Thank you for the positive messages on Facebook and via email regarding the unexpected passing of Mr Anthony Ganley, former Assistant Principal of St John the Apostle. It's lovely to hear about the positive impact Mr Ganley had on many of our current and past families. 

Thank you also to the staff who have supported each other and their students as they fondly remember Mr Ganley. Their compassion and care has been wonderful.

Mr Ganley's funeral will be held at 1.30pm next Tuesday, 27 July at Holy Spirit Parish Church, Berdekin Street, Amaroo. We expect it will be attended by many people from a number of school and community organisations who have worked with Mr Ganley.

For those in our community unable to attend and yet would like to farewell Mr Ganley we are holding a Memorial Mass at 4.00pm, Wednesday, 28 July in our Parish, St John the Apostle Catholic Church, Blackham Street, Kippax. This will be followed by a cup of tea. All are welcome.

COVID-19 and Remote Learning

We are preparing ourselves for the possibility of a short time of remote learning in the near future. It is best to be prepared.

Should we move to remote learning, Kindergarten to Year 3 classes will use Seesaw as the main learning platform while Years 4 to 6 will use Google Classrooms. We will spend a little time with Kindergarten to Year 3 next week preparing them for using Seesaw.

Wet weather pick up

In recent weeks there have been a number of times that it has been raining at pick up time. When this happens we moved to a wet-weather pick up routine that involves:

• Students catching a bus or walking home meet the supervising teachers under the verandah off the hall.
• Students riding bikes leave as per usual arrangements.
• Students accessing OSHClub meet the team in the hall.
• Students being picked up in the carpark go and wait under the verandahs at Performing Arts and then parents must park and come in to collect their children.

We understand that there are a lot of cars to navigate around at a wet weather pick up. We also need to ensure that it is calm and safe. Thank you for your patience during these times.

When some parents and carers anticipate a wet weather pick up they like to collect their children early from the Front Office to avoid the traffic. Some days Leanne can receive quite a few phone calls from 2.15pm onward asking for children to make their way to the Front Office to be met by the parent/carer. The impact is that there are a myriad of phone calls to classrooms (or announcements over the PA) disturbing learning in classrooms; students are constantly being signed out and Leanne cannot physically keep up with the demands of parents and carers to retreive students, look after the sick bay, receive phone calls and manage other end of day tasks. She's often amazes us but it is a challenging, and also unnecessary, stretch. Even for her!

If parents and carers wish to avoid the traffic on wet weather then please feel free to come a little later than usual. Teachers are on duty until 3.30pm. There is a half hour window available for everyone. Please feel to come any time in that window.

Late arrivals at school

Just a small reminder that students dropped off late at school must be signed in by a parent/carer. Please do not drop studets in the front car park and go after 9.00am.

I hope everyone stays warm and dry as much as possible this weekend.

Enrolments for 2022

We are still accepting enrolments for 2022.

If you have a child currently in pre-school and will be enrolling them for Kindergarten then please do so as soon as possible. Please go to our school website to lead you through how to do this or contact Leanne at the Front Office with any questions.