Dear Parents & Caregivers,

Welcome to the last official newsletter of 2021! As last Sunday marked the beginning of our Advent journey, it is a wonderful time to reflect on the amazing year our school community has enjoyed. It is also a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus Christ. Advent is a time to come together as a family and be grateful for our many blessings, but also to look forward with hope, joy, peace and love. Attached below is a family wellbeing calendar produced by Catholic Education for the month of December. On it are some great suggestions to practice gratitude, recognise strengths and give thanks, all while we prepare ourselves during Advent.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Last Wednesday, we held our AGM in the school hall. We announced significant achievements from 2021 along with financial reports and a list of classroom teachers. Members of the P&F Executive and School Advisory Council were also elected. Thank you to all parents who attended. Below is a list of the 2022 P&F Exec and School Advisory Council members:

2022 P&F Executive

President - Stephenie Kunder

Vice President - Teegan Stewart

Treasurer - Heidi Durer-Jones

Secretary - Tammy Jones

2022 School Advisory Council

Chairperson - Tony Summers

Secretary - Laura Hampson

Treasurer - Craig Grantham

Member - Janelle Prunster

Member - Jacinta Lynton

Member - Jevita Nilson

P&F Rep - Stephenie Kunder

Ex-Officio - Father Darek (Parish Priest)

Ex-Officio - Jason Baker (Principal)

All reports regarding the Annual General Meeting of both the School Advisory Council and P&F are now available on our school website, including the 2022 staff list. Our Catholic School Improvement Plan can also be viewed, which outlines the major priorities over the next 12mths.

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

What a wonderful celebration last night at our annual SFOA Christmas Concert. It is always a well-attended event that brings our community together one last time before the conclusion of the year. The performances of the children were outstanding and the community feeling was exceptional. Thank you to the Year 5/6 teachers who coordinated the event, The Pitch Inn Food Truck and the P&F for their purchase of the hall camera to broadcast the event outside. A big congrats to all the children for their performances, especially our compares, Tim Lloyd and Catherine McAuley who did a magnificent job!

INSTRUMENTAL TUITION SCHOLARSHIPS 2022
I am pleased to announce that the successful applicants for the Instrumental Music Tuition Program in 2022 are:

Athiey Atuer - Year 6

Genesis Limbo - Year 3

Both Athiey and Genesis will receive 12 months instrumental tuition, instrument hire and music stands and books. Thank you to all the applicants for the scholarship in 2022, we are hopeful to offer additional scholarships in 2023.

SEQTA ENGAGE REPORTING - S2 ACADEMIC REPORTS 9th DECEMBER

A reminder that our Semester Two academic reports will once again be released via Seqta Engage next Thursday 9th December. Please ensure you have your username and password and can access the SEQTA ENGAGE app. If you have any difficulties, feel free to email mailto:ithelp@stfrancisbutler.wa.edu.au Year 6 parents are reminded to log in and download their academic reports before Thursday 10th December as they move on to high school.

TRANSITION MORNING - Tuesday 7th Dec

On Tuesday morning, the children will have the opportunity to 'transition' to their new class and classroom teacher. Staff and leadership spent many hours considering the class splits and accounting for social and learning balance. Parents, please do not email or request a change of class as this will not be accommodated. As you can appreciate, any change impacts more than one child and I need to take into account the needs of all 460 children. Tuesday provides an opportunity for the children to work in their new classrooms for 2022 and meet their teacher. All class lists will be posted on the noticeboard outside the hall on Tuesday afternoon.

GRADUATION & THANKSGIVING MASS - Wed 8th Dec

Next Wednesday, the 8th December sees our final mass and celebration for the year. It is an opportunity to give thanks for a wonderful year and also farewell our Year 6 children. It will also be a chance to farewell departing staff and children. Below are a number of staff and families leaving our community.

Students

Lara Viquez (4W)

Noah Di Giovanni (4B)

Nevaeh (3W) & Angel (2W) D'Arcy

Ava (3W) & Zoe (KW) Galliers

Samantha Mould (3W)

Liliana Tragiannidis (3W)

Teddy Pallister (2B)

Ring Jok (1W)

Monyping Malok (KB)

Tobias Edwards (KB)

Staff

Mrs Jane O'Reilly (Retirement)

Mrs Marie Gray

Miss Melanie Supanz

Mr Steve Gelle

Mrs Melissa Rossi (LSL)

Mrs Gina Vescovi (LSL)

Wishing all the students and staff well for their 2022 and beyond journey! Whilst we farewell children and staff, at the beginning of next year, we will welcome almost 20 new children and families to our school.

2022 TERM DATES AND PUPIL FREE DAYS

For the convenience of parents and planning ahead, below are the term dates and pupil free dates for 2022. As always, the live calendar has the most up-to-date information on school related events.

After another busy year, we are all glad to make it to the final week. Parents should be very proud of their children's achievements and those of our wider school community. I am very grateful to have led our school and witnessed some of the outstanding work of our children, staff and parents in providing a great experience at SFOA. We are well and truly on the home stretch and look forward to finishing the year with our P&F Community lunch next Friday, 10th December.

With the Big Bash kicking off on Sunday, the Ashes not far behind and the warm weather forecast, it well and truly smells and sounds like Summer has arrived! Merry Christmas to all our children and families and a safe and holy new year. Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday break and we look forward to seeing the smiling faces return in 2022.

Merry Christmas!

Jason Baker

Principal

Friday 24 December 6pm - Christmas Eve Family Mass

Saturday 25 December 12am - Midnight Mass

8am - Christmas Day Mass

10am - Christmas Day Mass

Holy Family Feast Weekend (25/26 December)

Saturday 25 December 6pm - Vigil Mass

Sunday 26 December 7:30am, 9am, 5pm

Last month, one of our staff committed to supporting men's mental health, prostate and testicular cancer by growing a very impressive moustache! Congratulations to Mr Kinder from 6W for his 'mo for a bro', also known as the 'Undercover Brother' moustache. Mr Kinder raised some much needed funds whilst also being mistaken for Tom Selleck at his local IGA. Apparently, his daughter Eloise confused his upper lip eyebrow for the Hungry Caterpillar. Well done, Magnum.

Our final Friends of Francis Raffle winners for 2021 were:

Savannah Diaz (PPB)

Misa Nguyen (1B)

Miller Corrigal-Locket (2B)

Ella Marie Anderson (3W)

Summer Jacobs (4W)

Harry Dymock (5B)

Tayla Hicks (6W).

They received a Friends of Francis Certificate and a Lunch with Leadership Invitation. The lunch will be held Friday 3rd December.

We also have the latest tally of our faction token collection. The faction with the most tokens collected for this term is:

Kolbe 558

Agnes 552

Benedict 549

McCormack 535

Our overall token tally for the year was 5,798 so we have exceeded our whole school target of 5,000 tokens. We are very pleased to be able to reward the whole school on Monday 6th December with free dress, extra play and an ice pole.

It has been wonderful to see students displaying our school values throughout the year and actively contributing to creating a positive, safe and caring school community. We thank them for being such amazing Friends of Francis.

We have had a fantastic year and look forward to 2022. Have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year.

Wellbeing Team

Dear Parents,

The 2022 school fee structure, information letter and a direct debit form was sent home with the eldest child in each family this week. Families wishing to start their school fee payments via direct debits may fill in their forms and send it to the school before the school admin office closes on Friday 17th December 2021. Families wishing to set up their payments via Bpay may also start from January 2022.

Families who have outstanding school fees will need to clear them before school closes this year.

A Health Care Card subsidy is available to families who are on a Health Care Card (HCC). If you are eligible for the subsidy, you must advise the school before mid February 2022 and send us a copy of your current HCC. Please note that families cannot bring in their health care card late in the year and expect a subsidy for the whole year, as HCC subsidies are linked with Government grants received by the school.

Kind regards,

Geneve Bastian

Best Wishes!!

Mrs Marie Gray

Happy Birthday to the following students who are celebrating a birthday over the next two weeks and throughout the school holidays:

Lomena Stipinovich, Marlee Pinkerton, Nyawichar Kuol, Lia Murphy, Leah Ryan, Emma Gerges, Victoria Yune, Georgia Donatti, Axel Clohessy, Jameel Atcha Koli, Dau Bol, Evie Corrigan, Addison Thomas, Meghna Rakesh, Ava Stankevicius, Elijah Mould, Hugo Miranda-Becker, Brian Freitas Libardi, Darliah Windeatt, Zara Dos Santos-Viljoen, Gabriella Mahlangu, Seb Dippenaar, Zachary Martin, Corey Morrison, Aiveen Greig, Jamie Leach, Kamron Makawa, Harry Brown, Maria Clara Pires Gil, Emma Dippenaar, Liam O'Shea, Bol Bol, Ella-Marie Anderson, Sebastian Schippers, Sean Viviers, Samantha Mould, Hudson Sibley, Logan Hansord, Varsha Rakesh, Olivia Rebeiro, Ella Kingsley, Sophie Kinsey, Lara Viquez, Summer Jacobs, Estelle Cartwright, Ronan O'Reilly, Lauren Marais, Ante Rados, Mijak Jok, Kaetlyn Pollock, Adior Jok, TJ Cunningham, Tyler Ford, Elyra Gandy, Isla Annear, Eddie Malek, Athiey Atuer, Ruby Glenn, Adam Viquez, Rosie Newall, William Willis, Tayla Hicks, Jaidyn Garmson.

We wish you all a wonderful day!!