Dear Parents and Carers

‘Humility is not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less.’

• Fr Timothy Radcliffe, OP

We are well and truly into the Season of Lent, that period which all Christians mark as a time to prepare for the abundance of Easter. Lent reminds us that there is no appreciation for abundance, no appreciation for the feast, without a little self-renunciation. It is in the conscious denial (or perhaps what psychologists call, the practice of ‘delaying gratification’) of the good things in our life, that makes us appreciate those good things all the more. It also helps us to realise our incompleteness, and from a faith perspective, the need for God. The Dominican priest Timothy Radcliffe reminds us of this in the quote above. Timothy Radcliffe also happens to be leading the Principals’ Retreat this week. The retreat takes place from Wednesday – Friday, and I will be attending the retreat during this period. In my absence, Samantha Mance will very capably lead the school. This link will take you to a series of fascinating talks given by Radcliffe, in January this year, at the Vatican. The Pope was present at the talks. Timothy Radcliffe OP talks.

Enrolment Period

Our enrolment period begins formally in Term 2. I am aware that for many parents, they are faced with decisions early in the school year, before the formal enrolment period begins. Last week, Luke Gubler, our Coordinator of Middle and Senior School Leadership, presented the many opportunities and initiatives that Sts Peter and Paul offers, for all of its students. Sts Peter and Paul is a school committed to providing an environment that allows for, and fosters, the flourishing of all its students. I encourage all parents to view the slides (see article in this newsletter), if you were unable to attend the information night last week. Our Open Days next term are May 7^th, 14^th and 21^st, all from 9.30am – 11am. Our Information Night is on May 14^th, at 6pm.

Swimming Carnival and K – 2 Water Fun Day

This Friday, students in Grades 3 – 6, and those in Year 2 who have nominated to compete in 25m and 50m races, will participate in the annual Swimming Carnival, at the Tuggeranong Leisure Centre. It promises to be a wonderful day and will be a great deal of fun for all concerned. My thanks to Luke Gubler for coordinating the carnival, and the staff and parents who have volunteered their time to support the carnival. On the same day, students in Years K – 2 will have a Water Fun Day, at school. My thanks to Natasha Kapantais for organising the day, and to all staff and parents for their support.

E-safety Video

Parents and carers of primary school students are invited to participate in a free 30-minute webinar to help them understand eSafety and parental controls. The webinar will be hosted by the Council of Catholic School Parents (CCSP) in collaboration with the eSafety Commissioner. Please see flyer located in this newsletter for further details.

Parent-Teacher Interviews

This week, we have held our Term 1 parent/teacher interviews, over Monday, Tuesday and today, Wednesday. My thanks to all teachers for their great support and commitment to the children and families, and to the relationship between home and school. My thanks too to Sam Mance, for coordinating the interviews. If you did not manage to make a time to meet with your child’s teacher/s, I encourage all parents to contact their child’s teacher, and arrange a time to meet.

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal

Please give generously to Project Compassion this Lent. We have raised over $240 already but would love to have more donations.

Thank you to Year 3 White who last week had over $90 in donations in their class project compassion box! 

Project Compassion 2024 reminds us that the good we do today will extend and impact the lives of generations to come. Together, we can help vulnerable communities face their challenges today and build a better tomorrow.

TAPITAS- This year our school will be focusing on raising money for drinking water. We have a whole school display, where each class will receive a ‘water drop’ for every $5 raised. The children will be learning more about Project Compassion in class during Friday Prayer and at morning assemblies. 

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Presentation Masses

Thank you to the 9 families who attended the Presentation Masses on Saturday and Sunday. A few other families have booked in for this weekend so please contact the Parish centre if you did not attend last weekend to arrange another Mass for your child to be presented to the Parish. 

Home Groups will be starting soon (if they haven’t already). Please remember a Parent/Carer must attend these sessions with your child. A huge thank you to the families who have offered to host a group- we are very grateful for your time.

Any further enquiries relating to the Sacrament of Reconciliation can be directed to the Parish Office ( 6281 3999/ wodennorth@cg.org.au )

Upcoming dates to remember: 

• PRESENTATION MASSES: Each family must attend one Mass to be presented to the Parish
• RETREAT AND PRACTICE FOR CHILDREN: Holy Trinity School Hall 9.15am–2.15pm Friday 22nd March, 18 Theodore Street, Curtin. More information will be sent home next week regarding the Retreat day via compass
• SACRAMENTAL CELEBRATION: Holy Trinity Church, Curtin 6pm Tuesday, 7th May

FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT YEAR B

Gospel- John 3:14-21

God sent his Son into the world that we might be saved through him.

Pope Francis points out that Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus in today’s Gospel ‘disrupts our image of God’. From Jesus’ reference to both Father and Son, the Pope says, we learn that God – Father, Son, and Spirit – is ‘a God of communion’.

Moreover, we are invited to share in this ‘communion of love’! As the Pope suggests, we can recall this invitation every time we make the sign of the cross. ‘By tracing the cross on our body,’ he says, ‘we remind ourselves how much God loved us, to the point of giving his life for us; and we repeat to ourselves that his love envelops us completely, from top to bottom, from left to right, like an embrace that never abandons us.’

As receivers of such love, we are called to also become sharers of it. As well as reminding ourselves that we are loved, the Pope says, when making the sign of the cross we also ‘commit ourselves to bear witness to God-as-love, creating communion in his name.’

Flowing from this wonderful image the Pope asks us to reflect: ‘do we bear witness to God-as-love? … do our communities bear witness to this? … Do we always leave the door open, do we know how to welcome everyone – and I emphasise, everyone – as brothers and sisters?’

After all, the Crucified One was sent ‘not to condemn the world’ but to save it. A person can condemn themselves only by closing the door to themselves or others, refusing to believe in God’s love. Nobody who approaches the door, however tentatively, can be guilty of making that mistake.

Adapted from Nick Brodie

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to those students who are celebrating their birthday this week

Patrick C

Isabel W

Addison B

Sadie W

Ari A

Zoe K

Jack G

NAPLAN testing will occur in our school between 13 and 25 March 2024 for students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Online NAPLAN tests provide more precise results and are engaging for students. The tests are tailored (or adaptive), which means that each test presents questions that may be more or less difficult depending on a student’s responses. This helps students remain engaged with the assessment.

Tailored testing allows a wider range of student abilities to be assessed and measures student achievement more precisely. A student’s overall NAPLAN result is based on both the number and complexity of questions they answer correctly. Your child should not be concerned if they find questions challenging; they may be taking a more complex test pathway.

All Year 3 students will continue to complete the writing assessment on paper.

NAPLAN provides valuable information to schools and parents about literacy and numeracy achievement. It supports school improvement processes by enabling teachers to monitor student progress over time and to identify areas of strength and development.

All eligible students are encouraged and supported to participate in NAPLAN testing. Visit www.nap.edu.au to see interactive versions of the test and for more information.

Camp

From the moment we arrived at Borambola we were having fun showing how we’re responsible and how we’re S.T.S (succeeding together safely). During the mud run we got to show off how we help our teammates. In archery we learnt a new skill and we encouraged one another.

Overall our experience was an experience like no other.

Swimming Carnival

Its been really exciting for Year Six especially because on Friday of this week the swimming carnival will be happen. It starts first thing in the day with races and novelties! We are really excited and we hope your kid will be too. There will be snacks and lollies as a reward for the kids.

On Tuesday we taught the Years 2-5 kids our house chants that we either made up or used old house chants that were around when we were in kindie that we agreed upon during the time we were making our chants. We worked together as a team and we made sure everyone agreed on the ideas we made up. When we taught the Years 2-5 kids the house chants it was so fun. They all listened and adapted to the new chants we made in a short amount of time. We're all so excited for the swimming carnival.

Ava, Amy and Izzy

Congratulations to the families who ordered on Issue 1 and have earned a $5 credit to spend on this Book Club!

Look out for your copy of Book Club coming home in your child's schoolbag! It's packed with hundreds of books from just $3 to help you on your child's reading journey. In Issue 2 Families will also enjoy...

• the huge variety of books to get every child reading
• curation by children's book experts
• affordability - 165 titles for just $10 or less!

Book Club Issue 2 is closing soon! 

• Thank you to families who have placed orders already. Orders close Friday Week 9- 29th March. All orders are placed online- please note we do not accept cash or orders at school as all orders are placed online. Click here to access an online version: https://www.scholastic.com.au/book-club/book-club-parents/ 

You are encouraged to download the LOOP app which is an easy way for parents to order book club.  

Please note orders will take approximately 1 week to be delivered to school after the issue closing date (not when you place the order). 

Lunchtimes in the Library

The Library is open at Lunchtimes (after eating time) on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for children to come and read, draw or play quietly.  

Library days for Classes

We have over 100 overdue library books! If you have some at home please return them to the Library- a reminder also to treat our books carefully! Many of the plastic protective covers are coming back damaged. It takes time and money to replace please…. Which means less time for me to get our new books onto the shelves. Thank you for your assistance with this! 

Happy reading!

Amanda Basedow 

Teacher Librarian

amanda.basedow@cg.catholic.edu.au

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

How the Day will Run

Please have a look at the information below to give you a general overview of our Swimming Carnival plans. Students who are racing in 100m races will need to make their own way to the pool. Please note, that there will be no 200m races, including the 200m Independent Medley. This is due to School Sports ACT not including 200m races at the South/Weston Regional Swimming Carnival. There will be 200m races, however, at the ACT Championships. If you wish for your child to be considered for the 200m races at ACT Champions, please have your child’s coach time and sign this time, and then bring it into school so that we can enter this for your child. Thank you for your understanding of this.

In the Big Pool:

Novelty Events

Novelty events will be run during the day for all attending students.

Last week the Year 3 and 4 students had another great week in the kitchen. Jam scrolls were on the menu and the students used our Canberra Show award winning jam and learnt to work as a team!

We had a great turn out for garden club and planted our basil and Indigenous plants in our special garden beds. It was warm day, but we had a lot of fun in the garden especially watering the new plants.

The Garden Club

SCONES

Ingredients

4 cups self raising flour

300 ml pouring cream

1 can lemonade (do not allow to stand opened)

1 tbspn milk

Method

Preheat oven to 200 degrees and grease a baking tray.

Place flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre.

Combine the lemonade and cream in a separate jug, then pour into the flour. Stir with a knife.

Flour a bench or chopping board and knead the dough gently.

Cut dough into scones using a glass or a cookie cutter then place on the prepared tray, brush scones with milk.

Bake scones for 12 minutes.

Tips:

Dry mixture causes scones to be tough

Wet mixture causes scones to spread 

Baking too slowly = tough scones

Baking too quickly = soggy scones

Can be served with cream and jam (perhaps using our award winning jam recipe!), lemon butter or plain butter

As part of our ongoing commitment to providing your school with the latest information about outside school hours care, we're excited to share our new Digital Tool Kit with you.

Many schools who we partner with have requested information to put on their website or share with their parents. So we have developed the Digital Tool Kit, which is designed to provide you with engaging OSHClub information.

All the resources can be found on our Google Drive. You can simply view and download them. We have also attached a handy Overview Guide that covers everything you need to know.

We thank you for your support.

View the Tool Kit

Have we missed something?

Do you need any resources that are not currently in the kit?

Please email us at marketing@junioradventuresgroup.com.au and CC in your OSHClub Representative. Our team will look into your enquiry and get back to you.

Useful links for parents

We encourage parents to visit our website and discover the benefits of our programs, such as how they can support their child to be healthy, confident, and resilient. Parents can find all the information they need about outside school hours care on our website:

• For parents who want to enrol at your school's service, they can register online HERE.

• For parents that are currently enrolled; they can book online, anytime HERE.

• For parents who want information about our Child Care Subsidy (CCS) they can learn more HERE.

THE CANTEEN IS CASHLESS FOR ALL LUNCH ORDERS

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

Please purchase over-the-counter sale items (snacks & treats) for your child in a lunch order.

Ice creams are the only counter sales at lunch time in Term 1.

 Purchase a “daily counter sales voucher” via Qkr! for your child to go to the canteen to collect an ice cream at lunchtime.

CANTEEN VOLUNTEER ROSTER

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

 TERM 1 CANTEEN ROSTER

 If you have any spare time and would like to help 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.

 https://stpandp.schoolzineplus.com/Term1Roster

 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.

Swimming Carnival MEAL DEAL Friday 8 March

Are you in Kinder, Year 1 or Year 2 and staying at school?

Well, don’t be sad because Mrs R has a special meal deal for you in the canteen that day!

 Cost $7.00

 Menu: 3 nuggets or hot dog or pizza or pasta with a fruit popper, hello panda biscuits,  frozen frugurt and a lolly bag. 

Orders can be made via Qkr! up to 8.45am morning of the swimming carnival (Friday 8 March)

 Please note the above set menu is the only food available for students on that day and is ONLY AVAILABLE FOR KINDER, YEAR 1 & YEAR 2 STUDENTS. 

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. 

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 opening hours and I will do my best to attend your needs.

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.

HOUSE COLOUR T-SHIRTS. 

Cost $10.

 Are you having trouble finding a plain t-shirt for the carnivals?

 We sell plain house colour t-shirts ready for the swimming carnival.

With 100% breathable soft cotton and UPF rated sun protection for year round.

Sizes range from 4-16.  Available on Qkr!

Lauretta Raccosta

Uniform Shop

Lauretta.raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au