St Catherine's Athletics Carnival

Congratulations to Sue Pattinson, the staff, students and school community for a fantastic day on the 15th November at Rowen’s Road track. We were blessed with beautiful weather. The students are to be congratulated for their enthusiastic participation and encouragement of each other. Congratulations to the red team for breaking the drought and taking out the overall championship. See below for more information and photos. 

A big thank you to:

• Sue Pattinson for her amazing organisation
• Our amazing Sports Leaders (Gus, Fin, Jensen, Bella, Lachlan P & Daraius)
• Peter Kokkalos & Jim Kokkalos (Starter)
• Abbey Walters & her OLSH team 
• St Catherine’s staff (setup, pack up, scoring, marshalling, first aid etc.)
• Parent helpers

FOUNDATION 2025 ORIENTATION SESSIONS & PARENT INFORMATION EVENING

It was a pleasure to meet our 2025 students and families over the last few weeks. Thank you to Jaimee Hall, Megan Moore and Laura Bailey for organising and attending the Foundation Information evening on Tuesday, 12th November. The families came together to get to know each other, learn about the curriculum, expectations about starting  school and general organisational information. Thank you to Denver Styles (School Advisory Council- Chairperson) for speaking to the 2025 Foundation families about how they can get involved and contribute to our wonderful St Catherine’s community. We are looking forward to seeing our current and new families on Tuesday, 26th November(Transition Day 2) and Wednesday 4th December (Transition Day 3).

2025 Class Structures

Principals are required to work through a consultative process with staff representatives  when planning around the following areas:

• class sizes
• scheduled class time
• total workloads for teachers including meetings, Parent/Teacher meetings and extra/co-curricular duties
• Positions of Leadership

After a comprehensive consultation process with staff representatives over the last 6 weeks, the class structures for 2025 have been determined. There will be 5 classes.

• Foundation
• Year 1/2
• Year 3/4
• Year 5/6 (x2)

2025 Staffing

Staffing will be finalised and announced in the Week 10 newsletter. 

2025 School Fees

Each year the school receives Commonwealth and State Government grants which support some of the educational and running costs of the school. As these grants do not cover the full operation of the school, we rely on a fee contribution to help cover education costs for each student. The local contribution collected from families assists in paying for the maintenance, utilities, insurances, cleaning etc. We have carefully balanced the need to continue school improvement and learning experiences to ensure the best learning outcomes for the children, while assessing the increased cost of services and remaining focused on engaging the most competitive suppliers. In 2025 the school fee and levy structure will increase by 3.7% (2024 increase was 5%).

Family Fee $2100

Capital Levy $400

Foundation Levy $645

Year 1 Levy $645

Year 2 Levy $645

Year 3 Levy $670

Year 4 Levy $670

Year 5 Levy $1480 (includes camp)

Year 6 Levy $1480 (includes camp)

A letter outlining fees will be sent home to 2025 families with their child’s school report on 11th December.

Year 5/6 Beach Program

F-4 Swimming Program

Please see Operoo dated 25th November for details about the program.

Re: Years F-4 Swimming Safety Program at Aqua Star, Moorabbin

24 Arco Lane, Heartherton

Beginning on Monday 2 December until Friday 6 December, students in Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 will be participating in the Swim Safety Program. Swimming lessons will take place at Aquastar Heatherton (24 Arco Lane, Heartherton). Each lesson is targeted to your child's needs with swimming assessments taking place throughout the program. Each lesson will be one hour and is led by a qualified swimming instructor. Parents have already paid for this program through the student levy fee this year. This is a compulsory part of the school Physical Education Program. If your child is sick on  a swimming day, please keep them home. Please contact Carmel Donlon if you have any questions regarding this.

The students will be travelling to Aquastar via bus in class groups. Classes will be leaving approximately 30 minutes before the lesson times.

Years Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 will leave school at 11.30am for a 12.00pm lesson.

Years 3, 4 will leave school at 12.30pm for a 1.00pm lesson.

Parents are not required to attend these swimming sessions unless requested by school staff. St Catherine's school has exclusive access to Aquastar facilities during this time. Any parents that do attend will need to have a Working With Childrens Check. This must be provided to the school before attending the swimming venue.

For the program, students will be required to wear bathers underneath the school sports uniform each day of the program. ALL clothing items must be clearly labelled in a small backpack.  It is advised that students pack a spare pair of underwear. Students may bring a pair of thongs/sandals and will be given the opportunity to change into these before they get on the bus. Students are encouraged to be independent in organising themselves and their belongings. Parents are asked not to enter the change rooms due to Child Safety Regulations.

Students will need to bring their own labelled:

• swim caps
• goggles
• spare underwear 
• towel

It is parents/guardians responsibility to ensure students have all these items laudered/cleaned/dried for each day of the program.

Year 6 Graduation & Guard of Honour    

The Year 6 students and their families will celebrate their Graduation on Monday, 16th December. The Year 6 students' last day will be on Monday, 16th December. We invite you to attend school at 3.15pm on this day to take part in a farewell Guard of Honour. This will take place on the basketball courts. There will also be a Prayer Service in the church at 5.45pm on this day. All are welcome to attend the prayer service. The Year 6 students will then have a Graduation Dinner in the hall with their families and school staff.

Working Bee- rescheduled 9.00-11am, Sunday, 1st December

Thank you to Laura McKell for organising the working bee to spread mulch and tidy garden beds. It has been changed to Sunday, 3rd December. Contact myself or Laura if you have any questions. lauramckell@outlook.com

24th December CHRISTMAS EVE CHILDREN’S MASS NATIVITY- 6pm ST CATHERINE’S

This year I’m assisting Sheelagh in the Parish to organise a Nativity at the 6pm Christmas Eve Children’s Mass at St Catherine's Church. Families that were involved last year really enjoyed the experience.

• If you would like your child/children to be involved please look out for an Operoo
• You will need to come to a rehearsal at St Catherine’s Church at 4.30pm on Thursday, 19th December. At this rehearsal we will allocate roles & organise costumes. These will be provided for all the children. This rehearsal should take about an hour and we ask parents to stay for the whole time. Children involved need to be school age.
• We will have a dress rehearsal at 4.30pm on Monday, 23rd December.
• You will need to bring your child/children to church at 5.15pm on Tuesday, 24th December to have a final rehearsal and get fitted into their costumes.
• Parents will need a Working with Childrens Check/Card to attend the practice sessions to work with children 

Please let me know if you are able to help at either the rehearsals and on Christmas Eve.

Please contact me if you have any questions or need clarification.