Thanks to Mr Brown for his leadership during my absence. I really enjoyed my break.

On my return to work, the first email I opened informed me that our portable classrooms have been ordered & new furniture will be arriving soon for our extra classes. New bubblers and stations to fill water bottles have also been installed in the holidays. My thanks to the P & F and families for their hard work to raise funds for these great additions to the playground.

Term 4 will be hectic and there will be some classroom re-organisation going on. I am also at present working on staffing arrangements for 2025 and employing extra teachers.

BEFORE SCHOOL

Only students who catch a bus are meant to be here before 8.30am as there is no teacher supervision prior to 8.30am. After 8.30am students are to sit on the basketball court prior to the play bell at 8.55am. 

ATTENDANCE

The school day at Ss Peter and Pauls runs from 9.20am (lessons begin) and 3.20pm (end of school day). Children who arrive late or leave early regularly miss out on a lot of time when it is added up over the term or year. There is also disruption to the class when there are late arrivals and early departures. While we understand that appointments may necessitate this, leaving early as it is convenient can be very disruptive to a child's education. Below is some information about the impact of missing school :

How many days has your child missed this Semester (Half a Year)

0 –6 This is within normal range. A child with this attendance rate is able to take full advantage of the teaching and learning opportunities available to them.

7 – 10 This attendance rate is below average. A child with this attendance rate could miss over one year of schooling between Transition and year 10.

11 –20. This is a poor attendance rate. A child with this attendance rate could miss out on up to two years of schooling between Transition and year 10.

20+ This is a very poor attendance rate. A child with this attendance rate could miss over two and a half years of schooling between Transition and year 10.

Latecomers

A student who comes fifteen minutes late for school every day or regularly leaves early is missing more than you think.

15 minutes per day adds to 1 hour 15 per week. If we take this out of the Numeracy block where classes generally teach five hours per week, by the end of the year the students have nearly missed one terms worth of Maths. Can your student afford to lose this?

The same things add up if we consider this as a literacy block where classes generally have ten hours per week. The percentage is halved, but it still adds up to a student missing nearly half a term of literacy. Lateness adds up quickly!!

Individual sports trials are open through the CECG sports website. These trials are intended for Year 5 & 6 student's ONLY. Keep up to date with trial information for next year.

CURRENT OPEN TRIALS:

Dr Justin Coulson will present his Breaking Point free webinar a second time for our Catholic school parents and carers on Wednesday 30 October. 

You can watch a video of Justin talking about this webinar here:

Breaking Point | Council of Catholic Schools | 30 October

And join us on the night by clicking this Vimeo link: Council of Catholic Schools Parents | Breaking Point | 7pm AEDT

The uniform shop is run by parent volunteers and is open on a Wednesday morning 9-9.30am for fittings and sales. The best way to organise your child's uniform requirements is to order via Qkr. Orders need to be placed by 8.30am each Wednesday so that they are able to be sent home that day; orders placed after 8.30am will not be filled until the following week.

Birthdays 17- 31 October!

STUDENT MEDICATIONS

We are able to hold student medications in the office for those children who require either short term or ongoing medication. Any medication must be supplied to us in its original packaging, with the pharmacy label attached for prescription medicine. Our system has been updated by head office so please read the following carefully if this applies to your child.

Short term medication (pain relief, antibiotics, antihistamine etc) -

• Parent/carer must visit the office to sign medication administration authorisation form so that our staff are able to administer the medication.

Ongoing medication (asthma inhaler, antihistamine, ADHD medication, etc) -

• Parent/carer must visit the office to sign medication administration authorisation form so that our staff are able to administer the medication. 
• Parent/carer to ensure medication remains in date, and that there is sufficient supply for one term, each term.
• Parents/carers of students with asthma action plans or other official diagnosis must provide current paperwork from the doctor
• Asthma Inhalers - if your child is in year 5 or 6 or capable of self-administering their ventolin, they are able to keep their inhaler with them in their bag; if this is the case there is no need to complete the authorisation form.

DROP OFF/PICK UP INFORMATION

If you remember the following details school drop off and pick up should run smoothly. Please view the map below for parking restriction details:

Morning Drop off:

• Supervision at school starts at 8.30am. Students arriving earlier than this WILL NOT be under active adult supervision so please avoid dropping your children off before this time. Between 8.30am and 8.55am students are to take their bag to their classroom and then make their way to either the hall or basketball court where they are to wait in year groups until the morning play bell rings.
• Knox Street/Princes Avenue parking (front school entrance) - ideally families with students in Kindergarten only should be parking in this area. Please be aware of the bus zone, parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear. We also ask that you consider our staff when parking in the morning as there are limited all day parking zones where they are able to park.
• Hall gate (Knox Street) - Bus students are dropped off here. 
• Princes Avenue/Adam Street (back school entrance) - Parents are able to park on either side of Princes Avenue (outside car line) or in Adam Street if you need to walk your children into school (please note that this part of Princes Avenue is a one-way road). Be aware of parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear.
• Car Line (off Princes Avenue) -  Car line is a 'kiss & go' system where parents drop their children off without getting out of the car; please do not park and exit your car in car line as this creates major traffic issues. Car line is our preferred method of parent drop off as it ensures student safety.

Afternoon pick-up:

• Knox Street/Princes Avenue parking (front school entrance) - ideally families with students in Kindergarten only should be parking in this area. Please be aware of the bus zone, parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear. Kindergarten parents are welcome to park and wait for their child outside the classrom. Kinder students are also able catch the bus or get picked up from carline.
• Hall gate (Knox Street) - Bus students only are collected from here. A teacher is rostered on duty at this gate each afternoon and stays to supervise students until the last bus comes.
• Princes Avenue/Adam Street (back school entrance) - Parents are able to park on either side of Princes Avenue (outside car line) or in Adam Street if you need to walk into school to collect your children (please note that this part of Princes Avenue is a one-way road). Be aware of parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear.
• Car Line (off Princes Avenue) - Car line is available for parents to pick their children up without having to park and get out of the car; please do not park and exit your car in car line as this creates major traffic issues. Car line is our preferred method of parent pick up as it ensures student safety. Car line can be very congested in the afternoons. If the waiting line is outside of our driveway the advice from NSW police is that you should continue around the block via Adam Street until the line moves forward. Please consider arriving at 3.30pm or after to ease this congestion; your child will be safe and supervised until you arrive. Two teachers are rostered on and supervicion at car line is until 3.45pm. After this time your child will be taken to the office and a call will be made to parents to arrange pick up ASAP.

Before & After School Care

Our newsletter, The SPP Chronicle, is normally published fortnightly (odd weeks) on a Thursday afternoon at around 5.30pm.

Each fortnight we include anything and everything that has happened in the preceding two weeks such as excursions, assemblies, sporting results and photos, liturgies, etc. We also provide information about upcoming school activities and events, student birthdays and important information and correspondence for families. We love to give shoutouts to our students and school community like thankyou's, baby announcements, special achievements and EOI's for sporting & other school or community group involvement, so if you have news that you think we could include just email it through to office.sppg@cg.catholic.edu.au.