Dear Parents and Families,

School is back, the footy is back and local sport is maybe back.  I hope life is maybe getting back to normal for your family.

Can I start by congratulating our senior students on the way they have settled back into school after their extended break.  It has been interesting listening to their stories and opinions on their experience of learning from home.  There has been a growing evidence base around the impact of remote learning across the globe with the only similar situation in modern times being the extended closure of New Zealand schools after the tragic earthquakes in 2011.  The comments from the students spoke of the feeling of being more in charge of their learning, having to be more self directed and independent with a reduced about of support while the negatives generally were around a lack of peer interaction and connection to school.  Staff reported similar ideas with the lack of connection being something they sorely missed, while the reality of a normal classroom with students working at different levels and at varying speeds was amplified in remote learning.  When chatting with parents we have noticed an overall increased engagement in their children's learning and an understanding of how they learn, with remote learning giving parents a raw experience of each child's strengths and challenges.  We would be interested to hear of how you think we could harness the lessons learnt from remote learning to improve child's school experiences.

During all this COVID commotion faith communities have continued to celebrate the mystery and joy of the Easter.  The season of Easter doesn't stop on Easter Sunday but continues for weeks afterwards with some key events that laid the foundation for the Christian religions to this day, the recent celebration of Pentecost in particular shaping the church as it is the moment the first witness of Jesus went out to the people to speak of the Good News.  The Good News of today is the increased availability of more people allowed to attend Mass.  This past weekend we celebrated a feast called the Holy Body and Blood of Christ which reminds us of the gift of communion received by the Disciples at the Last Supper but also on offer to us at Mass.  We look forward to our return to school masses sometime next term.

The remainder of 2020 school calendar will continue to be shaped by Federal and State guidelines.  As a school our greatest asset are our children so we will continue to heed the health advice given to us.  Already we anticipate that camps and excursions will be impacted as we move into the second half of the year, while we hope that we will be given some clarity around how we can reschedule the sacramental program.  The Melbourne Camp for the Year 5/6 students is a good example of a complicated scenario as it involves multiple tourist type venues, a number of different restaurants, public transport and overnight accommodation.  As the weeks progress we will have a much clearer understanding of our options, as schools around the country adapt and modify.

Finally (and continuing the theme of adaptability and modification) we thank those families who have responded online or via the paper return slip to acknolwedge you received the notifcation about the poorly timed power outage causing us to close the school this Wednesday.  When we were made aware of this on Friday we just shook our head and wondered what else 2020 could throw at us.  It really has been a hoot of a year so far ....... a Collingwood premiership would really just finish me off!

Have a great week

Dave 

Due to the disruption caused by the COVID-19 school closures the staff planning day originally scheduled for the student free day on the 8th May 2020 had to be relocated somewhere else in the school calendar.

Yesterday we were given permission to relocate it to the last day of this term, Friday 26th June.  This half-day for students was chosen as it was the least disruptive to classrooms instead of having an additional day next term.

Please note that the term will now finish on Thursday 25th June and it be a FULL day with the regular 3pm dismissal in place.

This year all enrolments will be completed on documentation provided by Diocese of Sale:Catholic Education Limited [DOSCEL].  This support from DOSCEL enables all catholic schools to have a level of consistency but more importantly met all legislative demands.

These forms are available online via the school website, and can be completed online PDF.  If you require further support or access to the forms for 2021 Prep Enrolments please contact the office.

Click here - ENROLMENT DOCUMENTATION

We encourage both current and new families to make contact with us to ensure your child's placement is secure, while also registered for our transition opportunities.

At present we are not able to host onsite transition opportunities.

FEE STATEMENTS:

Finance Statements will be emailed out to families next week. We thank families for their support in organising their payments, and remind parents to contact us if you wanted help or advice about setting up a direct deposit payment arrangement. If you have any questions please make contact with Rebekah via finance@churchill.catholic.edu.au

FINANCIAL SUPPORT:

If you have any concerns about your financial situation, please contact Rebekah so that we can explore confidential financial support.

The Learning for Life Scholarships have again been offered to Lumen Christi families through a partnering agreement with The Smith Family.  We have attached the flyer that explains the eligible criteria.  These scholarships provide direct financial support to families to cover educational expenses, which we know have potentially escalated during the remote learning situation.  If you are interested please contact Shelley via the details on the flyer, or by making contact with Mr.Cooper and Mrs.Campbell at school.

The application process is rather simple and we are happy to support parents complete the one page application form.

Dear Year 6 Families - Please take the time to read the following letter from Mr.John Freeman the Principal of Lavalla Cathiolic College, Traralgon regarding the changed Enrolment conditions for Year 7 2021.  if you require further information please either contact Lavalla directly, or feel welcome to speak to Mr.Cooper or Mrs.Dosen.

12th June 2020

Dear Parents,

We have been notified by AusNet Services that next week, WEDNESDAY 17th JUNE, they need to complete essential maintenance which requires them to interrupt our electricity supply for the full school day .

Due to essential safety and hygiene services not being available at Lumen Christi on this day, I have been advised to make the day a STUDENT-FREE DAY.  As we all have become experts in remote learning the students will be provided with a remote learning day pack of tasks to complete.  As it is likely that many of your  homes are also in the planned outage zone the activities will not be reliant on the use of technology.

I acknowledge the difficulty this will place on families and apologise for this situation which is out of our hands.

I ask that each family returns the below slip or completes the online notification acknowledging that they have received this message.

We will continue to monitor the outage notification system and if the outage is cancelled before school dismissal on Tuesday we will be able to cancel remote learning and all children will attend school as normal.  Again we strongly urge all families to continue to monitor Lumen Christi’s Schoolzine communication platform as it will provide the most up to date information.

Kind Regards,

Dave Cooper

PRINCIPAL