“Teach me your way O Lord, and I will walk in Your truth.

Grant me an undivided heart to revere Your name.” (Psalm 86:11 )

Dear Friends,

Thank you to all families who were able to attend the Parent Information Night last Friday night.  Thank you also to our School Board Chair, Scott Pearsall, our P and F  Vice- President, Mark Bauer and our Parent Class Coordinator, Louise Willis for speaking at the evening and for all staff who attended.  Thank you also to the P and F for catering the BBQ, in particular, Mark Bullock and Kirsty Brogan who organised the team and all the food.  We also welcomed Cath Day, our new P and F President who met with the committee for the first time this year last night. 

As discussed on Friday we have three targeted areas in our strategic planning for 2019 as follows: 

An explicit Catholic Identity and culture- By the end of 2019, all classes will be implementing the conceptual inquiry framework in Religious Education

A Culture that promotes learning- Continual promotion of inquiry and innovation, where independent learning and creative exploration are nurtured and valued.  This will be supported with further development of a stimulating physical environment that supports and encourages learning.

Targeted use of Resources- Deploying staff to address the learning needs of students and make best use of staff expertise.  Address the learning needs of individual students through creating a more flexible curriculum delivery.

We have also engaged the services for 2019 of Focus Total Property Care, lead by Michael Kane, (Elsa, Year 1 and Oliver, Year 6) to help with the maintenance of our grounds and facilities.  I am sure parents and visitors have already noticed the improvements and care given to our surroundings, as well as the new furniture that has been purchased in each classroom to enable more flexible learning opportunities.  Next week we will also be installing new bubblers and concreting the area outside the ELC and Year 1 classroom.  ELC families will need to access their area from the side gate nearest to the carpark and families and students at school will be need to access the assembly area through the school hall or around the bike cage area side of the school for a few days.

As we will be participating in our annual school swimming carnival on Friday, we will be needing to board buses as quickly as possible on Friday morning.  Therefore we will be presenting Week 3 weekly awards on Monday at morning assembly.  In the afternoon on Monday, Year 5 / 6 White will be celebrating a Prayer Assembly at 2:20pm, in which all families are welcome to attend.  At the end of this assembly our Year 6 students will be explaining to the school our Year 6 Leadership Communities that will be active throughout 2019 under these 6 main categories-  

Service, Christian Outreach,  Sustainability, Technology,  Well-Being and Sport. 

I look forward to seeing you at the swimming carnival or other events at school over the next week.  A reminder about the Literacy information morning next Friday 1st of March at 9:15am in Mrs Capper's Kinder classroom. This is especially targeted for parents beginning the reading journey with their children at home and for those needing a recap of reading strategies to use with their children. 

"The more your read, the more things you will know.  The more that you learn, the more places you will go. " (Dr Seuss). 

With every best wish for a holy and peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families,

Philippa