NAPLAN 2024 

Year 3 and Year 5 will be completing the NAPLAN assessments this term. Please see below for dates of assessments for Year 3 and Year 5.

Wednesday 13 March - Writing

Thursday 14 March - Reading

Monday 18 March - Conventions of Language

Tuesday 19 March - Numeracy

On these days, please ensure that your child's device is fully charged when they arrive at school. It is also important they have a good night's rest so they can be given the best opportunity to give their full attention to the assessments. Please also ensure that students have their headphones on each of these days. 

Please see below for more detailed information about NAPLAN.

Stage Leaders 2024
In 2024, we are continuing our process of utilising Stage Leaders as supports for learning, behaviour and wellbeing. Please be aware that your first point of contact should be with your child's class teacher, and then to your Stage Leader if you need to raise a concern. 

Stage Leaders are members of the leadership team and will inform Mrs Davidson as necessary. Please be aware that concerns or questions should not be directly addressed to Mrs Davidson, unless they are of a serious or confidential nature. 

Kindergarten, Years 1 and 2 Stage Leader: Mrs Trish Burrows

Year 3 and Year 4 Stage Leader: Ms Marita Maloney

Year 5 and Year 6 Stage Leader: Mr Brett Murphy

Thank you Mrs Welch! 
It is with mixed emotions that we announce Mrs Cecilia Welch is moving on from our school community. Mrs Welch has been an integral part of our school for nearly 5 years, as our Pastoral Support Worker (now renamed Student Wellbeing Officer). She has worked with and supported many students, families and staff during this time, in a variety of ways. We give thanks to her commitment and dedication to everyone in our school community. 
We congratulate Mrs Welch on her new appointment and know that it will be a wonderful opportunity for her professionally, and personally to allow her more time with her own family. 
Yesterday, staff had the opportunity to gather and farewell Mrs Welch. Mrs Welch's last day will be next Monday 26 February, and students will have the opportunity to wish her well. 

A recruitment process has commenced for a new Student Wellbeing Officer. It is anticipated that there will be a handover with Mrs Welch before the new staff member commences next week. We look forward to welcoming our new Student Wellbeing Officer. 

Thank you Mr Sykes
Over the last two weeks, we have been fortunate to have Mr Danny Sykes working in our school as the Relieving Principal, whilst Mrs Davidson has been away.
Mr Sykes has been a friendly face and has enjoyed his time interacting with students, families, and staff. We thank him for his work and for ensuring our school was able to continue as normal in Mrs Davidson's absence. 
I thank Mr Sykes for his support and guidance during this time, his experience and knowledge has been incredibly helpful and much appreciated.
We look forward to welcoming Mrs Davidson back next week, and she has told me she has lots of great stories and photos to share! 

PIVOT
This year, St Francis of Assisi will be participating in the PIVOT program to support student wellbeing. Please see below for further details on this program.

Sr Grace Cini
Sr Grace was born on 11 April, 1942 and after a very fulfilled life passed away on 10 February 2024. She passed away on the feast of St Scholastica who appropriately is the patron saint of education. Sr Grace was a Franciscan Sister of the Heart of Jesus who devoted her whole life to children and their education.
Sr Grace came to Warrawong in 1964 and spent 53 years at Warrawong as a teacher, catechist and many other ministries at St Francis of Assisi School and Parish. She spent 53 years in the convent near the school before moving to the St Joseph Convent next to St Patrick’s Port Kembla when the order closed the Warrawong convent due to the small number of sisters who were still in Australia.  Sr Grace was a valued member of the school staff and taught many of the parents and grandparents of the students currently at the school. She never forgot a face or name and would often spend time sharing memories with ex-students she would meet while out and about.
As a teacher, Sr Grace taught many classes but particularly loved the students in the sacramental classes. Sr Grace had to step up and take on the responsibility of Principal in 1980 until a new sister could be sent. Sr Giovanna took up the reins, and Sr Grace and Sr Giovanna spent many years together in the convent and working side by side in the school.
Sr Grace was the heart and soul of the school community and loved by all.
Sr Grace was also a valuable assistant to new migrant families who needed her knowledge and assistance. When talking to people who have memories of the school the first memory is always about Sr Grace. She was well respected and loved in the community and will be missed by many.

All Parents & Friends positions will be made vacant and an election will be held for new committee members for the 2024 Parents & Friends Committee.  The AGM has been scheduled to be held on Tuesday 27 February at 3.00 pm-3.45 pm. All parents are welcome and hope to see you there.   

In Year 6 we have commenced Power Writing. There are many reasons why students do power writing activities;
* to simply form a love of writing,
* to put into words the thoughts a stimulus image might provoke,
* or to develop the skills of writing fluency and creativity.
In Year 6, we use it for all those reasons, but right now to support our unit of work on Narratives. Students have the chance to write for fifteen minutes, undisturbed, with zero planning time. Some find this a real challenge, others are disappointed when I tell them the fifteen minutes is up! 

Here are some examples of student work from Week 3, which they wrote in fifteen minutes, and then published during our weekly literacy rotations. The stimulus image was of Superman flying through a busy city…

It was a hot summer day and I was in my pool relaxing when suddenly a bright blue and red ‘thing’ flew right in front of me at lightning speed. “What’s that!” I screamed in terror. “I must find out what this is! It will hit headlines for sure!” I ran to my car and sped down the highway following this small speck in the sky all the way to Sydney. At this point there’s at least five police vehicles chasing after me but it didn’t matter. I had made it to Centrepoint Tower. I jumped out of my car and ran to the elevator and closed it on the police. It felt like forever but I made it to the top. Everybody was eyeballing the speck going around the sky until it flew past the window right in front of me. I finally made out that it was a man. Right then security grabbed me. I shouted at them “It’s a man, it’s a man”, but they didn’t stop.
Antonio F.

Whoosh! I swooped past the city. I chuckled as I watched everyone's shocked faces. I was very popular from tv shows and comics. But little did they know that I was real. I snapped back to reality after being stuck in thought and searched for any inconveniences or disasters. I came across my first one. An old woman needed help crossing the road, it was clear she couldn’t see well. I flew down to her and stopped the cars from moving. She was so thankful, she couldn’t put it in words. 
I was startled as my phone buzzed, there was a horrible problem. A new villain, his mission to destroy me only, and worst of all, he had somehow obtained kryptonite. Kryptonite was my only weakness, I had no power against it. I knew I had to figure something out and fast. I heard echoed screams from afar. He was there. I was left with two choices. Save myself or save the people.
I couldn’t bear even thinking such selfish thoughts to save myself. Heroes are supposed to be selfless, why was I thinking these things? I flew toward the people knowing it was the right decision. As I saw him my eyes grew wide. I couldn’t help myself, I flew away. But to my demise, he spotted me. I saw a devilish grin grow upon his face as he inched closer. 
I tried fighting, using my powers, but to no avail. My powers were gone. He held kryptonite to my face. I was done for. Even if I had signaled another superhero, they wouldn’t arrive in time since this was an alternate universe. Just then I was grabbed from behind. Good person or a bad person? I guess you’ll never know.
Layla G.

A normal day at work, but then I caught a glimpse of a man dressed in red and blue flying through the sky. What should I do, d-do I call triple zero, run, scream!? My head filled with thoughts, who is this man, what is he doing here, where is he from? Just then my body froze, it was the deadly and cunning villain, Green Goblin. A burst of wind shot through the sky, the man was back and flying at Green Goblin at tremendous speed then a massive explosion appeared knocking everyone to the ground. Buildings erupted from the battle, but in the end the man dressed in a Halloween costume, “It’s Superman, he saved us again!” I thought to myself “Who?” “Ah thank you kind people, let’s hope he doesn’t have krytonite am I right, haha”,  chuckled Superman. Just then Green Goblin came up with a glowing green chain. People exclaimed “SUPERMAN BEHIND YOU!”
Yehia S

Dear Parents 
The following annual consents are required to be completed on the Compass Parent portal:

2024 Consent for the use of student's image and/or work
2024 Acceptable Use of Technology

These forms are compulsory and are to be completed by Friday 12 February. 
Please submit these via your parent Compass portal by clicking on the top two green "Insight" boxes and follow the prompts to complete the forms online as per the image and instructions below. Please do not hesitate to contact the School Office if you have any questions. 

Parent Guide

Parent Guide 940.70 KB

Scholastic Book Club Issue 1 Orders online due by 22 February 2024

Book Club is available for parents to order books for their children.  This encourages their reading and supports the school. Orders are to be placed online by 22 February, please see the instructions below.  Issue 1 Book Club catalogue is below.

How to order using LOOP?

1. Sign in or register an account at: scholastic.com.au/loop
2. Click on ORDER and select school and child’s class.
3. Add your child’s first name and last initial (for book distribution).
4. Enter product item number from the Book Club catalogue.
5. Make payment via credit card
6. All orders are attached to the school account until ready to be submitted to Scholastic by the school. A due date will be published in the Brigid Bulletin. No late orders can be processed.

Dear Parents/Carers

You may be aware of recent media reports regarding health concerns related to asbestos contaminated mulch found at a number of playgrounds and schools across Greater Sydney. To ensure that mulched areas of our grounds are safe, the Catholic Education Office Wollongong has undertaken an audit of our landscape suppliers. This audit found NO record of any mulch being supplied to our school by companies connected to the contaminated mulch. 

The Catholic Education Office has also arranged for proactive testing of mulched areas across all Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong schools and parishes, to provide families with greater assurance. This testing is precautionary only.  It is important to state again that after completing our audit, there is no reason to expect that any of the mulched areas on our grounds will be contaminated. Regardless, the safety of students, families and staff is always our highest priority, and given the serious nature of this situation we are choosing to take a cautious approach.

We will provide you with an update when the results of the testing are available.

Students are required to be present at school every day. Please make appointments outside school hours, where possible.  If your child needs to be collected early for an appointment, a note explaining this is required to be given to the class teacher by the student on the morning of the appointment.  As a matter of courtesy, this communication assists in the organising of the day for the class and teacher.  Telephone messages during class time interrupt class learning and we avoid this unless urgent. This explanation is documented in your child's attendance records. 

All students are required to attend school unless they are unwell. Students should arrive by 8.30 am and finish at 3.00 pm.  Daily attendance recording in the Compass Parent Portal notifies parents of their child being absent. Parents are required to record their explanation in Compass by completing the link they receive via text or by logging into the Compass parent portal.

All absences including early leave and late arrival must be reported by parents with an explanation and or a medical certificate if required.  Please teach your children the importance of punctuality and arriving at school on time.

Starting from 2024 we will be transitioning to a new online enrolment platform, called Funnel, removing the use of all paper forms. Please take note, particularly for sibling applications. The online application form will be accessible from the home page of our school website www.sfawdow.catholic.edu.au, visit link below.

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THURSDAY 2 MAY - Week 1 Term 2
School photo day will be held in Week 1 next term on Thursday 2 May. Students are to wear their full winter school uniform (no sports uniform).  Please note, hair must be neat and tidy and the girl's hair tied back. Orders are submitted online as per the details below, including family photo orders.