Leader's Message
Mother’s Day Breakfast and Prayer Service
It was such a joy today to be able to welcome our mothers, grandmothers and other special female role models in the lives of our children to school for our breakfast and prayer service. It has been a while since we could do this and what a great turn out it was! We hope that you all enjoyed sharing some time with your children, the breakfast hosted by our wonderful P&F, and time to listen to why mothers are so special through God’s eyes and your children’s.
An enormous thank you to our P&F Committee who have spent much time preparing for this to take place and organising so many moving parts to ensure the success of the morning. Laura Bell, Mel Robinson, Stephen Zerafa and Bec Newton have been such advocates for our community and have taken their own time to provide this experience.
Thank you also to staff who set up the spaces for a successful day for all and assisted in hosting the breakfast with an early start. We also thank Year 4 for leading a beautiful prayer service and a special little gift to show our appreciation.
Volunteers in the School
We are so pleased that we have volunteers coming back to school in a variety of ways to assist. We remind families that we do require two things from you to be able to volunteer and while we know this may hinder some people from volunteering, we have a directive from the Catholic Schools Office to do so for the protection of our children. We hope that you understand our first priority is the duty of care to our children and we appreciate you following this process to volunteer in our school. You are required to have an unpaid Working With Children Check (https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-working-children-check) and proof of double COVID Vaccination which are managed by our office staff. If you require any assistance with this, please ask our wonderful Office Aunties.
Hair and Accessories in our Uniform
We draw attention this week to the uniform requirements at school, with particular attention to hair styles and accessories. Hair should be neat, clean and of the student’s natural colour. Hair should be styled off the face for both boys and girls. Extremes in hairstyles are not permitted. Shaved in patterns are not permitted. Long hair must be tied back from the face in the interests of hygiene and safety using elastic, ribbon or headbands in the school colours.
We are seeing a variety of hair styles that are not part of our uniform as well as hair and body accessories. Please ensure that your child does not have these at school, they can be of course for weekend and holiday periods. If your child is wearing these items, they will be asked to remove them and keep them at home. If your child would like a haircut or accessories that are not in keeping with the uniform, we also ask that you save these for holidays when they have time to grow back or come out in time.
Celebrating Our Faith
Mothers’ Day
To all mothers, grandmothers, special ladies, parents and carers who step into a mother's role for our students, may you all have a day full of blessing and love.
Happy Mothers’ Day to you all.
Lord Jesus Christ, You chose to put yourself—tiny, needy and helpless - into the nurturing and watchful hands of a human mother. Since then, every act of mothering, both physical and spiritual, in every time and every corner of the world recollects Mary’s. Inspired by this example, we too, honour our mothers and mother figures today. Bless these women, that they may be strengthened as Christian mothers and nurturers. Let the example of their faith and love shine forth. Grant that we, their sons and daughters, honour them always with a spirit of profound respect.
We ask this in your holy name.
Amen
May the Month of Mary
Even God needed a Mother. As we honour today our earthly mothers and mother figures—including stepmothers, relatives, guardians, close family friends and those who would be mothers—let us honour our heavenly mother as well. Those devoted to her are always led to her Son. For her wise counsel tells us, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5). In the Catholic Tradition, we dedicate the Month of May to Mary, Our Mother. Her example teaches us faith, obedience, humility and most of all, how to love.
Wildfire 10:10 - Year 6
Our Year 6 students joined in with the Stage 3 students at St Joseph's Laurieton for a session of praise, worship and evangelisation.
Wildfire are a Diocese of Lismore Praise and Worship band. The experience is designed as a celebration for students with a Gospel encounter opportunity to achieve the Fullness of Life.
Learning Together
As children progress through their school years, it is very important that checks are made along the way to see how well they are learning the essential skills of reading, writing and mathematics – skills that will set them upon the path to success as adults.
Over the next two weeks our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be completing their NAPLAN Assessments. NAPLAN is a point-in-time assessment that allows parents and carers to see how their child is progressing in literacy and numeracy against the national standard and compared with their peers throughout Australia. At the classroom level, NAPLAN provides additional information to support teachers’ professional judgement about student progress.
NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students have already learnt through the school curriculum. Over the past few weeks our teachers have ensured that students are familiar with the test formats and have provided them with appropriate support and guidance.
NAPLAN tests are constructed to give students an opportunity to demonstrate skills they have learnt over time through the school curriculum, and NAPLAN test days should be treated as just another routine event on the school calendar. The best way you can help your child prepare for NAPLAN is to reassure them that NAPLAN tests are just one part of their school program, and to advise them to simply do the best they can on the day.
If you would like further information please access NAPLAN - information for parents and carers.
