Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you to those parents who attended our online Covid meetings last week. In total, we had around 30 parents, which was great. As I spoke in this meeting, there is a lot of information to have our heads around and often, it can change quickly. To support you with this, I have pinned a post to the top of the Compass Parent Portal, which will be updated as soon as anything changes. I will also keep a standing item in the newsletter as another anchor point.

StFA Alumni

A former student deserves a special mention after running in the final of the 100m at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Jaydon Page was a student at our school several years ago and has won a silver medal in the 100m. Congratulations Jaydon on this fantastic achievement. If you want to watch his race, we have linked it on our Facebook page.

Lisa Conroy

Yesterday we participated in a whole school thanksgiving mass for Mrs Lisa Conroy after she retired earlier this year. It was unfortunate we could not invite the wider school community; however, the love and adoration for Lisa were definitely evident in the special messages she received for her memory book from the wider school community. Lisa received a beautiful picture which was painted of the school church and blessed during mass to mark her contribution to the community. We thank Lisa for her contribution to the school community over the last 22 years.

First Eucharist

It was lovely to attend our First Eucharist Parent Meetings last week as the first step in the journey of our Yr 5 students receiving the most blessed sacrament. These students will now attend a commitment mass with their families before undertaking a home preparation program. Congratulations to all these students and their families we look forward to journeying with you.

Athletics Carnival

We look forward to hosting our Athletics Carnival next Tuesday at Calwell playing fields. Similar to our cross-country carnival, we can host the event with parents in attendance as it is off-site, outdoors and low risk. We will ask you to continue to use proper hygiene measures and not attend if you are unwell. The day should be great fun and a good opportunity for parents to be involved in the school community. If you are able, please consider volunteering some time on the day. Thank you to Lauren McDonald for coordinating this carnival.

ThinkUknow

We are hosting a parent workshop called ThinkUknow to support parents and their children in using digital devices at home. This workshop is presented in conjunction with the AFP and Industry professionals to upskill parents around the best ways to keep their children safe online. Please consider enrolling to attend as it will be an extremely valuable workshop for all parents to learn more about young people and the online environment and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.

Please don’t wait until your child experiences issues online before attending the workshop. The best way for parents to support their kids is by having the knowledge and skills to support them through whatever difficulties they may face online now and into the future. If you would like to attend this event, please register your interest using this link https://forms.gle/oLbTLW7CXiDBjoGa9  by C.O.B Monday 8th August. 

Pupil Free Day tomorrow

As previously communicated, tomorrow is a Pupil Free day for all ACT primary schools. Our teachers will be using the day to complete self-directed Professional Development and classroom admin time. To continue school operations, our school has had to draw upon all resources during periods of heavy staff absence, and this has seen teachers lose preparation and professional development time as well as teach extra students. This day is invaluable in supporting teachers to recoup this lost time and support them in what is forecast to be a difficult remainder of the term. There will be another Pupil Free day scheduled for Friday, September 9^th.

Blessings and best wishes for the week ahead

Kind regards

Sean Rutledge

Principal

Today, August 4, we celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day. Children’s Day is a time Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and communities, and ALL Australians celebrate the strengths and culture of our children. The first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day was established on 4 August 1988. It was created because at the time, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and elders felt a day was needed to celebrate our children, to give them confidence and make them feel special and feel included. August 4 was chosen as it was the date historically used to communally celebrate the birthdays of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were taken from their families at a young age, without knowing their birthday.

This year I have taken more notice of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day because my children, now in Year 3 and in Preschool, are becoming more vocal about their heritage. They talk about their totems to people who ask and are able to explain that even though they don’t look like your stereotypical Aboriginal person, they most definitely are and they come from Gundungurra and Thurawal land.

We always hear about how our children are the future and in this case it absolutely is. Through no ones fault, I spent my childhood ‘ticking a box’ but not really understanding what it meant to be Aboriginal or how my culture can teach people, is rich and vibrant and something to be proud of. Now, through continuing to learn and connecting with my own culture, I want to continue to encourage my children and all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to be confident, to stand up and be proud of who they are, even if they don’t quite know what that means. To learn from our elders, to involve ourselves in our culture, to share that with our friends and family. To say ‘This is who I am and this is where I come from”, to flourish as First Nations People with confidence and lead us into the future.  

For more information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s day or get involved visit: https://www.aboriginalchildrensday.com.au/

MINI VINNIES NIGHT VAN VISIT

Yesterday, Matthew from the Vinnies Night Van came to collect our warm winter

woolies that our community had donated. The Mini Vinnies team was very excited to load up the van as well as have a look at what Matthew and the team have on board to help those people in our community who live on the streets or need some extra support.

We had collected so many warm clothes, shoes and blankets that we filled the van and had to squish all the bags in before sliding the door closed! Matthew was very appreciative of our donations and wanted me to pass on his thanks!

Have a great week!

Sharee Thomas

REC

Yesterday we had the priviledge of celebrating Mass as a whole school to celebrate the retirement of Mrs Conroy. 

Mrs Conroy has been a teacher in our system for 39 years with 22 of those years here at St Francis of Assisi. While we were not able to invite community due to Covid-19 restrictions, Mr Rutledge gave Mrs Conroy her parting gift from the community, a painting of the little St Francis Church, which she absolutley loved. 

Mrs Conroy will be missed for her pastoral care, her dedication to Religious Education, her love of reading and sharing books as well as her happy smile and love of life. The school was gifted 3 different books by Mrs Conroy to help encourge us to continue to connect with nature, be kind and always be creative. The book of memories created by the school children and community will be passed onto Mrs Conroy when it comes back from the printers.

We thank Mrs Conroy for her many years of dedication to the St Franics of Assisi community. 

Catholic Education has adopted more stringent Covid measures for Term 3 to minimise the transmission of Covid and ensure our schools remain open. As reported in the media there is a predicted Covid peak forecast in weeks 4 and 8 of this term which could see triple the number of Covid cases currently being seen in the community. This would significantly affect school operations and the continuity of Teaching and Learning in Schools. To try and minimise the impact on school operations, Catholic Education has taken a risk-averse approach to ensure the maximum number of staff are available in schools. This means the following measures are being undertaken:

• Any event that could take extra staff away from the school in Term 3 should be reconsidered and if possible, postponed. This includes planned excursions and camps. For Term 3 we will not be charging the excursion levy to parents. Where possible and in a Covid safe way, we will continue to host incursions for our students.
• We are still planning on hosting our Athletics Carnival in Week 3 as it is in the local area and completely outdoors, more information will follow shortly.
• Parents will be notified if 25% of a cohort contracts Covid in a 7-day period. It is extremely important you notify the school if your child contracts covid via email stfranciscalwell@cg.catholic.edu.au or by submitting an absence note on Compass. These will be tracked to notify parents if we reach the 25% threshold.
• Current ACT health advice is for close or household contacts to not attend school if practicable. If students do need to attend, they can as long as they are asymptomatic, conduct a RAT test 24 hours before returning to school and then again, every 48 hours while they are a close/household contact.
• If students are symptomatic, they are not to attend school. If students present with unexplained symptoms at school, they will be isolated and parents contacted to pick them up from school.
• Schools are to limit the number of visitors they have onsite. This unfortunately, includes parents attending assemblies. Those who were able to attend an assembly last term will know that this decision is one I am particularly saddened by.
• We can continue our morning and afternoon pick-up and drop-off arrangements; however, we will need to be stricter with the number of people we can accommodate in the hall. This may mean a longer wait time to pick up your children. My advice is to grab a coffee and if possible, come a little later when the flow of parents is greatly diminished. We are staffed to provide supervision until 3:30 pm.
• Any meetings between staff and parents should be conducted remotely wherever possible.
• The school will continue to use all resources available to ensure adequate supervision ratios at school. In the event a significant number of staff are unavailable, there may be a time when we may need to keep cohorts at home, provide minimal supervision or most unlikely close the school under the direction of the Director of Catholic Education. In any of these cases, we will endeavour to provide parents with as much advance warning as possible.
• Unlike Term 1, we will be unable to provide work for students who are required to learn from home this term. To support students who are required to learn from home, the following resource has been put together to use while students are not in attendance at school.

 Parent Support - Remote Learning Resources.pdf

Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge

The Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge finishes on 19 August. Students are required to give their completed reading records to Mrs. Cossettini by Fri 19^th August for verification. Students who are still completing the reading requirements are encouraged to speak to their teacher or school librarian for assistance and book recommendations.

Still, looking for great reads? Check out the recent work of some of our CMRC Ambassadors.

10 Minutes of Danger is a book by Jack Heath. The book is a collection of short stories about asteroids, volcanoes, funnel web spiders and killer robots.

Tania McCartney has just finished writing the third book in the Plume picture book series. It is about a little penguin who travels the world – it’s called Plume: Festival Seeker. It will be out this November. Tania is also working on a massive Wildlife Compendium of the World book—She knows kids will love it! It’s out around May 2023.

Stephanie Owen Reeder’s latest narrative nonfiction picture book Swifty: The Super-fast Parrot, illustrated by Astred Hicks and published by CSIRO Publishing, is ready to take flight on 1 October.

On TUESDAY 9TH AUGUST, our School will be hosting a ThinkUKnow presentation between 6-7pm in the school Hall and all parents, carers and teachers are encouraged to attend.

ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence based education program delivered nationally to prevent online child exploitation.

ThinkUKnow Australia is a partnership between the Australian Federal Police, Microsoft Australia, Datacom and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The program is delivered in collaboration with policing partners New South Wales Police Force, Northern Territory Police, Queensland Police, South Australia Police, Tasmania Police, Western Australia Police, as well as Neighbourhood Watch Australasia.

The presentation will be delivered by a local law enforcement member and an industry volunteer. The presentation is pro-technology and addresses topics including self-generated child abuse material, online grooming, image-based abuse, sexual extortion, and importantly encourages help seeking behaviour.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to learn more about young people and the online environment, and how you can help them to be safe and responsible users of technology.

If you would like to attend this event please register your interest using this link https://forms.gle/oLbTLW7CXiDBjoGa9  by C.O.B Monday 8th August. 

The Importance of Sleep 

It’s a well-known fact that sleep is incredibly important for everyone. Sleep is the body’s chance to rest and reset for the next day. For young people, sleep is especially important because their bodies are going through their formative years and need recovery in order to change and develop. Despite sleep being so important for young people, good sleep patterns are often resisted due to a variety of reasons such as screens and social media, worrying/racing minds, and other distractions.  So how can parents and carers support their children to have better sleep patterns? 

Maintain Routine 

It can be difficult to go to sleep at the same time every night, however maintaining some routine is important so that the brain knows when to relax and prepare for rest. It can be a good idea to have a limit to how late your child can stay up for, and they can choose to go to bed before or on that time. A pre-bed routine is also helpful for a good sleep, and can include brushing teeth, reading a chapter of a book or listening to a relaxing podcast. Every person is different, but young people should be aiming for at least 8 hours of sleep per night. A good sleep routine also includes waking up at a reasonable time each morning. Remind your child that while it may be difficult at first, their body clock will adjust, and it will get easier.  

Avoid Stimuli 

Avoiding screens is extremely important and we should not be looking at phone, television or computer screens for at least one hour before bed. This is because screens stimulate us, not relax us. Screentime reduces the quality of our sleep and does not allow us to wind-down properly.  

Other common stimuli can include caffeine and energy drinks. These should be limited and not consumed during the afternoon or night.  

Create a Good Environment 

Young people will sleep easier if they are in a comfortable, tidy environment. It is also a good idea to encourage your children not to do homework on their bed. Their bed is supposed to be a place of rest and relaxation, and it can be harder to switch off if they have spent all afternoon working on it.   

Check-in Before Bed 

Sometimes young people can struggle to sleep due to stress. There are many worries that can keep young people up at night – from social issues such as friendships and bullying, to school issues such as assignment stress. It can be helpful to check-in before bed and offer comfort or advice if they need it.  

 If you are worried about your child’s sleep, check in with their GP to discuss this further. For more information, read this with your child: https://headspace.org.au/explore-topics/for-young-people/get-enough-sleep/.  

Thanks

Sharman 

Involvement - All children from Kindergarten to Year 6 will be participating in events throughout the day. All will compete in track events as well as ball games and novelties.

Arrival - Children are to come to school as usual. They will then walk over to Calwell Playing Fields with their teachers.

What to Wear - Children will need to wear their full sports uniform (including their school hat). Children are encouraged to wear a top in the colour of their House (please send children in appropriate clothing according to the weather). NO coloured hairspray please.

What to Bring - Children need to bring with them their school hat, lunch, drinks and snacks. The Canteen are running a sausage sizzle. Please order a sausage on the Qkr app by 9.00am Friday 5th August 2022.  Please provide your child with adequate food and water for a busy and active day!

Dismissal - The carnival is due to finish at 2.45pm. Parents are welcome to take their children home straight after the carnival after signing out at the First Aid Tent. All remaining children will be walked back to school for their normal dismissal procedures. Children may not leave with any other person than their own parents, unless we have notification in writing.

Reminder - Please find attached 800m nomination form for the 2022 Athletics Carnival. As this race is held before school starts, students need to have parent permission to participate.

800m nomination forms must be returned to school by Friday 5/8/2022

As Friday 5^th August 2022 is a pupil free day we will accept nomination forms on Friday up to 4.00pm via email at office.stfranciscalwell@cg.catholic.edu.au

No late 800m nomination forms will be accepted after this time.

REMINDER

Sausage sandwich orders for the Athletics Carnival closes this Friday 5th August 2022 at 9:00am and no late orders will be accepted.

Please order and pay via the QKR app.

There will be NO canteen counter sales at the Athletics Carnival on Tuesday 9th August 2022.

Thank you 

Cookie Dough orders are expected to arrive Monday 8th August 2022.

Orders can be picked up from the old canteen (between the office and the hall) between 2.30pm and 4.00pm on Monday 8th August 2022

We ask that you please do not park on the ring road, to ensure traffic is not blocked for the afternoon pickup.  Please park in the car park and proceed to the old canteen to collect your order.

Thank you for your support!

The Clothing Pool is closed today Thursday 4th August 2022 due to unforeseen circumstances 

The Clothing Pool is normally open at the following times and is located in the hall foyer.

• Thursday afternoons 2.45 - 3.15 pm
• Friday mornings 8.45 - 9.15 am

The Clothing Pool sells second hand school uniforms and we accept donations of good quality pre-loved uniforms.  Please bring your donations to the front office.

Please note the Uniform Shop is no longer accepting cash payments.

Payment can be made via the QKR App which is the preferred payment method or you can call into the Office and pay via EFTPOS

The Clothing Pool Shop is urgently seeking volunteers so the service can continue, if you are able to assist please contact the front office on 6292 4500

Thank you