St Anne's Newsletter - Term 2, Week 3 - 14th May, 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

Welcome to Week 3,

Thank you to everyone who gave so generously to making our Mothers/special ladies breakfast such a fantastic success. Everyone just got in and helped (which is our St Anne’s way) which gave people a chance to relax and enjoy.

Thank you also to TheirCare (before & after school care) for your financial support of our breakfast morning.

Thanks to Kinder and their teachers for the Mothers/special ladies afternoon tea last Thursday and to Mrs Allibon and our Year 6 students for making Friday's Assembly meaningful and enjoyable. I hope all our Mothers/special ladies had the best day on Sunday.

Thank you to all the many families who completed our recent survey about moving to the Sports Uniform or remaining as we are at the moment. All of this feedback has been given to our School Advisory Council. Due to my retirement at the end of this term, this decision will be held over for the next Principal to follow up on and work with the relevant people to make a final decision.

'TheirCare' provide before and after school care at our school, for our students. It has been very popular after school. I suggest that if you have to leave your children here at school before 8.25am, due to work commitments, etc, please contact TheirCare to discuss before school care. Supervision of students does not commence until 8.25am each school day and it is concerning for the wellbeing of our students when they are on their own or not supervised before this time.

Our new playground has been approved and we are in the process of organising the construction of this at the moment. It is based on climbing ropes as research now suggests that upper body strength of students is an area that can improve.

Last chance for any families who have siblings old enough to start Kinder next year. I am completing interviews over the next few weeks and then we will make offers.

This week our school welcomed Leo the Therapy Dog. Leo is a certified therapy dog who joins our School Wellbeing Team, alongside his certified handler Alice Paton. Please see this flyer for further information.

Benefits of Animal Assisted Therapy

Have a great week and keep smiling, thanks Bede.

Key Dates - 2024

  • Wednesday 15th May - Book Club orders due
  • Friday 17th May - Paul Kelly Cup
  • Friday 17th May - Library competition entries due
  • Friday 17th May - Flanagan Day Hotdog orders due by 3pm
  • Saturday 18th May at 6pm & Sunday 19th May at 9.30am - Yr 6 Confirmation Commitment Masses
  • Wednesday 22nd May - Flanagan Day/Simultaneous Storytime (details below)
  • Tuesday 28th May - Yr 4 Reconciliation @ Sacred Heart Church 6-7pm
  • Thursday 30th May - Yr 6 Confirmation Reflection & Preparation Day
  • Friday 7th June - Staff Professional Development Day (students do not attend)
  • Monday 10th June - King's Birthday Holiday
  • Friday 14th June - Yr 6 Confirmation, 6pm at Sacred Heart Church
  • Sunday 30th June - Farewell Mass & Morning Tea for Bede Hart's Farewell 9.30am
  • Friday 5th July - Last day of Term 2
  • Tuesday 23rd July - First Day of Term 3 for Students
  • Friday 26th July - Grandparents Day celebration
  • Wednesday 7th August - Yr 1, 2 & 3 Albury Wodonga Eisteddfod

School fee statements

Statements were emailed to families last week. Please note that these statements were dated 30th April and therefore do not include any payments made since that date. If you did not receive your statement, or if you have any questions, please contact Tina in the office (6025-1281).

Canteen

Mother's Day Breakfast

Flanagan Day Celebrations

On Wednesday 22nd May our Flanagan Day celebrations will begin with a liturgy in the school hall at 9:15am. All are welcome to attend. Students are encouraged to wear green or a “flannie” shirt. Flanagan House was named in honour of Fr Kevin Flanagan, who was the priest of our Parish for over forty years.

At the conclusion of the liturgy, the whole school will remain in the hall to participate in National Simultaneous Story Time. “Bowerbird Blues” by Aura Parker is the story chosen for school’s to explore this year. Students will then return to their classrooms to enjoy some follow up activities after listening to a rendition of the story.

Flanagan House are organising a Hotdog lunch for this day, with proceeds to go to Meg’s Orphanage (a charity close to Fr Kevin’s heart). Hotdogs will be $4 each and drinks (juice or flavoured milk) $2 each. Lunch can be ordered through the Qkr app this week before 3pm on Friday 17th May. Unfortunately, no late orders can be accepted (as orders will be placed at this time with suppliers).

Parish News

Mr. Bede Hart will retire as Principal of our parish primary school, St Anne’s, at the conclusion of Term 2.

As part of the celebrations to honour and give thanks for Bede’s incredible commitment of service to Catholic Education in our diocese for forty years, a special mass of thanksgiving followed by morning tea will be held on Sunday 30 June at 9.30am in Sacred Heart Church. All children, families and the wider community are invited and welcome to attend.

Sports News

MacKillop Rugby League

Congratulations to Noah and Patrick who attended the McKillop rugby trials in Canberra last Friday. Neither made it to the next stage but both played really well against some hard competitors from Sydney, Wollongong and Canberra.

National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime is an annual event of the Australian Library and Information Association. Each year, a picture book (written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator) is chosen to be read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, family day cares, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Last year, there were over 2.3 million participants!

This year's chosen book is 'Bowerbird Blues' by Aura Parker. To celebrate, students are invited to enter our library competition by decorating a feather template. Entry forms were sent home last week and are due back by this Friday, 17th May. Three lucky winners will each win a $20 Book club voucher.

Book Club

The new Book Club catalogue was sent home with students.

The catalogue can be previewed here and orders are due by tomorrow Wednesday, 15th May.

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.

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 on Friday this week 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