Dear Parents and Carers

Welcome back to a new term. I hope you and your family had a restful and relaxing holiday period. In particular, I hope that Easter was a peaceful and blessed time. I am aware of course that we start a new term in very unusual circumstances – before addressing remote learning directly, I would like to iterate what I have just mentioned, about the blessedness of Easter. Times such as these call forth the need to be grateful for the small miracles in our lives – the thoughtfulness of a friend; the non-judgmental love of a family member; the colours of autumn; a good book – particularly as our attention can be so caught up with the understandable daily struggle that goes with the uncertainty of this period. Easter is a season that reminds us that life always follows death, be it the death of a dream, a hope, an expectation, or something or someone else that we hold dear. Easter reminds us that bitter experience does not have the final word in our lives.

Remote Learning

I would like to begin this section of the newsletter by recording my gratitude to the members of our community: the students, the teachers, and you the parents. Your support, as parents, of the school during this trying time, has been invaluable. I am very grateful for the support and I speak for all staff when I say ‘thank you’ to you all. Similarly, my gratitude for our staff is immeasurable and I am very impressed with their ability to work, learn and grow, as teachers and professionals. We have all come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Finally, the beautiful students of Sts Peter and Paul have been remarkable in their adaptability and capacity to adjust. I am sure you have all had moments at home where you have had to calm anxieties and fears. No doubt some of these moments have caused you stress and worry in your own right. Nonetheless, your children are embracing the remote learning program and the different way of learning that it calls for and this is a credit to their families, the staff and their own innate capacity.

Yesterday was our trial day and included, as inevitably it must, some bumps. On the whole, however, it was a very successful day. All teachers met their students as a class on Microsoft Teams at least twice and most teachers were able to report that most students completed their set tasks. Tomorrow we begin more formally. All children should have their Teams logins and passwords, and other login details for Seesaw and the like. If you are encountering any difficulties, please contact your child’s teacher via email in the first instance and Sean or I if technical issues are unable to be resolved.

Due to the unique teaching configuration of this period, the school requires your particular support in one or two key areas. Online good behaviour is clearly very important. Where a child may choose to interact inappropriately with his or her peers, your child’s teacher will contact you and ask if you could please support the school, and your child’s learning, by speaking with him or her. (If your child is at school, your child’s teacher will speak to him or her.) If the situation was serious, Sean Rutledge or I will call. I do not anticipate the need for this, but thought it worthwhile to make clear the process and ask for your support, in the very unlikely event that a phone call is made by a member of staff. Just as teachers establish boundaries and rules for their physical classrooms, so they are too for their digital classrooms. This ensures everyone’s safety and wellbeing. Thank you for your support.

Catholic Schools Enrolment Period

The enrolment period for all Catholic schools in the Archdiocese begins next week and runs for 3 weeks, from May the 4^th to 22^nd. The normal processes that take place for this period (information nights, open days, and the like) cannot happen in the normal fashion, due to restrictions around social distancing. The school is finalising details around online tours and similar mediums of communication and we will make these known to the community shortly. In the meantime, interest in Sts Peter and Paul is very positive and this is a reflection of the wonderful community that it is.

Please contact me at school if I can be of any assistance with any inquiries or areas of concern. Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal

Sunday Gospel: Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A John 10:1-10

This Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Easter, is often described as Good Shepherd Sunday. The Gospel on this Sunday comes from John, chapter 10 – Jesus speaking on the image of himself as the Good Shepherd. This year the reading is the beginning of the chapter, verses 1-10.

For a reader to understand this story, they must be familiar with the context of the time. Shepherds would often put their lives in danger to tend to their flocks. Of a night time, several flocks of sheep would stay in a communal sheepfold, usually made of stone walls. There was only one entrance to the sheepfold and one of the shepherds would sleep across the entranceway, effectively becoming the gate for the sheepfold. This would allow the shepherd to keep the sheep in the sheepfold, but also to guard against thieves. Thieves could climb over the wall into the sheepfold but the sheep were trained to respond to their shepherd’s voice alone so thieves could only steal what sheep they could carry off. When Jesus described himself as the gate of the sheepfold, his audience would have immediately understood what He was saying. We must remember to listen for the voice Jesus in our lives; that is the voice of the one who lay down His life for us. Our Good Shepherd.

On the school website, we now have a link to a new website called “Parish of Transfiguration”.  This site will serve to connect the Transfiguration Parish School Communities of Holy Trinity and Saints Peter and Paul.

On this site you will find a variety of links relating to the Religious Life of our Parish Schools. Each week, we will share with you prayers and resources that we hope will be engaging and enriching for the families in our community. 

Fr John, our Parish Priest, as well as our Youth Ministers Grace and Maddie, will also be placing content on this site as a way to maintain connection with students and families during Remote Learning.  Below is a link to the site.

http://parishoftransfiguration.weebly.com/

Parish Contacts – email addresses for Weekly Bulletin

Fr John would like to encourage any parents in the community to reach out to his office via email (included below) if they would like to be included in the list of parishioners that receive an email of the Sunday bulletin every week. This is a great way to stay in touch with the parish community, especially in a time of disconnection.

wodennorth@cg.org.au

Stay safe, and take care of each other,

Stephanie Burns

Religious Education Coordinator

Although we can not have our assemblies in our usual way at the moment, awards will still be presented.

Canteen Awards (for Term 1):

NO CASH COUNTER SALES AT LUNCHTIME

Canteen will not be accepting cash during these current times.

Families can make contactless payment via Qkr! 

Purchase counter sale items for your child/children in their lunch order

or you can purchase a “counter sales voucher” on Qkr!

for your child/children to collect something at the canteen at lunchtime. 

Lauretta Raccosta, Canteen Manager

Lauretta.Raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au or 6281 1932

Healthy Kids, Healthy Bodies, Healthy Canteens

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 the Skoolbag app 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. The uniform shop is asking for no more second-hand donations of white sports tops please.

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

Lauretta Raccosta

Uniform Shop Manager

Lauretta.raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au

ANZAC BISCUITS

INGREDIENTS

1c rolled oats

1c plain flour

2/3c brown sugar

2/3c coconut

125g butter

2 tbs golden syrup

2 tbs water

1 tsp bicarb soda

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line two trays with baking paper

Mix oats, flour, brown sugar & coconut in medium bowl

Place the butter, golden syrup and water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir until melted

Add the bicard soda and remove from the heat

Mix dry and wet ingredients together, then shape the mixture into small balls, place on the prepared trays and press down lightly

Bake biscuits for 10 minutes or until golden

This topical recipe is on page 102 of our 50th Anniversary Cookbook.