Term 1 Week 4
Last Friday evening we welcomed over 150 parents and children to the school for the St Augustine’s welcome BBQ. The Parents Auxiliary ran a BBQ with a coffee van, donuts and ice creams. We ran a few novelty races with the finale race an egg and spoon parent and child race! There were a few very competitive parents but all ended with laughter and smiles! Thank you to all the families and staff who attended. Thank you to the Parents Auxiliary for organising this event that brought our community together. The next PA event is the school Funrun. Information has been sent home. Details are on the ‘Parent Page’ page.
The Parents Auxiliary met last Friday, planning events for this term and the year. Our fundraising efforts this year will go towards a new adventure playground to replace the older one on the hillside are of the bottom oval. I will be organising some student focus groups to discuss what they would like to see in this playground. Stay tuned!
Our MOSA group (Men Of St Augustine’s) have begun organising events for the year. The first event is Saturday March 1st at Keilor bowls club. It is a bbq and barefoot bowls. There was great attendance with the same event last year. If you would like to attend call Teghan on: 0418 338 354
This Tuesday we celebrated the beginning of year mass in Cooinda. Fr Samuel celebrated mass as Fr Ananda was unwell. We hope he gets better soon. Our school motto is “Grow with God” and our 2025 theme is Make a difference …Anchored in hope. This links to the 2025 Year of Jubilee in which Pope Francis invites us to celebrate. For all of us at St Augustine’s to be Anchored in Hope is knowing that Jesus is always with us. The children, a staff member and a parent and parish representatives processed in with a small anchor cutout that had been decorated by the children to represent their classes, the parent community, staff and parish. Fr Samual talked about hope and our hope and faith in Jesus to help us through tough times. The celebration ended with the announcement of the leadership positions and positions of responsibility for our Year 5 and 6 students. Thanks you to Mrs Barone for organising this beautiful mass. Thank you to Fr Samuel for stepping in for Fr Ananda at such short notice.
The School Advisory Council met on Tuesday evening for the first time this year. We discussed the year ahead and the strategic focus of the school for the next four years. Communication continues to be discussed as we look at a platform where we can integrate most of our individual communication modes. nForma is being used where we hope this will cater for the delivery of most of our communication between families and the school. So far we have transitioned to nForma for booking of interview and reports. In the coming months we will look at adding other areas such as absences and excursion permission notes. We will inform you once we begin adding these areas.
Prep enrolments for 2026 are open! Two information sessions and a tour will be held next week for new families. Let your friends and family know to register on the website if they are hoping to attend.
- Session 1 – Monday 24th February at 9.30am
- Session 2 – Tuesday 25th February at 6.30pm
Our prep children have settled in calmly and confidently. We look forward to them commencing full time next week.
Swimming starts for our year 3-6 children next week. Be sure to have returned the swimming permission note no later than the end of this week. Ensure you have completed the ‘Swimming Home Assessment Form’ that was sent via the school app. This helps the swim teachers group the children. Remember to pack for swimming. Children wear their bathers to school under their uniform. Check the note for more details.
Cathy Steere
