Term One Week One – Commencing Wednesday 5th February 2025

Dear Families,    

On behalf of the staff here at St. Emilie’s Catholic Primary School, I would like to welcome you all back to the school year for 2025. 

I hope that this first edition of the Weekly Reminders finds you well, that you and your loved ones had a very happy and Holy Christmas and that the break over the summer with your children has given you plenty of opportunities to make special memories.  

We currently find ourselves in the Nyoongar season of Birak which is characterised by very hot weather and symbolised by the colour red. Birak is certainly living up to its reputation with some very warm weather in Perth over the last two weeks in particular. Please ensure that as your children come to school each morning they have a hat, suncream, full water bottle and perhaps something to keep their lunch boxes cool. 

2025 promises to be another terrific year at St Emilie’s where our children continue to ‘Grow in Grace’ with the guidance of families and our dedicated and talented school staff here at St Emilie’s. Our staff are very excited to welcome your children back to school on Wednesday 5th of February to commence the year.  

To commence our year, I share with you all our school prayer. This is a prayer to St Emilie to guide and inspire us as the year progresses.  

Prayer to St Emilie 

St Emilie, our mother and guide, 

you were so filled with the love of God, 

that you helped others in difficult times. 

Please help us to be like you and love others. 

Amen. 

St Emilie, pray for us.  

Welcome to New Families 
A very warm welcome to all of the new families who have joined our community in 2025. We have a full Kindy cohort this year with new families joining and we are also pleased to share that we will be welcoming many new families into the school across various other year levels. We know that those in our community will go out of their way to ensure that our new families are settled and made to feel welcome.  

Welcome to New Staff 
We are also pleased to share that we welcome two new staff members to the school in 2025. Mrs Stacey Polinelli and Mrs Vera Quick are familiar faces around our school after joining us as relief staff in 2024, and we are delighted that both Mrs Polinelli and Mrs Quick join our staff on a more permanent basis in 2025. 

Sacramental Commitment Masses
Sacramental Commitment Masses for children celebrating the Sacraments of Reconciliation (Year Three), First Holy Communion (Year Four) and Confirmation (Year Six) will be held across the weekend of Saturday 22nd February and Sunday 23 February. During these Masses, children from St Emilies will join with parishioners from the parish to show their commitment to preparing for the Sacraments in 2025. 

Sacramental Enrolment Forms are available from the Parish Church from Saturday 8th of February. 

As the year unfolds, children from St Emilie’s will prepare for the celebrations and we keep these children, their families and the staff involved in their preparations in our prayers.  

Welcome & Commissioning Mass 
As a Catholic learning community, it is important to commence our year in prayer together, praying for the year ahead and giving thanks for our school. All families are encouraged to join with the children and staff from the school for the Welcoming and Commissioning Mass on Wednesday 12th of February at 9:00am. 

Administration Closed Tuesday 4th of February 2025
The School Administration will be open on Monday 3rd of February. Please note that Administration will be closed on Tuesday 4th February due to a whole staff Professional Development Day. 

Parent Information Evening
A reminder for all parents and carers that on Wednesday 5th of February (the first day back for children) we will be hosting our Parent Information Evening. Parent Information Evening is an essential part of the school year where parents and carers have an opportunity to meet the staff who care for their child. It is also an opportunity for parents and carers to hear about the newly created St. Emilie’s Catholic Primary School Vision for Learning which will be used as a central belief to explain why we educate the children at our school in the manner we do as well has and how we do it. 

The timetable for Wednesday evening is as below:  

• 5:00pm – 5:30pm Classroom Session One  

• 5:40pm – 6:00pm Vision for Learning (Whole School Session) 

• 6:10pm – 6:40pm Classroom Session Two  

Please note that Classroom Session One and Classroom Session Two will be the same presentation which is repeated for families with more than one child at the school 

Extreme Heat
I am sure that you have all seen that the weather forecast between Wednesday and the end of the week is scheduled to be very warm with temperatures at 40 degrees and above until Friday. 

At a school level, during cases of extreme weather such as these, our Extreme Weather Procedures are put in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children, staff and visitors to the school site.  

At school this week, children will stay inside at lunchtime during the heat of the day to ensure they stay cool. Physical Education lessons will be modified to avoid the heat.  

Please be mindful as to what you place in your child’s lunch box this week as some food items do not cope well in the heat. In the car park, we continue to ask for your patience and consideration as we endeavour to get children into cars as quickly as possible after school.  

Carpark Procedures
Unfortunately, the scheduled works that had been planned for the carpark to commence the year have had to be postponed and will take place at a later date. An important reminder that student safety is of the utmost importance here at St Emilie’s. It is important that you familiarise yourself with the carpark and drive-through procedures. Additionally, we highly recommend that you share this information with grandparents/relatives/friends who may collect your child/ren. 

St Emilie’s has established a drive-through system to facilitate a safe and efficient means of delivering and collecting children by car without the need to park. A one-way system around the school block has been designed for both morning drop-off and afternoon pickup, to ensure traffic movement is predictable, safe and efficient. All cars must enter via the Amherst Road roundabout entrance. 

Please click here to view the procedure and map. Please ensure anyone who is picking up your child/ren at drive-through has a name tag displayed. Contact the office if you need additional name tags. There is also some information below from the City of Gosnells about safer school parking. Please read this information as well. 

School Fees 2025
School Fee Statements for 2025 will be sent to families early this term. At St Emilie’s, we provide many options for families to pay off school fees which are essential in ensuring our children can operate and offer the children the learning opportunities that we do. 

 Throughout the year if you are finding payments difficult to make, please contact the school to make a confidential appointment to meet with myself.  

A reminder that if you have a Health Care or Pension Card with your child’s name on it, please ensure that the school has an up to date copy of the card to ensure we can pass on the relevant discount.  

Absentees on Website
A reminder that should your child be absent from school any given school day that we encourage parents and carers to provide information about absentees for their child via the school website. When you fill out the absentee form on the website, notification comes to both the Administration Office, as well as your child’s class teacher.  

Black School Shoes (Year One to Year Six) 
A reminder that children from Year One to Year Six are required to wear all black school sports shoes to school each day. Children only need one pair of school sports shoes for the week. We ask that children wear sports shoes only and do not wear ‘skate shoes’ as classes participate in physical activity each day. Other coloured shoes are not permitted at St Emilie’s, nor are black shoes with large amounts of colourful designs or logos present on the shoes. 

Socks 
School socks should be white, high anklet socks only.  

Hair 
Many children will have a haircut before they return to school. Parents and Carers, please ensure that all children’s hairstyles to commence the school year are in keeping with our School Uniform Procedure (please see link below) which essentially asks for modest hairstyles. Hairstyles should not have extremes in length i.e. ‘mohawk’ or ‘mullet’ styles, have unnatural colours through the hair or have lines, patterns and designs shaved into the hair.  

Quite simply, hairstyles should not distract children or other children from learning throughout the day or become a competition. While I understand that children will often ask for the trendiest hairstyle, if we all give the same message in line with our school’s School Uniform Procedure, it ensures a united message.
 
School Uniform – Perm A Pleat 
In speaking with some parents and carers so far this year, it has been really pleasing to hear such positive feedback about our new uniform supplier, Perm A Pleat and their purpose-built, modern facility in Forestdale. As was stated at the end of 2024, as we sell the current Image Embroidery stock from last year and move on to the Perm A Pleat stock, families will experience a significant drop in uniform prices. 

A reminder, the school uniform has not changed style, just supplier. 

At the end of 2024 when the decision was finalised to move away from our previous supplier, a decision was made at School Leadership Team and School Advisory Council level to prioritise the production of the formal school uniform. With our previous supplier, we did not have enough of this stock (due to delays) and similar to the start of the 2024 we ran the risk of being left short of stock for many formal items. I would like to thank Perm A Pleat for their efforts to ensure that all formal stock is ready for our children for the start of the year. 

In the coming weeks, the remainder of the items including House Polo Shirts, Friday Sports Shirts and Sports Shorts will be available for purchase from Perm A Pleat. We understand that at this stage, some children may not arrive to school in the correct uniform due to availability and in the short term, this is not a problem. 

Details for the purpose-built Perm A Pleat Store can be found here. 

Please find the link to the School Uniform Procedure here. 

On Wednesday, all children will commence school in their School Uniform and teachers will share which days, the students will need to wear Sports and House Uniforms. 

Uniform Exemption Notes from Parents & Carers 
At St Emilie’s, our staff understand that life with children is busy and from time to time your child may not have the correct uniform. Please do not stress. The most important thing is that your child comes to school. You are asked though, if your child does not have the correct uniform to provide an exemption note to your child’s Class Teacher. This aids in keeping the lines of communication open between school and home and often makes children feel less anxious about not having the correct uniform.  

Merit Awards
At the end of 2024, children across the school were consulted about the way that Merit Awards were celebrated at the school which, was that awards were handed out in class and the pictures from the celebration sent home via SeeSaw. 

After looking at the feedback from the children, it was indicated that the children would be excited to trial a new system in 2025 where Merit Awards are handed out at Friday Morning Assemblies. As a result, this will be put into place in 2025. 

As part of the new process, parents will receive notification that their children will be receiving an award in good time before the assembly. Details of the new process are being worked through with staff and further details will be shared with parents as soon as possible. 

In 2025, children who display the Fruits of the Holy Spirit will also be acknowledged at the Friday Morning Assemblies. 

These two tweaks are in alignment with our core beliefs stated in our Vision for Learning where as a staff we ‘see, know and connect with every child’. 

Habitats for Wildlife
In exciting news for our school, St. Emilie’s Catholic Primary School has been selected to partner with Perth Zoo as part of the Habitats for Wildlife Program. Across Western Australia, there was a huge number of applications that were submitted to Perth Zoo to partner with them and we have the privilege of being able to take this opportunity on. Thanks to the amazing work from Mrs Claire Soulsby our school Science Teacher, our school has been given this opportunity. 

Watch this space for more exciting news. 

Weekly Reminders 2025 
Each Friday throughout the term, the Weekly Reminders will be shared with all families. This is a one-stop shop with all of the information required for the school week and it is vital that parents and carers read this information each week.  

Parish Bulletins & Links
In 2025, the St Emilie De Vialar Catholic Parish continues to go from strength to strength with many opportunities available for both children and their families to deepen their faith and be part of an authentic community that models itself on the life of Saint Emilie and on the Gospel values. 

Some of the opportunities which are currently available at the parish include: 

-Children’s Liturgy every Sunday (school term)  

-Youth Group meet once a month  

-Senior Youth meet once a month  

-Senior citizens meet once a month  

-Alpha Program for adults & teens 

-Faith Formation for Adults  

On the first page of the parish website, families can find the Parish Bulletin which is updated every week by the Parish Office. 

To access further information about the St Emilie De Vialar Catholic Parish located on the same site here as the school, please click here.

A drop down box for the St Emilie De Vialar Parish can be found underneath the ‘From The Principal’ section in the Weekly Reminders. 

Term Calendar
Parents and carers are reminded to please continue accessing the calendar and note any important dates in to your diary. 

The school calendar can be found here.

Parent Contact Lists & P & F Year Level Reps 
For families with children enrolled in 2024, you would have received an email at the end of last year sharing details about your cohort’s P & F Year Level Reps as well as Parent Contact Lists for those who have ‘opted in’ to this initiative. The change to share this information earlier was deliberate so parents and carers had the option of connecting with others in the year group if they wished to do so over the Christmas Holidays. 

Currently, we do not have P & F Year level Reps for our Year Five cohort. If you are interested or know anyone who might be interested in taking on this role, please reach out to the Administration Office. 

Work over the Holidays
A huge thank you must go to Mr Cogger and our regular maintenance contractors for the hard work and effort that has gone into improving and maintaining our school over the holidays. Amongst the many jobs undertaken were pruning, deep cleaning, sifting of playground sand as well as general plumbing and electrical work to ensure that our school remains safe and clean for our children. 

Welcome to the World!
Once again, as we did in 2024, in the first edition of the Weekly Reminders, we have some very exciting baby news to share with our community. 

In some very exciting news, Mrs Armistead shared with us that baby Noah Ernest Armistead was born on Sunday 19th of January. Noah’s brother Angus is in love and has a new best mate for life! Welcome to our community Noah!