Term 2, Week 1, 2024
Dear Families,
Welcome to Term 2. It has been great to welcome lots of smiling faces again at the gate each morning. Many of the children have shared stories of what they did during the holidays. While some went away, many enjoyed the opportunity to just stay home and do things around the house. Whatever your family did, we hope it was great just to share that extra time as a family. Welcome to Chloe who has commenced with us in Year 2 this week. We hope that your stay with us will be full of learning, making friends and fun!
Remember the Parent Teacher Learning Conversations will be held next Monday 6, Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 May. You would have received a ‘times slip’ at the end of last term, indicating the day and time(s) of your particular conversation(s). If you have lost it or misplaced it, please check with your child’s teacher or with Lisa in the front office. Please remember that these Learning Conversations are for ten minutes only. If you require more time than this then you will need to arrange an alternative time with the classroom teacher. Teachers do a great job in keeping to their schedule so help them keep to time. I thank our teachers for the extra work involved in these learning conversations. There is a great deal of preparation involved but it is also a few extra hours of added work at the end of their normal busy and tiring days.
On Thursday 16 May our Year 4 to Year 6 children will be participating in a sporting carnival at Argana Park at Elizabeth Downs (Netball and Soccer). On this day we ask parents to drop those children at St Thomas More School in the morning (8:45am) and collect them from St Thomas More School in the afternoon (3pm). The children will walk to and from Argana Park from St Thomas More. Any children in OSHC will be transported in private vehicle by one of the staff. Parents may wish to work together to transport each other’s children. Thank you for your support and understanding. It will save families the expense of us hiring a bus. While there is a canteen at the venue, we ask that children do not bring money to spend. Our preference is for children to take their own lunch, snacks and drinks with them for the day.
We have some student and teacher desks/tables that are no longer required by the school. If you would like a table to take home then please see me at drop off or pick up. These are free to take!
In Term 2 and Term 3 there is no requirement for children to wear hats during play time, unless the UV factor is particularly high. It would be good for your child to keep their hat at school in their book tray just in case.
Our School Board AGM will take place on Tuesday 14 May at 6pm.
In Week 3 we will be holding the Scholastic Book Fair. Please check Seesaw for further information about this fair. Week 3 is also Catholic Education Week.
Thank you to our caregivers and children for enabling their children to come dressed in their favourite team colours yesterday. As a reward to our Crows supporters we played the Crows theme song to begin the day today.
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).
Sunday May 12th is Mother’s Day. I would like to take this opportunity to say Happy Mother’s Day to all our Mums. I hope it is a fabulous day for you. At this same time we bring to mind all those women who, for whatever reason, are unable or choose not to have children. We ask for God’s blessing on all women at this particular time. As an acknowledgement and a celebration of all women, we will have a short liturgy for all those who would like to attend on Monday 13th May in the Yarning Place at 9am. We would love to see you there!
Kind regards
Peter Mercer
Head of School
‘Shaping our Future Together’
Recent News
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 1
3/5 Project Compassion Fundraiser – Walk for Water
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
EASTER
Easter is not just one day! It is a whole season of 50 days of joyful celebration which will last up until the feast of Pentecost. We take even longer to celebrate Easter than we took during Lent to prepare for it. In the early days of the Easter season, our readings from the bible told us about how different people reacted to the wonderful news of the resurrection. The resurrection of Jesus is the foundation of our faith. Our Easter celebration prepares us for the coming of the Holy Spirit, who helps us bring the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection to everyone we meet.
ANZAC DAY
During the holidays we celebrated ANZAC Day. A day when we remember in a special way all Australians and New Zealanders who have died in war. We remember all women and men who served their countries in war, our own relatives and those people whose names we do not know. We remember this history of war, and pray that, in the future, all people will work to make peace not war.
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION - COMPASSION
Our theme in Religious Education this term is Compassion.
During staff prayer this week, staff were invited to walk with Jesus in compassion.
Jesus’ entire ministry was marked by this capacity for compassion, and it remains central to our ministry too. As we listened to the Gospel reading, staff were invited to listen for any key words that might connect with them in the reading and for the message that might be there for them that day.
In Religious Education lessons, students in Year 5/6 have started their unit of work by developing a class definition on what they think compassion is. They came up with a list of words to describe compassion, some of which included; loving, caring, kind, common good, beliefs, people and that it included ways of thinking, being and taking action.
As a class group, they came up with the following as a definition for compassion:
‘Compassion is about taking actions that are positive, mature and respectful that show kindness, love and caring actions to one another for the common good.’
ELIZABETH CATHOLIC PARISH SACRAMENT PROGRAM
For those families who have enrolled in the program, please be aware of the following dates:
Confirmation Workshop Session 1
Saturday May 11
9am – 11am
St. Thomas More Church – 19 Laverstock Rd, Elizabeth North.
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
Friday 5th of April, St Mary Magdalene’s School celebrated Sports Day in perfect weather for outside activities. It was great to see students demonstrating their, agility, coordination, speed and strength to the best of their ability throughout sports day. To see everyone having so much fun and striving to gain points for their team was a highlight.
Thank you to all the staff for their help and support throughout Sports Day. The students appreciated your enthusiasm, encouragement and willingness to get involved and celebrate a day of activity and fun.
I’d also like to congratulate the students on their willingness to demonstrate the Sports Day values of Respect, Effort, Teamwork and Cooperation. Thank you to all the Sports Captains and Embassadors for their help and support in preparing for and assisting on Sports day.
Congratulations to the McCauley House team on winning the House Cup and Fitzpatrick on winning the Spirit Cup.
Final Results:
House Cup Kath Platten Spirit Cup
1st McAuley – 1601 1st Fitzpatrick – 4675
2nd Coolock – 1453 2nd Coolock – 4170
3rd Fitzpatrick – 1422 3rd McCauley – 2885
800m Champions
Boys: Moses Kwizere
Girls: Mariam Habibullah
100m Champions
Boys: Elisa Byiringiro
Girls: NyanluakDerwei
Fantastic Effort Everyone!
PE Teacher/Coordinator
Cristian Morgado
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