Welcome Back Everyone!
It was so wonderful to be able to welcome back all students at the start of this week. Watching the children reconnect in person was just precious. They were so excited to be back and undertake their learning in their classrooms with their teacher.
I would like to acknowledge and thank the staff of St Monica’s for their commitment to maintaining connections and their high-quality teaching programs for our students during online learning. I would often be asked how school was going with another unusual start to the year. My response to this was we are doing this well – we’ve got this! It has been a great opportunity to model resilience and perseverance to our students.
Hopefully we will see reductions in some of the restrictions placed on educational settings and we will be able to welcome back our wonderful families onto our site.
Uniform reminders
Late last year the School Board of St Monica’s Parish School, reviewed the school uniform policy. A link to it on our school website has been included for your reference. I thank the families that support this policy in sending children to school in the correct uniform. I know that at times our suppliers at Vinnies are short of stock and an incorrect item may need to worn. A letter to the class teacher to explain this is fine. Wearing a uniform is a visible sign of belonging to a group or community and having the correct uniform is about pride in yourself and your community.
Pupil Free Day – Friday 11 March
I would like to alert families that we will be having a Pupil Free Day on Friday 11 March (long weekend). On this day teachers will be working offsite on Assessment and Learning, analysing data and moderation of students’ work. Due to not being able to meet as a whole staff in person and preparing for online learning, we did not have the opportunity to do this in the week before school started. OHSC will be available for families that require it and bookings will open soon.
Child Safety
Over the next few newsletters, I will be sharing key documents that Catholic Education of South Australia and its school communities use in the areas of Child Safety and Protection. Each year the staff engage with these documents to ensure that we are up to date with our understanding and processes in working with young people in a safe and respectful manner. We believe that it is important for families to also share in the policies and documents that inform our best practice. Please take some time to read them and if you have any questions or concerns, contact me.
The first of policies articles re child safety for parents – Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy, Responding to Online Safety incidents in South Australian schools - LINK
Old Scholars
The story of a community is so important in knowing who and what has gone before and to help build and continue connections. I have been amazed at the number of people who have had a connection with St Monica’s over the years.
We would like to start a data base of old scholars so when we have news to share or want to invite people to community celebrations it will be an easy task.
If you, or someone you know, is an old scholar of St Monica’s, could you please have them contact us on info@stmonica.catholic.edu.au We look forward to hearing from many old scholars who can share their own story and continue to be a part of St Monica’s story.
Student Voice
Each class has now completed the process for selecting their class representatives for Student Voice. I would like to congratulate those chosen and look forward to working with you on improving our school and having your thoughts and ideas included in our decision making processes.
God’s blessings,
Emily
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