Dear Parents and Carers,

Last week’s Book Week celebrations were enjoyed by all. It was wonderful to welcome so many parents, carers and grandparents to the Book Week Parade. Amongst a day full of fun activities was the visiting author, Ashleigh Barton. I hope that if you have purchased some of her books, you are enjoying sharing them with your children. The children (K-6) thoroughly enjoyed the workshop with Ashleigh, who spoke of her love of reading and writing and also shared some details of her new book, soon to be released.

Thank you to Mrs Scapin, Mrs Kissell and Mrs Doherty for planning and organising a wonderful book week celebration for our students.

Last week Year 3 and Year 5 NAPLAN Reports were sent home. NAPLAN is a national assessment in Reading, Writing, Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation, and Numeracy. As a school, student results across all areas are most pleasing, demonstrating a high level of attainment and achievement.

Sincere thanks to Jodie Maloney and Julia Najjar for coordinating the P&F Father’s Day Stall. Thank you also to the many helpers who assisted with setting up on Thursday afternoon and with the sales on Friday morning. I’m sure all our fathers and father like figures enjoyed the gifts, lovely and thoughtfully chosen, and had a lovely Father’s Day.

Term 3 concludes on Friday 23 September and Principal Awards will be presented at the conclusion of the end of term whole school Mass.

Term 4 commences on Monday 10 October, there is no pupil free day on the first day of Term 4. All students should return to school in their summer uniform.

Yours sincerely
Andrew Heffernan
Principal

Activate Fire

Today, Year 6 participated in ACTIVATE Fire at St Francis of Assisi (Warrawong) with the students from St Patrick’s and St Francis of Assis. This is a primary school day of reflection, an initiative of the Youth Ministry Team, aimed at providing an opportunity for an encounter with Christ. The theme of the event centres on the Sacraments of Initiation, focusing on Confirmation: Celebrating the Gift of the Holy Spirit. The students have the opportunity to participate in a range of activities including prayer, spirituality, music and mission.

Season of Creation  (September 1 - October 4)

Pope Francis established 1st September as an annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. The Season of Creation is honoured throughout the Christian world from September 1 to October 4 (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi) and celebrates the joy of creation as well as encouraging awareness-raising initiatives to protect the natural environment.

Pope Francis, in his encyclical Laudato Si, ‘Care for our Common Home’ asks us to recognise the wonder of the magnificent world that God has created, people, animals, plants, the solar system etc. Pope Francis says that the ‘earth is God’s gift to us, full of beauty and wonder’ and that we, ‘the whole human family need to work together to care for our planet earth so that we sow beauty, not pollution and destruction.’ Pope Francis invites us all to, ‘put love for the world and love for our neighbours into action, by living together in harmony, and caring for nature.’

For further information please go to the website https://seasonofcreation.org/

Parish Sacramental Program

We keep in our prayers our Year 3 & 4 students who will be receiving the Sacrament of First Holy Communion (Eucharist) at a mass on Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week. 

Pope Francis refers to the Eucharist as a gift.  He reminds us about how important the Eucharist is to our faith journey.  Our Holy Father spoke to a group of children in Italy as he recalled his First Holy Communion many years ago.  He addressed the children saying, “You will make your First Communion, always remember that day your whole life: the first day that Jesus came to us.  He comes, makes himself one with us, makes himself our food and our nourishment to give us strength.”

As we reflect on the words of Pope Francis, we give thanks for the catechists, teachers and families of the children who have helped prepare them for the sacrament, and who continue to walk with them on their faith journey. We especially thank the parents and carers who are the primary educators of their children in the ways of the faith.

Dates for your Diary

Prayer Intentions

We pray for all families in our school community who are in need of our prayers, as well as our country and world.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, pray for us.
St Joseph, Pray for us.
St John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Renee Maguire
Religious Education Coordinator

PB4L is an evidence-based framework that emphasises school-wide systems of support for all students and staff. These include proactive strategies for defining, teaching and supporting appropriate student behaviours. Positive behaviour supports are implemented for all students, across all school settings, by all staff, at all times. This continuum of support ensures students’ academic and social outcomes.

All student behaviour expectations are founded on our three school rules – Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe.

Congratulations to the following students.

Our Term 3 Student Wellbeing Afternoons commenced with Year 5 and Year 6 on Tuesday and will continue over the remainder of the week with;

• Kindergarten, Year 1 & Year 2 (Thursday 8 September)
• Year 3 & Year 4 (Friday 9 September)

As with last term’s Student Wellbeing Afternoons, students will be able to choose and participate in fun and engaging activities that promote their wellbeing. The school will provide students with a sausage sizzle for lunch and all sausages will be gluten free. Gluten free bread will also be provided for students with an intolerance. If your child does not eat sausage sizzles or requires more food for lunch than this, please ensure that you pack extra food in their lunchbox.

To help make these afternoons even more enjoyable, students are encouraged to wear mufti clothes to school on the day their grade has their wellbeing afternoon.

We look forward to fun and enjoyable afternoons, promoting and supporting student wellbeing across the school.

Mr De Battista
(Student Wellbeing & Diverse Learning)

School photos will be held on Tuesday 13 September. Envelopes for orders have been distributed and must be returned to school on the day and handed to the photographer by the students. It is important that all envelopes are returned even if payment is made online. School photographs will be taken in winter uniform, as the official change over date is Wk. 1 Term 4.

For any families wishing to purchase a sibling photo, please ask your child to collect a sibling envelope from the school office. These envelopes must also be returned to school on 13 September and given to the photographer on the day.  

Please ensure that if purchasing both an individual photo and sibling photo and paying cash, the money is enclosed in each envelope and not combined in one envelope, as the envelopes are kept separately. Thank you.

As photos are scheduled to be taken from 8:30 am - 2:30 pm, it is imperative that children arrive at school on time and not be signed out early. The schedule can not be adjusted on the day to accommodate for children/families who arrive late or leave early.

Class spelling champions were Tao K (3R), Julian J (3B) and Jai S as well as Emma S (3G). All students were presented with their certificates at the Award Assembly last Friday. 

 

As you will be aware Wollongong is hosting a international professional cycling race - the 2022 UCI Road World Championships. 

The race will run from Sunday 18 - Sunday 25 September 2022 and is organised by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the world governing body for cycling, in conjunction with Events NSW and Wollongong City Council and supported by a range of government and local community organisations.

You may be aware that a number of Catholic and public schools across Wollongong will be moving to remote learning during the event (Week 10, Term 3). 

Please note that the UCI cycling event will NOT impact access to our school and we will remain open as usual in the final week of term. 

While appreciating the economic and community benefits of such an event, we also acknowledge the significant disruption that will arise for local residents, business owners, local schools and parishes due to road closures, highly restricted location access and the flow-on impacts to transport services, routes and timetables.

Depending on where you live, it is possible you may be personally impacted by road closures. We encourage you to review the list of road closures and advice for affected local residents on the UCI website: wollongong2022.com.au/resident-information-road-closures/ If you believe that road closures or other impacts of the event will prevent your child from accessing school in Week 10, Term 3, please contact the school office as soon as possible to discuss this further.