Dear Families, 

Welcome to another fantastic week of learning! It's wonderful to see the kids so engaged and full of energy. 

Staffing 

This week we farewelled Emma Kelly as she prepares to welcome her second child. We extend our best wishes to her during this exciting time. We also said goodbye to our LSO, Julia Panuccio, who has moved on to a new role in her field of study. We wish her the very best in her future endeavours. 

I will be taking carer’s leave to support my wife as she undergoes significant surgery. I will be away from Monday, 24 February, until Friday, 14 March (approximately three weeks).

During my absence, the school will be in the capable hands of Melanie Langtry and Rita Marcon. They can be contacted at the following email: 

Melanie Langtry
mlangtry@stmhadfield.catholic.edu.au

 Rita Marcon
rmarcon@stmhadfield.catholic.edu.au 

To further support Melanie and Rita while I am away, I have also appointed Laura Petrie as additional leadership support for this 3 week period. Laura is a highly capable leader and the current Deputy Principal at St Vincent de Paul’s in Strathmore. Given that Melanie is pregnant and experiencing some complications, this extra support will help ensure the school continues to run smoothly.

Operoo

Operoo is the platform we use to send digital permission for various events and information we require. Operoo is a third party platform that does not update our admin system, ICON (Integrated Catholic Online Network). If families are making any changes in Operoo, eg email addresses, contact phone numbers, medical updates please also call or send an email to Mary in the office (manastasopoulos@stmhadfield.catholic.edu.au ) with the changes so we can update your information in our admin system.

Absent from school

A gentle reminder that if your child is absent from school, please ring the school office in the morning to avoid receiving a call later the same morning. Alternatively please complete the online student absentee form via this link .This also includes any late arrivals due to appointments. The school attendance roll must be finalised by 9.15am every day. If you are emailing your child’s teacher with an absence, please also cc Mary in the office to that email (manastasopoulos@stmhadfield.catholic.edu.au ), as teachers will not usually attend to emails during learning time.

Parent Teacher Interviews

Last year, we proposed a new Parent Teacher Interview process to keep parents better informed about their child's academic progress. Interviews will take place in Terms 1 and 3, while school reports will still be issued in Terms 2 and 4. In the coming weeks, we will send out the link for Parent-Teacher Interviews, scheduled for the end of the term. Stay tuned for further details.

Commissioning Mass

Today, we celebrated our opening school Mass and commissioned our staff, school leaders, and class captains, known as the Student Representative Council (SRC). We extend a special thank you to all the parents who joined us and supported our school community. It was a wonderful occasion for us to come together as a school community. We congratulate the following students on their acheivement:

Welcome Picnic

This evening, we welcome all families to celebrate the start of the year at our Welcome Picnic at Harmony Park in Coburg from 5:30-6:30pm. This will be a wonderful opportunity to meet new families. Families are asked to bring their own picnic rug and dinner. Please note that it is the responsibility of families to supervise their children while at the picnic. We look forward to seeing you there!

School Advisory Council 

Next Monday evening the School advisory Council will meet for the first time this year. The following is an extract from the Terms of Reference which the council operates under.  

The School Advisory Council provides a forum for discussion and discernment, where the parent/guardian voice and perspective are available to inform and support the decisions made by the Principal and Parish Priest for the good of School and Parish where the wellbeing and outcomes for students is paramount. 

Together with Fr. Giang, Melanie Langtry and myself the following parents will be members of the council for 2025:

• Anthony Grima (Chair)

• Rose Caruso

• Michael Tucci

• Renata Kegell

• Danny Ward  

• Corina Panzera

• Kumbi Nzenza 

We thank them in advance for the work they will be doing in this role and look forward to their input and the discussions this will generate. 

David Hurn

Buona giornata!

How beautiful are the sounds of 'buongiorno' and 'ciao' when greeting us in the morning as we arrive at school? Keep it up!

These first few weeks, i studenti have been working on retrieving language from last year. We encourage them to practise at home by;

•  asking how someone is, using "Come stai?" and responding with "sto bene, grazie, e tu?", "sto male" or "sto cosi' cosi'"

• the seniors are encouraged to use the formal way of asking when communicating with someone older or of importance; "Signore (Sir)/Signora (madam) come sta?"

• asking "quanti anni hai?" to inquire about someone's age and responding with "ho ___ anni", for example, "ho nove (9) anni". 

• Counting in italiano could form part of some fun maths home learning too!

Over the next two weeks we will be completing our first unit and reflecting on our successo so far. 

Grazie e arrivederci

Adriana Bonacci and Maria Vainieri

Our amazing Prep students have been busy little learners this week, diving into the wonderful world of sounds! We've introduced them to the sounds of 'm' and 's'. They've been practising their letter formation, even decorating the concrete outside the front of the school with beautiful lower and uppercase 's' shapes! We're using the exciting story 'Milo's Birthday Surprise' to help us learn all about these letters and the sounds they make. Prep parents, ask your child to tell you all about Milo's birthday and see if they can spot the 'm' and 's' sounds in his special day!

Michelle Rinaldi

Literacy Leader

Year 5 Mathematics: Exploring the "Average"

Our Year 5 students have been busy diving into the world of data. They have learned how to collect and represent information, and are becoming experts at calculating the mean (average), median (middle number), mode (most frequent), and range.

This week, students tackled the question, "Who says I'm average?" They measured the height of a group of classmates and calculated the average height. Then, they marked this "average" height with a strip of tape across the classroom doorway. Each student walked through the doorway to see how their height compared to the average. Some children needed to duck, whereas others were well below the average height. It was a fun way to discover that no one in the class was exactly the average height. 

Students further explored this concept by calculating the average height for different age groups (newborns, toddlers, children, and adults). The students discovered that even within these groups, no one person was truly "average." This was a great way for students to see how math connects to real life. 

Vanessa Cutajar

Mathematics Leader