Dear Parents and Families,
We seem to have moved from summer to winter to summer all in this term. I hope the fine weather continues for the school holidays so you can enjoy some time outdoors exploring either the local community or further afield.
Next term will be a little different for us as we will have farewelled Helen Thompson who has certainly been a part of the All Saints fabric over nearly 21 years. Helen has been a dedicated parent and educationalist here for all those years. She has worked in the classroom, as a specialist teacher, as the Religious Education Coordinator and in the role of Deputy Principal for the last 10 years. I know Helen continues to be a fervent supporter of All Saints, the children and their families. Helen has been valuable to me and the staff in terms of her knowledge and understanding of the evolution and continued development of All Saints. She has always been focused on the children and their wellbeing. We hope with her retirement from the everyday rigours of school, Helen will be able to attend to her own relaxation and enjoy some holiday time. I understand she is heading off overseas in the very near future and then I have no doubt Helen will continue to be involved in the education community in some manner.
On your behalf I wish to thank Helen for her tireless work in providing education for 100’s of children over 21 years here at All Saints. The school will formally farewell her at Assembly next Friday morning.
In farewelling Helen, we welcome Nick Wright into the role of Deputy Principal. Nick will be very familiar to many of you in his role as Director of Teaching and Learning. Over the next 2 terms we will be using the expertise of a number of our lead teachers to work with and support the teachers on their continued improvement of teaching and learning across the school.
Vanetta Renfrey and Sarah Vincent have been working together to look at these areas across the school, and are developing key understandings of the scope and sequence of learning in the area of Maths and English.
Nicole Perry has responsibility for increasing the staff’s knowledge of the Digital Technologies curriculum and has already established a STEM Club for the older children. Nicole is working with teachers from our cluster, collaborating and sharing knowledge.
Mel Canil will support Megan Lovering in continuing to monitor and support the wellbeing of the children and staff across the school.
Due to these changes the leadership team point of contact may change at some year levels. You will be notified when these changes have been made.
It was interesting to read the article in The Sunday Mail last week about enrolments in Catholic schools. The article pointed out that the numbers in Catholic schools had decreased over the last few years. The Director of Catholic Education pointed out that this was in some areas and I certainly agree with him. However, as Paul Rijken (Cardijn College) pointed out in his blog earlier in the week, this is not the case in our Southern Vales Cluster of schools. Our enrolments have been steadily increasing bringing enrolment pressure on some of our schools. In fact at All Saints we receive daily enrolment enquiries, now leading to some limited availability in some year levels. So if you have a sibling due to start school in 2020 or a child due to move to secondary school, please ensure the application is lodged. The staff at All Saints are firmly focussed on each child, their wellbeing and learning, working together to nurture leaders for the future who are compassionate, working for their community locally and globally as well as those who are marginalised. We aim to do this in partnership with our families and welcome constructive feedback that will assist us to improve the work we do for the development of the children.
Wishing you a wonderful break from the regular routines of school.
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