Dear Parents and Carers

First Eucharist and Transfiguration Feast Day

Last night at 6 p.m., an information night was held for parents of children who are making their First Eucharist this year. I joined Fron Garrett-Rumba, our REC, as well as Fr John Woods. Philippa Brierley and Emily Capper, from Holy Trinity, Curtin, both joined the meeting too. I wish our students and parents the very best as they undergo this sacramental journey. My thanks to the families who are hosting the home groups.

Still in the area of Religious Education, we are celebrating the Parish Feast of the Transfiguration on Friday of Week 4. Holy Trinity students and staff will be joining us for the day, and classes will be attending Mass together as well as joining for activities. It will be an excellent day and is a great way for the two schools to collaborate. My thanks to Fron for all of her work.

School Works

A number of minor but important school works began in the recent holidays and reached fruition recently. The wooden walk board outside the STEM building that leads to the Grade 5 classrooms required some repairs and has been fixed, and a number of uneven tiles around the carline pick-up and drop off area have been mended. New concreting has also been put in at a seating area near the blue top. My thanks to Sean Rutledge for coordinating the works.

Behaviour Management Trial

The school is currently looking at the way it manages (the very infrequent) occurrences of behaviour which are the result of less than ideal choices. This may include incidents of hands on, swearing, ostracising and the like. We are adopting a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to any incidents of hands on or swearing. Students will have consequences including time off the playground and their parents being contacted. After a certain amount of incidents in a term, consequences that are more serious are triggered, such as in-school suspensions or out-of-school suspensions. At the next Community Council meeting in Week 8, I hope to have a draft of the policy to share with the CC for their review and comments. Following the review and comments, I will publish the policy to the parent community.

Catalyst Initiatives

Catalyst is the educational initiative of the Archdiocese, and currently there is a great deal of Catalyst activity in the K – 2 grades, especially in the area of literacy. This year, Kindergarten have been trialling InitiaLit, which is a very prescriptive and detailed phonics based program that provides a very good platform to enable children to learn to read. One of the benefits of the program is that there is frequent assessment of the students’ progress, and so the school is in an even better position than normal to identify students who may be finding learning to read difficult. Year 1 have just completed their own two-day PL course on InitiaLit and will be soon introducing it into the classrooms. I too completed the course. Year 2 will undergo professional learning at the end of this term and Sean Rutledge will be joining them. K – 2 have also just been learning about a new assessment tool, which is being implemented across the Archdiocese, in all primary schools, called Dibels. Again, like InitiaLit, it is designed to assess students’ progress in literacy, and affords a very good snapshot of children’s learning, thus far.

Further to these initiatives, this term we are trialling in some classes a pedagogical approach called ‘Daily Review’. We are using this approach specifically in Maths. It seeks to ensure that children have particular knowledge and understandings stored in their long-term memory.

The educational understandings that underpin Catalyst are based on an understanding of learning that can be defined as changes to a person’s long-term memory. That is, when learning is effective, certain skills and pieces of knowledge are more likely to be stored in a person’s long-term memory, rather than their short-term memory. This in turn means that students are in a position to learn complex or more sophisticated content, because they are able to retrieve what they already know from their long-term memory, thereby freeing up their working memory, for a new task or piece of information. This focus on memory is called ‘cognitive load’, and refers to how much of a load a person is carrying when performing a new task. This understanding falls under what is called ‘the Science of Learning’, and the research around this understanding of human learning is what is guiding much of the current approach. It is very valuable and we can learn much from the research.

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal

Gospel Reflection 

Jn 6:1-15

This week’s Gospel reading continues the exploration of John Ch 6 that began last week and will continue for another few weeks. The passage begins the extended analysis on the ‘Bread of Life’ image that runs throughout this chapter. Last week’s reading finished with Jesus virtually fleeing the scene when the crowd wanted to make him king. At the start of today’s reading, the crowd has caught up with him again and appears to be looking for a repeat performance of the miraculous feeding. Jesus accuses them of simply wanting more food and not being alert to the truth of the sign they had witnessed. The crowd asks what they must do to accomplish the works of God and Jesus answers: Believe in me!

In response, the people ask for a sign from Jesus: produce manna from heaven as Moses did during the Exodus. In fact, manna from heaven is one of the signs of the coming of the Messiah that is foretold by the prophets. So, in their own way, the people are asking Jesus to demonstrate to them that he is the Messiah. Jesus, however, explains that it was not Moses who produced the manna, but God. In Jesus, God has already produced the sign – the Bread sent down from heaven. There is no need for Jesus to produce such a sign; the sign has already been produced by God. It is up to the people – and us – to recognise God’s gift of life-sustaining nourishment that is Jesus.

In the Eucharist, we continue to celebrate Jesus as the Bread of Life – the sustaining gift of God that ‘gives life to the world’.

Adapted from Greg Sunter

Sacrament of First Eucharist

Below are the key details relating to the Sacrament and instructions for enrolling via Qkr.  If you have any questions, please feel very welcome to contact me via email: fran.garrett@cg.catholic.edu.au

Winter Appeal

Last Thursday, Matt from Vinnies came to collect our Winter Appeal donations. Matt thanked our school community on behalf of Vinnies for our incredible generosity. I would like to extend my personal appreciation for your support of this important cause.

Night Patrol Van Visit

Students also had the opportunity last Thursday to take a tour of the Vinnies Night Patrol Van. Teachers reported that our students were very interested to learn about how the Night Patrol is used to support people in Canberra and to learn ways in which they could help others who are in need.

  

https://www.prayingwithchildren.org/iw4apr3l0v.html

01/08/2021 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Blessings,

Fron Garrett

Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)

https://www.prayingwithchildren.org/iw4apr3l0v.html

01/08/2021 18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Blessings,

Fron Garrett

Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to those students celebrating their birthday this week.

Vanessa B

Thomas H

Prach (Paul) C

Massimo M

Lucy A

Elijah C

Anwesha K

Greta B

Principal's Award: Marcus J, KM

Learning Support Awards: (please note that LS awards are given to any child in the school that the Classroom Support Assistants have noticed doing something wonderful):

Ryan ND, 2W; Niamh D, 3/4B

The School's Lost Property clothing rack is situated in front of the canteen. Parents and students are able to come in before or after school to check for any missing items. Please ensure all uniform is clearly labeled with your child’s name.

Lunch boxes/containers – We ask that all families check their child's lunch bags/containers to ensure they have their first and last name and, preferably, class easily identifiable. This allows any lost containers to be returned if they are forgotten at lunch time. Unnamed containers are disposed of.

Orders are due by 30/7/21. Remember 20% of sales are given to the school to purchase books for the Library and your support is greatly appreciated. 

Library Lunchtime Club- In Term 3 the Library will be open at Lunchtime (after eating time) on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. It is a quiet space where students can come to read, play lego, do puzzles, draw or quietly chat with friends.

BOOK WEEK- Week 8

Wednesday 1st September- 

*Book Week Dress Up Parade: Come dressed as your favourite BOOK Character 

*Whole School Shortlisted Book Activities 

*Whole School Prize for reaching our book goal target with the Book Fair in Term 2

Thursday 2nd September - unfortunately due to COVID Restrictions, the Performances by Meerkat Productions based on the shortlisted books have been postponed and rescheduled for Term 4. 

Please contact amanda.basedow@cg.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions regarding the Library or borrowing.

Keep reading! Mrs Basedow

South/Weston Region Athletics Carnival

Thank you to all of the families who have already sent their child’s permission note back into school and paid the entry fee of $10 via Qkr. If you would like your child to participate in this carnival and haven’t had an opportunity to complete this information yet, please do so as soon as possible. Thank you so much for your assistance with this.

Information in relation to parents/spectators attending the regional carnival will be shared with you when it becomes available to us.

K-2 Gymnastics

All students in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 will be participating in Gymnastics clinics for 4 weeks. These sessions will begin next Monday 2^nd August. We are looking forward to once again working with the Woden Valley Gymnastics Club, who did an amazing job helping us to learn and practise new gross motor skills in lower primary last year.

Boorowa Touch/Netball Carnival save the date

The Boorowa Touch/Netball Carnival is being held this year on Friday 15^th October, at this stage. If you have a child/ren in Years 2-6 who would like to participate in this carnival, please watch out for a note about this coming home shortly via Compass. Once nominations become available they will need to be back in to school no later than Wednesday 11^th August. Thank you so much in advance for the potentially quick turnaround with these. We are currently watching the news very closely to ensure that this carnival will in fact go ahead due to the evolving COVID situation occurring in NSW at this present time. Please rest assured that we will inform you as soon as any new information becomes available to us.

Rebel Sport Woden

We would like to extend a huge thank you to Rebel Sport, Woden and all of our families who are Rebel Sport Members and have attached our school to their Community Give Back Program Account. As a result of this initiative our school receives 5% of any money spent under our school name to purchase new sporting equipment. We have just selected some new large and small basketballs and some futsal balls which will be available for us to collect in the next couple of weeks from our account with Rebel. We look forward to continuing to be able to update our sporting equipment using this resource in the future.

School Sport ACT Calendar

If you ever have any questions about anything related to Sport, please don’t hesitate to get in touch mary.desmet@cg.catholic.edu.au Hopefully I’ll be able to help you out!

Sts Peter & Paul will be celebrating our ‘Annual Science Day’ on Thursday 26th August. 

In class groups, students will participate in a variety of engaging science activities. Keeping with tradition, our Year 6 students will lead the experiments with teacher support and supervision. 

The theme for this year is “Food: Different by Design.” Students are invited to dress as scientists/inventors for the day. 

IMPORTANT: In preparation for Science Day, we need your help to send in recycled materials for the activities we will be conducting. If you have any of these materials that you were going to throw out anyway, could you please send them to school with your child. 

Here is a list of materials that we will need to make our annual Science Day a success: plastic shopping bags; clean small soft drink bottles without labels (coke, fanta, lemonade, etc); jars without labels and cardboard cylinders/rolls. 

Paul Jenkins

In Term Three, the students of Stage Three (Years 5 & 6) will be performing our biannual school production. This year our school play is called “Star Warts”. Auditions have been held and the students with speaking roles now know which parts they have. 

To aid in keeping costs down, we are seeking your assistance to source props for the play. If you are able to donate any of the following, it would be very much appreciated: Fluffy Dice, Fairy Wings x2, Large Torches x2, Giant Tennis Ball, Small Tennis Balls, Rackets x7, Hand Mirror, Wig (with buns on the side), and Toy Light Sabres.  

If you require your props to be returned at the end of the school production, please label them. If you do not wish for your props to be returned, they will be stored for future productions. Please send in your props as soon as possible, so that we can work out what we will need to purchase or construct. 

If you would like to offer your assistance in creating props and costumes for the play, please let us know. Your assistance is also very much appreciated. Thank you. 

Years 5 and 6 Teachers 

Talkiing Series

STEVE BIDDULPH, Australia author, activist and psychologist, has written a number of bestselling books on parenting, and boys’ education. 

(1) Raising Boys, Tues. 27 July, 8-9.30pm, https://www.trybooking.com/BRXBS

(2) Raising Girls, Tues. 3 August, 8-9.30pm, https://www.trybooking.com/BRXBW .

On line event. Cost $16 per household.

Garden Club/Cooking and Curriculum

3/4 have been busy in the classroom and kitchen learning about healthy eating. The garden is also doing well and after last week's garden club was changed due to wet weather, the Garden Club did some planning.

3/4 have been learning about the fruit group. This is the Glow and Go group as it has both carbohydrates for energy as well as important vitamins and minerals to keep our bodies healthy. Have you ever wondered why we eat bananas? For our nerves of course! Potassium from bananas helps our nerve signals in our bodies. In the classroom the children are busy researching and creating posters to explain why our food groups are important.

Garden Club met last Friday to chat about what needs to be done in Term 3. It’s going to be very exciting – starting this Friday! This Friday is a special day as Sts Peter and Paul will be planting tree for National Tree Day. We have chosen a plum tree in order to grow our orchard, as well as ensure the current plum tree has a friend. Cross fingers that in a little while we will be able to use the fruit in our kitchen.

Please email Mrs Birch at Katherine.birch@cg.catholic.edu.au is you have any questions.

The Garden Club

CANTEEN IS CASHLESS

 Families can make contactless payments via Qkr!

 Purchase over-the-counter sale items (snacks & treats) for your child/children in a lunch order via Qkr! 

or

  you can purchase a “daily counter sales voucher” via Qkr! for your child/children to go to the canteen to collect something at lunchtime.

Week 4 Canteen Roster

Thank you helpers; your assistance is very much appreciated!

Please contact me if you are unable to help out on your day.

Thank you.

Are you able to help out in the canteen in TERM 3?

 If you have any spare time and would like to help out in the canteen, PLEASE feel free to contact me through email at lauretta.raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au

 Term 3 canteen roster available now

Click on the link below to add your selected time to the roster.

Please ensure you have your WWVP card.

https://stpandp.schoolzineplus.com/canteenrosterterm3

THE CANTEEN HAS CHANGED TO WOODEN CUTLERY

Children are encouraged to bring their own cutlery from home.

 Please select on Qkr! If you would like the canteen to provide cutlery in your child/ren’s lunch order.

If not, we will be assuming that they are bringing cutlery from home.

Lauretta Raccosta,

Canteen

Lauretta.Raccosta@cg.catholic.au

Thank you to all the students who participated in today’s Special Lunch Day! 


Mrs R was so happy seeing all the children and staff enjoying Sushi for our special lunch day.


Thank you Eleen & Natasha for your help today. You made the day run a lot smoother.  Your help was very much appreciated!

OPEN TUESDAY MORNINGS

8.30 – 9.30AM

 The Uniform Shop is a service for the parents and children.  We sell New & Quality Second-hand school clothing, and all money raised goes back to the school to provide resources for the children.

You can place an order via Qkr! Order on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday and the item/s will be delivered to your child’s classroom.

Orders need to be placed before 8.45am.

Please see SZapp for the Winter Uniform price list.

It is usual practice for most schools to offer second-hand clothing at the uniform shop to families at a discounted price. Quality second-hand clothing can only be purchased during uniform hours.  We do understand that this may not be convenient for some families so please feel free to send me an email if you are unable to get to the uniform shop during its hours and I will do my best to attend your needs.

 The uniform shop is limited with space, so as a guide, clothes should only be donated if washed and in perfect resalable order.

Please give any used second-hand uniform to Mrs R in the canteen, Thank you.

Lauretta Raccosta

Uniform Shop

Lauretta.raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au

CRISPY EGGPLANT

Ingredients

3 eggplants

1/4 cup salt

1/2 cup grated parmesan

Pinch pepper

1 cup plain flour

1-2 Tbs oil, as needed

Method

Wash eggplant then dry and cut into 1cm slices.

Arrange slices on clean draining side of the sink and sprinkle with salt. Cover with paper towel and let sit for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile place grated parmesan, pepper and flour in a large bowl and mix. 

Turn the frypan on to medium heat and add some of the oil to warm.

Rinse the eggplant slices and pat dry with paper towel.

Toss eggplant in the cheese/flour mixture and place in the frypan. Fry for 1 minute on each side then place on paper towel.

Repeat with remaining slices, add more oil to the pan as needed.

Transer eggplant to a clean plate to serve.

In Canberra, we have some very interesting old properties that are open to the public. Visiting these are a good chance to see how life was in the past and to reflect on the differences and similarities in today's life.

Some of these houses are Lanyon Homestead, Calthorpes' House and Blundells Cottage.

http://www.historicplaces.com.au/lanyon-homestead

http://www.historicplaces.com.au/calthorpes-house

https://www.nca.gov.au/blundells

Did you know Canberran households waste thousands of dollars every year by throwing away food that could have been eaten?

Sign up to the three-week Food Waste Challenge for a step-by-step recipe to reduce food waste in your household.

Plus, the first 1500 ACT residents that complete the challenge, including the final survey, will be eligible for a $30 IKEA voucher.

act.gov.au/foodwaste

School Sport ACT (SSACT)

Please follow this link www.schoolsportact.org.au to access all information related to School Sport ACT. The current primary school sporting calendar can be found on this page. Please ensure that you visit this page regularly as dates sometimes change due to unforeseen circumstances.

SSACT Trials

The process for registering your child for an ACT sport trial can be found below. If you need any assistance registering your child, don’t hesitate to get in touch and we will hopefully be able to help you out. If you find that there are any steps missing within this process, please let me know at your earliest convenience.

SSACT Registration Process

School Sport ACT now collects all registration information online – this is to prevent the movement to and fro of a paper note and have all information readily available to officials prior to the trial. As this process incurs a fee for data storage, system maintenance and admin, a small fee payment via credit card will be required.

How to register a Student with School Sport ACT.

1. Go to the School Sport ACT website schoolsportact.org.au
2. Go to Register (top right corner of the homepage) and create an account.
3. After completion, check your registered email to verify your account. (Always check your spam folder in case you didn't immediately receive the verification email).
4. After verifying your account, Log In (top right hand corner of the homepage) using your registered email and password.
5. You’ll be presented with your Parent Dashboard. From there you can start the process of registering a Student into a Trial.
6. Click the green Add Student
7. Complete all of the information required for your Student (e.g. Medical Details, Sport, Playing History, Preferred Position, School etc.) and save the information. (If your child is already in the system, please ensure that your child’s school is up to date in your profile.)
8. Click on the trial information box and then click on the register to trial link.
9. Make the small credit card payment. After payment your Principal/School Approver will receive an email for their approval to trial.

You will be able to see the process has been complete back in My Profile – once your Principal/School Approver has completed the approval process your child’s information will be collated onto a list for the Team Manager and Coach prior to trial.

The Woden Valley Youth Choir has been engaging the voices and stirring the hearts of children and youth in Canberra for over 50 years.

 We are currently inviting everyone to our Annual Concert, 

all 8-18 year olds to come and sing with us at the Open Rehearsal, and then try out during an audition.

WVYC Annual Concert–Saturday 7/Sunday 8 August

A full and varied program featuring all our choirs: Nova (Lower Primary); Borealis (Upper Primary/Lower Secondary); Australis (Secondary/Tertiary); Centauri (choir for young men with changing voices).

6pm Saturday 7 August Wesley Uniting Church

3pm Sunday 8 August Wesley Uniting Church 

Bookings: trybooking.com/BSSDH

 Open Day (Rehearsal)–Tuesday August 17

For ages 8-18. Come and have fun as you sing with one of our age appropriate choirs. No previous experience necessary.

RSVP: info.wvyc@gmail.com

Auditions–Saturday 21 August

For ages 8-18. Take the next step as you join us. Prepare a simple song you sing well. Our director, Olivia, will guide you through the rest.

Bookings: wvyc.director@gmail.com 

For more information, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me by reply email. Or visit our website at wvyc.org.au. 

Kind regards,

Andrew Lubbock

WVYC Committee