St Anthony’s Parish Primary School

God of Love,
Your son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us.
He is a sign of your love.
Help us walk in that love during the weeks of Advent,
As we wait and prepare for his coming.
We pray in the name of Jesus, our Saviour.

Amen

On Sunday we marked the beginning of Advent. In amongst the busyness of life and particularly in the lead-up to Christmas with so much going on, sometimes the meaning of why we are here can be forgotten. The special focus of Advent is a time for us to let the Holy Spirit open our eyes to the presence of Jesus ‘coming’ and being within the context of our own lives. The period of Advent and Christmas is a time for us to pray and consider deeply how Christ is present in Word, Sacrament and Community.

We especially keep in our prayers those who have lost loved ones and whose anniversaries occur at this time. May they be held in love and strength by those around them.

Welcome to Week 8.

We have many exciting events coming up, including our end of year whole-school Mass on Monday of Week 9 at 10am in St Anthony’s church.

Step Up Day

Our step-up day will take place on Tuesday of Week 9 between 12.30pm-1pm. This will be an opportunity for our students to meet their 2025 teacher, visit their new classroom and become familiar with who their classmates will be next year. A letter will be sent home with your child that afternoon from your child’s 2025 teacher so you can learn a little more about them.

Kindergarten have already had their orientation and will receive a letter from their 2025 Kindergarten teacher by the end of the term to confirm student class placements. Keep an eye out in your mailbox in the weeks ahead!

School reports

Student reports will be released via Compass on Monday 9 December (week 9).

To access your child’s report please go to the Compass app, click on the image of your child in the top left-hand corner, select the Reports tab in the top right-hand corner and then select 2024 - Semester Two to view their report.

Optional PT interviews Term 4

Optional parent-teacher interviews will be offered to families in the coming weeks. These will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in Week 9 after reports have been received. If you would like to meet with your child’s teacher, please book via compass directly to arrange a suitable time by this Thursday COB.

Last Tuesday our community council met for their final meeting for 2024. My sincere thanks to our chair Allan Taylor and our community council members for their ongoing support this year. We have achieved so much for our school, and I am very grateful for your time, work and dedication to our St Anthony’s community.

As highlighted in our last newsletter, our school captains and portfolio leader speeches are this Thursday. Captains and portfolio leaders will be notified on Friday and presented to our community on Monday at our end of year Mass. Please note there will be an opening school Mass and 2025 Captain and portfolio leaders’ celebration at the beginning of next year where badges will be presented.

I would like to thank Fr Tom and the St Anthony’s Parish family for their continued support and prayers for our school, we are truly blessed to have such a strong connection with them. I thank our dedicated staff, who strive daily to make a difference in the lives of all our students as inspirational and passionate educators. I feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to lead alongside Fr Tom the St Anthony’s School community this year. I especially feel honoured to have worked closely with many parents and students, our School Community Council and our committed staff, during this time. Thank you for your time volunteering to make our school such a wonderful place to be. We have so many people volunteering their time across our school, special thanks to each of you, whether it be in the canteen, the classroom, on excursions or in library. We are so grateful for your generosity and time.

Early in 2024 we farewelled the following staff:

Kelly Mara
Beth Lehmensich
Josh McGrath

The following staff we will farewell at the end of 2024:

Simon Van Meurs
Imogen Alexander
Mary Bruce
Orla Rutledge

Thushari Sumanaweera will be taking 12 months leave to assist in another school in our Archdiocese and will return in 2026 to her Classroom Support Assistant Role.

We sincerely thank these wonderful members of staff who have given their commitment to STA over a number of years. We thank them each for their dedication, service and hard work in the time they have worked at St Anthony’s Parish Primary School and wish them all the very best for their future endeavours.

St Anthony’s Parish information

Thank you to all the families and staff that joined us for our last FFF Mass on Sunday. It was lovely to have many of our students participate in decorating the Jesse Tree on the first day of Advent. Below are the times for Christmas Mass at St Anthony’s church:

Christmas Eve 5pm and 7pm
Christmas Day 9am

Vinnies Christmas Appeal

Thank you for your generous donations for our class baskets to give to our Vinnies Christmas Appeal. It’s not too late to bring items in. These baskets will be presented to St Vincent DePaul representative Mr David Thiele at our End of Year Mass on Monday.

Hall update + info

There is much work happening on our school hall. The roof is off and walls are down! We look forward to seeing much more development over the Christmas break.

Canteen update

Thank you to Maree and our super volunteers in the canteen. Over the weeks and into next year you will see a reduced menu to cater for the smaller canteen facilities. My thanks to our community for your understanding of the limited menu for a period of time while our new canteen is being built. Please have a look at QKR for limited menu items that can be ordered from our canteen.

Next week there will be a week 9 newsletter instead of week 10. Included in this newsletter will be our 2025 staffing and an overview of upcoming events in 2025.

Important dates and events coming up this term