Dear Parents and Carers

“No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house.”

Matthew 5: 15

Our RE theme for 2022 is ‘Let your light shine’. Our theme is taken directly from the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, which sees Jesus exhort his disciples to be a ‘light to the world’ and to ‘let their light shine’. One of the aims of education is to enable children to flourish and in partnership with parents, to enable them grow, develop, and learn in such a way that they become a light to the world. Our theme for the year captures our vocation beautifully.

First Reconciliation Parent Information Night

On Monday night, we held an information session for the parents of children in Year 3 who are making their First Reconciliation this year. The Reconciliation program is a combination of home and school. My thanks to those parents who have volunteered to be Home Group leaders. As with all of our sacramental programs, we prepare our children in partnership with Holy Trinity School, who belong to the same parish as Sts Peter and Paul. Together with Monsignor John Woods, we work collaboratively and have some combined experiences, for example retreat days, and the like. My thanks to Fr John, Steph Burns, our 3/4 teachers – Paul Jenkins, Sarah Walsh, Josh Gereis and Michael Washington – and the Leadership Team from Holy Trinity, for their partnership and support.

Meet the Teacher

Last night, we held our annual ‘Meet the Teacher’ evening. It is an ongoing sign of the times that we held the evening over Teams, as opposed to our preferred model, which would have been in-person. Nonetheless, the evening provided a good opportunity to make contact with your children's teachers and to receive information about the year. All grades have sent home a term overview, a term letter and a grade-relevant curriculum summary, which is designed to give parents a good sense of the curriculum covered in each grade year. Please contact your child’s teacher if you would like a recorded copy of the meeting and/or the slides they used in the presentation. A PDF copy of the slides I used in my presentation is attached to this newsletter. My thanks to all teachers for their work and preparation.

Meet the Teacher 2022_final.pdf

COVID and Rapid Antigen Tests

My thanks to all parents and families for their support of the school and its processes during these COVID affected times. I hope the daily updates concerning exposure counts is helpful; it appears that we are having minimal positive cases. Nonetheless, I ask all parents to maintain the twice-weekly testing regime, and to inform the school if your child or children tests positive for COVID. All disclosures are strictly confidential and student or family names are, of course, not made known. Thank you for your support.

Temporary Cessation of Carnivals

Due to ACT Health and CE guidelines and COVID imposed restrictions, we are unable to hold our sports carnivals for the moment. Both our swimming and athletics carnivals were due to be held this term. We aim to hold our athletics carnival later in the year, when hopefully much if not all of the restrictions will have eased, or gone altogether. Our swimming carnival, again, will be held later in the year and will take the form of a ‘fun day’. The school will keep parents informed of all updates and changes, as they happen. Thank you all for your support.

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal