St Anne's Newsletter - Term 1, Week 8 - 19th March, 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

Welcome everyone,

This week we will complete any catch up students for NAPLAN. Thanks to everyone involved in meeting the requirements for NAPLAN.

St Anne’s Reading Update:

Kinder: Kinder are learning about the concepts of print and engaging in a variety of Literature. They are also learning about letters, sounds they make and how to write them.

Year 1:  Belinda Brereton (CEDWW Education Officer-Reading) continues to work with the Year 1 teachers on best teaching and learning practices in Reading. Belinda models the teaching of different components of a reading lesson (eg Phonics) to Year 1 students while their teachers observe. Following the lesson the teachers and Belinda discuss the details of the modelled lesson and what the teachers focus will be in the coming weeks.

Year 2:  Have been focussed on the reading hour, developing and implementing a daily Phonics Program.

Years 3-6: Following Sydney Catholic Schools units which have been developed from the NSW Syllabus. Our staff are adapting these units to meet the needs of their classroom students.

This Thursday our school will celebrate Harmony Day. Students are invited to wear orange on this day and will participate in activities in class to promote unity and diversity.

A reminder that if you need to get a message to your child that you need to contact the office and they will get the message to your child. This is less disruptive for teachers and learning time. If possible could these messages be as early in the day as you can.

We are now taking enrolments for Kinder in 2025. As you would know every year we have more applicants than we have positions. To help in this decision making process we need to know how many siblings we have coming to school. If you have a child or know of a school family that has a child wishing to commence school in Kinder for next year, please notify the office before the end of next week. This would be greatly appreciated.

Keep smiling and have a great week, Bede.

Key Dates - 2024

  • Wednesday 20th March - Book Club orders due
  • Thursday 21st March - Harmony Day (students may wear orange coloured clothing)
  • Friday 22nd March - Gold Cup Half Day Holiday (Students do not attend as staff complete PD in the morning)
  • Wednesday 27th March - School Cross Country event
  • Wednesday 27th March - Stations of the Cross 6-7.30pm (details to follow)
  • Friday 29th March - Good Friday Holiday
  • Monday 1st April - Easter Monday Holiday
  • Wednesday 3rd April - Canteen closed
  • Monday 8th April - Yr 4 Reconciliation evening
  • Tuesday 9th April - 'TheirCare' (before & after school care) Parent Information Session, 5pm in the Library
  • Thursday 11th April - School Disco K-2: 5-6pm & Yrs 3-6: 6.15-7.15pm (details to come)
  • Friday 12th April - Last day of Term 1
  • Monday 29th April - Staff PD Day (Students do not attend)
  • Tuesday 30th April - 1st day of Term 2 for students
  • Wednesday 1st May - Years 3-6 Athletics Carnival
  • Wednesday 1st May - Applications for Kinder 2025 close
  • Friday 10th May - Mothers' Day Breakfast and Liturgy (more details to follow)
  • Wednesday 22nd May - Flanagan Day/ Reading Night/Simultaneous Storytime
  • Thursday 6th June - Yr 6 Confirmation Reflection Day
  • Friday 7th June - Staff Professional Development Day (students do not attend)
  • Friday 14th June - Yr 6 Confirmation
  • Friday 5th July - Last day of Term 2
  • Tuesday 23rd July - First Day of Term 3 for Students
  • Friday 26th July - Grandparents Day celebration

Canteen News

School Fee Statements

  • Fees were due to be paid in full by 29/02/24 unless an instalment option has been selected
  • Any families still wanting to select an instalment option may do so by using the Instalment Agreement link that was included in the fee email
  • Please note that the statements emailed last week were dated 1st March, therefore they do NOT include any payments made since that date (families can also check their account balance via the Compass app)
  • Statements should have included the instalment schedule for families who had submitted an instalment option selection
  • If you have any questions about your statement, please contact Tina in the office

Qkr! App

We have been advised by Qkr! that the issues that were being experienced by Android users on the Qkr! App have now been resolved.

St Patrick's Day Fundraiser for Caritas Australia's Project Compassion

Kinder 2025 Enrolment

Enrolment Information

Bus Passes - Yr 3 students

All eligible students, in all year levels, should now have received a bus pass.

Please note that when students reach Year 3, they must satisfy a 'minimum distance' criteria in order to remain eligible for a bus pass. If your child is in Year 3 and has NOT yet received a bus pass for 2024, please follow this link to update/confirm their details in order to be assessed for a bus pass.

Book Club

Catalogue #2 was sent home with students recently. Orders are due this Wednesday, 20th March. You can preview this catalogue here.

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.

Centacare Term 2 Program Information

At Centacare South West NSW we are passionate about supporting all people in our community. We are part of Wagga Wagga, Albury, Griffith, Mulwala & surrounding communities. We believe in wellbeing for all.

Term 2 Program Timetable Brochure

Before & after school care at St Anne's from Term 2

More information regarding this service was shared via Compass.

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.

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.

Uniform Shop

Our Uniform Shop is open each Friday from 3-3.30pm. 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.

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.

Compass Attendance

A reminder that all students who arrive at school after the morning bell at 8.55am, must be accompanied by an adult into our office to sign in on our Compass kiosk. This is a legal requirement and students may not sign themselves in. You will now be asked to provide a reason for the late arrival.

If you are picking up your child during the school day, for any reason eg. medical appointment or early departure, please send a written note in with your child to their teacher with all relevant details. Compass can not be used to notify teachers of early pickups. Compass is only to notify the school of full day absences. If you arrive at school to collect a child without prior notification, please allow extra time to locate your child on the school grounds, especially during break times and when at music, science or sport.

Parents/carers are required to submit an attendance note for any full day absences of their child from school. This can be done in the Compass App or in the Compass portal online. Please ensure you provide all the relevant details for why your child/children are not at school, as any notes added without a comment or details will be recorded as an unjustified absence. Please see the relevant link below for guidance on how to record an absence on the Compass App.

SMS Link to Attendance Notes
iOS Attendance Notes
Android Attendance Notes

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. If the leave is 21 days or more, parents are required to provide an educational plan to the school for approval. Extended leave forms are available from the school office.

Past Newsletters