“Among the most powerful of human experiences is to give or to receive forgiveness. I am told that two-thirds of the teaching of Jesus is directly or indirectly about this mystery of forgiveness…When we forgive, we choose the goodness of the other over their faults, we experience God’s goodness flowing through ourselves, and we also experience our own goodness in a way that surprises us. That is an awesome coming together of power, both human and divine.”

• Richard Rohr

Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back to another school term. I hope and trust that your child or children had a good holiday, and that your family found energy in the change of routine. It is great to have the children back and we have had a very calm and settled start to the term.

This term, we welcome 10 new or returning students. I would like to welcome the following families: Greene, McInnes, O'Dea, Bedell, Clark and Lu. It is wonderful to welcome you all to Sts Peter and Paul.

The above quote from Richard Rohr is a good one to use at the start of Term 4. Advent – the time of preparation for Christmas – is not far away. Rohr’s reflection on the role forgiveness plays in our lives speaks to the way in which it prepares us, in a sense, to be more open to the movement of grace. Forgiveness is an enlarging of the self and a source of healing. To forgive, and to be forgiven, is to experience grace at work in our lives.

COVID

No doubt all parents would be well aware of recent easing of COVID restrictions. This means, effectively, the restrictions that have been in place for the best part of the last 3 years are now gone. On a practical level at school, this means that:

• Parents can attend outdoor and indoor assemblies.
• Meetings can be in person.
• Parents can collect their children from the Kindergarten courtyard.
• Parents are allowed to assist in classrooms or attend excursions, or assist in the canteen, and be involved in the daily life of the school, in a way that has been inhibited since March 2020.
• Children are no longer required to isolate for 7 days, should they contract the COVID virus.

I welcome all of our parents back on site and look forward to their active involvement. It does mean, as well, that the following precautions are in place:

• Staff and parents can wear masks if they wish.
• If your child contracts COVID-19, please keep them at home while they are obviously sick (that is, displaying signs of being too unwell to be at school). While children and adults are not required necessarily to isolate for 7 days, adults and children who do contract the virus are required to be at home while they are displaying the symptoms of being sick, as they would for any other illness.

While it is very positive that restrictions have been eased, it is important to keep in mind that the virus has not gone away, and basic hygiene practices are still recommended – mask wearing where appropriate, hand washing, and the like. The aim of the school, like all places, is to try to be as COVID free as possible.

Grandparents Day

Today, we celebrated Grandparents’ Day, a very important event on our calendar and one that has suffered in recent years, due to COVID restrictions. The children had a wonderful time hosting their grandparents, all of whom enjoyed the visit very much. The students also shared tasty treats outside with their grandparents. Today was a great way to begin easing the restrictions of COVID. My thanks to Stephanie Burns for her excellent coordination of the day, and to all staff for their hospitality and generosity of spirit.

Year 6 Camp

Next week, our excellent Year 6 students will be going on their camp. The students will be attending Borambola, outside of Wagga, from Wednesday – Friday. They are very excited and will undoubtedly have a very good time. I will be attending the camp with the students, as well as Sarah Kennelly, Luke Gubler and Katie McGregor. Anna Williams will very capably lead the school in my absence.

Staffing – REC 2023

Next year, Stephanie Burns, who has done an excellent job being our Religious Education Coordinator for the last 4 years, is stepping down from the role. Steph has gained a new teaching role at Trinity Christian School. Steph has been a wonderful REC and a great support on the school’s Leadership Team. Steph has brought wisdom, insight and much in the way of practical skill to the role. We will miss her very much and I wish Steph all the best for the future.

We welcome next year Mrs Veronica Hall to Sts Peter and Paul, who will be our new REC. Veronica is a very experienced educator and is currently the REC at St Gregory’s, Queanbeyan. I know that Veronica will make very valuable contributions and will continue the excellent role that Steph has provided. We welcome Veronica next year.

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal

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

Grandparent’s Day 2022

Today we celebrated Grandparents and Special Friends Day at Sts Peter and Paul. It was a wonderful occasion, gathering with the Grandparents and Special Friends, who play such an important role in the lives of the children at our school.

It was so lovely to see our school busy and bubbling with excitement as we welcomed the Grandparents into our classrooms, and then the playground. Thank you to all who were able to join us, it was such a memorable day.

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

In the gospel of Luke, widows represent the lowly of society. They also are a measure of how the society is travelling. In the Old Testament, God commanded the people to care for widows, orphans and strangers. Widows, in particular, were to be cared for by the whole community. From that point on, the level of compassion within the society could be measured by the care extended to the widows. A number of the prophets point to neglect of the widows as a sign that the community has turned its back on the covenant with God. The gospel of Luke picks up this prophetic tradition and on several occasions uses widows as the key figures in stories or parables.

In this parable, the widow is petitioning her local judge for justice against towards the widow, but the judge fobs her off repeatedly. The widow, knowing that her cause is just, persists and finally wears down the judge.

Another feature of the gospel of Luke is that the lowly and poor – represented here by the widow – are those who recognise their own condition and call on the mercy of God to lift them up. Jesus says that God will see justice done to those who cry out for God’s help. Jesus’ final comment about finding any faith on earth is a reminder that human beings have a tendency to think they can solve all their own problems and forget that they need God’s action in their lives. The faithful in the gospel of Luke are those who know that they are in need of God’s mercy and love and call out for it.

(Reflection by Greg Sunter)

Have a blessed week,

Stephanie Burns

Religious Education Coordinator

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to those students who are celebrating their birthday this week

Angad S

Ridwan H

Ayla B

Anastasiia L

Neive Mc

Sebastian H

Principal's Award:

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): 

Eli L, 3/4B; Gabriel M, 5M; Samson T, 6W

Welcome back to Term 4!

Book Club issue 7 is available now. Orders close 29th October 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

Boorowa Carnival
 
Please find below the correspondence that we received regarding the cancellation of the Boorowa Carnival next week:
 
“Due to the excessive rain we have received and the forecasted rain for next week it is with great regret that we have decided to cancel the carnival for 2022.  We are unable to prepare the fields to an acceptable level that will ensure the safety of the participants.  We thank you for your support of this event and apologise for the inconvenience this cancellation will cause.”
 
We will be in touch with families regarding refunds.
 
Please let me know if you have any questions.
 

Many thanks,

Sarah Kennelly

Sports Coordinator

Welcome back!

We just wanted to share with you what happened in our last week of Term 3 in the Kitchen Garden.

The Year 1 students had a chance to use the kitchen to make play doh as part of their science unit about Dinosaurs. The children were amazed at our experiment of mixing solid and liquids together to create brightly coloured play doh. We then had a ball of fun making our dinosaurs to match our designs. I think you’ll agree we have some amazing dino artists in Year 1. You can definitely see the way the dinos protect themselves with all their spikes and long necks.

We also had our last Garden Club. Thanks to our crew for giving our garden a good water and weed before the holidays. Our visitors even came by to say farewell!!

Years 5 and 6 will have their turn in the kitchen this term. They will be learning all about healthy eating and how much of each group we should have per day.

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

The Garden Club

HUMMUS

Ingredients

425g can chickpeas, drained

2 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed

2 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs tahini

Method

Prepare ingredients and place all in a bowl.

Blend together, using a food processor or stick blender, until smooth and creamy.

Place dip in an airtight container and store in the fridge.

Serve with homemade flatbread, corn chips or crostini (recipes for these can be found in the cookbook mentioned below).

The recipes in the newsletter are from the Sts P & P 50th Anniversary Cookbook. The recipes come from either our wonderful cooking guru, Mrs Moore, or were donated by members of our community.

Books are $20, payable on Qkr!, and available for pickup at the front office.

THE CANTEEN IS CASHLESS FOR ALL LUNCH ORDERS

Families are required to place ALL lunch orders via Qkr! before 8.45am

Over-the-counter sales at lunch time are back!

You can still purchase over-the-counter sale items (snacks & treats) for your child in a lunch order via Qkr!

or

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

CANTEEN VOLUNTEER ROSTER

Thank you helpers; your assistance is very much appreciated

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

 ARE YOU ABLE TO HELP OUT IN TERM 4?

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

or click on the link below to slot a time in.

Term 4 canteen roster available now

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

https://stpandp.schoolzineplus.com/term4roster

All volunteers must have a WWVP card.

Qkr! TIP

Is your child sick and not going to school, and you have placed a lunch order on Qkr!?

 You have till 8.45am that morning to cancel the lunch order - instructions on how to cancel lunch orders are below.

THE CANTEEN HAS CHANGED ITS FOOD PACKAGING

 The new food containers are oven, fridge and freezer safe. 

They are also compostable and recyclable!

NeverLeak containers are leak proof and easier for the children to open. 

The children can place the containers in the recycling too!

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. 

The Uniform shop is stocked up with second hand uniforms, 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.

Thank you 

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

Lauretta Raccosta

Uniform Shop

Lauretta.raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au