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- Prayer Focus
- The Principal's Report
- Celebrating Our Faith
- Learning Together
- Parish News
- Parent Assembly
- Grok Cyber Competition 2021
- Peer Support
- Sharing Our Learning
- PhD Research Project
- Student Awards
- Creative Corner
- Sunshine Cafe
- Sport Spotlight
- What's On Next Week ...
- Advance Dates for Your Diary
- This Week's Notes
- Billboard
Outstanding Achievements
Last term our Year 5 and 6 students participated in the Grok Cyber Competition. The Cyber Competition is a 45 minute online activity open to all Australian school students in Years 5-12. The competition consists of 12 interactive problems in which students explore how to be more secure online and discover common cyber security risks.
We would like to acknowledge a number of outstanding achievements, with more information later in the newsletter, but in particular; Tori McGrath (Year 6) - High Distinction, Joseph Hunt - the only student in Year 5 to receive a Distinction in a Year 5 and 6 competition. Congratulations to all students and thanks to Mrs Blundell for leading this opportunity.
Planning ahead
As I shared last week, we are doing all we can to provide the special activities possible for our students, with some adaptations, rather than not having them at all. Please mark your calendars so you don’t miss any of the fun! Here is what we are planning ahead for:
Week 4 - Sacrament of Confirmation
You will find more about this from Mr Porter in the newsletter and via emails that have been coming to you from St Agnes' Parish. We look forward to sharing this very special sacrament with our families next week.
Week 7 - Book Week
You will receive a note emailed home next week, outlining the fun that is being planned for Book Week, which we will celebrate on Friday 27th August. Please read through and help make this a great day!
Week 8 - Glasshouse Performance - CHANGE OF DATE
We have been working towards our Glasshouse performance which was planned for 31st August. This has been changed to a Term 4 date of 2nd November, due to current restrictions not being suitable for this to take place. We are hopeful that with some more time, things will ease and we can do this as planned, just later. Continue to read our newsletter and check your emails for information relating to this.
Week 10 - P&F Colour Run
We are super excited that our P&F core group are able to work towards this fun event at the end of term. They will share more details with you in the coming weeks, including how you can assist this to come together. Look out in the newsletter for this information.
Week 10 - Dance Eisteddfod
Those students who have been preparing with Mrs Jackson for the Glasshouse and Eisteddfod will be performing and representing our school on 16th September, as currently this is going ahead.
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
After learning about the Pentecost story, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Sacrament of Baptism, the candidates are well prepared to receive the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation commencing next week on Monday, Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday from 5:30pm at St Agnes's Church.
Sacrament of Confirmation Presentation Mass:
The candidates will have their photos displayed through this weekend’s Parish Masses and ‘Pray for Me’ cards will be distributed to parishioners as we continue to pray for the candidates.
Sacrament of Confirmation Workshops:
Candidates, parents and carers participated in our Confirmation Workshops run over the last week. They were lovely nights of reflection and activities all about Confirmation and the Holy Spirit in our lives.
St Joseph’s Winter Appeal
The Mini Vinnies Team are running our St Joey’s Winter Appeal. We are collecting warm clothes and blankets for those in need. Students can donate scarfs, beanies, jumpers or blankets by bringing them to school. This appeal will run until the end of Winter (August). We hope we can help our local charities such as St Vincent De Paul who take our donations to the people who need it. Many thanks in advance for your support.
More information can be found: https://catholicoutlook.org/vinnies-launches-2021-winter-appeal-to-support-homelessness/
Journey into the Faith
Congratulations to Gemma and Hannah Cooper for taking the next step into their spiritual journey at their Baptism last Sunday.
Nathan Porter
Assistant Principal Mission
GREEN AND GOLD DAY
Today we celebrated ‘Green and Gold Day’ in honour of our Australian athletes competing in Tokyo. They have all worked so hard and struggled under COVID conditions to remain in top competitive condition, ready to represent their country. We have seen some amazing results in the first week. Such sportsmanship, dedication and support.
‘Green & Gold Day' was created for everyone. As you can see by the photos, we were all very excited to be wearing our green and gold.
We are all aware how important good role models are for our children to help them aspire to reach their dreams and build resilience. Imagine if some of our children could one day represent Australia at the Olympic games.
NATIONAL SCHOOLS TREE PLANTING DAY
National Tree Day is a call to action for all Australians to put their hands in the earth and give back to their community. Each year, about 300,000 people volunteer their time to engage in environmental activities that educate individuals about the world around them. It's a day to venture outdoors and get to know your community, and most importantly, to have fun!
Today we took the opportunity to participate in Schools Tree planting day by planting a tree as the beginning of our new Indigenous Garden. Sunday is National Tree Day. It is all about regeneration – whether it’s ecosystems recovering from the vicious bushfires, or our mental and emotional recovery in the wake of COVID-19. How will your family contribute to this day?
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.
The Cyber Competition is a 45 minute online activity open to all Australian school students in Years 5-12.
The competition consisted of 12 interactive problems in which students explored how to be more secure online and discover common cyber security risks. After taking part in the Grok Cyber Competition students were able to:
- Have a greater understanding of why it is important to protect their personal information.
- Know how to create stronger passwords.
- Be able to evaluate emails and text messages to reduce the risk of falling victims to scams.
- Understand what to do if they receive a scam email or message.
Our students once again have received some amazing results:
High Distinction Year 6: Tori McGrath
Distinction Year 5: Joseph Hunt
Distinction Year 6: Aaron Bijuu, Axel Davidson, Bonnie Russell, Cooper Preston, Eva Francis, Hunter Vause, Ivy Basanovic, John Dal Santo, Lawson Bentley and Oscar Turner
Congratulations to all our students for their efforts!!
Sarah Blundell
Leader of Digital Pedagogies/STEM
Student Refelctions
What I love about Peer Support is the fact that I am working with kids. Sometimes it’s hard but most of the time it’s fantastically amazing. It’s a good way to get better at talking to a group of people and it teaches you how to communicate with people of ages other than my own. It’s a great way to help me with managing my time and feelings. I can't wait to do more and I want to see my skills improve with the help of Peer Support. I especially want to improve my confidence when talking to the kids and organising everything. I hope that I will be able to overcome my fears and be able to build good peer relationships. I can't wait to be a better me . - Bronte
I love doing Peer Support because it helps me to be more responsible. It also helps me with my public speaking. Peer Support develops my time keeping and organisation skills. It is really fun getting to know the children and helping them learn about responsibility and resilience. Peer Support has always been an important part of my school life and I’ve been waiting to do this for 6 years! This is going to be one of my favourite highlights of Year 6! - Amara
I love peer support because it helps me with my confidence speaking in front of people. I sometimes get embarrassed talking in front of my group but I push through it. Peer Support also gets my organisation skills to a higher level. I found out that when I fully organise my items, I get it done and we can fit in a game at the end! It’s a privilege to be able to work with students and socialise with other grades. It's a really big help to people who need more responsibility. If somebody wants to be a teacher when they grow up, it will be a really good opportunity to know what it's like to be a teacher and what a teacher goes through. I’ve always wanted to be a peer support leader from the day I started school. I still remember my first Peer Support session, I went home, and told my mum, “ I know how to spell Netball!! ”, she said “ Good Work Tilly ”. I hope everyone else enjoys it like I did. This is a definite highlight of Year 6. - Matilda
100 Days of Kindergarten
Kindergarten celebrated being at school for 100 Days on Thursday, with some special elderly visitors sharing time with them. You may have recognised their faces under their costumes, and no doubt Kindergarten went home with some wonderful stories to tell!
Holiday Reading Challenge in Kindergarten
Congratulations to our Kindergarten students who participated in the Kinder Holiday Reading Challenge! They were awarded a certificate for their amazing efforts. Congratulations to George Smith (KBC) and Daniel Shijo (KSC) who were the winners of the raffle and each won a children’s book.
At the end of Term 2, students and teachers in Kindergarten, Year 2 and Year 4 were invited to participate in a PhD Research project. Participant Information Statements and consent forms were forwarded to all students. Many thanks are extended to all those who have returned the forms. If you have not returned the forms, you are still more than welcome to do so. Again, if there are any questions about this project, please feel free to contact me directly at elise.howard@uon.edu.au
Many thanks for your support of this project.
Elise Howard
Year 6 Teacher
Leader of Learning Stage 3
KBC | Ashton Wynter | George Smith | Alex Searle |
KSC | Zoey Smurthwaite | Duaansh Sachan | Harriet Clough |
3H | Bronte Sprague | Dakota Fletcher | Lilly Chapman |
4MG | Dakota Simpson | McKenzie Newton | Sophie Lawrence |
5S | Maddyx Gray | Jackson Coleman | Millahni Moore |
6H | Millie Paine | Leyla-Jane Ahoy | Matilda Kos |
Lunchtime Drama Clubs
Our Infants Drama group and some of our Year 6 students are busy preparing short dramatic skits about famous Aussies for our concert. Be prepared to giggle!
Glee Club
Our Glee Club have started preparing their dance and song item for the concert, singing outside of course. We are strongly encouraging any new singers to join us and are practicing on Wednesday's at Lunch 1.
Teachers Down Under
Even the teachers are busy preparing for their item in the concert!
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
Touch Football Gala Day
Students in Year 3 to 6 are invited to represent our school at the NSW Touch Football Gala Day. It is to be held on Thursday 9th September at Tuffins Lane, Port Macquarie. Be sure to complete the online expression of interest form by Thursday 5th August. See the note emailed home on 29th July for details.
Todd Woodbridge Cup
Last Friday fifteen Year 3 and 4 students competed in the Todd Woodbridge Cup for tennis.
The day consisted of round robin mini games against Lake Cathie Public, Port Primary and Telegraph Point Primary schools. The children learnt the skills of the game as well as how to score each match. All children demonstrated great sportsmanship and represented our school admirably. Well done Aidan, Advik, Makayla, Indhi, Jessica, Sunny, Taz, Lucas, Rhys, Ollie, Marielle, Blake, Xavier, Joseph and Finlay.
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
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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Week 7 - Term 3 2021
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Monday 23rd August |
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Tuesday 24th August |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday 26th August |
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Friday 27th August |
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Week 8 - Term 3 2021
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Monday 30th August |
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Tuesday 31st August |
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Wednesday |
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Thursday 2nd September |
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Friday 3rd September |
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Sunday 5th September |
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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
Touch Football - Expression of Interest (Year 3 - 6)
Whole School Glasshouse Concert - Ticket Sales and Back Up Dates
Year 4 - Virtual Reality and Quality Literature Day