We warmly welcome you to the Prep Year at St Catherine’s Junior School, Barbreck.
Barbreck is committed to the provision of excellent academic, pastoral and co curricular programs. Happy students enjoy their learning, are eager to get to school, are proud of their accomplishments and become motivated life long learners. The staff are highly qualified, experienced people who understand the changing developmental and learning needs of our students. They will develop the knowledge, skills, self discipline and talents of students in a supportive and caring learning environment.
This handbook provides parents with details they will need in preparation for their daughter commencing in Prep. We are excited for her as she continues her learning journey with us and hope that the information included helps make her transition to Prep an easy and smooth one.
Principal, Mrs Michelle Carroll, the staff and I look forward to working in partnership with all parents and guardians to achieve the best outcomes for your child.
Michelle Carroll Karen McArdle Principal Head of Junior School
There are numerous ways in which parents can assist young learners to move into the School environment with ease:
By the time your daughter begins School, it is important she is competent in a number of tasks and activities. She should be able to:
• dress herself (including doing up buttons and zips)
• dress herself in School bathers
• put on her shoes and socks, sandals and sports shoes (shoes with velcro are easier for children to do up than laces)
• go to the toilet by herself; wash and dry her hands
• give her full name, address and telephone number, if asked
• open her lunch box and drink bottle and know which food to eat at recess and at lunchtime
• ask for help when needed
• take responsibility for money that needs to be brought to school for special events
• write her name at least her first name
• use a pair of scissors, hold a pencil correctly, bounce and catch a ball, run, jump, hop and climb
• look after property pencils, drink bottle, jumpers, school bag etc and recognise name labels
• know when it is time to listen to others.
Please ensure all of your daughter’s belongings are clearly marked with her name. This includes all items of School uniform and her lunchbox, drink bottle, books and School bag. It is important to remember to name socks and underwear also
Helpful hint: Use a bright label or key ring on your daughter’s School bag and sports bag, so they can be identified easily (one label/key ring only please).
To ensure a smooth transition to our Junior School we ask that you organise the following items in addition to School Uniform (purchased from Bob Stewart located at 150 Waverley Road, Malvern East) for the first day of School:
• art smock (from Bob Stewart, Malvern store)
• library bag (from Bob Stewart, Malvern store)
• reading bag (from Bob Stewart, Malvern store)
• school hats it is handy to have two. It is suggested children wear hats to and from school. They must wear them outdoors when at School, especially in Terms 1 and 4 and at other times when requested
• spare underpants
• lunchbox with morning tea, fruit snack and lunch
• sports bag (from Bob Stewart, Malvern store)
• booklist requirements (books, textas,etc) ordered online through Campion Bookstore
• school bag.
Preps should arrive after 8.00am for an 8.20am commencement. The first week is made up of half day programs finishing at 1.00pm
During Week 1, the attendance hours for Prep students are reduced to assist them with the transition to the School setting. Children who have been in fulltime childcare or pre school still tend to find the first weeks at Junior School exhausting.
Please note: No Tennis lessons available for Prep in Term 1.
All children should arrive at School between 8.00am and 8.20am. Upon arrival, please enter the Barbreck building and follow the signs to the Prep classroom. Year 6 leaders will also be available to meet and direct you towards the classroom and your daughter’s teacher.
In the first few weeks we ask that you leave promptly once the girls are dropped off in their classroom in order to allow all the girls to settle into their new learning environment. The teacher will ask the girls to sit at the easel as a signal to parents that school is starting and they should make their way out of the classroom.
If your daughter is having some difficulty settling into the classroom, you may be asked to stay for a short while. The teacher will let you know when it is appropriate to leave. The teacher is very experienced in this situation and will do everything to make the transition as smooth as possible. Please be assured that if necessary we will contact you if your daughter has difficulty settling. Generally, children settle very quickly after parents leave and the class begins.
Children react to School in many ways. Your daughter may exhibit the following:
• extreme enthusiasm
• tiredness
• desire to return to kinder “pre school was better” (after a few days!)
• disappointment “I did not do anything at School”
• silence
• a desire to stay at School
• different reactions to those anticipated.
Tiredness is to be expected in the first weeks as starting School is emotionally and physically exhausting. Your daughter may even show a reluctance to come to School; however, any anxieties about School often disappear quickly and are usually replaced by the constant flow of chatter regarding School activities, things learnt and friends made.
It is essential that children do not commit to too many after School activities on a regular basis. A quiet activity after School, early bedtime and fewer after School outings are some useful strategies to ensure children have the necessary energy for School.
If you have any concerns, please see the class teacher or the Head of the Junior School. It is always best to verbalise any issues early to ensure a balanced perspective from the class teacher, allay fears and instil confidence.
A final checklist to help your daughter manage the first days of School:
• Put something distinctive on your daughter’s School bag such as a ribbon or key ring. This will help your child to identify her bag (just one individualised item please).
• Have a prominent place to display your daughter’s work at home and be positive about all her efforts
• At the end of the day, collect your daughter on time (1.00pm 1st 3rd February, then 3.15pm when full day Prep program begins).
• Talk with your daughter about what happened at School each day and focus on the positive.
Ask questions like;
‘When I was at school, I loved the playground. Did you play in the playground today?’
‘Did you like your lunch?’
‘Can you find someone with the same shoes as you?’
‘Did you go to any new rooms? (French, Art, Library etc.)
• Anticipate that your daughter may be very tired after School for the first few weeks.
We encourage parents to keep themselves up to date and informed about the School’s happenings and their daughter’s curricular and co curricular activities. There are several ways parents can obtain this information.
St Catherine’s Junior School, Barbreck 03 9828 3062 Absentee Line 03 9828 3021 Email: juniorschool@stcatherines.net.au
If you arrive late after 8.20am, you must sign in at Reception in the ‘late book’.
The School has a secure parent portal, mystcatherines.net.au, which allows parents to access information pertaining to St Catherine’s. This includes information on term dates, curriculum and learning, upcoming events, School policies, co curricular information, parent surveys, School performances, cyber safety, ICT and contact details. We encourage parents to play an active part in the education of their children and to develop a positive relationship with the School. The portal in mystcatherines includes the Junior School hub where you can find out more about the Junior School academic and co curricular programs https://myportal.stcatherines.net.au/homepage/28163
Login to our parent community at: mystcatherines.net.au
For password information, contact the ICT Department on 03 9828 3926 or email Support@stchatherines.net.au
Information about specific events (e.g. concerts, camp arrival times, special events, etc), will be communicated via the Parent Portal mystcatherines.net.au and the St Catherine’s App.
All parents receive a weekly email alert which points them to the School’s online weekly newsletter, The Blue Ribbon. At any time, parents can access this at mystcatherines.net.au. It is vitally important that parents read this on a weekly basis.
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St Catherine’s School
Throughout each week, St Catherine’s staff, including the Principal Mrs Michelle Carroll, write blogs for parent interest and information about education. Blogs are uploaded onto the School Website.
We encourage all parents to check this regularly at mystcatherines.net.au or via www.stcatherines.net.au
At St Catherine’s School we use a health, safety and electronic consent form system named Operoo. As a parent/guardian you will receive an invitation to join Operoo by email and enter details for your child/children. By following the instructions, you can create your own free Operoo account, control and update data about your child/children, and give consent for your child’s involvement in camps, excursions and other events throughout the year.
Operoo has an innovative parent controlled electronic medical form for schools, clubs and other groups with a duty of care. It is an electronic version of the paper based forms used for excursions, camps, enrolments etc. It provides you the opportunity to update medical information promptly and accurately while providing the School with instant access to the emergency information provided by you.
You can use a PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone to enter the details including:
• emergency and medical contacts
• medical checklist including asthma, allergies, seizures, diabetes
• health and ambulance insurance details
• notes and other care instructions from you and more.
The School website at www.stcatherines.net.au has additional information on School Council and Leadership Team, student profiles and news.
St Catherine's News is mailed twice a year to parents, Old Girls, staff, past parents and our wider School community. Incorporating the Bulletin of the Old Girls' Association, this feature magazine provides an overview of the many activities and events of present and past St Catherine's students.
• Read to your daughter as often as you can, developing a daily routine is best
• Encourage your daughter to choose the books you read together and help her to tell the story from pictures in the book.
• Talk about the books you read and the people, things and animals in them.
• Draw attention to the illustrations when reading to your child.
• Enrol your daughter in the local library.
• Select books that describe familiar experiences, concepts and objects, as well as fairy tales and fantasy stories.
• Make sure your daughter sees members of the family reading.
• Buy books as presents. Let your daughter help you choose them.
• Keep your favourite stories and songs to play in the car on long journeys.
• Help your daughter to recognise her own name. Write simple dedications inside your daughter's own books and encourage her to start building her own book collection. Please use title case, eg Frances, and not all capital letters.
• Teach your daughter nursery rhymes and songs.
• Make use of quality books and age appropriate songs and music during busy times in the daily schedule.
• Select books that use repetition to capture the rhythm of language, e.g. The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
• Tell stories on the way to School, at bath time or at bed time.
• Place labels around the home, e g 'These are Kim's favourite books'.
• Hold the book so your daughter can see the pictures and writing.
• Let your daughter hold the book and turn the pages. Teach her to take care of books.
• Encourage your daughter to join in and 'read' too.
• Leave the book handy for ‘private readings’ to teddy.
• Talk about everyday print, eg ‘We are going in here to get a hamburger. See the sign. It says, ‘Harry's Hamburgers’.
• Sometimes point to the words as you read.
• Talk about your plans, eg ‘Today I am going to make a cake, let's look at the recipe’.
• Before beginning to read, settle your daughter down and talk a little about the book, eg ‘This looks as if it is going to be a funny story’.
• Accept and praise your daughter's attempts at reading.
• Visit the local bookshop
• Fill your daughter's room with posters, books, pictures and mobiles of book characters.
• Make or buy a cloth book bag to take books with you wherever you go.
• Ask your daughter to retell the story after reading.
• Find time to show your daughter that you value reading and writing and share reading and writing with them. Reading teaches your daughter many things about writing. Experimenting with writing helps your daughter to develop her understanding about reading.
• Show your daughter how you use writing. Write messages, shopping lists, telephone messages, letters and greeting cards in front of your daughter and talk about what you are doing.
• Provide a special place for your daughter to write. Equipment such as a small table or desk, an easel type blackboard and a notice board for displaying writing plus a range of writing materials such as scrap paper (lined, coloured or plain), used greeting cards, crayons, bank forms, mail order forms, envelopes and little notebooks provide excellent opportunities for your daughter to experiment with writing.
• Find opportunities to display your daughter’s name.
• When your daughter asks about letters of the alphabet, call the letters by their sounds, not the names of the letter. She can learn that letters have a sound and a name.
• Talk about alphabet books and answer your daughter’s questions.
• Provide magnetic or plastic letter tiles for your daughter’s play.
• Allow your daughter to use a Word document to play with and write messages. They may discover some letters from their name.
• Write messages for your daughter to read, eg ‘Please feed the cat, Kim’ or ‘Please phone Nana’.
• Drawing lines, curves and other fine motor activities help.
• Respond positively to the message in your child’s writing rather than the letter formations or spelling. Celebrate your daughter’s efforts and encourage her to ‘have a go’ at writing.
• Allow time for free drawing to develop fine motor skills.
We all need an understanding of mathematical concepts to manage with everyday life. Telling the time, cooking, building, sewing and many other activities require an understanding of measurement. Handling money requires an understanding of mathematical calculations. An understanding of space is needed for driving cars, planning a garden, organising furniture in a room, and so on. Your daughter can learn many of these mathematical concepts through play.
The more of these activities your daughter can do, the better prepared she will be for the more formal Mathematics at School.
The following activities will assist in her preparation:
• Buy some magnetic numbers for her to play with. Count with her and do not always start with one. Talk about the numbers that come before and after. Count objects spoons on the table, apples in the bowl, buttons on her shirt etc. This teaches her to match the number words with the correct number of objects.
• Teach her to count from one to 10 and to recognise the numbers. Point out numbers on houses, the telephone, television channels, the calendar and so on.
• Sort different objects into groups paper clips, beads, toy cars etc.
• Sort by colour, size and shape.
• Use blocks, buttons, counters etc.
• Set the table one knife, one fork, one spoon for each person.
• When cooking, measure the flour and other ingredients and set the cooking time together.
• Build with blocks.
• Talk about time, eg bed time, meal time, time to leave for School. Also talk about the days, weekend days and grocery days. Teach her how to tell the time if she is keen to learn.
• Compare things, eg ‘There are more knives than forks on the table’.
• Teach her about money let her pay for the milk, ice creams, etc.
• Introduce measurement terms, eg tall, small, light, heavy, full and empty.
• Read stories with numbers, eg The Three Little Pigs, The Three Billy Goats Gruff and the Dr Seuss books.
• Teach her counting songs and rhymes.
• Play with water using measuring jugs and containers.
• Play games such as dominoes and other dice games.
Barbreck is a healthy eating school. Your child needs to bring a piece of fruit for ‘Fruit Break’ and a snack for morning tea as well as a healthy lunch and drink each day. Please keep sweet treats to a minimum and try to make the lunches as nutritious and interesting as possible. A drink bottle containing water is recommended. As lunchboxes can be heavy and take up a lot of room in the backpack, please try to use one lunchbox. This also helps the girls to locate one item to carry outside rather than multiple containers. Ask the girls to help pick out their items for the day so they know what item is fruit, morning tea and lunch. They may also inform you of preferred/non preferred snacks.
PLEASE NOTE: St Catherine’s is a NUT AWARE SCHOOL.
Lunch orders at School are completed by ordering via the FlexiSchool online ordering system. Food is then delivered at lunchtime from the School Café. To access this service, please use www.flexiSchools.com.au Please note lunch orders are not available for Preps until full days commence.
Please note: snacks for morning tea and brain break are still required.
We enjoy celebrating birthdays at School, but for safety reasons we are unable to light birthday candles in the classroom. Children often bring a birthday treat for all the class to share. With COVID restrictions, individually wrapped chocolates, ice-creams or commercially bought individual cakes are recommended. No nuts or nut products are permitted.
Parents are requested to mail/email party invitations rather than give them out at School. There is no expectation that the whole Year level is invited, however we urge parents to be aware that one or two children should never be left out
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St Catherine’s School
Please ensure all of your child’s belongings are named so that her lost items can be easily retrieved. Named items are always returned to their owners. Unnamed items are kept for two weeks in the Lost Property tub, located on Level 1. Items without names and unclaimed are then given to the PFA Second Hand Uniform Centre.
These are viewed as an important part of the curriculum, providing experiences that are not possible within the usual classroom setting.
The incursions involve visits from musical groups, authors, artists and sports people.
Excursions involve visiting different places of interest, such as museums, galleries, theatres and historic buildings. St Catherine’s uses a health, safety and electronic consent form system named ‘Operoo’ to notify parents of upcoming excursions and request consent. As a parent/guardian you will receive an email invitation to join Operoo and create a profile for your child.
Throughout the year you will receive event information via Operoo emails and alerts. We ask you to read the information carefully, check that details are correct and give or decline your consent through this system.
Booklists will be available in November and should be filled in and returned by the end of the School year. Orders are prepaid and delivered in January to your nominated address.
Our book supplier is Campion Books. Their contact details are:
Campion Education Pty Ltd
1/170 180 Rooks Road Nunawading 3131
Phone: 1300 433 982 Fax: 9873 5500 Web: www.campion.com.au Email: sales@campion.net.au
There is no need for you to cover any text books or scrap books as the children will be making their own distinctive covers for these books.
Before your child commences School, it is important to purchase and name the following items:
• summer school uniform (remember to buy for a growing child)
• sports uniform (bathers, swim cap, shorts, polo shirt, tracksuit pants, school sports socks, rugby jumper, house t shirt)
• booklist requirements
• pencils, textas, coloured pencils and glue sticks need not be named as they are shared throughout the year
• lunchbox
• drink bottle
• School bag.
It is a good idea to wear new shoes over the holidays to help avoid new show blisters.
The Uniform Centre is under the operation of Bob Stewart. This third generation family business specialises in school uniforms, providing garments for a large number of Australian schools.
In addition to their expertise, Bob Stewart accepts American Express credit cards, offer extended shopping hours (including Saturday mornings and School holidays), provision of school shoes, alterations, and braid application to blazers (Years 10, 11 and 12)
Bob Stewart
150 Waverley Road, East Malvern.
Please note that the Bob Stewart Kew store will not stock St Catherine’s items.
The St Catherine’s PFA Second Hand Uniform Shop provides a second hand clothing service to our community, assisted by a team of volunteers who kindly give up their time to provide the School community with this service. All funds earned by the PFA are reinvested to fund School projects. The availability of second hand unifor m provides an opportunity for the School community to buy, donate or sell on consignment, a range of pre owned items.
The PFA Second Hand Uniform Shop is located at the Senior School Campus in the building behind the Wintergarden accessible through the rear door of the Wintergarden or through the pedestrian gate on Heyington Place between Gates 3 and 4.
Opening hours are 1.00pm to 4.0pm each Tuesday during the School Term
On days to be advised, when Physical Education lessons are timetabled, students will wear Physical Education uniform for the whole School day. Swimming items must be brought to School on the day timetabled for Swimming lesson.
Our School policies can be found on mystcatherines.net.au. Please ensure that you familiarise yourself with the information contained within each policy. We ask for your assistance in enabling your daughter to understand and work within the policy outlines.
St Catherine’s a Sustainable School.
St Catherine’s is a very environmentally conscious School. We successfully minimise our use of resources such as: • Water
We promote lunch boxes that have multiple compartments as a way of minimising waste.
St Catherine’s School
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We wish to acknowledge the use of the following books in developing our Prep Handbook. We recommend them to you for further reading:
Berne, S (2003) Starting School: How to help your child be prepared. (Finch, Australia)
Dwyer, J (1998) More Than Tying Shoelaces helping parents understand (Longman, Australia) the first years of School
Elkind, Dr D (1981) The Hurried Child (Perseus, USA)
Sweet, L etc (1996) Start School Smiling (Prentagast, Australia)