Dear Parents and Friends of Kevin’s,

Welcome back to a brand-new school year! St Kevin’s is the place to be in 2023!!!

This newsletter is to provide you with some details and organizational matters so that you have a smooth transition back to work and school life. Newsletters that follow will also have important information for you and updates on what is happening in the classrooms and what your child is learning. Our newsletters are our primary source of information for our parent body, so please make sure that you read them every fortnight, so you are kept up to speed with what is happening in your child’s school life.

Our school calendar on the website that is linked to this newsletter will outline for Term 1, upcoming events that you may like to be involved in. These dates will provide you with the opportunities to re-schedule work commitments for you to attend or become involved with.

COMPASS is our preferred method of communicating and sharing information about your children. COMPASS is where you log sick leave for your child, provide permission for attendance at various school events such as swimming carnivals and excursions. COMPASS is where we will send alerts out to parents of children returning to school from carnivals or excursions. COMPASS is NOT where we pay our school fees. This method of payment incurs very high fees for the school, so we ask that you pay school fees either by direct debit, BPay or credit card.

Classroom teachers are your first port of call for any questions you may have about your child’s learning or behaviour in school. Teachers can be contacted via their work emails. Face to face meetings are to be held at a time that is convenient to both teacher and parent. Please don’t ask your child’s teacher about your child as they are trying to get the whole class into the classroom or whilst they are on duty. Teachers will contact you at least once a term via a phone call to inform you as to how your child is going academically and socially. Emails are as follows:

Jasmina.boudan@mn.catholic.edu.au    Mrs Stephenson - bianca.gleeson@mn.catholic.edu.au

Mrs Arthur - Amy.pantalone@mn.catholic.edu.au Mrs Tonks - cassie.king@mn.catholic.edu.au

Martin.vaughan@mn.catholic.edu.au    courtney.albury@mn.catholic.edu.au

Kim.hogan@mn.catholic.edu.au  jye.bowen@mn.catholic.edu.au

Emily.hogan@mn.catholic.edu.au  erica.keating@mn.catholic.edu.au

Philip.taylor@mn.catholic.edu.au

So that’s a brief rundown on communication channels here at St Kevin’s. Please use them and then everyone is kept up to date and informed about the most important aspect of St Kevin’s - THE CHILDREN!

St Kevin’s Cardiff ...the place to be in 2023!

Mary-Anne Jennings

Principal

Sports Day Term 1 

Friday is our sports day in Term1. All K-6 students will be doing gymnastics. There is no cost and no permission note required. Students are to wear their sports uniform every Friday this term. Please ensure that the uniform policy is followed – white joggers only. 

Swimming Carnival

Tuesday February 7 at Coughlan's Warner’s Bay. All students from Years 2-6 will attend. No cost involved. The permission note has been sent out via COMPASS. Please respond and provide permission for this carnival by Monday. No permission – no going to the carnival.

Parent volunteers are most welcome to assist. If you would like to volunteer for this event, please contact Martin Vaughan using the email link above. Your help would be most appreciated.

Parent Information Welcome Evening

Thursday February 9 form 5 –6:30pm. The format of the evening is a gathering in the COLA to share some common information about the school, and then individual teachers will have a stall where you can collect information specific to your child’s class. These are not times for parent teacher interviews, but you could make an appointment to catch up later. We will also have a BBQ for you to share with us. So please come along and meet the staff and fellow parents and just get to know each other.

Mass to Induct School Captains and Welcome Kindergarten

We will have our opening school Mass on Sunday February 19 at the 9:30 Parish Mass. At this Mass the Captains will receive their medals and the Kindergarten children will be introduced to the Parish. Morning tea will follow on. These Masses are a great opportunity for us to engage with the wider St Kevin’s community who are an integral part of the village that is helping to raise and educate your child. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Canteen

This will open when the P&F are ready, having purchased food and organized the volunteer rosters.

Volunteers

If you would like to be a regular volunteer at St Kevin’s, which is the place to be in 2023, then you will need to register with the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese as a volunteer. This can be done by visiting the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle website. Go to the “People” tab at the top, where there is a drop-down box and click on volunteer. This is where you nominate to become a volunteer at St Kevin’s. There are checks that will be done, and to be cleared to volunteer can take up to 6 weeks. St Kevin’s relies heavily on volunteers to run the canteen, help with reading in the classrooms and be part of the super dynamic Parents and Friends Association (P&F). We love our volunteers here at St Kevin’s and would love you to join this amazing group of parents.

Maths is fun!! 

Kindergarten's First Day

Kindergarten and their first day! Lots of fun and laughter was the order of the day.