St Luke the Evangelist School Newsletter

Good afternoon Families and Friends,

Welcome back to Term 2. It’s been a lovely week with an amazing professional learning day on Monday, a very special day for St Luke’s on ANZAC Day and a week that has seen lots of relaxed, refreshed and happy children re-engaging with their learning, with friends and with our team.

Monday saw all teachers attending a professional learning day organised by Nicole Swann, our Maths Leader and led by Rob Vingerhoets. The focus was on Cognitively Demanding Tasks which sounds very fancy but was actually a load of fun whilst really building mental computation skills, lateral thinking skills and resilience. Anyone can join in the fun of working with, for example, a date and devising equations using all the digits to create the largest number you can or the smallest number. There was a lot of laughing, a lot of silly errors made and we even saw how competitive some people can be. 

On Tuesday morning, BEFORE the crack of dawn, l joined two school families- the Rowles and Nowlans at the cenotaph at the Box Hill RSL for the ANZAC Day Dawn Service. Our two school captains, James and Emily laid a wreath at the foot of the cenotaph on behalf of St Luke’s school community. Once again, they represented our school beautifully and we all felt very special to be part of a very moving service with the hundreds of people gathered. Please look out for Emily and James’ speech later in this newsletter, which they will present at Monday’s assembly.

This weekend, please support our Confirmation candidates who will be attending a Commitment Mass at one of the weekend masses. Come along yourselves… as everyone is welcome. After the 10.30 am mass, there will be morning tea for all parishioners. As we are all members of St Luke’s parish, please make sure you join us.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead. I’ll see you next week.

Clare Ryan

principal@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au 

After a wonderful morning of energy, beautiful weather and great courage by every participant, the house Cross Country results are:

Green House 257 laps

Blue House 219 laps

Red house 217 laps

What a close result and what fun was had.

Thank you to Megan Bunter for coordinating the event, to our many parent helpers who assisted and of course, our staff who supervised the event. 

Jessie in Year 6 has been very busy over the holidays creating gorgeous charms. See below for details:

Hi, my name is Jessie and I have started my own business, after reading the Barefoot Investor for Kids. My business is called Accessories By Jessie.

I sell accessories for Frank Green drink bottles and key chains.

They are made of colourful thin clay beads with gold accents and they can also be personalised with a letter bead.

I thought they would make a great gift for Mother’s Day.

Accessories for drink bottles are $3 and keychains are $5

Orders can be placed by text message to Bridie at: 0408 000 703 or via email: bridie.pietersz@optusnet.com.au 

Please note the date and the details:

WHEN: Wednesday 10th May

UNIFORM: Full WINTER uniform including the school jumper.

• Even though it is a PE specialist day for some classes, children are asked to wear their school uniform and to bring their runners to school IN THEIR BAG.

• All photos will be taken with the children wearing their school jumper.

I am always so impressed walking onto our school grounds that we have the beautiful environment we do here at St Luke’s. Often families on a school tour will comment on how impressed they are with the physical environment and just this week a visiting MACS consultant complimented us on how clean and lovely the school is.

The grounds really are quite lovely with gorgeous trees, landscaped garden beds and really tidy areas. This is so good for anyone’s wellbeing and l am grateful that our maintenance man, Kieran, takes great pride in doing his job well and that our children are so respectful of their spaces. We are looking to remove some very bushy plants that have grown well beyond the garden beds they were planted in but need assistance with the following:

• A mini digger/ dingo to remove the plants

• An operator to operate the digger

Please contact Debbie if you can volunteer either your time or the machinery or both at schooloffice@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au OR 9877 4023

Next week is our Prep Tour Week. Make sure you mention to friends in the area to book in for a personalised tour with Clare and our student leaders.

If you have not completed an enrolment form for your child who is due to join our Prep 2024 intake, please do so immediately. You can visit the school office for a hard copy or contact Debbie via email:  schooloffice@slblackburnsth.catholic.edu.au for a digital copy.

If you know of family or friends who are looking to move into the area OR are considering moving schools for their child OR want to  commence their child at a great primary school, please encourage them to come by for a tour. A quick phone call to Debbie in the office or email via our website will get the ball rolling. 

Children arriving after the bell or leaving early.

As part of our wellbeing care of children at St Luke's, every class engages in a morning routine at 8.50 am.  This quiet, calm time allows children to gather together in a circle, to greet each other by name, to pray and/or enter into some Christian meditation and get ready for the day.  Please make sure you allow enough time to get your child to school BEFORE the student entry doors close at 8.50 am.

If children arrive after the gate and student entry doors are locked, parents/carers are required to walk their child/ren to the school office and sign them in on the VPass iPad.

If leaving early (before the end of the day), parents/carers are required to sign their child/ren out on the VPASS iPad.

WINTER UNIFORMS:

With the colder weather coming on, please make sure your child has his/her school jumper EVERY day. Many children are choosing to wear a rain jacket instead of their jumpers. The rain jacket is for outside use only.