Term 3 Week 8
Last week was a particularly busy week as we celebrated Book week, attended excursions and rounded off the week by celebrating St Augustine’s day on Friday! The children (and staff) were talking for weeks about what they would wear for book week. There are some very creative and imaginative parents in our community who organised amusing, detailed and clever costumes! I think the Yr 1/2 teachers excelled themselves with their costumes as the 3 pigs! Thanks to Maree McBean, Vanessa Cullum and all the staff for their organisation of this day.
St Augustine’s Feast Day Celebration was another example of the school community at it’s best. The day was organised and run by the year 5/6 children. It was a proud moment to walk out on the yard and see how competently and expertly these children organised the rotating activities and the way they engaged with their groups. They should be commended for their efforts. Thank you to the Yr 5/6 teachers who guided and prepared the children for the day. ‘St Augustine’s Got Talent’ was a great success with 10 acts performing. There were a variety of acts from singing, dancing and joke telling. It was a fun time to be an audience member while watching some very talented children. Thank you also to the Parents Auxiliary who organised the lunch order sausage sizzle to coincide with this day. It added more festivity to the day.
Last Sunday the St Augustine’s Parent Auxiliary organised the Bunnings BBQ at Taylors Lakes. It was a great success with many parent volunteers from the school working behind the BBQ. Although it was a struggle to fill all volunteer places it was achieved in the end. Thank you to those parents who worked a double shift to ensure we had enough people. In the end, the BBQ raised $1800.00. A great effort!
Happy Fathers Day for Sunday! Our Fathers Day stall, today, has been a great success. The children were excited to buy presents for their fathers and father figures. Thanks you to Donna Schepis who always finds unique and beautiful gifts for the stall and to the mums who came to help.
These past 4 Sundays have seen our children celebrate the sacrament of First Eucharist. Congratulations to all children and to staff who have been at the masses to support the children. It has also been great to see children return the following Sunday to then be able to receive Eucharist with the parish and help their friends celebrate their special day. We have our last mass this Sunday at St Augustine’s church at 9am.
Our annual MACSSIS surveys have opened. Every year Catholic schools participate in MACSSIS surveys: Melbourne Archdiocese Catholic Schools – School Improvement Surveys. The Staff, eighty parents and years 3-6 will participate in these surveys starting on the 29th August. These surveys are a tool where we can collect, analyse and interpret data to inform us on our school improvement. This data tells us about what different people in the school community think and feel about their learning environment. It is a valuable way to reflect on the year and set future improvement goals. Eighty families have been chosen at random to participate. If you are a lucky chosen one, I ask that you spend the time to participate and help us with our continued improvement.
Next Wednesday 7th September we will be holding the Fun Run. There is still time to ask for sponsorship from friends and family. All children will participate regardless of whether they have sponsors or not. The money raised will contribute to the installation of new football goals on the oval and seating on the top oval for the children.
With August coming to an end it is obvious that the renovation and building program has still not commenced. Not being able to providing us with a site manager, yet, is holding up the start date. I have been informed late September as a 95% new start time. As you can imagine this is frustrating but completely out of our hands. MACS and the architect have been working tirelessly with the builder to lock in a start date. Until then we wait and hope the weather improves for a ‘dry’ start date!
Over the past weeks I have had a number of conversations with students about uniform and being ‘out of uniform’. The main concerns are: hair longer than collar length needs to be tied back (this includes boys), white socks for PE uniform, brown school shoes on other days, no jewellery to be worn except simple studs, sleepers and a religious necklace worn under clothing. If your child comes home talking about uniform I ask that you support the school by ensuring they are wearing the correct uniform.
Cathy Steere
