Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to Week 7, the term is flying along, and the year is almost over. With Advent on Sunday, this holy season hails the end of the academic year for schools. We are blessed with these weeks to refresh ourselves spiritually as we welcome the birth of the Lord into our lives. Holidays provide us with the opportunity to refresh our body, mind and spirit.

Our teachers are hard at work assessing, moderating and collating end-of-semester reports, which will be sent home on Friday, 9th December (Week 9) via the Compass portal. Please keep teachers in your thoughts and prayers during this time as they undertake this significant work. Many hours are spent outside of the school day preparing these important records. I believe that PT Interviews, in many ways, are more important than the grade assigned on the report as they take into account learning behaviours, attitudes and effort. An accurate assessment of these areas is not always clear when only using the A-E reporting scale.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Face-to-Face Parent Teacher Conferences will be offered on Monday 5^th - Wednesday 7^th December, Week 9. These will be an opportunity to discuss key improvements, highlights, effort and discuss some goals that might be passed on to 2023 teachers. The offerings of interview timeslots will go live this afternoon on the Compass Parent Portal. Please contact your child’s teacher if you are unable to attend in person.

Jack’s Story

One of our students in Yr 2, Jack L has been on a journey to raise awareness for people living with Dementia through the fundraiser “mullets for memory loss. He cut his mullet during the last school holidays and raised a whopping $2,000.

Jacks Story ❤️??

My Gran passed away in August 2021, I was lucky enough to spend so much time with her for my whole life. We would visit Gran a couple of times every week, and even though sometimes Gran didn’t remember some things she always loved me and my sister Chloe. She loved reading with us, sharing her yummy treats, and watching us play.

When Gran moved into Residential Care in May 2021, our visits didn’t stop they just changed. We would take Gran for walks, still read books together, share treats and just hang out.

I have been growing my mullet since August 2021 and have decided that on Gran’s birthday (28th September), I will cut it all off to raise money and awareness for people living with Dementia in residential aged care.

Jack’s efforts have raised awareness for a group of vulnerable members of our community and he is living out the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Preferential option for the poor and vulnerable. Congratulations, Jack on your outstanding achievement!

Renovation Works in 2023

Our project will begin in Feb 2023 and will encompass ‘E’ block. We will take the opportunity to realign our blocks, so they run in numerical order with Yrs 1 & 2 in ‘G’ block closest to Calwell high, Yrs 3 & 4 in ‘E’ block and Yrs 5 & 6 in ‘D’ block, closest to the office.

With the project beginning so early in 2023, our Yrs 3 & 4 students will not move into their classrooms but rather the Library and BASCA buildings for the duration of the renovation. This arrangement has been used in previous years to great effect when we have accommodated the previous renovation works to classrooms. These spaces will have all the resources of a classroom, including Interactive White Boards, individual class spaces, desks and shared collaborative spaces.

I thank Louise and the BASCA staff, who will relocate their service to the hall for the duration of the project. Louise and BASCA will move to this location in late January at the conclusion of the school holiday program.

Alison Bond will set up our Library, which will operate from the STEM room. I thank Emma Harris, who will have a travelling STEM roadshow visiting classrooms and Anne-Marie Dimmock will teach Music out of the staff room.

I have included some pictures of the classroom spaces that will be ready in Term 3 next year.

Kinder Orientation

We will have our second Kinder Orientation next week on Tuesday from 9:30-11 am. The students will spend some time in their classroom with their teacher for 2023. Parents will join me in the hall to hear a presentation about the school and our shared journey for 2023.

Worm Farm

Cid was at school last week to install our worm farm. Yesterday students witnessed the first 10kg ball of worms being introduced to the farm. The worm farm will help reduce our footprint by sustainably reusing the school's 150kg of organic waste each week. The worms will break down this waste and provide rich castings and worm tea for our gardens. Students will continue to be exposed to and educated about the worms and their important work in 2023. Surprisingly, there is no smell, insects, or pests generated by the farm; the worms do a good job of processing the organic matter very quickly.

Blessings and best wishes

Sean Rutledge

Principal

This Sunday, the new Church year commences with us celebrating the first Sunday of Advent.

Advent is a season of waiting; we wait with hope, desire and expectation. One of our Advent companions is Mary, and during these weeks we remember her as she waited for the birth of her child. We know what waiting is like, as many of us wait with anticipation for the holidays.

Advent is also a season to prepare for Christmas. We know that the first coming of Jesus at Bethlehem will not happen again, so during Advent, we prepare for a new coming of Jesus into our lives. We take this time every year to practise how to receive Jesus every day of our lives. We remember Jesus’ call to us, to make our world a peaceful and loving place, and so, during Advent, we make special efforts to be signs that God is with us. This is what the word ‘Emmanuel’ means – God-with-us.

Advent is a season with its own special mood, colours, sounds, words and joys. Sometimes it can be swamped by Christmas and we can be tempted to celebrate Christmas too early. This Advent, may we all try to wait, as the world waited long ago for the coming of Jesus, the “Light of the World”.

SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

On Wednesday and Thursday this week 21 of our Year 4 students received the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time. Reconciliation is the Sacrament of relationship and focussing not just on saying sorry to God, but how we can repair our relationship with God and with others we have hurt. The children were nervous but excited and had a wonderful celebration.  

St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal

Once again, St Francis of Assisi will be supporting the Parish in gathering food and drinks to create hampers for families in need to open and share on Christmas Day.

The last two years have been a challenge for everyone, especially those experiencing disadvantage. This year has come with new trials including the impacts of closed borders, global inflation, and the east coast energy crisis, putting pressure on people in Australia and being an added stress for people already experiencing hardship. We are asking each grade for specific donations (please see below) which our Year 6 leaders will use to make hampers for those in need. The last day to drop off donations is Friday, December 9th. 

We have collected lots of glasses and goggles that were lost at the colour run. If you are missing yours, please come and have a look at the front office.