Welcome back to Term 4 everyone. I hope you all got to enjoy a few slower paced days during the holidays. Our Preschool plus children enjoyed a relaxing couple of weeks during holiday care – with lots of cooking, dancing, singing, making and creating and plenty of time to just play. I am very grateful to Asmaa, Salinda, Gurleen and Winnie for creating such a fun and relaxed space for the students during the holiday weeks.

There are a lot of things happening throughout Term 4 as we finish off the year, so please regularly check in with our newsletter and Szapp messages and news feed, so you can note down important dates in your calendar. 

We are excited to be celebrating Diwali with the students on Monday and Friday of week 3. Gurleen and Aman have planned lots of interesting things for the students, and it is a great opportunity for our students to experience celebrations and traditions from different cultures.

I know a few of the students are also excited about Halloween celebrations coming up next Friday. We have had a few families enquire about this. We will not be celebrating Halloween at Preschool or giving out sweets. Some of the spooky and scary aspects of Halloween can be frightening for young children and it falls at the same time as Diwali, which we are celebrating instead. 

This term there will be some changes around the campus at St Anthony’s as the school commences some much anticipated renovations on the school hall and canteen. This is going to mean there will be building activity happening next to the ELC. The start date for renovations is early November. 

There will be no assemblies/liturgies or events scheduled in the hall this term. The ELC will not be presenting an assembly this term – instead we will share our Art Show with our families and the school community in Week 7 of the term. The St Anthony’s end of Year Mass will take place in the Church on Monday of Week 10. Whilst renovations are happening the canteen will be set up and ready to serve from the “Donga” from Week 3. This is located next to the sensory garden at the school and away from construction. A modified canteen menu and details of these changes will be shared with the community via QKR and Compass (for school families) once this has been finalised. 

The hall renovation will impact some areas of the school, including some of the overflow carpark and the gate entry next to the hall and some of our playground area. Areas of the school will be safely fenced off with visible signage and alternative routes will be outlined for families and students’ use. The ELC will not have access to the school from our playground gates, and will take students to library, Italian and other places around the school along the temporary walkway that will be set up in front of the school.

We appreciate there will be some inconveniences during the building process and thank our ELC and school community for your patience as we look forward to having a new hall, canteen and toilets for 2025. A map of the construction area to provide a visual of alternative entry and exit points and parking availability of the school is outlined below.