursay.wanneroo.wa.gov.au/projects/your-move-school-crossings-research

The survey asks the name of the student, but if you prefer not to share this information, simply enter "N/A" in that field. Your input will help create safer routes for our students. The survey will be open from the 4 November to the 1 December.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT - WED 27th NOV 6pm

A reminder to all families that our Christmas Concert is scheduled for Wednesday 27th November at 6pm. This Christmas extravaganza is a showcase from every year level of Christmas songs to celebrate the festive season and conclude the school year. The Pitch Inn and Passaparola Pizza food trucks will be here for food purchases so please note times below:

4:00pm Family Picnics Welcome

4:30pm Food Trucks Available (The PItch Inn / Passaparola Pizza)

5:45pm Doors open to hall

6:00pm Seated for Christmas Concert

6:30pm LAST FOOD TRUCK ORDERS

7:15pm Concert Concludes

Parents, grandparents and other relatives are welcome to bring their own family picnic any time from 4pm, however, doors to the hall do not open until 5:45pm. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues with Youtube, we are unable to live stream the concert. In 2023, the livestream was blocked due to copyright and this will be an ongoing issue.

2025 TERM DATES AND PUPIL FREE DAYS

The term dates and Pupil Free Days for 2025 have now been set and are attached. Please refer to these dates prior to booking any holidays to ensure children maintain high attendance rates in 2025. Department of Education guidelines state that attendance should be maintained above 90%. Once attendance falls, this not only impacts student learning, but funding from the Federal Government and may impact your school fees.

In 2025, pupil free days have been aligned with Irene McCormack Catholic College to support our parent community. This document is also available on our website.

Have a great fortnight ahead!

Best wishes

Jason Baker

Principal

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2025 Term Dates and Pupil Free Days.pdf

EOI Form - Musicorp.pdf

Music Scholarship Application 2025.pdf

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LIVE CALENDAR

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

CHRISTMAS HAMPER APPEAL 2024

It's that time of year again, when we come together as a school community to assist other families in our parish to enjoy and experience Christmas. Our annual Christmas Hamper Appeal for St Vincent de Paul will begin in Week 7 - Monday 18th November and will continue to Monday 2nd December. Please keep reading the newsletter & check seesaw for details.

ST ANDREW the Apostle

As part of the St Andrew's Catholic Parish community, it is important for us to know about St Andrew! St Andrew was one of the 12 original disciples, or apostles, of Jesus. He was also the brother of another disciple, Simon Peter (Saint Peter). Andrew and Simon Peter were fishermen in Gallilee. According to the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Jesus was walking along the shore of the sea of Galilee when he saw Andrew and Simon Peter fishing. He called them to follow him, saying that he would make them "fishers of men".

We don't know very much about his life, but we do know that after Jesus died, Andrew travelled around the Black Sea and Greece preaching about Christ. Unfortunately the governor in Greece still believed in the Roman gods and asked him to stop. When Andrew refused, he was sentenced to death and crucified on a cross in the shape of the letter X.

Feast Day: 30th November

Patron Saint of fishermen and singers.

LifeLink 2024

LifeLink raises much needed funds for a variety of Catholic agencies here in Perth and around Western Australia. In May we held a Pyjama Day fundraiser for LifeLink. Pope Francis calls us to support those most in need in our community. Supporting the Archbishop's LifeLink Christmas Appeal is one way to do this. All money donated goes to support the LifeLink - Catholic Caring Agencies right here in WA. The 2024 Christmas Appeal began last weekend (9/10 November). For further information, follow the link LifeLink Christmas Appeal

COMING UP

Advent Reconciliation (yrs 3-5) Thursday 21st November

Agnes Feast Day - Friday 22nd November

Pax et bonum - peace and goodness St Francis of Assisi.

Miss Dee Campbell

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Congratulations to a budding swimmer in Year 2B, Tamila Mclean. Tamila attends State Swim in Butler and after spending 12 months in Sharks, she has now graduated to level Bronze. See you in Brisbane 2032, Tamila!

Congratulations to Kaden Keen (3W) who has defended his State Flat Track Title at the Championships a few weeks ago. That's back-to-back for Kaden in his age group which is a amazing achievement!

PARENT SPOTLIGHT

In the interests of celebrating community achievements, it would be remiss of me not to highlight the achievements of one of our School Advisory Council members, Mrs Jacinta Lynton. Jacinta recently completed the 42km Up All Night Marathon to raise funds for Ronald McDonald house and 'walk in the shoes' of families with sick children. Jacinta is now a local celebrity via the https://www.upallnight.org.au/ website and local Transperth buses! From all reports, Jacinta was smiling through the pain.

SCHOOL FEE INFORMATION

Dear Parents,

Yesterday school fee statements were sent to all families excluding those families who have already finalised their payments and are in credit. For families who have not contributed towards their school fees from the beginning of the year you need to finalise your payment ASAP.

All families on Centrelink Health Care Card (HCC) need to provide the school with their current card to continue receiving the discount for 2024. If your card has expired, please bring in your new card to the school office ASAP. If we do not receive your HCC you will be charged the full fees.

Kind regards,

Geneve Bastian

P&F NEWS

What an amazing Colour Run! A huge thank you to everyone who joined us and made this event so full of energy, laughter, and color! This year our wonderful school community raised a whopping $15,900 with a profit of just over $9500. This money will be going towards the new playground for the lower year levels. Our highest fundraisers will be announced at the school assembly on Friday so stay tuned.

With the end of Term 4 fast approaching, the P & F have a couple more events coming up. They will be the Christmas Hampers and the community lunch. More information will be sent out closer to the time.

Once again, thank you to everyone for their continued support for our great committee.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to the following students who are celebrating their birthday over the next two weeks:

Ashar Basra, William Hancock, Atem Awan, Dan Joseph, Quinn Heron, Mila Weko-Hauraki, Nate Goldie, Rayan Javadi, Indi Prunster, Riley Gardiner, Mariah Lynch, Chloe King, Elizabeth Stanisic, Alyssa Unthank, James Grantham, Logan Harms, Liam Piwowarczyk.

We wish you all a wonderful day!!