This is the last newsletter for the 2023 school year. The final 2 weeks of the school year promise to be busy with many events taking place, hopefully I have outlined everything below.

As the year draws to a close it is often a time of reflection for us. Once again, I am reminded how fortunate I am to be part of such a wonderful school community. I invite you to take the time to say a prayer/affirmation for those in our community that are not as well as they would like to be, who are facing challenges, or who are struggling with the demands of day to day living. It is evident that St. Clare’s is a very caring community from the items coming in for the St. Vinnies hampers. Please continue to send these items in, they are very sincerely appreciated.

For the members of our community that will not be returning to St. Clare’s in 2024, staff and families, we wish you all the best. Farewell to our Year 6 families that do not have a younger sibling: Chappel family, Jesse family, Pietrobon family, Quabba family, Slattery family, Uitenweerde family. And also, Watts family, Jodvalkis family,  Furmage family, Costa family and the Ma family.

We look forward to our swimming carnival this Friday. Thank you to all parents assisting on Friday with carnival jobs. Your assistance allows our day to run smoothly so that our students have a wonderful carnival. I would also like to acknowledge the planning and preparation of our upcoming carnival, and all our sporting events this year, by Kate Mason. Kate has worked extremely hard this year to coordinate sporting opportunities for our students and the level of organisation has been outstanding. Please ensure students apply sunscreen before coming to school and have some in their bags to reapply. All students need to bring their hats, lunch, or order tuckshop and water bottles for the day (maybe more than one water bottle).

Generosity of the St. Gerard Committee

On behalf of all the staff and students at St. Clare’s, I would like to acknowledge and thank the St. Gerard Committee’s generosity with another donation to the school and tuckshop. We have already been very blessed to receive a donation from the committee this year that was used to purchase some great new equipment for the sandpit and a trolley for the tuckshop. We will put this second very generous donation towards some more home readers for our students.

P&F and Board 2024

As we farewell our Year 6 students we also say goodbye to some of our P&F Executive and Board Members as they will no longer have a student at St. Clare’s. I would again like to acknowledge and thank those that have served in these roles on the P&F and Board. It has been a pleasure working with you all and I cannot thank you all enough for the time you put into supporting St. Clare’s.

From the Board, we farewell Brendan Slattery & Steve Pietrobon. I have put the call out for those interested in serving on the Board in 2024, and thank those that have expressed an interest. In early 2024, I will meet with the Leadership Team to assemble a new board.

Changes to the P&F are as follows:

Outgoing Vice President, Paul Grimaz - Incoming Vice President, Dominic Cavallaro
Outgoing Treasurer, Kelly Slattery - Incoming Treasurer, Charlotte Bowden
Outgoing Secretary, Melissa Murphy - Incoming Secretary, Lani Miller

Again, thank you to those above and also to those that don’t hold a titled position, but go over and above to help out wherever needed.

Absences

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Week 6	5 2 unexplained	9 0 unexplained	6 1 unexplained	5 0 unexplained	18 2 unexplained
Week 7	10 1 unexplained	9 1 unexplained	16 3 unexplained	5 2 unexplained	12 1 unexplained

Yr 6 Farewell Liturgy and Dinner Nov 27

Next Monday our Yr 6 students will be farewelled with a Liturgy at 5:30 pm followed by dinner with their parents, Fr Joby and staff.  Please keep our Yr 6 students in your prayers this week as they prepare to complete their primary schooling at St Clare’s and move to High School in 2024.

Awards Assembly Nov 29 & BBQ

Next Wednesday November 29th we will be holding our Awards Assembly at 9am where we will recognise the contribution of students who have served in special roles for our school and the Catholic community.  Thank you to our sponsors for our end of year awards. Your support is much appreciated! Parents are warmly welcomed to attend the awards presentations.

The following will be announced at our Awards Assembly:

• 2024 School Captains and House Captains
• St Clare’s Spirit Award
• St Clare's Academic Award
• St Clare’s Sports Award
• St Clare’s Achievement Progress Award
• St Clare’s Character Award (Prep – Year 5)
• 2023 House Cup

Also on Wednesday November 29th, the P&F will be organising a BBQ. Families are invited to return to school at 5:00 pm for the BBQ. A huge thank you to the P&F for putting this on for us! This will be followed by a small Christmas Concert by the students and speeches. The night is scheduled as below:

4.30  Cooking starts
5.00  BBQ starts
6.00  Principal’s Welcome and Speech (includes farewell to staff and families in speech)
6.15  Acknowledgement of award recipients and incoming captains from the morning (no trophies or flags used) 
6.30 P&F President speech
6.45 Concert
7.00  Year 6 Valedictory Speech (School Captains)
         Year 6 Presentations - students called up individually to receive photo certificates, P&F cross
7.30  Dessert

Waterslide day Thursday Nov 30

Students are reminded to pack swimmers, sun-shirt, sunscreen and towel next Thursday for the Inflatable Water-slide proudly provided by the P&F to reward our students with some fun for all their great work throughout the school year!  Remember NO jewellery and zips allowed on the water slide. Classes will be rostered to use the slide throughout the day. Please contact your class teacher with any concerns.

End of Year Liturgy Friday Dec 1

We will be having a liturgy on Friday at 11:00am in the Church.  From here we will process together to the Montefalco to countdown our end of year dismissal. All parents are invited to attend. Students will be dismissed at 12pm.  Anyone who does not have a parent  here at 12pm will be taken to the admin verandah for collection via stop drop and go. 

Week 1 2024

Term 1, 2024 commences for students on Tuesday 24th January. Week One is a 3 day week as Friday 26th is the Australia Day Public Holiday.

Uniform Days for 2024

Academic Uniform - Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Sports Uniforms  - Tuesday and Thursday

School Fees

Thank you to all families who have made their school fee payment. Please ensure that fees are finalised prior to the end of the term. If you wish to discuss outstanding fees please contact the office to make an appointment.

For those who pay their fees by direct debit or Bpay we appreciate if payments continue over the holidays to ensure there will be no outstanding fees starting 2024.

On behalf of the staff, I wish to thank all the parents for your support throughout 2023. Enjoy your special family gatherings over the holiday period. We look forward to seeing you all again in 2024.

Wishing everyone a blessed Advent,

Karran Burzacott