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Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome to Week 3! In this newsletter I wanted to share some good news from our NAPLAN results.
Teachers and students have been working diligently to improve literacy & numeracy and this hard work is obviously now paying dividends. Many students started with us struggling with their learning and we know that some students have disabilities that make learning a real challenge. Others have flourished and continue to be challenged. Regardless of where your child is at, I am confident that we are getting good growth from them in their learning.
NAPLAN data also revealed considerable growth for the vast majority of students in Years 5, 7 & 9. The learning growth for Year 9 students was particularly strong. Well done to all our students and staff on these very pleasing results. We still have some work to do but all of our trends are looking very positive.
Below is a summary of our students' 2019 results:-
Building Update
The new Technology, Art & Science Centre was all but complete, however, when the electrical contractor injured himself last term, a new company was sourced for the final certification. This company discovered a number of issues that require further attention. These matters are currently being addressed and it looks likely that we will not be able to occupy the building until the start of the next year. Whilst this is disappointing, we do currently have adequate facilities to deliver the required curriculum.
Better news is that Stage 2, a new Creative Arts block, consisting of two music rooms, associated practice/rehearsal rooms, a room for the College Band, a fitness gymnasium, drama workshop, dance studio and undercroft will commence next week. The junior covered shade area will relocate adjacent to the canteen to facilitate the building program.
Staff Development & Student Free Day
A reminder that Friday 8 November is a Staff Spirituality Day. Staff are travelling offsite for their professional development and as such it will be a student free day. Please make arrangements to have your child at home. OOSH will also be closed. This date has been published on our College calendar since the start of the year.
Thank you for your support.
Mr Simon Abernethy
College Principal
If you have any questions, or you have not received an email with your statement attached, please advise the College Finance Office as soon as possible.
Kind regards
SFCC Administration
The eSafety Commissioner
The eSafety Commissioner (eSafety) is Australia’s national independent regulator for online safety aimed to help safeguard Australians at risk from online harms and to promote safer, more positive online experiences. eSafety engages with a number of key online safety stakeholders both nationally and internationally and work with social media services to remove abusive content and develop proactive strategies and solutions to keep Australians safer online.
What the eSafety Commissioner does
- Responds to complaints about serious cyberbullying of Australian children
eSafety administers a complaints scheme for Australians under 18 who have experienced cyberbullying or seriously threatening, intimidating, harassing or humiliating online behaviour. eSafety provides resources to help the young person or their carer report the problem to social media sites, and have the power to require the abusive material to be removed.
- Responds to complaints about image-based abuse involving Australians
If an intimate image or video of someone has been shared, or threatened to be shared, without consent, they can report this to eSafety no matter how old they are. eSafety can help to get the intimate images or video removed from online platforms and, in some cases, take action against the person who shared it.
- Responds to complaints about prohibited and potentially prohibited content, including child sexual abuse material
eSafety administers a formal investigation and reporting scheme for prohibited and potentially prohibited online content. eSafety’s Cyber Report team prioritises investigations into online child sexual abuse material and works with law enforcement and the global network to attempt to remove this content wherever it is hosted.
- Provides online safety information and guidance through the website
The website brings together a wealth of useful information to help Australians have safe, enjoyable experiences online. The website is designed for all age groups. It provides guidance on specific online safety issues including cyberbullying, adult cyber abuse, image-based abuse, technology-related concerns for people at risk of family or domestic violence.
Additionally, it offers tailored support and resources such as the Be Connected program for Australians with low digital literacy; resources for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and resources in languages other than English.
You may access the eSafety Commissioner website at https://www.esafety.gov.au/
A guide has been created to assist you with navigating the site with ease, and a link to the guide follows this article.
Mrs Rita Agostino
Assistant Prinicpal - Pastoral Care
Each year, our Year 5 & 6 students create artworks and provide a written reflection on their work, to tell the true story of Christmas. From this collection of work each school nominates up to 3 works from each year group and send the artworks to Wollongong for judging.
This year the Diocese received 175 artworks and the judges selected 54 to be hung on display in the Wollongong Art Gallery. Of the 6 students nominated by SFCC, 5 were chosen for display. Of the 54 displayed, 17 were chosen to go to the Grand Hall at the Uni of Notre Dame in Sydney where they will be displayed with the best works from the Diocese of Sydney & Bathurst. Olivia A, Abbey T and Nikolas K were all chosen to go through to the Sydney competition.
4 Major Awards were judged from the 17 finalists. The Catholic Care Hope Award went to a student from the Illawarra.
The Director's Award went to Abbey T. Her artwork will also now feature on the Director of School's Christmas cards.
The Bishop's Award went to Olivia A. Her artwork will now feature on the Bishop's Christmas cards.
The Student Choice Award (judged by the 54 students who had works hung at the Wollongong Gallery) also went to Olivia A.
SFCC took out 3 of the 4 major awards which was a fantastic effort!
My sincere thanks also goes to our teaching staff who lead the work with the students.
Well done to our very talented students and our staff.
Mr Simon Abernethy
College Principal
Please click on the following CEO Wollongong links to Virtual Tours:-
INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL TOUR WITH AUDIO at: https://www.dow.catholic.
Please find below our CEDoW coverage of the Christmas Story Art Competition Exhibition:https://www.dow.
Congratulations to Bella G of Year 8 who recently represented NSW at the National State Teams Short Course Championships.
The NSW team placed second overall.
Well done Bella!
Congratulations to Montana E who won a gold medal at the recent Ice Skating Championships.
She will now be heading to the National Championships in November.
Congratulations Montana and all the best for Nationals.
Even if you drive your child to school each day, every parent should register their child for a school Opal Card. We are currently looking to negotiate bus services beyond 2019. The Department of Transport's default position is to examine how many students have registered for an Opal Card and make note of their address.
St Francis continues to struggle to negotiate because so many of our students have not registered for Opal Cards.
Please register your child/ren this week, if you have not already done so by visiting the Opal Card website www.opal.com.au.
Interline Bus Services have had Opal Card Inspectors on the buses this week checking students tapping on and off. Students must "tap on" and "tap off" using their Opal Cards every day as they board and leave the bus. In doing this, it confirms numbers of students using the bus services. SFCC staff will be asking all students who board the buses of an afternoon to have their Opal Cards out and ready to scan.
We would appreciate all parents/carers talking to their children about the importance of tapping on and off.
Further bus services and the maintenance of the ones we have currently will only be possible if there is a proven demand.
Students progressing to Year 3 and Year 7 no longer need to re-apply if they:
- are continuing at the same school
- are residing at the same address
- have not been sent an expiry notification from Transport for NSW.
Where a student meets the new distance eligibility, the system will automatically update their entitlement. If they do not meet the new eligibility, they will receive an expiry notification via email.
Students who have an entitlement approved under a medical condition which is due to expire will receive a notification advising them to re-apply.
If students need to update their information or re-apply, they should go online to https://apps.transport.nsw.gov.au/ssts/updateDetails
Applications need to be submitted before 31 December 2019 to ensure student entitlements are updated and their current entitlement/card is not cancelled. If their application is submitted after 31 December 2019, the system will automatically cancel an entitlement/card and a new one will need to be issued.
Students in the Opal network applying for a SSTS or Term Bus Pass entitlement for the first time will receive their card at their nominated postal address.
Cards will be mailed out from January 2020.
If any families/students are not returning to the College in 2020, we would ask that you notify College Reception as soon as possible to info@sfccdow.catholic.edu.au so that we can adjust our numbers for 2020 and offer places to students who are on waiting lists.
Kind regards
SFCC Administration