6th - 7.00 pm - 2020 Foundation Parents Information Evening

8th - 6.00 pm- Twilight Working Bee-CANCELLED

11th -  Remembrance Day

              Grade 3/4 Regional HoopTime final

12th - Education Board Meeting

13th - 2020 Foundation Orientation Day 1

16th - ST AGNES' FETE

18th-22nd - Dental Health Van

20th - 2020 Foundation Orientation Day 2

25th - SCHOOL CLOSURE DAY

29th - P&F Walkathon-CHANGE OF DATE

2019 TERM DATES
Term 4  -  7th October to 19th December

TERM 4 - SCHOOL CLOSURE DAYS

November

25th 

December

20th 

TERM 4 - EARLY FINISH DAY

19th December at 1.30 pm

Lachlan Foott

Important - Working bee cancelled

The weather forecast for Friday is very bleak and because the working bee would involve spreading tan-bark and sand, we have decided to hold this off work until the school holidays. Families who attended the working bees throughout the year will have the appropriate discount applied to their fees.

I hope all families enjoyed the long weekend and managed to find some time for relaxation and fun family activities, because in schools, things tend to get pretty busy from Melbourne Cup weekend onwards. 

Today I went through the calendar and noted that there are only 30 school days left for the students in the 2019 school year. In that time, we have the St Agnes’ School Fete, school reports to be written and finalised, the 2020 Prep Information Evening and Orientation sessions, the Walkathon,

St Agnes’ Carols Evening, the swimming program, beach days and graduation. It is going to be a busy time, but there are a number of key opportunities for our school community to come together and enjoy each other’s company, starting with the Fete next weekend.

In recent weeks, our Fete organisers have been very busy developing rosters, organising stalls, collecting donations and mobilising our school community for this significant event, which is happening in a week and a half. Tickets into the major raffle are available via the Trybooking link below, with some fantastic prizes on offer, including a Mercedes Benz Drive Day Voucher and a Verve Portraits photoshoot. Unlimited Rides wristbands are still available for pre-purchase at

$30.00 each; they will be $35.00 on the day of the Fete. Children who have wristbands purchased by Friday 8th November and have had a parent register to volunteer at the Fete will go into the draw for the Golden Wristband, which will be drawn at Assembly on Monday 11th November. 

Thank you to those parents who have put their hand up to coordinate stalls and also to those who have registered to help. As the old saying goes ‘Many hands make light work’, so please click the link below and register yourself to help out on a stall, because at this point, we are a long way short of the numbers required to run the stalls. I also urge families to either log on to purchase some tickets into the Major Raffle or buy the book sent home, as together with the stalls, these areas are critical to the fundraising effort.

As this will be the last newsletter before the big day, on behalf of Fr John, the staff and the school, I would like to publicly acknowledge and thank two of our wonderful parents, Carlyn Vilani and Shannon Shine for their hard work in leading the organisation of the Fete. It is a difficult, time consuming undertaking, the magnitude of which is not to be underestimated. So please get behind them over the next week and a half to make the 2019 St Agnes’ School Fete one to remember. All efforts, big and small will be appreciated and will, in the end have a positive impact on your child’s education. In the Fete Information page of the newsletter, there is specific information for the event which I ask all parents to read. I have included below some of the important links for easy access.

Stall Roster: https://stagnesfete.ivolunteer.com/stalls001

Unlimited Ride Wristband: https://www.trybooking.com/BGNBH

Major Raffle Tickets: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=566285&

I am certainly excited to be involved in my first St Agnes’ School Fete and look forward to a great day with all students, parents, families and the wider Highett community.

Enjoy the short week!

Lachie.

Hello parents, carers and students. We, the Social Justice Captains, are here to talk about Socktober, and what a fun day we all had.

Why do we have Socktober?

On the 24th of October 2019, the Social Justice Captains hosted Socktober. Students were asked to bring a gold coin donation, and wear crazy socks, hair, or both. We raised money for the children in Ghana who can’t have a proper education like children in other countries. I’d like to say thank you to everyone one who donated, and participated in Socktober. We raised a lot of money, and we are very grateful, so once again, thank you.

Article by Zoe Galea

What we did on the day:

The day of Socktober was fun for everybody, thank you to everyone who put in the effort and came to school in crazy socks and crazy hair. Everyone looked great! It was a fun day full of activities. After the whole school got back from Mass, we all decorated a sock with a prayer for children of Ghana that are less fortunate than us. After recess, we split up into our house colours and rotated between soccer, barefoot bowls and a barefoot dance party in the hall. Red house scored the most goals. Thank you to all the people who participated in the activities and a huge thank you to Miss Casey who made Socktober possible.

By Chloe Connors

Written on behalf of all the Social Justice Captains; Chloe Connors,

Zoe Galea, Audrey Forbes, Stella Villani,and Blake Gresle.

By Chloe Connors and Zoe Galea

Thank you,

Jessica Casey

Religious Education Leader

Mamma Mia - che giornata! (What a day!)

Italian Day is always an anticipated event at St Agnes' Primary School. Once again it was 'fantastico' to see students and staff dress up Italian by wearing the Italian flag colours of green, white and red, to dressing up as the Mona Lisa, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, an Italian chef, an Italian food item (pizza, spaghetti or gelato), Mario, Luigi, a soccer player, just to name a few!

The students began by participating in a variety of cultural activities: The Last Supper craft from egg cartons, pop-up card workshop of famous Italian landmarks, pinocchio puppet, map of Italy pop art, coloured paper Italian flag craft and gondola races. For lunch they enjoyed a special pizza lunch and gelato treat! After lunch they were entertained by James and Mario from La Comica Variety Productions. It was obvious that fun was had by all as we were all in hysterics throughout the show.

Una giornata meravigliosa! (A wonderful day!)

Grazie a tutti (thank you to everyone).

Signora Talarico

On Tuesday 29th October our Grade 2 students came together with their families to reflect on their Baptism as babies and beginning their Initiation into the Catholic Faith. 

Before the night students were asked to go home and have conversations with their families about why they chose to baptise them and send them to St Agnes' Primary school. Some of the responses were: 

"My parents chose to baptise me because it is a symbolic way of joining our church and Christianity. They chose to send me to St Agnes' because they wanted me to have a sense of community, belonging and learning about the Christian faith. 

My parents chose to baptise me to introduce me to the Catholic Church and God. They chose to send me to St Agnes' because they wanted me to be educated in the Catholic religion, morals and values."

The students were very reverent throughout the night, and enjoyed their parents placing the oil and water on their heads as the priest did at the time of their Baptism.

We thank Miss Georgiou, Mrs Lema, Mrs Murphy & Mrs Kettle for preparing the students before the night, Miss Casey for organising the night and making sure it ran smoothly, Mr Cherry for your assistance on the night and Father John for being a part of our special night and speaking to families at the end. 

Thank you

On Tuesday 22nd October St Agnes' held its annual sports carnival at Rowans Road Athletics Track.

All St Agnes' students competed in sprints and rotations comprising of long jump, shot put, 200 metres for the senior students and egg & spoon races, sack races and shuttle relays for the junior students.  

In a lovely 20 degrees St Agnes' students enjoyed the day representing their house colours.  All house colours did really well and it was very close at the end. This year the overall trophy went to Red House, the achievement trophy went to Blue House and the encouragement trophy went to Yellow House.

I would like to say a big thank you to the teachers and parents who helped out and came to support the students on the day.  But most of all, I thank the Year 6 Students for running the rotations, they did an amazing job.

Congratulations to all our St Agnes' students, we are all very proud of you.

Simon Kost-PE Teacher

As we all know, last Tuesday was the annual St Agnes' Sports Carnival. We have three colours Red, Blue and Yellow that you are allocated to when you are in Prep or when you come to the school. 

The Grade 5/6's were on the first bus at about 11.30 am on their way to Rowans Road. The 3/4's, 1/2's and Preps followed soon after. As everyone was arriving, the Grade 6 Sport Captains decided to kick off the day by doing some chanting. As we love encouraging others and everyone having a go at St Agnes', each house can be awarded different bonus points for different things at any time of the day. Red House had already received five points days before the carnival as they won the best chanting when we were practising our chants at lunch each day. 

The first activity everyone participated in was the sprints. Preps were first, they did a 50m sprint down to the finish line which was fun for them as it was their first time. After the Preps was time for the 1/2's and because they were older they got to run 70m which would have been really fun! Then it was time for the year 3/4's and 5/6's to do the 100m sprint! First, second third were each awarded points for their House to go towards the total score at the end. 

After the students sprints had finished, it was time for the toddler race! All of the students that had little brothers or sisters could participate in this race. After the cute toddler race it was time for the Teacher race! The teachers fast walked down the track just (so that there was no injuries like previous years Mr  Cherry!)  and the winner was clear to be,

Mrs Baker!

Right after we had had our sprints it was finally time for our rotations that the Grade 6’s were running. There were all types of different fun activities for the students to do like long jump, egg and spoon races, sack races, 200m sprints, vortex, shot put and shuttle relays. As Grade 6’s and Sport Captains, it was really great to see everyone trying their best and just having fun. 

The final scores came down to the all important Grade 6 relays. Each Grade 6 was put into a relay of 4 to run. The first relays was the year 6 boys, blue won this race so the scores became even closer.

In the Grade 6 girls relay, Blue was in the lead but red came out with a great last 100m’s as they took out first in the girls relay. 

The final scores were announced and in third place but winning the encouragement trophy was Yellow House. In second place and winning Spirit Trophy was Blue House, and in the first place, winning the first overall Sports carnival for 2019 was Red House!

We hope everyone had an amazing Sports Carnival and we would like to congratulate everyone for doing an amazing job and of course thank you Mr Kost for organising the whole day and making sure we all had lots of fun!

By Sienna and Lucy - Sports Captains 2019

This year I have arranged for the Australian Dental Health Van  to visit St Agnes in Term 4, Week 7 (18th - 21st November).

Thank you to those families who have already returned their forms. If you still haven't (or you need another one) we have extras in the office. The dentists have said they will take forms right up until the last day of checks. 

Please remember to return your form to the office. If you have any other questions please let me know. 

Thank you

Miss Anthea Georgiou

Wellbeing Leader

It is that time of the year that we ask for all library to be bring back to school.

The library will be doing some spring cleaning taking place this term. Please have a look at home for library books and bring them back to school before Thursday 28th November.

Below are some ideas.

Top 10 places to find your child’s lost library books:

• Between the bed and the wall
• Between the bed and the other wall
• Shoved in the back of the bookcase (usually flat against the back, especially for small books)
• Underneath the couch (keeping them handy!)
• The bathroom (obvious reasons)
• In the car
• Inside the dresser
• Under the bed
• Between the sheets
• On the very bottom of their shared toy box!

Kind Regards,

Julie Gonzales

Library Technician                  

There is less than 2 weeks until the fete so now is the time we ask everyone to get on board and help out as much help as possible.

Raffle Tickets

Raffle tickets are now available for sale. To save paper we are selling them trybooking (https://www.trybooking.com/BGFSF), however paper copies are available should you prefer to buy a book. Tickets are $2 each or 3 for $5. We have some great prizes so please get on board and buy some tickets.

Trash n Treasure & Books

Gather all your old toys, games, crockery, books, records and furniture that are in good reusable condition.  Items can be dropped off into the school office.  Please note for safety reasons we are unable to take any electrical items.

Jam making

If you have the time and would like to try making some jams, jam jars and simple recipes are in the office available for collection.  If you are unable to get to school to collect the jars, contact us and we can make arrangements for them to be delivered to you.

Plant Stall

We are looking for donations of plastic pots (any size) and bags of soil to for our plant stall. Items can be left in the front office, or alternatively dropped off to Michelle Harrisons front door (Stall coordinator) at 20 Tweed St.

Stall Help-Donations Needed and Win St Agnes' Fete Money

We need assistance with stocking some of our stalls.

Grade Prep to 2 - please donate bag of sweets, lollies, mini chocolates

Grade 3 to 6 - please donate larger blocks of chocolates

Ultimately we would love everyone to help out the best they can so we have added an incentive to those who contribute.

Each child that brings in an item will go into the draw to win "St Agnes' Fete Money" this special money can be used to buy goodies at any stall on the day of the fete.  There will be a tub in each classroom for the students to place each donation and their teacher will mark them off  as contributing on a special roster and we will use this roster to draw the winner at assembly just before the fete.

Also contact us if you have any questions, ideas or are able to assist with the Fete in anyway.

Please contact Shannon Shine or Carlyn Vilani via stagnesschoolfete@gmail.com 

TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO ORDER

Following the success of the footy lunch, help fundraise for the Fete with a fun Hot Dog and donut lunch.  

Please see attached flyer 

Icy Poles are back on Friday afternoons in Term 4. 

Remember to contact your class rep if you are able to give 20 minutes of your time to help on the stall from 3.10 p.m. (siblings welcome) and help us reach our school fundraising goal for the year. 

Cost: Zooper Dooper 50c or Icy Poles $1 each.

Sports Top

In line with the school's sunsmart policy we have reviewed the current SSV sports top for Grade 5 and 6, which as you are aware is sleeveless.   Our new supplier has designed a sports top which has sleeves and a shallower V neck. This new sports top will be phased in over the next 12 months.

Current Grade 5 students can continue to wear their current sports tops in 2020. For Grade 4 students the new sports top will be available for purchase at the Noone store in Hampton street from Term 1 2020. It will retail for $59.95.

If there are current Grade 4 students who have older siblings sports top in the current style they can wear it in 2020 but from 2021 all students will be expected to transition across to the new style sports top. Could you please let Leanne know the number on the top if you are in Grade 4 and plan to use an older siblings top in 2020?

To minimise the risk of a double up of numbers the school will provide parents a list with the numbers already in use for 2020. Please check the number of the new top when you purchase it to make sure it isn't already in use.

For anyone leaving the school who no longer needs their sports top, the school would appreciate it, if these could be donated to the second hand uniform shop. They can then be used for Hoop time for the grade 3 and 4 students.

New look for Grade 6

In the next few weeks there will be sample sizes available to try (same style, different fabric). 

Order forms will be available and we need all Grade 6 students to order and pay for their Jersey before we can submit the group order. We are awaiting final pricing with printing but expect it will be approximately $70.00.  Production will take about 10 weeks as it is a new item.

Obviously the sooner the order goes in, the sooner they will arrive in Term 1 2020, so we would appreciate your help with prompt ordering when the forms become available.

Kind regards

Sophie and Leanne- Uniform Shop

Second hand uniform only, can still be purchased in the uniform shop at St Agnes' at the below times:

Next Opening Time:

Due to Melbourne Cup on 5th November the shop will open on 12th November 8.30-9.00 am

3rd December 8.30-9.00 am

We have been exploring a range of sport activities in line with our focus on Healthy Bodies for Term 4.  We can not wait to finish the MASCOT challenge!

A highlight was celebrating Halloween making masks, Jack-O-Lanterns and pumpkins!

We have been working  hard at doing our best for the Halloween colouring in competition!

• Ewan for being a motivated Extender with a great love of learning. Thank you for sharing your love for SPACE.
• Chloe for always willing to give things a go and help bring joy to all those around her. Great Work.