Dear Families,

This is not a typical newsletter, this is more of an information letter, we will have our first newsletter coming next week.

We hope you find this helpful,

Kind regards,

Trish

Important dates

TERM 1 Monday 3rd February - Friday 4th April 1pm

March

Monday 3rd March - National Young Leaders Day excursion

Monday 3rd March - Prep Home Learning Family Night 6.00pm

Wednesday 5th March - Ash Wednesday Mass 9.00am (families welcome)

Thursday 6 March 2:15pm Parents in Partnership Meeting

Thursday 6th March - Gold Coin Donation Wear Green: St Lawrence Cholangiocarcinoma Awareness Day

Monday 10th March Public Holiday Labour Day - SCHOOL CLOSED

Tuesday 11th March - First Reconciliation Family Formation evening 6.30pm

Wednesday 12th March - Grade 1 on-site 'Camp' Breakfast, afternoon tea and activity

Wednesday 12th March - Monday 24th March - NAPLAN testing period

Friday 14th March - School Photos

Sunday 16 March - Sunday 23 March CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK & CULTURAL DIVERSITY WEEK

Thursday 20th March - Multicultural Supper 6.30pm

Friday 21st March - Assembly in the school hall 2.45pm (families welcome)

Monday 24th March - Staff professional learning - Literacy - SCHOOL CLOSED

Thursday 27th March - AUTHOR VISIT Prep - grade 3s

                                -Grade 2-6 Maths Family Learning Night 6.00pm

Friday 28 March        - AUTHOR VISIT Prep - grade 3s

April

Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 2nd April - Reconciliation Masses 5:30pm SPC

Friday 4th April - Final day of Term 1 (1.00pm finish)

TERM 2 Tuesday 22nd April - Friday 4th July 1pm

April

Monday 21 April Easter Monday Public Holiday (NO SCHOOL)

Tuesday 22 April First Day Of Term : Wear your Easter Bonnet for our Easter Bonnet Parade

Thursday 24 April 9am Classroom Helper Trainiing

Friday 25 April Anzac Day: Public Holiday (NO SCHOOL)

Monday 28 April School Closure: Review Preparation

Tuesday 29 April School Advisory Council 6:30pm

May

Friday 2nd May - Fun Run

Tuesday 6th May - 9am Classroom helper Training Session 2

                         - First Eucharist Family Formation evening 6.30pm

Wednesday 7th May - Prep on-site 'Camp'

Friday 9th May - Mothers' Day mass 9.00am (families welcome)

Friday 9th May - Mothers' Day breakfast and gift stall

Monday 12 May - Teeth on Wheels onsite

Tuesday 13th May - Grade Prep - 1 Maths Family Learning Night 6.00pm

                           - Teeth on Wheels onsite

Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 May - Author visits for all classes

Friday 23rd May - School Athletics carnival (TBC)

Tuesday 27 May - 6:30pm School Advisory Council

Wednesday 28th May - Grade 3 on-site 'Camp' Braekfast, afternoon activities and dinner

June

Wednesday 4th June - Grade 2 on-site 'Camp' Breakfast, afternoon tea and activities

Friday 6th June School Closure - Team Teach

Monday 9 June Public Holiday - Kings Birthday (NO SCHOOL)

Friday 13 June St Lawrence Athletics Carnival

Tuesday 17 June 6:30pm School Advisory Council

Tuesday 17 July - Tuesday 24 July Parent Support Group Meetings (PSGs)

Friday 20th June - Winter Appeal Mass 9.00am (families welcome) 

Saturday 28th June - First Eucharist Masses

July

Friday 4th July - Final day of Term 2 (1.00pm finish)

Term 3

July

Monday 21 July Learning Conversations 11am-7pm By appointment only

Tuesday 22 July First Day of term

Tuesday 29 July 6:30pm School Advisory Council

August

Monday 4th August - Wednesday 6th August - Grade 5 Camp

Monday 11th August - Feast Day of St Lawrence Mass 9.00am & Fiesta (families welcome)

Friday 15th August - Kaboom Sports Day 

Monday 18th August - Book Week Parade

Tuesday 19th August - Confirmation Family Formation evening 6.30pm

Friday 22 August MAV (Mathematical Association of Victoria) Maths Day at St Lawrence School

Monday 25 August - Friday 29 August Book Fair in the DC

September

Thursday 4th September - Confirmation Sponsor Formation evening 6.30pm

Friday 5th September - Fathers' Day Mass 9.00am (families welcome) 

Friday 5th September - Fathers' Day breakfast and gift stall

Wednesday 10th and Thursday 11th September - School Performance at Caroline Chisolm Catholic College: Quin Auditorium

Thursday 18th September - Grade 4 Sleepover

Friday 19th September - Final day for Term 3 (1.00pm finish)

Term 4

October

Fridays in Term 4 - Prep - Grade 3 Swimming

Tuesday 7th October - Prep 2026 Information night 7.00pm

Saturday 11th October - Confirmation Masses

Tuesday 14 October - School Advisory Council 6:30pm

Friday 31 October - Whole School Mass: 9am  All Saints Day (families welcome)

November

Monday 3 November School Closure: Professional Practice Day 

Tuesday 4 November School Closure: Melbourne Cup

Tuesday 11 November : 6:30pm AGM School Advisory Council

December

Tuesday 2 December: 6:30pm School Advisory Council

Friday 5th December - Advent Liturgy 9.00am (families welcome) (TBC)

Monday 8 December - School Closure: 2026 Planning Day

Thursday 11th December - Jingle Mingle 6:30pm

Friday 12th December - Advent Liturgy 9.00am Families Welcome

Monday 15th December - Grade 6 Graduation Mass 6:30pm

Tuesday 16th December - Final day for students (1.00pm finish)

Please note, there may be changes to some of these dates, so please frequently check the important dates of each newsletter as well as the familu calendar that you can locate on Compass as well as our webite www.stlawrence.com.au

ST LAWRENCE STAFF DETAILS

PREP TEACHERS               EXPLORATION CENTRE

Room 1      PR       Ms Ruane        rruane@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au                              

Room 2      PG       Mr Green            jgreen@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 1 TEACHERS             CREATION CENTRE

 Room 4      1C     Mrs Camerota      dcamerota@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

 Room 5      1P    Ms Pardillo           kpardillo@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

 Room 6      1M    Ms MacKenzie      smackenzie@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 2 TEACHERS             CREATION CENTRE               

Room 7 2DR Mrs DeLorenzis             ddelorenzis@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

                                        Monday to Wednesday

                           Mrs Rzanikoski        brzanikoski@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

                                         Thursday and Friday

Room 8     2C     Mrs Cuschieri              ecuschieri@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Room 9     2H      Ms Hatton                 ahatton@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 3 TEACHERS              INNOVATION CENTRE

Room 12  3JO Ms Jones  (Monday to Wednesday)  cjones@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

                    Ms O'Hegarty (Thursday and Friday) cohegarty@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au                               

Room 13   3M       Mr Murphy              dmurphy@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Room 14   3S     Ms Amy Shannon       ashannon@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 4 TEACHERS              INNOVATION CENTRE

Room 15    4D      Mrs Delaney          ldelaney@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au 

Room 16    4L        Ms Limawal          plimawal@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Room 17    4F        Ms Flahive           nflahive@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 5 TEACHERS                 INNOVATION CENTRE

Room 10    5W      Ms Wu                  twu@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Room 11    5O     Ms Ogden               sogden@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

                                                   LEADERSHIP CENTRE

Room 21   5K      Mrs Kang                nkang@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

GRADE 6 TEACHERS              LEADERSHIP CENTRE

Room 18   6S    Ms Schutte                           mschutte@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Room 19  6ST Ms Snow (Monday - Wednesday) hsnow@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

                Mrs Tuimauga (Thursday-Friday)    ftuimauga@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Room 20          Ms Connolly                          lconnolly@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

SPECIALIST TEACHERS

PERFORMING ARTS             Mrs Penza          npenza@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

PHYSICAL EDUCATION         Mr Haynes        dhaynes@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

VISUAL ARTS                     Ms Lim.              flim@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

LEARNING DIVERSITY TEAM               DISCOVERY CENTRE

Learning Diversity Leader      Mrs Dear     LD@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Psychologist                      Tess Cohen    tcohen@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Psychologist (Thurs-Fri) Brad Drysdale   bdrysdale@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

CORE LEADERS

 Principal                  Trish Mulhern            tmulhern@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Deputy Principal        Brooke Taylor           btaylor@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Learning & Teaching Leader     Kristy-Anne Muscat kmuscat@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

LEADERS

Student Wellbeing Leader P-6   Brooke Taylor   btaylor@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Learning & Teaching leader P-6     Kristy-Anne Muscat  kmuscat@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Mental Health in Primary Schools Leader   Hannah Snow    hsnow@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Maths Leader P-6     Narelle Italiano           nitaliano@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Literacy Leader P-2    Kristy-Anne Muscat   kmuscat@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Literacy Leader 3-6.    Farryn Tuimauga      ftuimauga@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Religious Education Leader  Lil Severo         lsevero@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Admin Leader                     Kris Pepi          kpepi@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Learning Assistant leader   Janine Graham   jgraham@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Librarian                       Jodie Williams        jwilliams@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

At St Lawrence School, we value working in partnership with our families.

With this in mind we have daily times that families can meet with teachers, as outlined below.

The best way to communicate with teachers if you are unable to see them within these times is by email. We will respond to emails within 48 working hours. All emails are available in the staff contact section.

Times to meet with your child's teacher:

From 8:30-8:45 classrooms are open, teachers are accessible for parents to talk to.

Mondays and Fridays from 3:15pm - 3:30pm classrooms are open and teachers are accessible for parents to talk to.

If you need to have a confidential discussion or a conversation that will take more than 15 minutes please email your child's teacher to organise.

Formal Parent Teacher Meeting times:

Welcome Conversations:

Purpose: For families and students to meet with the teacher and share information with the teacher about their child, about any relevant medical issues, about their strengths and interests and their hopes for their child.

These take place towards the beginning of the year and are booked using online booking system.

Learning Conversations:

Purpose: These are 3 way conversations between students, families and the teacher to discuss the chilld's learning. They will be centred around the child's learning as demonstrated in the school report and on SeeSaw (our online Learning journal).

Takes Place: Monday 21 July 11am -7pm

Parent Support Group Meetings (PSGs)

For students who have a Personalised Learning Plan (PLP), Personalised Behaviour Plan (PBP) and/or a Personalised Health Plan (PHP) there will be regular Parent Support Group meetings. All families with children on a PLP or a PBP will have termly meetings while others may have one each semester.  Families may request an interim PSG meeting if they do not have one booked for them.

Purpose: To consult with families regarding students learning goals and strategies and adjustments that will be put in place to support the child to achieve them. To review growth in relation to the previous goals.

Takes place:

Term 1: 25th March - 1st April

Term 2 : 17th - 24th June

Term 3: 12th - 19th September

Term 4: 24th November - 11th December

PLATFORMS

At St Lawrence School there are two platforms that we ask all families to register for:

COMPASS             

and SEESAW         

Compass is an important tool the school uses to communicate with families about school matters, to distribute reports, to make booking for Welcome Conversations and Learning Conversations. It is also how families give permission for camps, excursions etc. Important messages are sent out through Compass, including an overview of the week overviews. Our Family Events calendar can also be accessed through Compass.

If you have any questions about Compass, please see the Families' Guide to Compass or contact the school office.

If you are having trouble using Compass please contact the friendly staff at the office for support at comms@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

Seesaw is the learning platform we use to share your children's learning with you in a timely manner. It is our learning portfolio for your child/ren. Each fortnight a video learning overview of the upcoming fortnights learning is sent out on Seesaw, so that families are aware what their children will be learning about.

This week at the Welcome Conversations each family will get a login qr Code to enrol in your child's 2024 Class Seesaw account. We strongly advise you to login so you are up to date with your child/rens learning.

Seesaw is also used by teachers to communicate special events across each year level as well as to communicate changes to the Physical education timetable.

Seesaw is not a platform for families to Communicate with teachers. Email is the best way to contact your childs teacher. 

Our school implements the Positive Behaviour for Learning framework. Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) is an evidence-based framework that brings together the whole-school community to contribute to developing a positive, safe and supportive learning culture. The framework assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural and academic outcomes for children.

The St Lawrence behaviour expectations are:
-Be Safe
-Be Responsible
-Be Respectful
These are school wide, community wide expectations (for students, staff, families
and all other community members). We will provide more information about Positive Behaviour for Learning in our future newsletters.

Please click the links below to view important school policies

School Advisory Councils are an essential component of governing and operating Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Melbourne. They provide a forum for consultation and participation for parish and school communities, ensuring that schools are accountable for the decisions they make. The School Advisory Council at St Lawrence School meets twice a term and are a very active group in our school community.

We are very thankful to our SAC memebers who give generously of time and spirit, and have had a significant impact on our school, its improvement and growth.

This year our School Advisory Council comprises of six family members: Chantelle Yates, Chris Dingli, Debby Kalalo, Monaliz Abella and Warren Brooks as well as staff representative Natalie Penza, principal Trish Mulhern and Fr John Sang (Custodian of Mission rep).

If you have any questions about school life or feedback regarding processes or suggestions, please feel comfortable to ask any of our School Advisory Council Members.

SAC Meetings dates and times 2025:

25th March 6.30-7.30pm

29th April 6.30-7.30pm

26th May 6.30-7.30pm

17th June 6.30-7.30pm

29th July 6.30-7.30pm

26th August 6.30-6.30pm

14th October 6.30-7.30pm

11th November 5.30-6.30pm

2nd December 6.30-7.30pm

The School Advisory Council host their first whole school event of the year, the Multicultural Dinner, which will be taking place on Thursday 20th March from 6:30pm - 8:30pm.  We hope to see you all there.

This year we look forward to the continuing support of our Parents in Partnership group. This group works together with school leaders to develop a sense of community and parent engagement while supporting fundraining efforts for the school. This group is involved in supporting the organisation of the Fun Run, special lunch order days for the children, School Discos, Mother's Day and Father's Day events and raffles, to name but a few events.

There is no obligation to attend all meetings or support all events to be a member of Parents in Partnership, but we will be very grateful for your presence whenever you can.

This year we will be holding  hybrid meetings, meaning we will be meeting at school face to face (for those who can make it) and online simultaneously for those who can't be here.

Our first meeting of the year is Thursday 6 March at 2:15pm. If you are interested in being part of this group, please email through your interest to tmulhern@slwderrimut.catholic.edu.au

and I will send you through an agenda for the first meeting.

In Term 1 the children wear the summer uniform which consists of:

We would like to remind you that black shoes or all black runners need to worn everyday, except when children have physical education classes when they can wear runners of any colour.

Please ensure all items are labelled with your child's name so lost property can be returned to its owner. If you have lost an item, lost property is located behind the school office during school hours.

If you have uniform that your children have grown out of and is still in good condition please donate it back to the school. This enables us to provide uniforms for our most vulenerable families and it also enables us to do some fundarising by having second hand uniform sales.

Our first uniform sale for the year takes place on Tuesday 4 March at 8am - 9:30am and 2pm - 3:30pm outside the discovery centre.

Children are given various oportunities to eat throughout the school day - a fruit snack in the morning, a 15 minute eating break following first break (11.30-11.45am) and a 10 minute eating break following second break (2.00-2.10pm).

At 10am children are allowed to eat a piece of fruit to help sustain their energy levels in the morning learning block. We encourage you to send a piece of fruit to school with your child for this fruit snack. If you are going to send fruit with your child please be mindful of the size as they will only have 5 minutes to eat it. It is suggested that fruit is cut into small, manageable pieces for the children to eat within this timeframe. 

If you would like to drop food off for your child to eat during the day, it should be labeled with your child's name and dropped off at the office by 11.30am for first break or by 2.00pm for second break. Please understand that children are encouraged to bring healthy food and snacks to school, so we are unable to allow children to receive fast food such as McDonalds or soft drinks.

DROP OFF

Gates on Windsor Boulevard, near school playground and adjacent to the office open at 8:30

8:30-8:45 Children supervised on oval and courtyard

8:45 First bell rings and children enter their classes, Gates on Windsor Boulevard and near the school playground close 

8:55 Second bell School begins with roll and prayer, Gate adjacent to the office closes.

9:00-11:00 Learning Time

11:00-11:30 First Break

11:30-11:45 Eating time

11:45-1:30 Learning Time

1:30-2:00 Second break

2:00-2:10 Eating time

2:10-3:10 Learning Time

3:10-3:15 Pack up, prayer, dismissal

3:15-3:30 Children are dismissed, supervision in courtyard until last bell at 3:30pm.

3:30 Gates close

A reminder that children need to be collected between 3.15pm and 3.30pm.  If this is not possible, please register your children with OSH Club by calling 1300 395 735 or visit oshclub.com.au

Before school, from 8:30-8:45am each day there are two areas that are supervised: the Oval and the Courtyard. These are the only two places that students can be before they enter their classrooms at 8:45.

We appreciate your support in reminding your children that they cannot be waiting outside their classrooms or playing on the playground, the junior soccer pitch or The Village before school.

After school the Courtyard is the only area that there will be someone supervising the children. 

We appreciate your support in reminding your children that they cannot be playing on the playground or the village, junior soccer pitch or the oval after school.

This is because we are not covereed by insurance in case of an accident as there are no staff supervising these areas. It is also because some children go to these play spaces even though they have no parent there to supervise them and there is no-one there to manage this. 

We would truly appreciate your support us this.

At St Lawrence school we support your childrens faith development and sacrament preparation. Part of this preparation includes Family formation nights, all students and families celebrating these sacraments are required to attend.