St Anthony's Primary School Girraween

A transition period will occur in the Principal leadership of St Anthony's between now and January 2022. Below are the key dates:

Ms Linda Ducksbury - last day at St Anthony's Friday 26th November

Mr Patrick Cairns (Acting Principal) - November 27, 2021 - January 27, 2022

Mrs Patricia Reilly - Principal St Anthony's 2022

Next week, teachers and leaders will be working together to create the 2022 class groupings.  This is done to achieve the most appropriate academic and social mix of students that maximises learning for all students.

Teachers will create two class groups which endeavour to be evenly balanced with consideration to gender, academic ability, support for learning, behaviour, friendships and class size.  It is a task which takes time, effort and information.   Your child's teacher will draw upon as much data as they currently have to create these classes including friendship information directly from your child.

If you feel that there is an important aspect in regard to your child that the teacher is not currently aware of in preparing next year's class, please put your considerations into writing and send confidentially to Ms Ducksbury via the school email or letter to the office by 22nd November, 2021.

As we cannot hold our usual Christmas Concert, this year we invite you to join us in celebrating Christmas through a special online event.

Students are already preparing for this event, making a special Christmas decoration to share with their families in their Creative Arts lessons.  We will also be reflecting on the central story of the event, Star.

We encourage you to make time on Wednesday 8 December to share in this event as a family, which will be broadcast through our YouTube channel.  If you cannot join us at that time, the event will remain online until the end of the school year so that you don't miss out.

Recent changes to the COVID roadmap for schools allow us to gather together again as a school community to prayerfully celebrate two occasions before the end of this year:

Next Friday, 26 November, we will participate in a special celebration to ask for God's blessing on Ms Duckbury as she moves to her new role at Santa Sophia Catholic College, and Mr Howse as he leaves St Anthony's.

On Friday 10 December, we will participate in a Celebration of the Word in Thanksgiving for the Conclusion of the School Year.

While students and staff can gather together for these celebrations, unfortunately we are not yet able to invite parents and carers to join us.  We look forward to this being possible for our liturgical celebrations in 2022.

Recently we revised our former homework policy document.  The new homework guidelines are designed to explain our current practices succinctly, and clearly outline the roles of teachers, parents and students.  This follows work that teachers have engaged in as a school since the beginning of the year to regularly and clearly communicate what is being learnt in class, and how you can prepare for, or consolidate this learning at home.

Our updated homework guidelines can be found on the policies and procedures page of our school website.

We need to be informed if your child/children will NOT be returning to school at St Anthony's in the 2022 school year (other than current Year 6 students).  Could you please provide WRITTEN NOTICE to the School Office immediately if your child will NOT be returning next year.  This information needs to be passed on to the Catholic Education Office, as it impacts our funding for 2022.  Ten weeks notice is required for change of enrolments to avoid incurring any additional fees.  We also have a waiting list in some grades for 2022 and could offer this place to another student.

Thank you for your support.