Just a reminder to families to remember to contact the office via phone or the school app/website to notify us if you child is away or is running late so that we can update our attendance records.  Families are also encouraged to contact us prior to a planned absence (eg.appointments) so we can pre-record absent days.

With the new school office now being available to parents, any late arrivals or early dismissals can be done via the iPad in the reception foyer.

As school returns we ask for support from parents to ensure that their children are in full summer uniform or sports uniform on the correct days.  We ask for students to only wear uniform items to school.

Also a reminder that in Term 4 all students need to wear a school hat.

The Uniform Shop has good stock of items, including new and used school shoes.  If you would like to purchase new items they are available via CDF-PAY link and when we return make contact with us about your uniform needs.

We appreciate your support in ensuring all children are in uniform.

The term four Parentzone Gippsland Newsletter is available to download from the Anglicare Victoria website. 

Please click on the following direct link to download a copy https://www.anglicarevic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Parentzone-Gippsland-Newsletter-Term-4-2020.pdf

ParentZone Gippsland is offering the following free programs this term:

Let’s Talk about Parenting including a Dads Matter and a Parenting Teens program, Breaking the Cycle, Homework Club, and for Latrobe families – Storytime (online supported playgroup).

In addition we are excited to offer 5 single session parenting groups to Gippsland families:

• Understanding your child’s behaviour, Wednesday 14^th October
• Risky Business: Tough Conversation with Teens, Wednesday 21^st October
• Parenting Pre-schoolers, Monday 30^th November
• Parenting Anxious Kids, Monday 7^th December
• Self-Care for Parents, Monday 14^th December

Parents/carers can register for one session, a few sessions, or all sessions!

To register please contact ParentZone Gippsland on 5135 9555 or email Parentzone.Gippsland@anglicarevic.org.au.

Each year we conduct assessment interviews with each of our students. We have opened up our Schoolzine "Session Keeper" which will allow parents to choose a timeslot for each of their children. The assessment days will be Thursday 28th and Friday 29th January from 8.30am to 3.00pm each day.

 Parents will be able to book in a time via the school website or on the free Smartphone App using the account login created to receive newsletters etc through the Schoolzine platform.  This notification has also been emailed to parents earlier this week.

The direct link is:

2021 Assessment Bookings

A Parent Booking Guide is also available via

https://www.schoolzine.com/sk-booking-guide

If you are having difficulty using the system our staff are also able to make bookings on your behalf.

Please contact us if you are having any difficulties.

At long last we are now able to welcome our Foundation Class of 2022 onsite for their transition activities.  These are open to children who are enrolled as well as those families who are interested in finding out some more about Lumen Christi.  We would like to thank the staff for their efforts to offer a turbo-boost Transition with twice weekly sessions for the new recruits.  If you have any questions please contact the school.

Welcome to the 2020 School Year, and a very special welcome to our new students, families and staff.

Over the summer break we joyfully welcomed our new baby to our school community, a beautiful new baby girl for Kylie & Dale Yeates named Harlow Adelaide.  We wait patiently for her first visit to Lumen Christi.  Congratulations Mrs.Yeates.

This year we welcome some additional staff, Mrs.Christine Ruiter, Mrs.Heather Moir and Mrs.Tania Wookey. We are sure they would be happy for parents to approach them to introduce themselves.  Our School Staff lisiting is available in this newsletters as well as on our new website.  

Over the summer break we began the transition to our new website.  Schoolzine will be our new partner, providing one system that combines our website, school app, newsletter, absentee forms, permission forms and online bookings.  We welcome any feedback and look forward to trialing many of the different features during the year. A significant change will be that the newsletter will appear primarily online on the website, with families subscribing to an alert that a newsletter has been published.  Both the school and you at home will have the option of printing the newsletter if required.  It has been suggested that we move to a fortnightly newsletter with the website features serving as a key communication tool, we will be reviewing this later in the term.

As always, my door is always open to meet with families if you have questions, concerns or suggestions to improve our great school.  Our collective focus is to offer our students a high quality, comprehensive, Catholic education and I’m sure you agree with my belief that this can only be achieved by building upon the relationships between students, families, staff and school leadership.

I’m very much looking forward to sharing the year with you all.  Wishing you and your family a terrific year.

Dave Cooper

LEADERSHIP TEAM

The recent bushfires over summer have been devasting to so many communities and we extend our thoughts to all those families throughout the country who have been impacted.

We offer the following resources that parents might like to view.

Congratulations to the following students on their appointment.  At our 2020 Opening Mass on Thursday 13th February at 9am our student leaders will receive their badges.

Our Enrichment (Extra-Curricular) Program at Lumen Christi is a key feature of our school that we are very proud of and are constantly reviewing to enrich the school the life experiences of our students and families.

A significant component of our Enrichment Program are our specialist classes that the students have weekly. Lumen Christi offers five specialist classes including Italian, Performing Arts, Visual Arts, Health & PE and Library. Our Italian Languages program in 2020 will expand to become a school wide approach where the use and development of language will move beyond the weekly Italian class.

The timetable of classes for term 1 will be:

Library on Mondays and Tuesdays

Italian on Tuesday

Art and Music on Wednesdays and Thursdays

PE on Thursdays

All students are to wear their Sports Uniform on Thursdays.  Classroom teachers are likely to request a second day once their classroom timetables are finalised.

Lumen Christi has been blessed to have received funding again for 2020 for the National Chaplaincy Program which enables us to have Mrs.Catherine Campbell on staff.  Catherine's work, both the seen and unseen, is a feature of our school and we are grateful for all she does for us all.

Key Events:

Cambo's Kitchen: School Breakfast Program will operate on Thursdays from 8.10am

School Uniform: Mrs.Campbell will work with families to ensure that they can meet our uniform guidelines.

Playgroup: We are looking for families interested in participating in our school playgroup.  Please let us know if you have babies to pre-schoolers so we can include you.

2020 SACRAMENT PREPARATION PROGRAM

Additionally to our regular preparation sessions, this year Fr.James requests that all families intending on participating in any of the three sacraments attend a parent workshop on Wednesday 5th February at 5pm at Lumen Christi.  The meeting involves a presentation from Fr.Elio Capra.  Fr Elio Capra will present the Sacraments at an adult level, using his unique teaching style which will both inform and entertain - We are certainly looking forward to being able to give such a wonderful opportunity to parents as Fr.Elio is a highly sought after presenter across the country.

If parents are unable to attend this meeting they must attend the followup meeting (without Fr.Elio!) in Morwell on Thursday 6th Feb with Fr.James.

2020 Dates:

Term 1: First Communion – Saturday 21st March 6pm
Term 2: First Communion – Wednesday June 10th 6pm
Term 3: Confirmation – Saturday 8th August 6pm

Please see Mr.Cooper or Mrs.Colaciello if you have any questions or email ccolaciello@churchill.catholic.edu.au 

At Lumen Christi we support the higher expectations implemented by the State Government regarding the monitoring of student attendance and therefore require  parents to make contact with the school when your child is absent.  Our Office staff teachers are faced with higher expectations of following up when each child is absent so to reduce the amount of time spent doing this administrative task it is easier if families use the school app, ring or email the school telling us your child is away.  We thank you for your support.

Last year the Catholic Education Office conducted an audit of our Traffic Management Plan and we received positive feedback for the both the systems we have in place, but more importantly the conduct of the adults collecting students.

We would like to reinforce a couple of key points:

• Students are not permitted to walk down into the carpark unattended.  If parents choose to use the carpark they are requested to walk up to collect their children.
• Pedestrians are to entry/exit the school via the gates not the carpark gate.
• We recommend parking on the school side of Williams Avenue so that children can use the car door on the kerb side, eliminating the need to step onto the road.
• We thank parents for their continued support to keep the bus zone clear.

We are awaiting signage that will indicate the no pedestrian access on the carpark gates as well as some 5kmh speed signs.

Over the holidays we met with local councillors to indicate our frustration with the lack of supervised school crossings in Churchill.  The reasons that continue to plague inaction are around population and foot traffic statistics.  We continue to stress our desire for these safeguards.

Again, thanks for your continued support.

The Parents Group offer our families the Uniform Shop where they can purchase second hand and new uniform items.  The concept was driven in the past few years by Jen Breheny and we are extremely grateful for the time she has given to this busy task.  Jen has handed over the responsibility to Marie Harder, so we extend our thanks to Marie.

The second hand uniform shop has a focus on sustainability and affordability.  We rely on the support of families for donations of uniform and shoes that are in good condition.  Working with Mrs.Campbell, our school chaplain, we support families so that all children have access to a school uniform. 

Link to school website: https://lcchurchill.schoolzineplus.com/uniform-information

For Uniform Shop enquiries please contact the school office or our Uniform Shop Coordinator, Marie Harder.