St Timothy's School Vermont

Today is a day recognized as Teachers' Day. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful teachers at St Timothy's who are dedicated to provide a safe, happy  engaging and rigorous  learning environment.

Happy Teachers Day to: Trish McKinley, Aria Karagiannis, Anne Maree Noonan, Rosemary Broderick, Jessi Wright, Shane Collins, Celina Korcak, Helen Zammit and Lorraine Costa

I am sending out a call for help to see if we have any families who would be happy to lend us some tents  in December. The idea is to have a virtual camp experience for our Year 6 students. The camp would take place on the oval during a school day ( with possible later pick up). To create the atmosphere we would need tents, a fire pit, sleeping bags and the children would be involved in some camp like activities. e.g. orienteering ,camp stories, adventure challenges etc. We would only need a few tents to make it successful. If you can help can you please contact Anne Maree or Gail.

Thank you

Our VIRTUAL book week performance was successful on Thursday but the children and staff dressed in their book characters definitely stole the show. A big thank you to the parents that helped the children find a costume for this special day. The children were enthusiastic and it was great to see so many different books that the children had read and enjoyed.

Our Year 6 children had the opportunity this week to get out in the sunshine and revamp our bathtubs by planting tomato seedlings that had been grown from seeds. Liz Miller ( Emergency teacher) and an avid gardener, guided  the children. Many of the children shared personal experiences and expertise to the sessions. 

Dear Families,

All Saints' Day is a feast day celebrated on  Sunday 1st November . All Souls' Day is celebrated on Monday 2nd November. Both Feast days are a time to celebrate the lives of Saints and to remember and pray for departed souls in our families. To acknowledge these two special "Feast Days" students are invited to bring to school images of loved ones that have passed away and gone to Heaven. We have created a prayer table in the open space to display these special mementos and to encourage the students to reflect and remember special people and Saints in their lives. Thank you Anne-Maree Noonan Religious Education Leader. 

Year 4, 5 and 6 students participated in chemical science activities that nurtured their curiosity. By using certain materials that interact with each other, they learnt about physical and chemical changes.

Anné and Hannah provided the materials required to make slime and created  a procedural sheet and question sheet for all students to view and predict and  explained the chemical reactions involved in this experiment. They used two different forms of glue to demonstrate a ‘variable’ for their experiment.  Hannah and Anné provided everyone with a copy of the materials and procedures required to make slime at home over the long weekend. Congratulations to these two students for initiating this experiment in the form of inquiry learning for their peers.

This week our children have been asked to create posters for our school with the well known motto 'A GREAT PLACE TO BE!

Once all created I hope to put them into a sideshow . The children included images of the school, students and teachers, areas of study and emotive words.

It is nice to hear and see the things our children value the most about St Timothy's. It is a great opportunity for children with an artistic talent to shine.

 I look forward to sharing them with the wider community when all children have had an opportunity to complete.

Week 5: Virtual Disco ( at home via Zoom Friday)

Week 6: Plaster Craft Painting

Week 7: Wheels (TBC) / Teddy Bears Picnic

Week 8: Board Games and Lego Creations 

Week 9: Summer fun - Beach Gear & Water Games Water

Week 10: Christmas crafts

Week 11: Wednesday - Video and Choc- tops 

These activities are to focus on wellbeing, re connect and build new friendships. They will replace whole school assemblies ( not permitted)  and may only be a 1hour/11/2 hour focus. 

Weeks and activities may vary slightly.

Graduation Mass

Mass is limited by numbers and location e.g. church/other. 

We will have a Mass/Prayer service of some kind.

If able to go ahead in church,  it will more than likely be Year 6 children only. It could possibly be outside (weather permitting) or large open space. 

An alternate Passing on Leadership ceremony (Year 6 & Year 5) will still take place but may be  a different time/format.

e.g. Outside - Grade 6s walking through a guard of honour made up  of the whole school (well-spaced on oval) with a candle, then  passing on to the Year 5s. Children make the commitment and then Grade 5s walk back out through guard of honour. We would attempt to video/stream and send to families.]

Grade Prep Graduation and Bear Gift to Year 6 will also take place in this setting.

Dinner  (possibilities)

Other ideas welcome but all need to be simple and able to be implemented quickly.

• Year 6 celebrate /prepare the whole day 
•  Year 6 decorate their own  theme, tables/ and organise/made their own  decorations, performances , slideshow etc.

Food possibilities:

• Pizza Picnic- inside/outside options  e.g. Courtyard weather permitting
• BBQ (Sausages, Hamburgers)
• Fish and Chips - Chips and Potato Cakes  
• Graduation Cake (bought or children make and decorate)
•  Ice-Cream/Cold Rock – DIY/Soft drink

Year 5 School Leaders for 2021

 Speeches for leadership positions – children start writing now

 School Captains, Sports Leaders, Stewardship Leaders( Environmental & Social Justice Leaders)

Voting will go ahead as normal by whole school

Video when we are announcing leaders ( if possible)

Celebrate the Learning

Celebrate the Learning (whole school) is unlikely to go ahead as previous. However it has traditionally been when we farewell Year 6 parents/families after many years of contribution at St Timothy’s. This is still under consideration of how this may be achieved.

All end of year celebrations are suspect to COVID restrictions It is vital that we follow as a community. Hopefully as time passes we may have a little room to adapt. 

 It is impossible to make long range plans at this stage as things can change day to day week to week or month to month. Please understand that these are plans but may be subject to changes.

The dates will remain:

Monday 14th December Celebrate the Learning (if restrictions permit)

Tuesday 15th December Graduation

Wednesday 16th Children’s last day.

Once again I would like to remind parents about the legal age of at least 13  for children to access Social Media sites. Unfortunately there are many people out in the wider community, who are keen to post some highly unacceptable content that children can access via these sites. This often results in children discussing this together and it can be very frightening. They do not have the maturity to cope with this and often will not share with parents or other adults in fear of getting into trouble. A reminder children are not allowed to use a school email address or device to access any Social Media site. Thank you  

Last term because we were not on site we did not have our usual Fire and Evacuation drills. Over the next few weeks we will be having planned and spontaneous drills to remind children about our procedures. We will be practicing fire drills, lock downs ,out/ in and in/out drills.

Friday 6th November

We welcome all our students to St Timothy's Virtual Disco. Whilst we are not permitted to celebrate our yearly School Disco onsite this year, we can still get our children moving to the beat! 

As Bop till you Drop will be hosting the party, it is important to log in on time.

PASSWORD: BOPPARTY

It is that time of year again where we promote the Whitehorse Council 'Walk To School' initiative. It is a great opportunity when the sun is shinning for children to walk, ride or scoot to school/home either alone or with a friend. What a great way to have a chat in the morning and afternoon. Whilst this year we wont be funded, we will look to running our normal Walk to School Breakfast in December.

On Wednesday we had  orders delivered from Classroom Cuisine. The children were all very excited and there was a wide range and choice of lunches. 

A reminder that although you can order 2 or 3 items , it is delivered after recess so children need to bring a snack for morning tea. 

Orders must be placed before 8:30 on Wednesdays and if ordered correctly you receive a confirmation email. Classroom Cuisine

I am very aware that there has been a great deal of communication between teachers and parents in regards to their child's work. This has been via phone calls, email, and Zoom sessions. We are planning to hold Parent Teacher interviews early in December (sending out reports a little earlier) to enable all parents to book a Parent Teacher Interview.

Naturally if you have any concerns , you are able to make a time to talk to teachers via Zoom before this time.

As I am sure , everyone is aware, it is compulsory to wear a mask on school grounds for anyone over 12 ( excluding primary school children.). Please adhere to this restriction. It is particularly important for any parent/person over 12 picking up children at gates.

Amidst all the Remote Learning this year, St Timothy's has been preparing for their Review. The Review has two major component. A VRQA (Victorian Registration Qualifications Authority) and an Catholic Education Melbourne Educational review which looks at four spheres

• Religious Dimensions
• Learning & Teaching
• Wellbeing
• School Community
• Leadership and Management

We reflect on the past 4 years using a range of evidence e.g.  child, staff and parent surveys , academic results. This helps us identify strengths  and challenges and set future direction.

Hello All,

Hope all is well with everyone. Church is now partially open and we joyfully commence our mass service this Saturday 31 October.  In line with government guidelines please note:

1.       Be informed with the General Covid Guidelines attached.  We will update you as changes are announced by the state government.

2.       Register with signupgenius for your weekend attendance to commence this Saturday, 6:00 pm 31 October. Although attendance for all weekend mass is  on line recording, you still need to tick off your name in our tracing book when you come.

3.       On line Attendance Date is only until Sunday, 08 Nov. to accommodate amended state guidelines. Dates  and numbers will be expanded accordingly.

4.       Weekend services will be outdoor with a max of 20 participants.

5.       Health and Safety practices enforced for all masses. Don’t forget your mask.

6.       For outdoor celebration please consider ‘weather of the day’ for personal protection.

7.       Communion is only bread distribution by hand.  Wine is only for Celebrant.

8.       Weekday services (Wed, Thurs, Fri) will be held inside since we normally do not exceed 10 attendees. In case we exceed, it will be done in the portico.

9.       Wednesday, 04 Nov is not Anointing mass.  Mass time is 10:00 AM only for this day.

10.   Newsletters will be available but make sure to take it home.  For safety purposes, no double handling of reading materials allowed.

11.   Sunday mass is now at 9:00 am

12.   For Passersby who decide to attend portico service cannot be in the group of registered participants.  They can join from afar and sad to say,  the Holy Eucharist will not be available for them.

13.   Meet and greet fellow parishioners will strictly follow Covid-19 General Guidelines.

 Thank you and be safe.

Corrie