Dear Parents and Carers

 “Let suffering soften your heart rather than harden your soul.”

Fr Ronald Rolheiser

We return this week to the '10 commandments for mature living', as described by the American priest Ronald Rolheiser. Rolheiser is of the belief that inevitably, in one way or another, suffering comes to us all. How we handle that suffering determines the next stage of our growth and of our lives. He writes, “Suffering comes to us all, and in full measure, but how we respond to them will determine both the level of our maturity and what kind of person we are. Suffering and humiliation will either soften our hearts or harden our souls.” COVID-19 has involved a kind of mass suffering, and the media have told stories of those who have chosen different ways of dealing with the pain. A softening of the heart is ultimately the only way to integrate all of life’s ups and downs into our life’s story.

Principals, Priests and REC Meeting

This Friday, Stephanie Burns and I are meeting with Fr John Woods, our Parish Priest, together with Philippa Brearley and Emily Capper, Principal and REC respectively of Holy Trinity, Curtin. We are all zooming in together to a meeting hosted by CE, where all Archdiocesan Priests, Principals and RECs gather annually, to participate in a formation day together. The day will have a number of speakers, but chief among them is Br David Hall, Director of the La Salle Academy, of the Australian Catholic University. https://www.acu.edu.au/about-acu/institutes-academies-and-centres/la-salle-academy

The day is spent looking at the changes in the Catholic Church that have taken place over the years, with one eye especially on the Plenary Council. Within this context of change, CE is looking at its faith formation practices, where its staff is concerned. David Hall will lead the meeting and discussion. I met David at the Principals’ Retreat earlier in the year. He is a superb speaker and an important thinker.

Leonie Anstey

An equally important thinker is Leonie Anstey, whose area of expertise is Maths. Leonie is visiting the school digitally next week, due to COVID-19 restrictions (Leonie is based in Victoria). She will be working with teachers via zoom on Monday and Tuesday next week, assisting them in developing their understandings of concepts inherent in the Maths curriculum and the best ways of bringing the concepts to life with the use of concrete materials. Leonie is also booked for Term 4 and for 2021. http://elevatinglearning.com.au/

Siloam

Next Wednesday I am away from school for ½ a day at Siloam, a mini-retreat day for Principals (again, using zoom). It is really a mini formation program for Principals and usually takes place four times a year. This term, we are spending some extended time reflecting on the Gospel account of Jesus calming the storm (Matthew 8: 23 – 27), which is really a metaphor for the storms in our lives, that we all experience, and the presence of Jesus within the midst of the storm.  It is also a good opportunity to connect with colleagues in a different way than the normal system led meetings allow for. It is another way of being a community.

Have a good week with your families and enjoy the warmer weather.

Best wishes

Cameron Johns

Principal

Sunday Gospel: Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Matthew 16:21-27

This week’s gospel is the first of three predictions of Jesus’ death and resurrection in Matthew’s Gospel (see also Mark and Luke). Despite Peter’s confession of faith that immediately precedes this passage (see last week’s gospel), the Disciples still do not have a very solid understanding of Jesus’ purpose. They may regard Him as the Messiah, but still do not fully understand what that means. In this passage, Jesus is beginning to prepare them for the events of the Passion – His death and resurrection. He is trying to lead them to a greater understanding of His mission and message. But Peter abruptly ‘rebukes’ Jesus and tells Him not to speak like that. One can almost hear Peter saying, ‘Look, Jesus, you’ve got a good thing going here, don’t spoil it by talking about dying!’ However, Jesus responds to Peter very sharply, suggesting that his lack of understanding is inspired by evil and reflects human thought, not divine wisdom.

The passage then leads in to a description of the challenge of discipleship. To be a follower of Jesus means to ‘deny’ oneself, take up one’s cross and follow Jesus. In the context of this passage, to ‘deny’ oneself means to not be concerned about ‘I’ but to be concerned about ‘You’ – to put others before self. To be a follower of Jesus means to be selfless, not self-centred. In the ultimate example of this, Jesus tells His disciples that whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Jesus’ sake will find it. To ‘save’ your life is to hold back from giving yourself fully to the message of Jesus – to be ‘half-hearted’ in your faith. But to ‘lose’ yourself in the message of Jesus is to fully give yourself over to living the reign of God and through ‘losing’ yourself in this way, Jesus tells us, is how to truly find life.  (Gospel Reflection by Greg Sunter)

Sacrament of Confirmation

Many of our Year 6 students and their families have begun the journey towards Confirmation. We all join in praying for them as they prepare for the Sacrament to be held at the end of this term. All parents of candidates should have been emailed a link to a Google Doc (included again below) that will allow them to book a spot for their families at one of the Confirmation Masses.

Please contact me if you are having any issues with this link.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rB1sASzwzASD6d6-xwo_I_M-oYDPXe2VnuLuKg7WVUY/edit#gid=0

Next week, I will be working with our Year Six Confirmation Candidates to complete preparation for their Sacrament, and create the Stoles that they will wear during the Sacrament. I’m looking forward to spending the time with the students during this time.

God bless,

Stephanie Burns

Religious Education Coordinator

Dear Parents,

Sts Peter and Paul will be celebrating Literacy Day on the 8th of September. The theme of the day will be the 2020 Book Week theme ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’. 

Curious Creatures feature prominently in children’s books and bring a wonderful sense of fantasy and imagination to children’s stories.

As we are unable to invite special guests or parent visitors to our school at this time, I thought it would be great if some of the parent community could volunteer to record themselves reading aloud a story to their child/children and then share it with me, so I can share it with your child’s class.

Children love to listen to stories. Sharing this joyful experience with the students is a valuable way to get them on the path to loving books. Listening to others read develops an appreciation for storytelling, how a story is written and familiarity with book conventions.

Please email me if you would like to be involved in our read aloud sharing for Literacy Day.

Kind regards

Maryanne Armstrong

Mrs Barrett and Mrs McMillen organised an exciting activity to engage the student in their writing. The Kinder White students had so much fun creating something out of Lego, drawing their construction and writing about it. Such a great idea and excellent writing KW.

Our Kinder students have been very busy publishing their writing. What wonderful displays to showcase their achievements.

SCIENCE DAY – Friday 18^th September, 2020

 Sts Peter & Paul will be celebrating our ‘Annual Science Day’ on Friday 18^th September. In class groups, students will participate in a variety of engaging science activities. Keeping with tradition, the Year 6 students will lead the experiments with teacher support and supervision.

The theme for this year is ‘The Deep Blue’. Students are invited to dress as scientists/inventors for the day.

Activities include:

• Glove Bagpipes
• Rain Cloud in a Jar
• Shrinky Shapes
• Air Cannons
• Plastic Bag Parachutes
• Slime
• Make a Bouncy Ball

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.

Students are also invited to enter our Science Fair. The Science Fair is a new addition to our Science Day Activities. Each student will be able (if they want to) to complete a science experiment and create a poster for the Science Fair. Entries will be displayed around the school. There will be prizes for each Stage within the school. Please refer to the Science Fair 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 Week Coordinator

Paul Jenkins

STS PETER & PAUL SCHOOL 2020 SCIENCE FAIR

We are very excited to announce the second Annual Sts Peter and Paul Primary School Science Fair! The Science Fair is a new addition to our Science Day Activities. Each child will be able (if they want to) to complete a science experiment for the Science Fair and present it to the school. There will be prizes for each Stage within the school.

Parents are welcome to support their child with help, but the student should do as much of the work on the project as he/she is able to.

All projects are due by Week 8.

Projects will be displayed in the School Science Fair in Week 9.

PHILOSOPHY

The aim of the Sts Peter and Paul School Science Fair is to motivate students to discover how their world works, and is an opportunity to demonstrate mastery of the Science Investigation and Reasoning skills. Students develop science literacy and critical thinking as they answer questions, solve relevant problems, and use evidence to defend their thinking. This type of systematic problem solving is essential for success in the 21st century world.

PURPOSE

The purpose of the Sts Peter and Paul Primary School Science Fair is to support the learning goals outlined in the National Australian Science Curriculum.

Students are expected to:

• Ask their own questions
• Plan and implement investigations to answer those questions
• Consider safe practices and use of appropriate tools to support investigations
• Collect data through observation and/or testing
• Use critical thinking to organize, analyse, and evaluate their data
• Communicate their learning

Project Requirements

All projects should be completed on cardboard, any colour board is permitted. Make sure you can read the information clearly on the board.

Projects should be neat and organised. Projects can be typed or handwritten.

Projects should have correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Make sure you write your name clearly on your project.

No live animals, dangerous items or chemicals are allowed.

Science Fair Procedures and Guidelines

Step 1 Find an area of science that you are interested in learning more about.

Step 2 Do some research in that area. Use books, the internet, or interview an expert.

Step 3 State Your Question.

Step 4 Form a Hypothesis (a scientific question you want to answer).

Step 5 Develop and perform an experiment that can find an answer to your question.

Step 6 Record data, take photographs, make drawings, and keep careful records of the results of your experiment.

Step 7 Draw your conclusion after looking at the results of your experiment.

Step 8 Make an attractive and neat display board to show the steps of the scientific method in your experiment.

Step 9 Present your experiment.

Remember: The science fair is for experiments only. No models or collections are allowed.

For example: A model of a volcano, the solar system, or a tornado in a bottle is not permitted. A collection of birdsʼ eggs, rocks, or seashells is not permitted.

Your display needs to be freestanding so that it will stand on a table or be displayed on the wall. Your display can be a cardboard poster showing your science experiment. Your display should be brought to school at the beginning of Week 9. Your project will be displayed in the 3-6 corridor.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact or speak to Mr Jenkins as soon as possible.

Paul Jenkins
Science Coordinator

CANTEEN IS CASHLESS

Families can make contactless payment 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” for your child/children to go to the canteen to collect something at lunchtime.

Do you want to win a $2 voucher to spend in the canteen? Simply purchase fresh or frozen fruit from the canteen and be in the weekly draw to WIN!!!

Fruit incentive ticket WINNER for last week was Harper deS, 1M.  Congratulations Harper, you have won a $2.00 voucher, to spend at the canteen. Please see Mrs R at the canteen to collect your voucher.

Canteen roster, Week 7, Term 3

Lauretta Raccosta,

Canteen

Lauretta.Raccosta@cg.catholic.edu.au

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 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.

The uniform shop is asking for NO MORE donations of white sports tops please.

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

PUMPKIN HOT CAKES

Ingredients

300g pumpkin, peeled, seeded, chopped

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 tbs butter, melted

1 egg

1 cup plain flour

1/2 tsp bi-carb soda

1/4 tsp salt

Dash of vegetable oil

Method

Place chopped pumpkin in a steaming basket and place over a large suacepan filled with water (make sure the basket does not touch the water).

Bring water to boil and steam for 10 minutes. When pumpkin is tender, transfer to a bowl and mash.

Stir in buttermilk and melted butter and whisk in the egg. Sift in the flour, bi-carb soda and salt until all combined.

Heat a frypan and put a small amount of vegetable oil in the pan. Cook tablespoons of the mixture for about 3 minutes, when bubbles form flip and cook for a further minute or two.

Drain on paper towel then place on a serving platter.

Note: For a sweet dish, drizzle hotcakes with maple syrup. For a savoury dish, serve with a dollop of sour cream and chopped chives.

This classic recipe is on page 138 our 50th Anniversary Cookbook. 

The cookbook, full of recipes either from Mrs Robyn Moore (fab cooking teacher) or donated by our school community, can be purchased for only $20 via Qkr! or eftpos (No cash please). Books can be collected from the front office.