Dear Parents,
Earlier today, Acting Premier James Merlino announced that Victoria would enter a circuit breaker lockdown from 11.59 pm tonight, Thursday 27 May, to 11:59 pm on Thursday 3 June.
All Catholic schools will transition to remote and flexible learning from Monday 31 May. To assist with preparing for this, Friday 28 May will be a student-free day for all Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools (MACS) schools.
Staff have been working diligently preparing for remote learning. Today your child will be taking home a chromebook, remote learning exercise book and other resources to facilitate their online learning. Timetables and log in details for google meets have also been forwarded to your child(ren.)
If there are any families that have devices that can be used at home could you please inform the school office?
I thank you for your understanding. Let’s hope that we continue to be responsible and stay healthy and safe.
Year 5 or Year 7?
Of course, it is up to parents as to which school they send their children to, and parents make their decisions on their child’s education for different reasons. For most parents their thought process is based on which primary school is the “best fit” for their child (Foundation to Year 6), and then during their child’s primary school years they decide the “best fit” for years 7-12 (secondary school.) For some parents there is a third layer with a few parents contemplating sending their child to a secondary school (with a primary school section) in year 5.
As principal of our school it would be remiss of me not to talk about the advantages of a child completing their primary school education (that is, Foundation to Year 6) at St. Anne’s. So I’d like to share a few of my thoughts.
As a school we must offer a place that our parents and children see as high performing in all areas. Certainly schools like St. Anne’s and other local Catholic schools continue to perform extremely well, and in many cases better than many of the independent schools yet costing a fraction of the price. A primary school such as St. Anne’s only educates primary school children and therefore specialises in the education of children between ages 5 and 12. We do not have to fit into a structure that includes a secondary school and have decisions passed down from the senior school. I believe educating children in primary school is very, very different from secondary school. Children in primary school are taught completely differently to children in secondary school and at St. Anne’s we believe that the level of teaching in our school is equal to or better than anywhere else.
As the children move through to the senior classes at St. Anne’s, they are expected to take on different leadership roles. Our year 6 students this week attended an annual GRIP leadership conference. Year Six children are given leadership roles in the school and it is evident that they take these responsibilities seriously and are expected to carry out the roles that go with these positions. You only need to attend one of our weekly assemblies as evidence of this. This year all of our year 6 students belong to one of the following leadership groups: Captains (school/sport), ICT, Faith and Social Justice, Library, Arts and House Captains. These children also learn about being responsible with the younger children in the school through the buddy program and by being friends with many of the younger children. A number of our Year 4 and 5 students are Green Team leaders, responsible for
looking after our environment. Our senior children set a fine example to the younger children in the school and this is why we have so few discipline and bullying problems.
The children are given many opportunities in a school like ours. All the children in have the chance to participate in extra-curricular activities such as inter-school sport, school concerts, art shows, school assemblies, Mad Music Mondays and Fun Fit Fridays. Our year 3 -6 students have the opportunity to represent the school in district athletics, swimming and cross country. For our year 4, 5 and 6 students, there are many different sports on offer e.g. football, netball, athletics, soccer, cross country, hockey, basketball and swimming. This exposes all of our students to these sports, and it develops their skills, teamwork, fitness, school spirit, sportsmanship and capacity to overcome obstacles. Regular pre-school and after school sports training is conducted by our teachers for our students. Our senior students have the opportunity to coach basketball teams at the Year 3/4 Hooptime
carnival.
At our weekly assemblies and school concerts, children in our school have a significant role to play. Each week at our assembly you will hear a report from our school captains and sports captains. The captains also present the teacher awards - their charter is to basically run the assembly. Our Green Team also report regularly at assembly e.g: W3 – Walking, Wheeling Wednesday. Assemblies are also a forum where you hear from all of our leadership groups. Assemblies are also a forum for students from other classes to share their work or ideas with our “tight knit” school community – students, staff and parents. Two years ago at our fabulous school concert, our senior students were heavily involved in script writing, compering, music production and props design.
School camps, our Graduation mass and dinner, and the Sacrament of Confirmation – celebrated with their classmates at St. Anne’s Church - are all “value added” components of completing your primary school education at St. Anne’s.
At St. Anne’s, every child knows all the other children in the school and each staff member knows each child. Research has shown that children will only learn to their potential when they feel safe and secure in their school environment. I know that we have created an environment where children feel safe, secure and valued for the gifts and talents that they have. At larger schools, children can become lost in the pack if they are not exceptional at something.
Some parents have to make the decision of when (year 5 or 7) to send their child to the school they will be attending at secondary level. On visits to these schools parents are sometimes told that if they do not move their child in Year 5, they will miss out on a place in Year Seven. This is not usually correct. Any school that places pressure on a family to move their child at Year Five level because they cannot be guaranteed a place in Year Seven is not being totally truthful with parents. Often this is a line to maximize their numbers in the primary section of the school and to maximize their income. Like any business they want to maximize their income revenue and in a school this is about filling up classes. To substantiate my point, this year in Year 7 we had two girls join Genazzano, 2 boys to Xavier, 2 to Carey and 1 to MLC. These seven students were the only ones who applied to
join these four schools from St. Anne’s in 2021 and they were all accepted!
We are very proud of our school and the education we provide to your children. We are always looking to improve in areas and will continue to introduce new programs and improve the ones we have operating. We value your support and I would be more than willing to discuss this issue with anyone if they wish. I hope that we are able to educate your child until they finish in Year Six.
Working Bee
The proposed working bee for Sunday June 6 has been postponed. We will keep you informed of a further date.
Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences
These meetings will occur on Thursday 24 June for the following classes:
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F/1, 2/3 and 4/5. Students from these classes will be dismissed at 1pm on this day.
This is a normal school day for 5/6SB.
Tara Smith (one of our teachers 5/6SB) will be on leave on June 24. Consequently,
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5/6SB conferences will be held on Thursday 29 July.
Open days/nights
We have planned two further open days/nights. These will be held on
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June 9, (9:30-11:30am)
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June 23 (1:30-2:30pm.)
Please promote these sessions to potential families.
LUNCHTIME CLUBS
Lunchtime clubs are booming. The clubs are Lego (Monday), coding (Tuesday), Glee (Wednesday) and chess (Thursday.) We have been averaging around 20 students at these lunchtime clubs.
School Concert
The date for our school concert is Thursday September 2 at OLMC, Heidleberg. There will be one performance, held in the evening. Further details will be released in due course. Please keep this date free.
