Term 1, Week 3, 2023

Dear Families,

On Tuesday of this week, we held our first assembly for the year. It was great to be able to once again gather the whole school together and invite parents to join us. We celebrated with prayer, acknowledgement of country, shared some good learning, handed out some awards, welcomed our new people and sang Happy Birthday to those who have recently aged just a little bit more!

Thank you to those parents who were able to come to the Meet and Greet evening. I hope you found the information from the teachers useful as we begin this year together.

Thank you also to those families who have returned the ‘Consent Forms’ to the front office as requested. If you have not yet, could you please do this as a matter of priority.

Do you have Broadband access at home via the NBN? On 3 February the Hon Michelle Rowland MP issued a media release outlining the Australian Government’s initiative to provide 12 months broadband for up to 30,000 families – for FREE! The only requirement is that you have a child(ren) attending school and you are currently not connected to the internet at home. If you do not have Broadband access and would like to have it, please contact the school and we will put your name forward and hope that you are successful.

This year we have begun our move from our students using laptops as their 'device' to using iPads. We consider that in a primary school setting they are a more appropriate device for learning, recording information (photos, videos, etc) and for displaying work to the class on the TV screens. Our new iPads (for Year 3, 4, 5 and 6) are here and almost ready to be handed out to children. We are just waiting for their protective covers to arrive. Hence it is important for parents and students to sign and send back the ICT Agreement form as mentioned above. Without it your child may not be provided with a device.

I am sure you would have heard the ‘beep, beep, beep’ alarm and seen the red flashing light near the canteen window that has been going off quite a bit over the past year. This is a warning that something is not working properly in our sewerage system. I am pleased that we have finally been able to find the problem and have it rectified so hopefully we won’t be bothered by that irritating noise anymore. Thank you to our staff and students who have been very patient in ignoring it and continuing with their work and learning.

Next Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday (also called Pancake Tuesday). This is the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of the season of Lent in our church calendar. Lent is a time when we consciously try to change our lives for the better. The intention is to try to stop doing the things that are harmful or unjust and try hard to do things in a better way. For example, do I swear a lot? Am I mean to other people? Have I ‘cut off’ my relationship with family or friends? This is the time that we are challenged or called to do something about these kinds of things.

In the old days people would ‘fast’ in the time of Lent and often spend much of the time in prayer.  So that they didn’t waste food, they would use up all their eggs and milk and make pancakes. Hence, we have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday as a reminder. More recently people would give up some of the niceties in life, whether it be chocolate, alcohol or dining out. In this time of Lent, instead of giving up things, I encourage you to go out of your way to mend any ‘broken’ relationships that you may have. Have courage and be the one to make the first move!

On Tuesday morning we will have pancakes available in Nelson Grove from 8:30-8:45am. We look forward to sharing them with you.

Next Monday will be Mr Maglai’s last day with us for the year. Seb is taking leave for the remainder of the 2023 school year. You would be aware that Mr Cristian Morgado has already begun taking the PE lessons in preparation for Seb’s leave. Cristian works across both St Mary Magdalene’s and St Thomas More Schools teaching PE. We wish Seb all the best for his time of leave over the next 10 months or so. We hope it is full of relaxation, fun and renewal.

Shaping the Future Together
Peter Mercer
Head of Campus

‘Leaders aren’t born … they are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal or any goal.’ ~ Vince Lombardi

Welcome to Term 1 Week 3!

Time is flying by very quickly. I am so pleased that the students have settled back into school well. I would like to welcome Jia to the school and to the Year 4/5 class!  This week we celebrated Valentine’s Day. Prior to Valentine’s Day, we posed the questions, “What is love?” and “How can we show love?” during our religion lesson. We also looked at the story of Saint Valentine and the reading from Corinthians 13:1-13 which was adapted for the students; “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it does not show off, it is not proud. It does not put others down, it is not selfish, it is not easily angered, it forgives. It is unconditional.”

The following lesson, the students were provided with a love heart with the statement “my friends love me because…,” they were tasked with writing something they love about their classmates.

On Valentine’s Day, we did a candy heart experiment with Vinegar, Soda, and Water. The students predicted what would happen to the heart-shaped candy once it was dropped into the solution and recorded their observations. For craft, we did two activities, ‘You stole a Pizza my heart’ and ‘You make my heart soar’. Here’s what some of the students have to say about our activities!

“I liked when we made the pizzas and finger balloons because it was fun and different. The science experiment was cool! “- Tina

“The experiment was fun; I did not expect the candy to foam up at the top” – Damien

“The activity I liked the most was the finger painting and how we turned our fingers into balloons” – Kaeleb

“I liked doing the experiment, it was cool watching the candies dissolve and foam up at the top” - Gabriella