T2 Wk 3 2023

Week 3 is already upon us and it has been great to see the children settling into their classroom routines and engaging in learning. There have been some key events that have happened over the past two weeks, and this momentum doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.

Annual General Meeting

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on Tuesday, 16th May, and the reports and items were tabled. We have copies of the AGM report available in the front office. We will also be making the report available online through our website. This will be uploaded within the next two weeks.

School Board

Our first School Board meeting of the term will be on Tuesday, 23rd May, starting at 6:45. The School Board is essential to ensure that our school is working in partnership with families to bring our children the best opportunities and education possible. We are looking for nominations for the school board.

The responsibilities of the School Board are to:

• Work in a spirit of partnership for the development of policies that nurture the Religious and Community dimensions of the school
• Further develop the relationship between the school and the local Church
• Financial stewardship
• Support the administration of the school
• Pastoral care of the school community
• Promote community development and involvement within the School
• Attend two meetings per term

If you would like to nominate for the school board or would like more information about it, could you please contact the front office. Please consider being an active member of the St Mary Magdalene’s School community by nominating to be on the School Board

Dream Big

We had our Dream Big event on Wednesday this week. It was wonderful to see the children enthusiastically dancing and singing along to the online performance.

We were also fortunate enough to win an excursion for our year 2 and 4/5 classes to visit a Dream Big event in the city. It was an exciting experience for all involved and we hope it has inspired our students to Dream Big.

School Ambassadors

We had the pleasure of announcing our School Ambassadors at Assembly this week. This is a new role for our year 6 cohort that combines the roles of Mercy Leader, School Captain, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leader. We changed the role because the students' applications and interviews demonstrated a broad set of skills and passions.

Our new School Ambassadors will be ambassadors for our school, you will likely see them at school events, assemblies and tours playing a key role in the promotion of our school and what we stand for.

I am proud to announce our School Ambassadors for 2023 are:

• Felicity Care-Wickham
• Rahwa Habtesilasie
• Callum McCafferty
• Tahnay Warrior

We wish our ambassadors much success in their leadership roles this year!

Book Fair

Finally, a reminder about our book fair that is currently happening in the Yarning Place. The fair will be open until Monday so you still have time to visit and make a purchase. The money raised goes to supporting our school with new books for the library.

Liturgical Calendar Information 

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: 

May 15 – 21 - Catholic Education Week 

May 15 - International Day of Families 

May 28 - Feast of Pentecost 

May 27 – June 3 - Reconciliation Week 

June 4 - Feast of the Trinity 

June 5 - World Environment Day 

June 20 - World Refugee Day 

June 20 - Feast of St. Thomas More 

July 2 – 9 - NAIDOC Week  

Project Compassion 

We would like to say a big thank you to all our families for the donations you made to CARITAS Australia’s Project Compassion Appeal in Term 1.  

Catholic Education Week 

Catholic Education Week has a core focus on celebrating teaching and learning and what it means to be part of a Catholic school community. This year we particularly focus on what students, staff and families love about our school. With the images and words collected from students this week about what they love about our school, we have created a book that will sit in the front office for new families and visitors to explore while they wait. 

Included in this newsletter are some images and comments from our students. 

 Classroom Learning 

Our 5/6 students had the opportunity to describe their experience of a connection with God. They responded via padlet where they could add their thoughts to a collective class page. Below are some initial thoughts from students. 

A connection is a respectful person. 

Connection is when people are hurt, and others help them and care. 

Caring, loving, hospitality, respect, service, compassion, courage, and justice.

You can experience it by showing others how you want to be treated. 

You can experience a connection by being kind to the person you want to have a connection with. 

A connection is when you can pray to God and talk to God whenever. 

When you love your family, and your family loves you.

We have a connection with God when we pray because God is listening to us, so we have a connection with God. 

Praying, meditating, and reading the bible. 

We can experience connection with God just by simply talking to God like you are talking to a friend. God is always there for us. 

 I wonder how you might respond. 

Elizabeth Catholic Parish Sacramental Program

For those families whose child / ren are involved in the 2023 Sacramental Program, please be aware of the following dates for Term 2. 

 Reconciliation Session for Parents and Candidates 

Term 2 Week 3 Saturday May 20 9.00am – 11.00am St. Thomas More Church 

 Celebration of Reconciliation 

Term 2 Week 4 Friday May 26 5.00pm – 6.00pm OR Sunday May 28 11.30am – 12.30pm OR Term 2 Week 5 Saturday June 3 11.30am – 12.30pm 

 Eucharist Session for Parents and Candidates 

Term 2 Week 9 Saturday July 1 9.00am – 11.00am St. Thomas More Church 

What are some of the ways that we connect to God….

In Our Religious Education lessons this term the year 5/6’s students are learning about “Connection”, with a big focus on “how do we build connection with others and with God?” with each other and with God.

This week we have focussed on highlighting the many direct and indirect ways in which we can begin to build and encourage this connection with God.

• Short personal prayers
• Following the Mercy values
• Going to church
• Making a prayer table
• Helping the sick
• Reading the bible
• Christian Meditation 
• Sharing what Jesus has done for us
• Listening to gospel music
• Helping someone when they are sad
• Helping those who need it most
• Giving donations to the church
• Helping poor people
• Spending time with God
• Participating in charity work
• Praying The Rosary
• Giving change to the homeless
• Spread the bible (sharing stories)
• Blessing others

Challenge for families: What is something small that you can do this week to build a connection with a neighbour or with God?

In the first few weeks back at OSHC we’ve been doing some new and interesting things and showcasing our design thinking and creativity through the art of sewing and clothing design.

It turns out that sewing is a lot harder than we first thought and takes a lot of time, planning, patience and perseverance. Some children spent lots of time planning and designing including drawing up designs on paper first, others were a bit more spontaneous and used trial and error as they went. It was great to see the children interested in learning a new skill and giving it a go.

We have also swapped over to our winter menu in OSHC which means we have been trying a variety of new foods for afternoon tea like Pumpkin & Carrot Soup, Curried Sausage and Fried Rice. I have been very impressed by the children’s willingness to try new things and expand their taste buds.

Finally, just a quick reminder to all.

If you need to contact OSHC for any reason or would like to enrol or book in your child/children OSHC Staff can be contacted via phone on (08) 8255 6144 during school business hours or on 0437609630 during OSHC hours. Please feel free to also send an e-mail to info@smm.catholic.edu.au or text message and staff will get back to you as soon as they can.

Thankyou,

Jenn Firth (Acting Coordinator)