Dear Parents

Unfortunately I was away at a meeting in Melbourne today and so missed the Mothers’ Day Fellowship run by our Chaplain Rev Jon Taylor and the students. The report on it below is thanks to Mrs O’Reilly.

On Tuesday we held our Prep Information Evening. Apart from the staff speaking, Ruby McNeill-Johnson and Keely Robertson also spoke. Both girls did an excellent job, as did all our Year Six student leaders who assisted on the night by greeting guests, accompanying the tours and answering questions. It was a very successful evening and many parents commented on how confident and positive our students were and what good ambassadors they were for St Anne’s. Mrs Jemima Roberts also spoke and gave a current parent’s perspective and it was clear from her comments that she is a passionate supporter of the school and I thank her for her very positive talk.

I have already started the Prep enrolment interviews and have a large number scheduled in the next couple of weeks as well as a significant number for other year levels. If you know of anyone who may be interested in enrolling at St Anne’s please encourage them to contact the office. All the research clearly says that the early years of schooling are critical to a student’s future academic success and I know we offer an excellent program throughout the Junior School.

Mothers’ Day Fellowship
This morning at Fellowship we celebrated Mother’s Day and talked about things we might do to show our mums how special they are to us. The bible reading read by Maya and Melody and the prayer read by Quinn and Lily, reminded us to love and care for our mums.

Members of the Green Team told us of some of the great work that is being done around our campus in helping to protect our environment. Katy announced that McCubbin had won this week’s Rubbish Free Challenge. Baxter and Anthony shared with us that most of our classes at St. Anne’s have been energy wise this week- we have been turning off the lights and electrical appliances when they aren’t in use. We also heard of the new Green Team initiative aimed at helping us to use water wisely within our school. Hopefully we will be able to use this collected water on our gardens.

Accompanied by Mr Stagg and some of the Years 3 and 4 students who played percussion instruments, the Junior Choir sang a beautiful rendition of ‘Here comes the Sun’.

NAPLAN
This occurs next week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The Year 3 students may be feeling a little apprehensive about it, not having done it before like the Year 5 students. It is important to reassure them that these tests are nothing to be concerned about. They simply need to do their best and understand that some questions will be difficult. The teachers have familiarised the students with the format and explained that the tests are just another form of assessment.

Fellowship Next Week (please note change of day and time)
Next week Fellowship will be on Thursday 16 May at 10.30am. The Fellowship that day will be a presentation about the trip to Japan over Easter by some students from this campus and the Bairnsdale Campus. There will be no Fellowship on Friday 17 May.

Parents and Friends
The St Anne’s Campus group met on Wednesday morning and discussed a number of matters. Some parent social occasions for several year levels are in the process of being organised and the committee was looking for a project if some fundraising was done. A designated play area for the Year 3/4 students is a high priority. The new Prep – 2 play area is well under way and is about 50% completed and is proving very popular and the Year 3/4 students are keen to have their own area as well.

Student Achievements
In earlier Newsletters I neglected to mention that in the first week of this term Joey Rodda (Year 5 Mackellar) competed in the National Volleyball Championships U15 Age Group as a member of the Gippsland Sports Academy team. Joey has been playing volleyball for only two years and I don’t think he will mind me saying that he is the youngest member of the team and also the smallest. He did comment that every member of the Queensland team they played was over 6 feet tall and it was quite tough having balls coming straight at your face hard and fast from close range on a spike. His brother Linus (Year 7 Garnsey) was also in the team and they finished a creditable 7th in the championships. Well done Joey and Linus.

Manners, Citizenship and Uniform
The citizenship focus next week is to show initiative and offer to help before being asked. This is not limited to school and I hope that your children offer to assist at home in some practical ways. The uniform focus this week is blazers. When arriving at school in the morning and leaving in the afternoon all students should have their blazer on, unless in sports uniform. Please encourage your children to remember their manners and to wear their uniform correctly, thank you.

Thought for the Week
"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness." Honore de Balzac(1799 – 1850)

I wish you all an enjoyable Mothers’ Day weekend.

Greg Thomson