Firstly, a huge thank you to our St Anne’s Community for an amazing year. It has been full of excitement and challenges. I know our School Community understands and appreciates the extra effort that our staff put in to make our School great. To our parents and carers, thank you for being a part of the team and supporting your child. It is so important that parents, teachers and students create a positive team, with everyone moving in the same direction. To our students, thank you for making St Anne’s a place where learning and challenging yourself is supported; our CLERR values are demonstrated daily, and having fun is encouraged!
Valedictory
Our annual Valedictory Fellowship is a significant milestone for our Year 6 students. It provides an opportunity for these students and their families to reflect on their primary years. I am confident when our Year 6 students are older; they will remember their Valedictory and will look back with great memories of their time at St Anne’s. We had wonderful performances from our Chamber strings, St Anne’s Singers, Rock Band, and a reflection from our Campus Captains.
The Rash Shield is a traditional awarded to the winning House across all House competitions throughout the year. It is a tradition that has been happening for many years. Thank you to Mrs Hilary Rash – a past student and teacher of St Anne’s – who announced and presented the 2022 Rash Shield at our Valedictory. The Rash shield was awarded to … Cranswick Dargo!
Farewell Assembly
At our 2023 Farewell Assembly, we are able to acknowledge and thank the students and staff who are leaving St Anne’s. It is important to remember that they will always remain a part of our St Anne’s and Gippsland Grammar community. Each student who is leaving us received a copy of the Dr Seuss book ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go’ as a memory of their time at our School.
We also said farewell to some of our staff members:
– Liz Foat has taught at St Anne’s over the past three years. She has built strong relationships with all students, parents and staff. We wish her all the best as she starts semi-retirement.
– Ellen Condron has taught at St Anne’s over the past six years. Throughout this time, she has demonstrated a passion for excellence. She has led our sustainability efforts across St Anne’s, with the enhancement of our vegetable, herb and indigenous gardens, recycling, introduced chickens and much more. Ellen is also an expert teacher who positively impacts many of our students.
– Amy Laverty started at Gippsland Grammar in 2010 as a graduate, and she is a natural PE Teacher. She is known for her caring nature, community-minded, and she further enhanced our PE/Sports program throughout her time here. This included starting our ‘Walk to School’ mornings and other community-building initiatives.
– Linda Vale, who has taught at St Anne’s for the past 20 years retires at the end of this year. Linda started teaching in 1980 and has taught in Mildura, Hamilton, and Melbourne before moving to Sale. She worked at Guthridge Primary School with Mrs Sheryn Ray (our Deputy of St Anne’s) at Guthridge Primary School before coming to Gippsland Grammar. She has taught every year level, except Foundation, and has taught Music as a specialist teacher. I have done some maths, and in the forty-two years of teaching, Linda will have taught close to 1000 students! She has had such a positive impact throughout her career. If you walk into any of her lessons, Linda is still teaching at the top of her game. Her calm approach, variety of skills and understanding of how students learn, make her an amazing teacher. We continued our tradition, and Linda planted a special tree near the bottom oval after our Farewell assembly.
On behalf of Gippsland Grammar, I would like to thank all of our departing students and staff, and wish them the best.
2023 House Captains
On Wednesday, we announced our 2023 House Captains. We are looking forward to providing a range of opportunities for our student leaders in 2023. Some of the responsibilities of our House Captains include; organising lunchtime activities for our students, assisting staff and students at key House events. This may include helping marshal students for their events during House Athletics and Swimming, preparing and presenting at Fellowships and providing positive encouragement of House spirit throughout the year. Each applicant needed to make a speech to their House peers from Years 3 to 6. Then students from Years 3-6 as well as our staff, voted on who they thought would best represent each House. As communicated earlier, we will be inducting our Campus and House Captains in early 2023. We will also begin the process for our other Year 6 leadership roles at the beginning of next year. The following students have been voted in:
Cranswick Dargo: Otto Humphris and Adelaide Ripper
Wellington Binks: Toby Turnbull and Milly Dray
Tisdall Hotham: Airlie Ferris and Max Williamson
Blundell Bogong: Jesse Nickson and Rory McMillan
Citizen of the Term
On Monday this week, our campus came together to acknowledge our Citizens of the Term, Class of the Term, and to say goodbye to some students and teachers. Based on our school CLERR values, our Citizen of the Term is awarded to students who have consistently demonstrated these values or have demonstrated real growth in one or more of the values. It is always a challenging decision for teachers to make. Congratulations to our students who received Citizen of the Term:
Mawson: Jonty Aurisch
Bass: Mitchell Black
Bradman: Charlie McMillan
McCubbin: Ayla Braden
Barton: Evie Larsen
Chisholm: Aspen Marshall
Flynn: Luca Lazzaro
Tasman: Elena Lazzaro
Freeman: Charlie Strachan
Kingsford-Smith: Max Del Busso
Cuthbert: Amani Angelopoulos
Hollows: Milly Dray
Goolagong: Pippy Johnson
Mackellar: Noah Kewish
School Reports
Your child’s 2022 end-of-year written report will be available on VOS this afternoon. The report includes a personal development comment, indicates current learning habits and has a scaled score for each curriculum area. Please refer to your child’s relevant continuous reporting comments on VOS for further evidence supporting the score. A continuous reporting approach through VOS will ensure that you are informed about your child’s progress more regularly. Through this process, students and parents receive feedback and suggestions for improvement on a more regular basis each term. If you are not able to log into VOS for any reason, it is essential that you contact our I.T Support team. You can do this by emailing ITservices@gippslandgrammar.vic.edu.au or phoning them on 5143 6364.
Finally, I would like to wish all families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
