Dear St. Clare’s Community,

Welcome to the final week of Term 1. Thank you to all our students and parents for making Term 1 at St. Clare’s so very enjoyable. I would also like to express my gratitude to all staff for the amazing effort that they put into each and everyday. I am constantly in awe and deeply grateful for the dedication with which the staff of St. Clare’s take on challenges, and wish all staff and families some time over the break to take a moment to recharge the batteries.

We are about to enter into the holiest time of the year, with March 28 marking Holy(Maundy) Thursday and the beginning of the Triduum. These days, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday are our way of remembering and reflecting on Jesus’ final days on earth and His glorious resurrection.
Holy Week for Christians is a very special  time. It is a week during which we do things that we don’t usually do and hear things we usually don’t hear. Holy Week is definitely a week with a difference and spiritually rewarding for Christians who, willingly, are part of its unfolding.

Attendance - currently 81.4% of St. Clare’s students have attended school 90% of the time. 8.3% of absences are unexplained, please remember to contact the office to notify of student absences. If you are experiencing difficulties with attendance/ lateness for reasons not related to illness, please make contact as we may be able to offer support to assist reluctant or anxious students.

A bright future for your child starts with good school attendance every day - all day. While good attendance doesn’t automatically guarantee positive outcomes for students, positive outcomes in academics, personal growth and wellbeing and social emotional health can be impacted by low attendance.

Ten minutes late, or ten minutes leaving early every day soon adds to 50 minutes per week.  This equates to almost 1.5 weeks in a year. If the pattern continues, over the course of the student’s 13 years of schooling, this equates to about half a year of school that is missed. A day here or there, or a missed afternoon on several occasions each term may not seem like much, but 15 days of school missed across the year (the equivalent of 4 days per term) will add to an entire year of school missed by the time your child completes Year 12.

Attendance matters - every day counts!

AEDC Census

Next term we will be participating in the Australian Early Development Census (AEDC). The AEDC occurs every three years and is a population measure of how young children have developed by the time they start their first year of full-time school. Next term, more information will be emailed out to families that have a child in Prep.

Sent to the Principal's Office

I have enjoyed being able to share the hard work of our students over the term. Last week I had some more visits from student that are really working hard to improve their writing skills. Well done!

Blessing and best wishes to you all for the Easter Season.

Karran Burzacott
Principal

First of all, I would like to thank the families of St Clare’s for the generosity shown during our collections for Project Compassion. Through our pancakes, jelly cups, free dress and class donations, we have raised over $1 000 during Lent. Our icy cups and hot chip sales will also go towards this charity. Events like these would not be possible without the support of our amazing Year 6 leaders, their teachers and school officers, Mrs Vipiana and our experienced chip cookers, Mr Vipiana and Mr Grimaz. We will still be collecting donations through class money boxes up until the last day of this term.

It’s no secret that the students of St Clare’s are all stars, but would you believe our staff have given out over 700 Star Cards to students who have been caught demonstrating our school values of Faith, Knowledge, Community or Respect. Each term, one class will be awarded the ‘Star Class’ based on receiving the highest number of star cards per student. Our wonderful Prep class is the clear winner for Term 1 and will get to decide on a class award as a celebration of their great efforts.

The Sacramental Program will begin on April 24 (Term 2, Week 2). Thank you to those who have registered their children’s names already. It is not too late if you would like your child to participate in this year’s program. Information has been emailed to families this week. Please let me know if you have not received any this. It is important for at least one parent to attend the Parent Information Session as this will also be your opportunity to select meeting times with Fr Joby.

Fr Joby will be off on his annual leave from April 8 to May 10. In his absence, we welcome Fr Denis Ryan from the Diocese of Ballarat. If you see Fr Denis around, please make him feel welcome in Tully. Fr Joby will be here for Easter and for those interested, mass times are listed below.

If you happen to have some spare time over the Easter break and enjoy a good read, The Resilience Project is the perfect choice! And if you happen to be travelling in the car for extended periods of time, the author of The Resilience Project, Hugh Van Cuylenburg, also has a podcast, The Imperfects, which is worth a listen. This is a great opportunity to support your child’s journey through The Resilience Project.

I would like to wish all of our families a safe and holy Easter break and I look forward to seeing smiling faces back in Term 2!

With blessings,

Sharon Chappel

Friday  29/3/2024

No Tuckshop - Good Friday