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This week I am keeping the focus on the big picture of school at the moment. I ask that you please continue to read our newsletter as the first place information is shared with families, in conjunction with emails that are sent out directly to families about specific information.
COVID-19 Update
Thank you for your support in continuing to live by the most recent COVID-19 guidelines. We acknowledge that at times this creates a sense of frustration, but we are all in the same place, doing our best to care for each other and your patience and positivity is appreciated. At present, there are no new guidelines for us and much will remain the same in the coming weeks. However, we must remember that as developments occur beyond our local community, we may at any point be asked to adapt again and we will continue to inform you of these needs.
Our “source of truth” at school remains in decisions and information from NSW Health and CSNSW (Catholic Schools NSW), with guidance and direction from CSO (Catholic Schools Office) Lismore. We are in constant communication as needed with them and we are working from a stance of “working with COVID-19” rather than “reacting to COVID-19”.
We remain at Level 2 restrictions in schools currently, which means school as usual for students and staff with only essential visitors to the school, wearing masks and signing in for all over the age of 14. We are developing plans behind the scenes, only for the purpose of being prepared should we be required to move beyond Level 2. Our newsletter, emails and messages directly from school remain the “source of truth” for parents and carers, so please disregard any media reports or social media information, as all important information comes to us through our network and we will pass on to families as soon as possible.
Please remember that you are able to make contact directly with teachers if you require a phone call relating to learning due to our cancelled parent and teacher interviews.
Uniform Review
The long awaited conclusion to the Uniform Review for all St Agnes' Parish schools has come. In the following weeks you will receive a letter outlining what has come from the review, with the projection that we are on track for the new uniform to begin in January 2022. We are also eagerly awaiting a sample to show families.
P&F
Our wonderful P&F core group met this week to plan for what can still currently happen for us at school to raise money and build our community. You will find details of the planned activity for this term in the newsletter next week. We are proactively working on the premise that rather than cancel things, we can hopefully adapt to meet guidelines and still have fun!
Tess Koning
Principal
Term 3 Prayer Dates
Prayer Service for Mary Mackillop - Monday 9th August, 9:05am (Hall).
Prayer Service for the Assumption of Mary - Monday 16th August 9:05am (Hall).
Prayer Service for Father's Day - Friday 3rd September, 10:15am (MPA).
At this time we are unable to invite families to these.
Sacrament Confirmation
Please refer to correspondence direct from St Agnes' Parish for information regarding their Confirmation. At this stage, all events regarding the preparation of candidates are as planned.
We pray for the children who are preparing for their Sacrament of Confirmation.
Sacrament of Confirmation Reflection & Preparation Day:
On Friday 30th July candidates will complete a series of learning activities as well as make final preparations to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit through their Confirmation. This is held at school during normal school hours.
Sacrament of Confirmation Workshops:
Parents and candidates only will attend one of the last two workshops on:
Wednesday 28th July, 6:00pm at St Joseph’s Primary School
Thursday 29th July, 6:00pm at St Agnes' Parish Youth Hub
Mary Mackillop Production
We are excited to have Starr Productions present the show ‘Mary Mackillop' for our children on Wednesday 4th August here at school. Mary Mackillop is Australia’s first Saint and her feast day is on 8th August. Children will learn about her life, the challenges she faced and the lives she touched during Australia’s colonial history.
Accendere Year 4
Our Year 4 students enjoyed a spirituality development day on the theme of friendship at St Agnes' Youth Hub and Church. The students engaged in activities that focused on the key ingredients to making and maintaining healthy friendships following the numerous examples of Jesus.
Journey into the Faith
Nathan Porter
Assistant Principal Mission
Eating well impacts children’s health and wellbeing
Research indicates that eating well and being active are critical to children’s health and wellbeing in both the short and long term. They also have a direct impact on children’s performance at school.
The school day is busy, filled with learning, concentration and physical activity. Food is fuel for our bodies and healthy food provides your child with energy and nutrients to get them through a busy day at school. Children will have the best chance of getting all the nutrition they need if they are offered a variety of tasty and healthy foods every day.
As a school we have been trying to become more sustainable and aware of our contribution to rubbish and landfill. We are encouraging all families to be more aware of the amount of packaging which often appears in lunch boxes. Nude food lunch boxes have been a focus for a number of years. Nude foods are food items that are free from disposable packaging. So, essentially, the children are trying to bring their food to school in their lunch box….nude! The idea of this approach is to reduce the amount of rubbish in our school bins and ultimately, begin to have a positive environmental impact on our planet.
Nude foods are fresh fruits, veggies, whole grains and water, providing healthy vitamins and essential nutrients for growing bodies. They’re also generally unprocessed, which means less store-bought convenience snacks and drinks, which are often laden with sugar and unhealthy additives.
Some suggestions for making a nude food lunch box are:
- Go rubbish-free: Remove all packaging from the lunch box. Use containers or a compartmentalised lunch box to store various foods instead of cling wrap, ziplock bags or snacks with commercial packaging.
- Plan ahead: Use your time over the weekend to bake a big batch of healthy homemade treats, such as protein balls, slices and wholemeal muffins. Ration these out by serving and either freeze them and grab them as you need or keep them in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Do some DIY: Consider alternatives to favourite store-bought food products.
- Balancing act: You can balance your child’s lunch box each day by including fruit, vegetables, a source of protein (such as meat), wholegrains (such as bread or brown rice) and water.
- Get them involved: Most importantly, get your child involved and encourage them to take part in the planning and preparation of their nude food lunch box. This will ensure they are proactive and invested in it.
Involve your children in healthy choices
School is a time when children start to make independent choices about their lifestyles. School aged children learn quickly and are influenced by friends and popular trends. This is an important time to talk about and encourage healthy food habits.
Involving children in planning and preparing their own lunch boxes gives them the opportunity to learn about healthy eating, and also gives them a chance to make decisions about what they will be eating during the day.
Some tips to help get your kids involved include:
- Talk to your children about what they would like to have in their lunchbox. Discuss healthier food and drink choices and decide what will be in the lunchbox together.
- Write a shopping list together. Take your children shopping with you and let them choose foods and drinks from the shopping list.
- Encourage your children to help prepare their lunchboxes. Older children may be able to prepare most of their lunch themselves, and younger children can help with making sandwiches or cutting up soft fruit. It is a good idea to prepare lunch boxes the evening before to allow children to participate
Together we have an important role to play in helping our children fulfil their healthy growth and development potential by promoting healthy eating. Let’s work together to ensure our children are fueled for a full day of learning at school.
Jeannine Ucdereli
Assistant Principal Learning and Teaching
St Agnes’ Gift Store - Confirmation Gifts
The St Agnes’ Uniform store, located next to St Agnes’ Primary School in Boronia Street is fully stocked with Confirmation gifts. The opening hours are Monday to Friday 12noon to 5:00pm and on a Saturday 9:00am to 12noon. If you would like to contact them please phone 6584 1076.
100 Days of Kindergarten
On Thursday 29th July Kindergarten students will celebrate 100 days of learning. The day is going to be a fun-filled celebration of learning. We look forward to sharing photos of this special occasion with our Joey's community soon.
Our whole school started Peer Support sessions this week. Our Year 6 students led younger students in participating in activities focused on building resilience. During the session, the children established connections with the other members of their group and created an agreement for their group to enable them to work well together. Whilst our Year 6 students were a little nervous, they led their groups in discussions about a challenging situation and some resilient and non resilient responses. We would like to congratulate our school leaders on the way in which they worked with younger students and we look forward to their reflections on next week's activities about identifying personal qualities and strengths.
Todd Woodbridge Cup - Tennis
The Todd Woodbridge Cup was held at Wood Street, West Port Macquarie Tennis Club today. The event encouraged participation, teamwork and a positive experience in physical activity. We had two teams of Year 3 and 4 students.
Golf
Once again we have successfully received funding from Sporting Schools to bring an external coach into our school. This term we welcome James Single, who will coach our classes in Golf. Years 2 - 6 will have coaching with James on Fridays in weeks 4, 5, 6 and 8, while Kindergarten and Year 1 will participate in weeks 9 and 10. We’re very excited to improve our putting and golfing skills.
Grade Sport Uniform Days for Term 3
Leah Toole and David Lynch
Sports Coordinator and Assistant Sports Coordinator
KSC | Conor Grieves | Jacob King | Johns Mejo |
2S | Eli Partington | Archie Rex | Mearah Canty |
3D | Noah Alchin | Jason Loumeau | Layla Porter |
Emily Smith | |||
3H | Lucas Fernando | Hannah Tony | Aidan Shoby Alias |
4F | Sophie Hollis | Mayriah Spicer | Lailah Watson |
4MG | Charlie Burns | Blake Herbert | Charli Hoitink |
6B | Cooper Waterhouse | Hunter Vause | John Dal Santo |
6H | Lawson Bentley | Matthew Kelly | Ella Hoade |
Dance
Our Dance rehearsals are underway leading up to our Glasshouse concert and the Dance Eisteddfod. They are timetabled for every Thursday and Friday and students can wear their sports uniforms on these days.
Tournament of Minds
Our Tournament of Minds team began working on their challenge this week. They have 5 weeks to solve and prepare a ten minute performance presentation that will be filmed and submitted to a panel of judges. We wish them the best of luck.
Art Club
In Infants Art Club, the students learnt how to free draw a puppy. Some students explored creating other animals and shared their lovely drawing with the group.
Glee Club
Calling all new singers!! As the Glee club start preparing their item for the Glasshouse concert, we are strongly encouraging any new singers to join us. We are practicing on Wednesdays at Lunch 1.
Yours in Creative and Performing Arts
Leah Toole
Creative Arts Co-ordinator
Fruit for Crunch’n’Sip
Fruit can be ordered in a lunch order for Fruit Break (Crunch’n’Sip) but please remember to let your child know that it is part of their lunch order and that they will need to collect it from the Canteen. Fruit can be ordered with over the counter lunch orders or Flexischool online orders (preferred method).
Term 3 Canteen Menu
CANTEEN REMINDERS
- Flexischools cut off time for daily orders is 8:30am. You can place your orders the day before, or at the beginning of the week, to make sure they are in on time. The cut off time is set to ensure that there is enough time to process, prepare and pack all of the lunch orders each day.
- Please remind your children if they have a hand written lunch order to drop it off first thing in the morning or if they need to pick up their fruit break items from the canteen.
- We do not offer an IOU service. If you don't use Flexischools and do not have cash for lunch orders you can pay in the office using EFTPOS. If there are any issues with providing lunch please call the office to discuss.
lunch orders
Canteen lunch orders can be placed via Flexischools or by dropping them in the basket on the counter each morning.
Flexischools is our preferred method for submitting lunch orders.
Reminder - Cutoff time for online orders is 8.30am.
- Download the Flexischools app from the App Store or from Google Play.
Note: for iPhone and iPad please select ‘Allow’ notification - Click “Register Now” to create account
- Top-up your balance
- Start ordering immediately
- Alternatively Go to www.flexischools.com.au or you can find the link on the school website.
Don’t forget you can place your online orders days or even weeks in advance, making the morning rush even easier!
Kim Goldie
Canteen Coodinator
Week 3 - Term 3 2021
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Monday 26th July |
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Tuesday 27th July |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday 29th July |
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Friday 30th July |
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Week 4 - Term 3 2021 |
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Monday 2nd August |
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Tuesday 3rd August |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday 5th August |
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Friday 6th August |
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Sunday 8th August |
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Week 5 - Term 3 2021 |
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Monday 9th August |
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Tuesday 10th August |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday 12th August |
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Friday 13th August |
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Week 6 - Term 3 2021 |
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Monday 16th August |
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Tuesday 17th August |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday 19th August |
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Friday 20th August |
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Please note these dates can change from time to time due to unforeseen circumstances and we will endeavour to advise you of any changes at the earliest possible opportunity. Our school Google calendar can be accessed via this link for additional advanced dates -
For your convenience 2021 school term dates are listed below. They are also located on our website. Click on the words “TERM DATES” on the home page.
TERM 3
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) – Monday 12th July 2021
NO child minding available
Kindergarten to Year 6 commence classes Term 3 – Tuesday 13th July 2021
Kindergarten to Year 6 last day of classes Term 3 – Friday 17th September 2021
TERM 4
Staff Development Day (Pupil Free) – Tuesday 5th October 2021
NO child minding available
Kindergarten to Year 6 commence classes Term 4 – Wednesday 6th October 2021
Kindergarten to Year 6 last day of classes form Term 4 - Wednesday 15th December 2021
Other Holidays in 2021
Labour Day – Monday 4th October 2021 (Public Holiday)
Christmas Day - Saturday 25th December 2021
Boxing Day - Sunday 26th December 2021
Introducing Miss Barber - Year 1
Chickenpox-Shingles fact sheet
20210720 CSO COVID FAQs - Letter to Parents Caregivers and Families