Dear St Clare's Community,

I hope everyone enjoyed the first week back and had a chance to enjoy the wonderful weekend weather. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families in the St. Clare’s community that are currently in isolation. As expected we have seen a rise in positive cases and close contacts this week, and expect this trend to continue into next week as we move through the Omnicron wave.

Please remember if your children are unwell, do not send them to school. Again, thank you to the families that have been contacted to pick up unwell children, for your very quick responses. If you do find that your child needs to isolate, due to returning a positive test or being a close contact, please inform the school as soon as practical. All guidelines can be found on the QLD Health web-site for you to follow. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/

 I would like to thank all the staff at St. Clare’s for their dedication and resilience during this very unusual start to the 2022 school year. With the delayed start changing our plans, flexibility to adjust to changes quickly has most certainly been required. I would particularly like to thank our school support staff for their assistance with supervision in the 2 weeks of extended holidays. Our students of essential workers, that attended during this time, were extremely well supported - so thank you to all those involved. As always, I am deeply humbled and grateful for the commitment of all the staff at St. Clare’s, as they go above and beyond to support our students.

Enrichment Program

This year we are hoping to begin developing an Enrichment Program at St. Clare’s. While still in the early stages, it is our hope that this program will target the talents and interests of students to showcase within St. Clare’s and the wider community. Individual students will be invited to take part throughout the year, in short 4-6 week blocks, in collaboration with classroom teachers, Leader of Learning & Diversity, Principal and Ms Moloney, who will be supporting the students. Parents will also be consulted for permission for their child to participate. The Enrichment Program is not intended to be an academic acceleration program. Students will be invited to participate based on a number of criteria - their academic ability (students will need to be able to adapt to missing an hour of class time), their engagement in learning, their work ethic and behaviour, to name a few.

At this stage, invited students will work with Ms. Moloney for an hour a week. We hope to run two one hour sessions per week, and Mrs. Jo Wall will be working in the Year 2 class in Ms. Moloney’s absence.

Initially, this program will include students from Year 3 - 6. Ms. Moloney has already put forward some excellent ideas including, a digital school magazine, public speaking, project based learning & investigation and numeracy enrichment.

We are very excited about where this program may lead and I would like to thank Ms. Moloney for accepting the challenge with such enthusiasm.

Prep Enrolments for 2023

It seems early to be discussing enrolments for 2023 BUT if you have a child born between 1/7/2017 and 30/6/2018, your child is eligible to start Prep in 2023. Please go to our website to complete an online enrolment - https://www.stclares.qld.edu.au/enrolling/enrolment-application/. We already have a number of students registered and places are limited. Interviews will commence in Term 2.

2’s Day

Tuesday 22nd February - 22/2/2022 - is 2’s day. All students and staff are invited to wear a tu-tu, tiara, tie or tie-dye on this day. Any combination of these can be worn with the sports uniform. Please ensure any alternative t-shirts are sun smart and closed in shoes are worn.

Volunteer Training

Have you completed volunteer training?  All parents assisting with sport training, tuckshop, sport days, transport, excursions, classroom assistance etc need to complete the training found on the Catholic Education website. Go to: https://www.cns.catholic.edu.au/our-school-communities/parent-engagement/volunteer-training/

Important Safety Reminders

Children must not walk through the car park area unless accompanied by an adult.  Parents must meet children at the ramp to walk them to the car. Do not call your children to your car or into the carpark as this is unsafe. Please also note that children need to be accompanied by an adult when crossing Mars Street. Staff will not let children cross Mars St to a parked car on the opposite side of the school.

Parents using the pick-up zone on Mars St. are asked not to leave their cars to assist children. If your child requires assistance to get in the car, please park elsewhere and walk over to collect our child.

The street in front of the two schools in Mars Street has signs that indicate u-turns are prohibited. Please adhere to this as it is for the safety of everyone.

Uniforms

Academic Uniform - Monday, Wednesday & Friday
Sports Uniform - Tuesday & Thursday

 *With the exception of Year 4, 5 & 6 - while they participate in the Rugby & Netball Clinics, these students can also wear their Sports Uniform on Wednesday.

Wishing you all well for the week ahead

Karran Burzacott
Principal