Dear Parents and Carers

“We can recognize people who have had a second baptism in the Holy Spirit. They tend to be loving. They tend to be exciting. They want to serve others, and not just be served themselves. They forgive life itself for not being everything they once hoped for. They forgive their neighbors. They forgive themselves for not being as perfect as they would like to be.”

• Richard Rohr

In the passage above, the American priest Richard Rohr writes of what it means to be an adult who consciously and willingly experience what Rohr calls a ‘second baptism’. Others might call it a radical deepening of faith, or a conversion experience. Whatever language we choose to use, the reality of such a person’s life is that that they live for others in a way that embraces the other in a deeper and more expansive reality. We tend to leave the presence of such people with a greater sense of possibility, as well as a greater sense of calm and peace. We can all be this gift to others.

Parent Survey – Visioning Garran

A reminder that all parents are invited to complete a survey (which has only 3 questions) on Visioning Garran for the future. All segments of the school community – parish, staff, parents and students – are being surveyed, with a view to crafting two statements that will provide a framework for our ongoing endeavours and education initiatives. This link will take you to the survey: https://forms.gle/gB1vknMPjKj8z2tF9

NCEC

Next week, I am away for the week, in part attending the National Catholic Education Commission’s Conference, held nominally every 4 years. The conference gathers educators from across Australia and provides sustained input and reflection on matters both educational and unique to Catholic education. In my absence, Sts Peter and Paul will be very capably led by Anna Williams. A link to the website can be found here: https://ncec2022.edu.au/

Father’s Day

Sunday is Father's Day, and I would like to wish all of our fathers a very happy day. I hope that all of our fathers feel very blessed and affirmed for the presence and love they bring into their children’s lives. To celebrate the gift of our fathers, we are having ‘Donuts for Dad’ at carline on Friday morning. A great way to start the day and what will hopefully be a lead in to weekend celebrations, with the Wallabies winning on Saturday evening being the finishing touch.

Tournament of Minds

Last weekend, two teams from Sts Peter and Paul participated in the annual ‘Tournament of Minds’ competition, held at the ANU. This is the first year that we have been able to participate in the competition without it being via Teams. I am very proud of the teams, with one of our teams winning the ‘Spirit of TOMs’ award. Congratulations to all of our participants! I would like to thank Mrs Katie Birch who coordinated and led the students so well, and Mr Paul Jenkins, for his great assistance, as well.

Pupil Free Day

A reminder that the next, and last, Pupil Free Day is being held next Friday. All Catholic schools have been given a pupil free day in light of the staff shortages and teachers not receiving their release time, which is needed for planning and preparing lessons.

Have a wonderful week with your families. I look forward to seeing you in Week 9.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal

This year at Sts Peter and Paul, we are all called to ‘Let Your Light Shine”

Father’s Day Donuts for Dad’s Drive-Thru & Prayer Celebration

This morning on Carline, the Fathers, Grandfathers and special people in our Community were given a Donut as a ‘thank you’ for everything they do for us. Following that, Year 2 shared a Prayer Celebration in honour of Father’s Day. Thank you to the Year 2 students and their teachers for all the hard work they have put into preparing for the Prayer Celebration, and to all of the staff who assisted in preparing the bags and donuts ready to give out this morning – many hands made light work, so thank you!

Presentation Masses for First Eucharist Candidates

Last weekend, the 2022 Candidates for First Eucharist were presented to our Parish Community at the Parish Masses at Holy Trinity. It was wonderful to see the Children and their parents at Mass on this special occasion.  

Celebration of First Eucharist

Parents that have enrolled their child in the Sacrament of First Eucharist will need to nominate a weekend Mass (Sat. 6pm, Sun. 9.30am or Sun. 5.30pm) on the weekend of 17-18 September for the celebration.  There will be a limited number of seats available for candidates, their families and guests, mindful of the need to accommodate other parishioners at each of these Masses.

Please click here to nominate your child for a Mass.

Enquiries can be directed to the Parish Office (6281 3999 / wodennorth@cg.org.au ).

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Gospel Reflection

‘Hate’ is an emotive and extremely harsh word in our society. In its Gospel context, the word is not used as an opposite of ‘love’ but as an indication of deserving of less significance than another thing. So the teaching about hating father, mother, etc can be read as saying that being a disciple of Jesus must take precedence over everything else, even family. In 1st Century culture, family was foremost above everything else; it was the very fibre that held society together. Jesus is saying that discipleship must be put above even that which is most important and most intrinsic to life in this world. That is why he goes on to tell the two stories about the need to count the cost before undertaking an important venture. He makes clear to his listeners that discipleship is more important than anything else and that there are huge costs associated with taking it on. A believer has to literally ‘count the cost’ of what it will mean to place discipleship above family, friendships, career, politics and even life itself. Jesus makes no apologies for the fact that what he is asking is incredibly demanding.

Our ‘possessions’ are all those things – material, emotional, and psychological – that we cling to and that we think give us our identity and status. Jesus called for a radical reinterpretation of status and position. He tells his listeners that they cannot truly be disciples if they continue to cling to those things that are considered important in this world. They have to surrender the things that bind them to this world’s ideas of status and position before they can fully embrace the kingdom view of the world. As Jesus said, you have to really count the cost!

(Reflection by Greg Sunter)

Have a blessed week,

Stephanie Burns

Religious Education Coordinator

Principal's Award: Lucy Cassells, 1W

Canteen Award: Danny H, 1W

Learning Support Awards: Lucy Cassells, 1W

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

Imogen K, KW; Abigail J, KW; Grace R, 3/4B; Lucy A, 5M

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to those students who are celebrating their birthday next week

Grace B

Cuyler B

Jack M

Xavier M

George F

Anaishe J

Dipali S

Madison H

Jaden K

Noah B (6M) is raising money for cancer research through Variety and has made the decision to make a difference by cutting and donating his hair to be made into a wig for someone who has lost their hair due to cancer. He was inspired to raise money after recently losing someone in his family to cancer. The haircut is booked for Thursday, 8 September!!

If you would like to support Noah and donate to this worthy cause, please follow the link:

https://hairwithheart.variety.org.au/fundraisers/noahbutler/hair-with-heart

Stayed tuned ....... our newsletter and Facebook page will bring you updates!

The school disco is back!

This year will be a little different due to COVID requirements.

The school disco will be held on Friday 16 September.

Jungle Jerry will be back to pump the latest and greatest hits.

The K-2 Disco will be held from 6 – 7.00.

The Yr 3-6 Disco will be held at 7.15 – 8.30pm.

Both will be in the school hall.

All those who attend will be provided with drink and a snack.

This video provides advice on what precautions to take during magpie swooping season

https://vimeo.com/139316126

Magpies can swoop from July through to December (usually for about 8 weeks) during the spring while they build nests, lay and protect eggs and raise nestling and fledgling birds. Not all magpies will swoop but some will as a natural instinct to protect their territory (area around their nest) and their young.

People can protect themselves from swooping birds by:

• walk through the bird's territory quickly, don't run
• take a different route next time
• protect your head with an umbrella, hat or helmet
• wear glasses to protect your eyes
• watch the birds while walking away quickly from the area - magpies are less likely to swoop if you look at them
• protect your pet and do not leave them alone or off-lead in an area with a swooping bird
• don't let your pet attack birds as this may trigger swooping
• attach a flag or streamers on a stick to your bike or backpack and
• walk your bike through the bird's territory, don't ride.

All native birds, their eggs, young and their nests are protected by the Nature Conservation Act 2014 and the Animal Welfare Act 1992. It is illegal to interfere with them in any way. The ACT Parks and Conservation Service have a policy to manage swooping birds which takes into account legislation and public safety.

For further information visit the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate website or phone the Access Canberra Contact Centre - 13 22 81 to report a swooping bird.

Book Week Wasn’t last week fun?! I am still busy putting up all of the student’s beautiful work so more photos will follow! Once again, my heartfelt thank you to all parents and carers who helped with the amazing costumes. The sun was shining and it was wonderful to see so many parents come to watch our parade. We also completed lots of fabulous art based on the CBCA shortlisted books. 

Meerkat CBCA Book Week Performances

On Wednesday we had 2 fabulous performances by Meerkat Productions. K-2 watched Stellarphant (shortlisted/honour book picture book) and 3-6 watched a performance based on the novel The Detective’s Guide to Ocean Travel by Nicki Greenberg (shortlisted younger reader book). We loved the acting, singing and dancing and both shows!

Author Visit- Samantha Tidy

To round off our fabulous Book Week celebrations we were lucky enough to have local Canberran author and publisher Samantha Tidy (Mother of Reuben and Grace) visit Year 3/4. We learned about her fabulous books, what being a publisher is all about AND completed a STEM activity involving marshmallows and toothpicks! We are so grateful to have Samantha talk to us! 

Book Club issue 6 is available now. Orders close 9th September and then it will take a week for orders to be delivered to our school. Thank you for your support with assisting our school raise money to purchase new books for the Library! Remember to order via the LOOP app!

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

Keep reading!

Mrs Basedow

SCIENCE DAY – Wednesday 14^th September, 2022

 Sts Peter & Paul will be celebrating our ‘Annual Science Day’ on Wednesday 14^th September, 2022.

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 “Glass: More than meets the eye.” Students are invited to dress as scientists/inventors for the day.

Activities include:

Storm in a Saucer

Erupting Lemon Volcano

Plastic Bag Parachutes

Air Cannons

Invisible Ink

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); and cardboard cylinders/rolls.

Students are also invited to enter our Balloon Car Competition. The Balloon Car Competition is a new addition to our Science Day Activities. There will be prizes for each Stage within the school. Please refer to the Balloon Car Information Sheets for details.

For ideas and activities to try at home, please see Questacon’s activity page

https://www.questacon.edu.au/outreach/programs/science-circus/activities

 We look forward to an exciting day of science! Keep an eye on our Facebook page and newsletter for photos and student reflections.

Science Day Coordinator

Paul Jenkins

Lots of learning was happening in the Kitchen Garden.

The children are learning about the Meat and Alternatives Group this week and made a lovely zucchini slice. They learnt that eggs can be a great source of protein and vitamins and minerals. The egg is a powerhouse of disease-fighting nutrients like lutein and zeaxanthin. They are also great for our brains. You can eat them by themselves (preferably cooked) or in dishes like the children made.

Sts Peter and Paul also spent the remainder of our grant money and bought some trees, compost, mulch and tools to grow our orchard. We will welcome two lime trees, some feijoas and a bay leaf to our garden. We look forward to looking after them and watching them grow.

The Garden Club were also busy planting pumpkin and spinach seeds in little pots that are now sitting in our greenhouse. Well done Garden Crew!

For more information please contact Mrs Katie Birch katherine.birch@cg.catholic.edu.au

The Garden Club

THE CANTEEN IS CASHLESS

Families are required to make all canteen payments via Qkr!

There will be no over-the-counter sales at lunch time at this stage.

All over-the-counter sale items (snacks & treats) must be ordered in your child’s lunch order via Qkr! which will be delivered to them at lunch time.

CANTEEN VOLUNTEER ROSTER

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

 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.

https://stpandp.schoolzineplus.com/Canteenrosterterm3

All volunteers must have a WWVP card.

Lauretta Raccosta,

Canteen

Lauretta.Raccosta@cg.catholic.au

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.

The School Uniform is available via Qkr!
Tuesdays - Fridays, orders will be delivered to your child’s classroom. Orders need to be placed before 8.45 am. 

Spring is here! 

Summer School Uniform now available on Qkr!

The Uniform shop is stocked up with second hand uniform, please visit on a Tuesday morning to purchase second hand uniform.

The uniform shop is limited with space, so if you wish to donate pre-loved items, PLEASE ONLY DONATE CLOTHES that are washed and in perfect resalable order.

Please visit the schools website for the Summer Uniform price list.

Lauretta Raccosta

Uniform Shop

Lauretta.raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au

Radio Rookies is a school holiday program for kids aged 9 to 12 run by ArtSound FM radio station.

Turning kids into producers!

In this 3 day course, our instructors will teach your kids how to make their very own podcast. They will learn how to use the tools and software to record and edit audio and make an interesting and engaging podcast series. Your child will become a pro in the studio and get the chance to practice using our microphones, audio recorders, mixers, and so much more!

This school holiday program is a one of a kind experience for your child. Book now to secure your place!

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/radio-rookies-learn-podcasting-in-3-days-term-3-school-holidays-tickets-398696641387

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