T2, Week 3, 2024

Dear Families,

I hope all the mums had a great day last Sunday. Thank you to those who were able to join us for the special liturgy on Monday. Check out our Facebook page to see some of the students thoughts about their mothers, but also about Catholic Education Week which we have been celebrating this week.

I wish to thank all those Parents and Caregivers who were able to get to the Parent Teacher Learning Conversations last week. I trust that you found them useful and were able to gain a few more insights about your child’s progress at school. Understanding that it is a two way dialogue, you may have given your child’s teacher a few more insights too about your child. I want to take this opportunity to once again thank our staff for their commitment and the extra work that they put in to ensure these learning conversations were productive and important. Remember they worked all day, offered the interviews after school, getting home late and then did it all again for another couple of days. Thank you teachers!

Congratulations to Miss Hill’s Reception Class on presenting their first ever assembly on Tuesday afternoon. They were very professional in the way they used the microphones and spoke in front of an audience. Well done to those students from each class who were awarded a certificate for displaying one of the Mercy Values of: Compassion, Courage, Hospitality, Justice, Respect or Service in the time since the last assembly.

Many of our Year 4, 5 and 6 students participated in a sporting carnival on Thursday at Argana Park at Elizabeth Downs, playing either Netball or Soccer. The children had a great day, playing a number of games against other schools from the northern region. I estimate that there were about 600 students participating on the day from seven catholic schools. Congratulations and well done to all of our students who gave their best, showed excellent sportsmanship and had fun along the way.

On Friday of this week our Year 5 and Year 6 students will be participating in a Student Leadership Day at St Thomas More School. This day will be run by Melissa Musolino and Matt McGinty. Our senior students will discern what it means to be a leader and enable them to develop the leadership skills that they already have. Thank you to our parents who were able to drop their children off and pick them up afterwards at St Thomas More School for this day but also for the sport carnival on Thursday. It is greatly appreciated and helps to keep the cost down for our families.

Thank you to Ms Hughes for running the Scholastic Book Fair this week in the Yarning Place. Thank you to all those families who took their children through to see all the books and items that were available for purchase. Thank you also if you did buy some items for your children and your ongoing encouragement for them to read. I believe that the most important skill we can teach students from an early age is reading!

The week after next our students will undertake the Classroom Pulse Check In survey. This is a survey that students complete each term to provide us some really useful information about their ongoing wellbeing. 

We would like to remind students and families to be wary of approaches from strangers, especially when they are unaccompanied or travelling to and from school. If they are approached, students should not respond and should not accept offers of rides or gifts. Students should seek the assistance of other nearby adults if they feel unsafe and should report any events to a trusted adult (parent or school staff member) as soon as possible. SAPOL advises that taking out a mobile phone and calling police can deter an offender and they recommend the student making a formal report to their closest police station. 

Please remember that we have the following dates set aside as Pupil Free Days for the staff to undertake professional development, staff reflection, complete hand over activities, etc. Our remaining set dates are: Friday 5 July, Friday 23 August, Monday 14 October, Thursday 12 December and Friday 13 December. Please mark them in your diary and book in to OSHC if you require this service (spaces are limited).

On Friday of this week Mrs Menadue and I will be attending a Leaders of Learning professional development day in Adelaide. Mr Morgado and Mrs Villano will be in charge for the day. Next week Mr Platten and I will be attending the South Australian Catholic Primary Principal’s Association Conference from Wednesday to Friday. Michelle Menadue and Matt McGinty will be in charge during our absence.

Kind regards

Peter Mercer

Head of School

‘Shaping our Future Together’

CATHOLIC IDENTITY

LITURGICAL CALENDAR INFORMATION

A Liturgical Calendar shows the cycle of seasons in the Catholic Church. The Church year consists of six liturgical seasons: Advent, Christmas, Ordinary Time after Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Ordinary Time after Pentecost. In each newsletter we aim to highlight different events in the Liturgical Calendar that we might be focusing on or celebrating in our school.

This term we celebrate many feast days that occur in our liturgical calendar. A feast day is a day when we remember and celebrate something or someone important to our faith.

Special celebrations that we focus on during classroom and whole school prayer throughout term 2 and those that come up in our liturgical calendar include:

Week 3

12/5 Feast of the Ascension

12/5 Mother’s Day

Week 4

19/5 Feast of Pentecost

Week 5

26/5 Feast of the Trinity

26/5 National Sorry Day

27/5 Reconciliation Week

Week 6

2/6 Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ

5/6 World Environment Day

Week 8

20/6 World Refugee Day

22/6 Feast of St. Thomas More

Week 10

7/7 NAIDOC Week

FEAST OF THE ASCENSION

Through the gospel stories, Jesus reminds his followers that he won’t always be with them in the same way as is he at present. They misunderstand him, thinking he is going away to some far distant country. Jesus reassures them that he will not abandon them. He encourages them to have faith.

We celebrate the feast of the Ascension, a day of great joy! While we do not see Jesus with our eyes, we know that he is still with us. Or perhaps we see Jesus whenever we look at another person.

PROJECT COMPASSION – WALK FOR WATER

Sending a very big thank you to our families for the gold coins and online donations for CARITAS Australia. 

As we walked around the oval, some students shared their reflections.

Ashton in Year 3 Haylock said, ‘Our buckets are heavy, but their buckets would have been really full’.

Mariam in Year 5/6 Tullio said, ‘This is a good idea to raise awareness about helping other people’.

Mia in Year 4/5 Rose said, ‘Imagine if you had to do this every day’.

MOTHERS DAY

We hope you were able to join us for our Mother’s Day coffee morning and prayer service this week. We say thank you for all you do and hope you enjoyed a lovely celebration with your family.

CATHOLIC EDUCATION WEEK

This week we have been celebrating Catholic Education Week. During our weekly Microsoft teams prayer session, students in Year 4/5 Dickson shared what they love about our school. Students have also been reflecting on the wonder and awe of God’s creation. In Year 5/6 Tullio, students are making seeded paper bookmarks to share with the parishioners at St. Thomas More Church.

ELIZABETH CATHOLIC PARISH SACRAMENT PROGRAM

For those families who have enrolled in the program, please be aware of the following dates:

Confirmation Workshop Session 2

Saturday May 25

9am – 11am

St. Thomas More Church – 19 Laverstock Rd, Elizabeth North.

Reconciliation Workshop Session

Saturday June 15

9am – 11am

St. Thomas More Church – 19 Laverstock Rd, Elizabeth North.

Please contact Melissa Musolino for more information.

Phone: 82556144

Email: mmusolino@smm.catholic.edu.au

OR

Phone: 7285 1500

Email: mmusolino@sttmore.catholic.edu.au

In our Reception Class over the last couple of weeks, we have been talking about our mums, grandmas, aunties and all the special ladies that we have in our lives. We also talked about Jesus and the special lady that he had in his life – his mum, Mary.

We talked about the things that Mary would have done to help Jesus while he was growing up.

We think that Mary would have helped Jesus by;

Wiping his bottom

Changing his nappy

Giving him some food

Washing him – giving him a bath or a shower

Giving him some milk

Playing with him

Putting him to bed

Giving him cuddles

Picking him up

Teaching him how to walk and talk and run

Teaching some songs

Giving him some toys

And to ALWAYS LOVE HIM.