St Anne's Newsletter - Term 3, Week 7- 3rd September, 2024 St anne's primary school, cnr curlew cres & lowry street, north albury - phone: 0260251281 - email: sana-info@ww.catholic.edu.au - Website : WEB.SANAWW.CATHOLIC.EDU.AU

Principal's Message

Dear Parents / Caregivers

This week is National Child Protection Week with the overarching message of Every Conversation Matters and runs in conjunction with Safeguarding September, a Diocesan focus for the month. These initiatives highlight the need to protect our children and vulnerable people, whether at home, sports, in public or at school. Look for resources that will be shared during the week and month ahead. Follow this link for more information.

Many thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the Father’s Day Breakfast a great success. From the early hours of Friday morning, there was a steady flow of children and the special men in their lives, sharing breakfast and time. The hall was a great venue, set up to honour and thank these superheroes for all they do and the crucial role they play in the lives of our students.

Keep in your prayers our students who will make their First Holy Communion this weekend. All sacraments are special but First Communion is the sacrament where children feel like they are full members of the Church.

God bless,

Michael.

Key Dates - 2024

  • Wednesday, 11th September - book club orders due
  • Friday 20th September - Mercy Day
  • Friday 27th September - Last day of Term 3/Footy Colours Day
  • Monday 14th October - Staff PD Day (Students do not attend)
  • Wednesday 23rd October - Kinder 2025 Transition Session One 9.15-10.45am
  • Tuesday 15th- Wednesday 16th October - Yr 5 Ballarat Excursion
  • Monday 4th & Tuesday 6th November - Kinder 2025 Transition Session Two 9.15-11.30am or 12.15-2.30pm
  • Monday 18th & 20th November - Kinder 2025 Transition Session Three 9.15-11.30am or 12.15-2.30pm
  • Monday 25th November - Wednesday 27th November - Yr 6 Canberra Excursion
  • Thursday 28th November - Yr 7 Transition Day Xavier
  • Friday 29th November - Bongiorno Day/Gift Giving Mass
  • Wednesday 4th December - David Enever Christmas Community Concert (details closer to the date)
  • Thursday 5th December - Kinder 2025 Transition Session Four 9.15am-12pm
  • Saturday, 7th December - 2024 school fees due to be paid in full
  • Monday 16th December - Yr 6 Graduation (details to follow)
  • Wednesday 18th December - Last day of school year for students

Assembly Dates for Semester Two

  • Year 2 Assembly - Friday 6th September @ 11.40am
  • Year 5 Assembly - Friday 13th September @ 11.40am
  • Year 6 Assembly - Friday 1st November @ 11.40am (please note change of date)
  • Year 3 Assembly - Friday 22nd November @ 11.40am
  • Kinder Nativity Assembly - Tuesday 3rd December

Canteen

Father's Day Breakfast

Superheroes were everywhere at our annual St Anne's Fathers Day Breakfast on Friday morning! How lucky for our students to share an egg and bacon roll with the important men in their lives.

Many thanks to 'TheirCare' Before and After School Care for providing the food and supplies for the morning and to all our wonderful parent helpers who made it all run smoothly! A special shout out also to Little Peach Coffee, who came to the rescue and served delicious coffees on the day.

We hope all the superheroes had a fabulous day on Sunday!

Peer Support - Week 5

During Peer Support this week children will look at how to play in a friendly way in order to maintain friends and build positive relationships. Through various activities children will discover the importance of taking turns and having consistent rules throughout a game. This week, help your child to practise these skills by encouraging them to play games with siblings, family or friends.

Indigenous Literacy Day

Register Here

Library News

Book Fair

Thank you to everyone who supported our Book Fair. Many of our back-ordered books have just arrived this morning and will be distributed to students today. The balance of our order will be distributed as soon as it is received.

Book Club catalogues

Book Club catalogue #6 was sent home with students today. Orders are due back at school (or online) by next Wednesday, 11 September.

Upcoming Excursions

Year 5 Ballarat Excursion

Students in Year 5 will travel to Ballarat between Tuesday 15th - Wednesday 16th October. Consent and payment of $290 is due by Friday 4th October. Thanks to the many families who have already committed to pay via the payment plan. We ask those families to please ensure that there are sufficient funds in your nominated account on the dates of payment.

Year 6 Canberra Excursion

Students in Year 6 will travel to Canberra between the Monday 25th - Wednesday 27th November. Consent and payment of $420 is due by Friday 8th November. Thanks to the many families who have already committed to pay via the payment plan. We ask those families to please ensure that there are sufficient funds in your nominated account on the dates of payment.

Messages regarding changes to after-school plans

We are always happy to pass on messages to students from parents/carers regarding changes in after-school plans (eg. regarding catching or not catching a bus). However, please contact the office as early as possible in the day so that we can pass on such messages efficiently. In the afternoon, the office can become very busy and it can be difficult to locate specific students quickly (especially on sport days). Thankyou.

Volunteering at school

We are very grateful for the assistance that parents/grandparents provide in our school. Any helpers/volunteers (including canteen, sport, event fundraising and classroom helpers) will need to either -

  1. Provide the details of their Working With Children Check (if they have one). We require full name, date of birth, WWCC number and WWCC expiry date. These details may take several days to be verified before a volunteer can help in our school, so please email this information to the office (sana-info@ww.catholic.edu.au) well in advance.
  2. Complete a CEDWW Volunteers Declaration and show an identity document (eg. drivers licence). These forms are available from the office. This declaration needs to be completed annually, therefore anyone who completed a form last year will need to complete a new form.

It is worth noting that a WWCC for volunteers is easily obtained through Service NSW, is free for volunteers and lasts for five years. Check out further information here.

Uniform Shop

Our Uniform Shop is open weekly on Friday from 2.45-3.15pm. Please email sana-info@ww.catholic.edu.au with your requirements if you can't make that time and we will pass your request on to Luisa to process.

We have lots of good quality second hand uniform items for sale as well as new hats, bags and art smocks.

Bus Travel in 2024

  • St Anne's students who had a bus pass in 2023, and remain eligible, should have automatically received a new pass for 2024 (there is no need to reapply).
  • A new application will need to be submitted for any student who is applying for the first time, or if the request relates to additional travel entitlement because of new shared parental arrangement (e.g. joint custody). These applications can be made here.
  • Students who have changed their home address will need to have their details updated here.

Absences for after-school-care

If your child attends after-school-care and they are absent from school, please remember to advise the care provider. We often have providers waiting/searching for children who are absent from school.

Extended Leave

A reminder to families that if your child will be away for 10 or more consecutive school days (eg. for a family holiday), then you will need to submit an 'Application for Extended Leave'. See the 'Compass Attendance' information towards the end of this newsletter for further details.

Qkr! App

Our Qkr! App is the platform that we use to process transactions for our Canteen Orders and some special events, like the School Disco.

Qkr! is an efficient and accurate way of tallying our daily canteen orders and a brilliant time saver when collating and organising our students' lunch orders.

Recently we have had several students report that they have not received their lunch orders, only to find that the canteen has no record of their order. We would suggest that parents check their receipt on the Qkr! App to ensure that their order has been processed for the correct date and for the correct menu items and quantity.

Compass School Manager

Our Compass School Manager is the platform that we communicate with parents about all aspects of their child's school life. Our school attendance, calendar, news feed, student reports, parent teacher conference bookings, event consent/payments and many other services are accessible.

We strongly advise all parents to ensure that they have access to their Compass account on a mobile App or a desktop computer. All parents are issued a username and temporary password when their child is enrolled at St Anne's. If you are experiencing any difficulties accessing your account, please don't hesitate to contact Karon on grimmerk@ww.catholic.edu.au.

Student Attendance

On occasion, your child may need to be absent from school. Justified reasons for student absences may include:

  • being sick, or having an infectious disease
  • having an unavoidable medical appointment
  • being required to attend a recognised religious holiday
  • exceptional or urgent family circumstance (e.g. attending a funeral)

Following an absence from school you must ensure that within 7 days you provide your child’s school with a verbal or written explanation for the absence. This can be via Compass or by phone, email or in written form. Parents will receive a Compass notification with a link for parents to provide this information in Compass.

Principals may decline to accept an explanation that you have provided if they do not believe the absence is in the best interest of your child. In these circumstances your child’s absence would be recorded as unjustified. When this happens the principal will discuss their decision with you and the reasons why.

Principals may request medical certificates or other documentation when frequent or long term absences are explained as being due to illness. Principals may also seek parental permission to speak with medical specialists to obtain information to collaboratively develop a health care plan to support your child. If the request is denied, the principal can record the absences as unjustified.

When families take students out of school during the school term for holidays, there are strict legal requirements that need to be met. If a student is going to be absent for up to 9 days, no formal application is required and parents may enter the absence on Compass under the 'Travel' option. If the absence is for 10 days or more, an application is required to be completed by parents prior to travel and approval will be required by the Principal or officials from CEDWW. Extended leave forms are available from the school office.

Past Newsletters