Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome back to Term 2. I hope that all families enjoyed a restful break over the holiday period and that Easter, in particular, was restorative and afforded you some time to spend with friends and family. What a lovely way to begin the term it was with beautiful sunny weather.  The students have begun the term with positive attitudes and lovely smiles on their faces. There was a sense of calm and eagerness to get back to learning and see friends and teachers as I walked around the school on Wednesday morning.

Staffing News

Ms Ann Jenvey has been successful in gaining a position at the Gungahlin Introductory English Centre with the ACT Education Directorate, which utilises her qualifications as a TESOL Educator. Mrs Laura Hey will continue to teach 6 Kanbi Monday-Wednesday and remain in her Gifted and High Potential role on Thursday and Friday. 6 Kanbi will be taught by Mr Liam Cashion on these days.  We thank Ann for her work at St Francis over the past year.

Unfortunately, we were unable to secure a viable option for a full-time teacher for 6 Dhaura after an exhaustive search. So, after adjusting staffing across the school, Mrs Sarah Lehmensich will take on the primary teaching duties in 6 Dhaura for the remainder of the year. Sarah will teach from Wednesday to Friday each week.
Sarah is well-known to the school community and has been teaching in Year 2 after
returning from maternity leave this year. She has spent the last two days while the students are on camp familiarising herself with the students' personalised plans,
programming and assessment documentation. Sarah will be supported 2 days a week by Ms Charly Lehmensich. 

Both Liam and Charly are well known to the school community through their work as Classroom Support Assistants. Both staff members are in their 4th year of a Bachelor of Education degree and have recently applied for a permit to teach through the Teacher Quality Institute (TQI).  We thanks them for their willingness to step into a formal teaching role within our school.

Early Career Commissioning

This week two staff members, Olivia Mullens and Isabelle Johnston, paricipated in Early Career Teacher professional development and were formally 'Commissioned' into their roles as Catholic educators. I was fortunate enough to attend this mass and it was a lovely experience. As a school community, we congratulate them on this huge achievement and again formally welcome them to our wonderful school.

Baby News

On ANZAC Day, Jessica Lewis welcomed George William Brown into the world. Mum and Bub are doing well.  We wish Jess, Luke and George all the love, joy and happiness as they enjoy this special time together as a family.

Enrolment Period Begins

The Catholic Schools' official enrolment period begins on Monday 1^st and ends on the Friday 26^th May. We have already received a significant number of enrolment enquiries and applications for Kinder 2024, which have been submitted through our school website Enrol Now! @ St Francis of Assisi Primary School - Calwell . Can I again strongly encourage all current families with siblings looking to enrol into Kinder for 2024 to ensure we receive your applications ASAP to ensure you don't miss out.

Our Early Learning Centre is opening in 2024!  Information is now on our website including an ELC expression of interest form. Please complete this form so that we are able to contact you when the enrolments are ready to be completed. Monitor St Francis of Assisi Primary School ELC - Calwell  for more information. We will also post information related to this on our school Facebook page (20) St Francis of Assisi Primary School | Canberra ACT | Facebook.

Year 6 Camp

Our campers are into Day Three of their camp in Berry.  By all accounts they have had a magnificent time learning all about teamwork, being active and solving problems.  They have luckily been blessed with fantastic weather which allows camp to be extra enjoyable. Thanks very much to all our dedicated teachers, Nikki Arcidiacono, Laura Hay, Ann Jenvey, Fergus Millar, Charly Lehmensich and Sean Rutledge, who have taken time away from their families to give our students such a wonderful experience.  You will all deserve a restful and relaxing weekend!

Building Works

Work is continuing at a steady pace. The builders have been fantastic intrying to organise loud and disruptive works over the break, including concrete cutting and excavation. There are some photos on Facebook if you would like to look at the progress. The sensory Courtyard project is also complete. Mr Dean Poynter has worked hard on this all holidays and it is looking fantastic. Photos of this project are also on Facebook.  The students have begun using this space and they are loving it.

Enjoy the week ahead,

Annie McArthur for Sean Rutledge

(Assistant Principal)

The Vinnies Winter appeal is upon us and our Calwell Conference has touched base to call on your wonderful support once again from your Families, Students and staff.

This year Vinnies we are quite desperate for food items for our food parcels as we have had an enormous increase (over 200%) in companions we are supporting over the past 12 months.

The Conference has asked for donations of the following “in date” pantry items that we could use in our hampers: soft taco/burrito kits, large tins of tuna, jars of tuna pasta bake and pasta sauce, rice, breakfast cereal, long life milk, coffee, tea bags, pasta, tinned tomatoes, baked beans, spaghetti and tinned fruit.

In order to help ensure all items are covered, we are asking grades to focus on a different need (see table below). If you are able to help support Vinnies and the Calwell Conference by supplying a food item listed below, please send items in with your child any time between now and Friday 2nd June (Week 8).

We will still be collecting the winter woollies later in the term with more information to come in the next few weeks. Please hold off on sending those in until we are ready to collect.

Thank you

Sunday Gospel: John 10:1-10, Fourth Sunday of Easter - Year A

I am the gate of the sheepfold.

This is ‘Good Shepherd Sunday’ and a particular focus taken today is leadership. Which voices do we follow? Why do we follow these voices and not others? Authentic leadership is rooted in authority, and authentic authority is the ability to author or bring life to birth. Genuine authority cherishes, guards and encourages the best in life; it provides rest and refreshment; it guides our steps; it nourishes us; it leads us to God. Peter is an example of authentic authority: he proclaims the truth, even if others find it hard to hear; he denounces error, even when this places him in jeopardy; he calls for a change of heart, even when it makes great demands.

Authentic leadership is patterned after the leadership of Jesus. It is gentle and familiar, like the true shepherd; it has won the confidence of those who follow, as did the true shepherd; it is committed to the enhancement of the lives of others, as was Jesus. Authentic leadership is willing to forgo its own needs and to deny its own interests in favour of the needs and interests of others.

Heavy demands are placed on those who follow authentic leadership. Those who follow the Good Shepherd must follow him in the dark valleys as well as to the refreshing streams. They must be willing to relinquish some of their own plans and self-determination and entrust themselves to his leadership. They must never forget that they are following a shepherd who has paid the ultimate price on their behalf (Diane Bergant).

SACRAMENT of CONFIRMATION NEWS

Dear Parents & Carers

This is a reminder that next week you can nominate your child's Confirmation Mass preference. You can do this via the Corpus Christi Parish Qkr! App. Qkr! will open on Wednesday 26 April and will close on Monday 8 May. 

 The information collected  is a necessary requirement for the completion of the Confirmation process. There will be $0 charged.

You will be asked for the following information:

- Mass preference - Tuesday 6 June, Wednesday 7 June OR Thursday 8 June. all Masses are at 6.00pm

- Your child's name and school

- Your child's Confirmation name eg if your child has chosen 'St Michael' write 'Michael'. No need to write 'Saint'

- Sponsor's name 

- Place of baptism

- Number of guests attending Confirmation Mass

- Seating request - eg wheelchair access or families sitting near each other (cousins sharing grandparents)

Please note that the number of Confirmation candidates has been set for 40 for each Mass. If your preferred Mass is full it will not show up as an option and you will need to choose another Mass.

The first of the 4 Home Session activity will be sent out Friday 28 April. You will need to complete the session with your child and submit the completed activity within the week.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me or the Parish Office. 

Kind Regards

Anne Gowen

Sacramental Assistant

Corpus Christi Parish

South Tuggeranong

02 6291 6688        

tuggeranongsouth.sacraments@cg.org.au

This week we look at Mindfulness and Emotional Literacy...

Mindfulness
Working on mindfulness gives us opportunities to develop our ability to pay attention to the present moment and our thoughts. Practising mindfulness daily can help us stay focused on set tasks and reduce stress and anxiety.

Whole Family Activity:
Mindful Walk
● As a family, go on a walk outside in nature. This might be around your local walking track, at your local park or just around your streets.
● While walking, tune into your senses and observe what you can see, hear and feel. Or you might choose to focus on one of the senses. Eg: Hear: what are all the noises you can hear on your walk?
● On your way home or when you return home, share what each person saw, heard or felt.

Family Habit Builder:
Each night at dinner, ask everyone to take one mouthful of food more mindfully than the rest and think about the flavours they can taste and how it makes them feel. (They can also thank the chef!).

Emotional Literacy
Working on our emotional literacy gives us opportunities to develop our ability to understand and express different emotions. When we improve our emotional literacy, we can work towards recognising our own feelings and our ability to manage them. This allows us to cope with different life situations, such as managing conflict, making friends, coping in difficult situations and being resilient when dealing with change.

Whole Family Activity:
Feelings Charades
• Gather together as a family, this might be around the dinner table, lounge room, around the fire outside.
• Take turns to act out a feeling or emotion. Use your face and body language to act this out, For example: Make an angry face and stamp your feet or
• Other family members need to guess the feeling/emotion.
• After someone has guessed the feeling/emotion, have family members discuss a time they have felt this way before and why. If it was a negative emotion, how did they overcome it?

Family Habit Builder:
Around the dinner table, ask everyone to share a feeling they felt during that day. Discuss how they dealt with that feeling and then discuss and share strategies you could use when faced with particular feelings.

Thank you to all families that settled their Term 1 school fee accounts - a reminder that Term 1 fees are well overdue, and payment as soon as possible would be much appreciated.

A reminder to all Year 6 parents that deposits for Year 6 camp are now overdue, with the balance payable by Friday 5th May 2023.

Year 5 camp payments are now live on QKR!, with the deposit of $250.00 due Monday 15th May 2023.

Kind regards

Julie Rummukainen

julie.rummukainen@cg.catholic.edu.au

Dear Tuggeranong Schools Student Support Staff.

Eligible ACT families can now access one-off payments to help cover the costs of education expenses through the ACT Government’s Future of Education Equity Fund.

The fund helps to cover the costs of school uniforms and excursions, sport equipment and activities, tuition and music lessons – things we know help students fully engage with their education.

It’s open to preschool to year 12 students (including in non-government schools) from financially disadvantaged families residing in the ACT. Read yesterday’s media release here.

Payments are:

• $400 for preschool students
• $500 for primary school students
• $750 for high school and college students

For more information and to apply click here.