Dear Families,
Last week (12th September) a number of children from the parish and our schools celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation. This is the time when a person ‘confirms’ their baptism (being baptised into our catholic faith), which is usually a decision made by the parents when they were a baby. The confirmation candidate is now of an age where they can make their own decision about their participation in our church community and complete their initiation into the catholic church. The sacraments of initiation are Baptism, Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Eucharist. On the weekend our newly confirmed celebrated the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time. We wish our newly confirmed (Kamsi, Chiagoziem, Sebastine, Amanda, Jaxon and Keira) and their families every blessing at this special time in their lives.
In a recent newsletter I mentioned that we are changing our phones over to a Voice Over the Internet Protocol (VOIP). Hopefully this will happen before you read this newsletter! In doing this we have been given a new school number replacing our old one. Our new number is 8287 7900 and it is now active. The old number will still work for the next 6 months or so to give people time to start using the new number. Please change your contact details or address book to reflect the new school phone number: 8287 7900.
Please remember if your child is late to school, or is picked up early, they should be signed in and out through the front office. There are two sheets for recording … one for the parents to record the children’s names and one for the students to record their name if the parents have already gone. This is especially important over the next few weeks as Lisa Daniele will be taking some leave and there may be a few different people working on the front desk who might not know all of the children’s names. We wish Lisa all the very best for her leave and her travels. We look forward to seeing her again in Week 5 of Term 4.
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.
This week some of our Year 3, 4 and 5 children represented our school at the Northern Areas Catholic Schools Tee-Ball Carnival. The children had a great time, although the wind was rather testing after a while! Congratulations and thanks to the staff and students who attended. Everyone represented St Mary Magdalene’s very well!
This Friday we were due to have the Colour Fun Run and Teacher Sliming. Unfortunately the weather is not going to be favourable. Looking at the week ahead we have decided to reschedule for Thursday of next week (26th). We begin the day with a 9am Liturgy and then do a whole lot of Mercy Day activities with the children. The Colour Fun Run will happen at 2pm, followed by the teacher sliming. Parents are most welcome to join us for the Liturgy and for the Colour Fun Run. It should be a great day as long as the weather clears by then and is kind to us. This also gives people a bit longer to buy a white t-shirt for their child(ren) if they were planning to do this.
Next Friday (last day of Term 3) is a Casual Clothes Day and the children will enjoy a disco as a reward for doing such a great job in raising money for the Colour Fun Run. Thank you to all the parents and sponsors who supported this fundraiser. We have raised over $6000 … an amazing effort!
This Monday is the Catholic Schools Music Festival at the Festival Theatre. This is an exciting and very special time for our senior choir. To perform on the Festival Theatre stage, in a choir of 300-400 students and an audience of thousands is pretty big deal and something that I hope our students will cherish and remember forever. Congratulations and good luck to Alex, Anastasia, Angelina, Damien, Gabriella, Mia, Oliver and Stella. We hope it is a great night for you and your family!
A BIG THANK YOU to Luca’s dad, Scott, and Lucas and Charlee’s dad, Liam, for moving all of the bark from where the new sand pit will be. It is greatly appreciated and has sped the process up greatly for us. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you to our students who also helped, either with our two dads, or over the past 8 weeks. We look forward to the final clean up and the delivery of the sand. Depending on the rain over the next few days, we may or may not be able to bring the sand truck across the oval. We might need to be patient and wait until the school holidays for the delivery. It will be worth waiting for!
We will be having a Christmas Carols / Concert at 2pm on Friday 6 December. Please mark this in your diary.
We are very excited to being able to offer “Children’s University” for some of our students, commencing next term. A big thank you to one of our Co-Educators, Kathy Keough, for doing the ground work in organising this program for our school. Please check elsewhere in this newsletter for information about Children’s University.
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: Monday 14 October (First Day of Term 4), Thursday 12 December and Friday 13 December. Please mark them in your diary and book in to OSHC if you require this service (spaces will be limited).
Enjoy this coming week and have a safe and family friendly time with your children over the coming holidays. Remember students return on Tuesday 15th October for Term 4.
Kind regards
Peter Mercer
Head of School
‘Shaping our Future Together’
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