No 21. Term 4, Week 11, 15th December 2021

Final Principal News for 2021

As the 2021 school year draws to a slightly early close, I would like to express my ongoing appreciation and genuine admiration to the amazing St. Kevin's community for how we have all stood together through what has been another challenging year.

As we close the year, I must express my gratitude to the highly skilled, dedicated and compassionate staff whom I am privileged to work with. They are an incredible team of passionate educators who throughout all of the trials this year, consistently put the best interests of every student in our care at the heart of every decision and action. They impress and astound me each and every day.

I also have to express my admiration and excitement for the incredible work, that you the parents have put into supporting your children and their teachers while the children were learning remotely and whenever asked to isolate due to exposures. It was an enormous ask to be a full time parent, support your child's learning and interrupt your work commitments at the drop of a hat. Please know we fully appreciate how disruptive and frustrating that must have been.  It was a tough few months but we are grateful for your partnership because we could not have managed what we did without you.

Lastly, I have to acknowledge these wonderful kids we are blessed to call our students. Once again, they have stepped up and responded to everything that was asked of them with perseverance and resilience. They coped with the dissapointment of cancelled or postponed events with grace and their thirst for learning and drive to be the best they can be was truly inspirational. They have done their school and Principal very proud.

2021 has not been an easy year, but at St. Kevin's we stand together with hope and pride in all we do. Together, we continue to defy the challenges that threaten to keep us apart but we will keep coming back, determined to do what we must for our kids and each other.

I wish you all the very best and hope that the birth of Christ brings you and your family much joy and promise this Christmas and New Year and I look forward to doing it all again with you in 2022.

God bless.

Jason Micallef,
Principal

Return to School Dates

The Summer holidays are here but don't forget these important dates about the first few weeks of 2022:

Preps

• Monday January 31 - Scheduled classroom visits to meet teachers and spend time in the classroom. 
• Tuesday February 1 - First day of school for Prep (finishing at 1:30pm)
• Wednesday Feb 2 - Rest day for Preps (no school)
• Thursday Feb 3, Friday Feb 4 - Preps finish at 1:30pm
  

Year 1-6

• Monday January 30-Scheduled testing day
• Tuesday January 31- Scheduled testing day 
• Wednesday February 1 - First full day for students

Introducing Team 2022

After introducing our children to their 2022 teachers on Monday, we are now ready to unveil our entire 2022 teaching team. An interesting addition to next year's teams will see the inclusion of a 'Support Teacher' to each team level. This teacher will be available to assist with supporting the classroom teachers as an 'extra' available teacher who can support the learning and developmental needs of the children. It is an exciting opportunity to really target the learning of some identified areas of need within our student cohorts.

Prep Team

• [PKK] Mrs Kydas (leader) & Mrs Blake
• [PHA] Miss Hazlett*
• [PEA] Mrs Eades
• [PMG] Mrs McGookin
• [Support teacher] Mrs Borthwick

Junior Team (1/2)

• [1/2PE] Mrs Petkovic (leader) & Mrs Cid
• [1/2SA] Miss Burren*
• [1/2DM] Mrs D'Monte
• [1/2LO] Mrs LoRosso
• [1/2HE] Mrs Hettiarachichi
• [1/2DC] Mrs DeReus & Mrs Castillo
• [Support teacher] Mrs Cardamone

Middle Team (3/4)

• [3/4FE] Miss Fernandez (leader) & Ms O'Halloran
• [3/4DA] Mrs Dawson (leader)
  
• [3/4FO] Mrs Fonseca
• [3/4TI] Mrs Timothy
  
• [3/4SB] Mrs Schendel* & Mrs Brobyn 
• [3/4CN] Mrs Nasrawi
• [Support teacher] Mrs Williams

Senior Team (5/6)

• [5/6BU] Miss Buttigieg (leader) & Mrs Egginton*
• [5/6SP] Miss Poxon
• [5/6MB] Ms McLeod & Mrs Broadhurst
• [5/6LN] Miss Northcott
• [5/6DR] Mrs Donald & Miss Rullo*
• [5/6CR] Mr Crozier
• [Support teacher] Mrs Meechan

Specialist Teachers

• Physical Education - Mrs Langdon (P-2) & Mrs Wilson (3-6)
• Performing Arts - Mrs Szabo (P-6)
• Visual Arts - Mrs Cid (P-2) & Mrs Galway (3-6)
• Indonesian - Mrs Luna (P-2) & Mrs Pratt (3-6)
• STEM (Scince / Technology / Engineering / Maths) - Mrs Kroenert
• Critical & Creative Thinking - Mrs Bonato (1-6)

*We welcome Miss Hazlett, Miss Burren and Miss Rullo to St. Kevin's in 2022. All three of our new team members visited us on Monday to meet their students and are so excited to be joining us in 2022 and we can't wait to introduce them to you a the start of the year. We are also excited to welcome back Mrs Schendel and Mrs Egginton who return from maternity leave.

Congratulations Class of 2021

This week we honour our grade 6 children and their families as we prepare to say farewell and good luck as they begin their next stage of formal schooling in 2022. It is both sad and satisfying to see our most senior students finish their time with us. They are an amazing group of children and we wish them all the very best. We thank our staff and parents who worked together amidst overwhelming uncertainty to make their final moments of primary school as special as they could be.

As families would know, we sadly had to cancel last night's Graduation Mass due to the rising numbers of Covid-19 cases and the fear that a potential transmission of the virus could impact many families and our priests over Christmas. On a positive note though, we were able to hold an impromptu Graduation Ceremeny at school today which we recorded and will be shared some time this evening to for our Year 6 families to see.

Advent Liturgies Week 3 & 4

A very special St. Kevin's tradition concludes this year with Advent Liturgies prepared and hosted by...

• Year 3/4 - Week 3, the Candle of Joy and

• Year 1/2 - Week 4, the Candle of Peace

Confirmation

As you are aware, our current Year Six class and 2020 Year Six class were thankfully able to finally receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and are now fully committed members of our Church. As a teaching staff, we could not be more proud of both year levels. 

These students prepared, and re-prepared and re-prepared to receive the blessings of the Holy Spirit as the final part of their initiation into the Catholic Church. This of course began with Baptism when their parents presented them to the Church. St Kevin's school has been privileged with nurturing these childrens faith and sharing their faith journey. We could not be prouder of them. Congratulations and God Bless!

Supporting our friends in the Philippines.

Our school maintains a relationship with a school community in the region of Cebu Philippines. Every year we raise money and donations to ensure this school community is able to provide additional basic teaching resources to their teachers and students. The St Kevin's families have generously supported this program for 5+ years! This year we completed part of our fundraising and in addition to this, we have collected LOTS of resources to be sent via ship. These boxes should arrive early in the new year. We will keep you up to date. For now, we keep all the students at our Friendship School in our prayers and with them a happy, holy and healthy festive season. 

2021 Mathematics Olympiad

A big congratulations to the Maths Olympiad team for 2021. This competition consists of 5 individual contests and students compete against other students from Australia and New Zealand. 

5/6 STEM

This term the Grade 5s and 6s have explored Outer Space through their inquiry unit of work. We built on the knowledge in STEM and students created their own board games using space facts.

Altar Server Training

School Transport assistance