Dear Parents and Carers

“Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy."

-- Pope Francis

Today is Ash Wednesday and we begin the Season of Lent. Lent, like the Season of Advent, is a time of waiting and of preparation. It is a time dedicated by the Church to a period of fasting or ‘clearing out’: it is a good time to ask ourselves, ‘How do things stand with me?’ If Easter is Season of new life and of acknowledging and celebrating Christ’s triumph over death, then Lent is the season that is inviting us to reflect upon the fact that we cannot triumph over death by ourselves. Today, all students from K – 6 participated in an Ash Wednesday liturgy and received the mark of the ashes on their foreheads, signifying our need for God and God’s grace.

Reconciliation Information Evening

Last night, the Reconciliation Information night was held via zoom, for parents of students in Year 3 who are making their First Reconciliation this year. My thanks to Fron Garrett-Rumba for coordinating our Sacramental program, to our 3/4 teachers (Luke Gubler, Anna Kain and Amanda de Jongh) and my thanks too to Fr John Woods for his support of our students and families. If you were unable to attend last night, please see your child’s teacher for further information.

Kindergarten InitialLit

Sts Peter and Paul is currently trialling a new program called InitialLit in Kindergarten. InitialLit is a program that is heavily phonics based and is designed to strengthen children’s understandings of letter-sound relationships, and therefore contribute to the children’s ability to learn to read. InitialLit is part of a wider program in English. A number of Catholic primary schools are trialling the program in the Archdiocese and in itself, it is part of a wider initiative called ‘Catalyst’, which sees all schools adopt a suite of educational initiatives. CE has a website devoted to Catalyst. You can access the page at https://catalyst.cg.catholic.edu.au/

Years 1 and 2 Intervention Program

Sts Peter and Paul are looking at refining our approaches to the use of data and assessment and trialling different ways of tracking children’s learning. We are implementing a reading intervention program for any child who may need it, in Years 1 or 2. All students are currently being assessed in terms of their reading and will be reassessed again in week 5. Any child who is not at an expected grade level will enter a reading intervention program. Details of the program will be made known to parents of students who may require additional help. Please see your child’s teacher or me for any further details.

Year 6 Camp

Next week, our Year 6 students are going on their Year 6 camp, at Borambola, outside of Wagga. It will be a great deal of fun and is an excellent way for our Year 6 students to start their year. Our Year 6 teachers, Paul Jenkins and Sarah Kennelly, will be accompanying our students. Maryanne Armstrong and I will also be attending the camp. I will be away Wednesday to Friday and Sean Rutledge will very capably lead the school in my absence. https://www.sport.nsw.gov.au/sportandrecreation/facilities/borambola

Have a wonderful week with your families.

Best wishes 

Cameron Johns

Principal

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent. This is a period of preparation in the Church’s Liturgical Year that orients the community towards Holy Week and the Season of Easter. It’s a time for Catholics to slow down their lives and focus on prayer, fasting and good works. During Lent, students are invited to give up or take up something that will benefit the lives of others and positively enhance their relationships. We invite students to make age-appropriate decisions; this could be emptying the dishwasher (without complaint or without being asked!) or reducing time spent playing video games.

The Season of Lent also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to alleviate poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice. Each year we raise student awareness of people around the world who need support and encourage giving to this cause. Your child can take donations to school at any time throughout Lent and place it in the donation box in their class.  

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Thank you to the parents who attended our Reconciliation Parent Information night via zoom yesterday. We covered the key details of the Sacrament, connected with others in the Parish and had a few laughs along the way!

Some important reminders for parents and carers of children making the Sacrament:

• Enrolment is due by Friday 19^th. Please follow the instructions below to enrol.
• Click here to select a home group that works for you. Please remember to add your name, your child’s name and email address to your chosen group. 
• If you were unable to attend the information session last night, please send me an email so that I can catch you up on all of the information fran.garrett@cg.catholic.edu.au

How to enrol for Reconciliation via Qkr

• Download or open the Qkr app on your phone or device
• Sign up or Login
• Tap the search icon  and type in ‘Transfiguration’
• Select North Woden Transfiguration Parish (you may need to follow the prompts to add a profile)
• Select parish payments and sacraments
• Select sacraments
• Select Reconciliation (please note that the due date listed is Feb 12th, but this has been extended to February 19th)
• Complete the enrolment

21 February  – First Sunday of Lent YearB

https://www.prayingwithchildren.org/l3ts4m3g.html

Praying with Children is an online resource that is designed for families with children to use at home.

It includes an extract from the Sunday Gospel, along with some reflection questions, family activities and a short video to watch.

Adult Faith Development: Lenten Prayer
Archbishop Prowse is leading an online Lenten prayer program for adults on Thursdays throughout the season of Lent. Details available here https://cgcatholic.org.au/walk-in-the-spirit/

Blessings,

Fron Garrett

Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)

DATES TO REMEMBER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to those students celebrating their birthday this week.

Isabella T

Lachlan A

Emma I

Roxie M

Awards will be given at Thursday afternoon assemblies in weeks 2, 5, 6, 8 and 10.

Principal's award: Edie R,5W

Learning Support Awards: Archit S, 2W; Austin J, 2M; Khaled A, 3/4W; Indie G, 3/4B; Lachlan A, 3/4W

My name is Nadia Ho and I have been part of the CatholicCare Student and Family Counselling team since January 2021. I worked as a behavioural therapist for 9 years across Sydney and Canberra in the past.

I am a Social Worker and also studied psychology in university. I am experienced in working with and delivering therapies for children with disabilities aged from 2 to 12. I have practised evidenced based methods, such as applied behavioural analysis and play therapy. My role as a social worker provides changes to the tradition therapy models. I promote therapy to be family focused, relationship focused, autonomy and right focused therapy. I have passion for working with children and their families to improve their wellbeing.  

I can be reached via email nadia.ho@catholiccare.cg.org.au

We look forward to working with you and your school throughout 2021!

Saints Peter and Paul Swimming Carnival Tuesday 9^th March
at the Tuggeranong Pool, at the corner of Anketell Street and Athllon Drive in Greenway

Thank you to all of the families of children in Years 2-6 that have gotten onto SZapp to complete the Consent, Medical, Event Nomination and Parent Assistance forms for our swimming carnival. If you are yet to do this, please ensure that all of this information is completed and submitted by Wednesday 3^rd March. Thank you so much for your assistance with all of this.

We are excited to be welcoming parents as volunteers and spectators on the day. The Check in Canberra App QR code will be posted at the entry point to the pool. We will also have sign in and out sheets for you to use, so that we can have a school record of anyone in attendance on the day. The current restrictions in relation to numbers at the pool will be 500. I will let you know as soon as I can if this changes.

If you think your child may qualify for the South/Weston Region Swimming Carnival, please have a look at the information below.

South/Weston Region Swimming Carnival Thursday 25^th March
at the Stromlo Leisure Centre, Corner of Uriarra Road and, Dave McInnes Rd, Stromlo.

All School Sport ACT regional swimming events are being held at the Stromlo Leisure Centre, as the AIS is currently unavailable for community meet bookings until the end of March. This is due to Tokyo Olympics preparations. If you have not been to this venue and would like to familiarise yourself with the space, please use the following link to do so https://www.stromloleisurecentre.com.au/

If your child is selected to represent our school at the regional carnival, they will receive information in relation to this soon after our school carnival. Please be aware that there will be a quick turnaround for bringing these notes back, (Wednesday 17^th March) as nominations need to be submitted to the convening school for organisational purposes.

Unfortunately, due to the current COVID restrictions in relation to numbers at events, this year there will not be any regional 8 and 9 year old events and parents/spectators will not be permitted to attend any events or enter the pool deck area.

School Sport is hoping that there may be further easing of restrictions after the next government checkpoint on the 12^th February. If this is the case the 8 and 9 year olds will be able to compete, and the attendance of spectators will be reviewed. Please rest assured that I will let you know as soon as I have any new information in relation to this.

School Sport ACT

Please follow this link www.schoolsportact.org.au to access all information related to School Sport ACT. The current primary school sporting calendar can be found on this page. Please ensure that you visit this page regularly as dates sometimes change due to unforeseen circumstances.

One off Hockey Clinic this Friday 19^th February

For your information, if you have any children in Years 3-6, they will be participating in a one off Hockey Clinic this Friday 19^th February. Please send your child to school in their sport uniform on this day. We’re looking forward to participating in these sessions on Friday.

If you ever have any questions about anything related to Sport, please don’t hesitate to get in touch mary.desmet@cg.catholic.edu.au Hopefully I’ll be able to help you out!

ORAL COMPREHENSION

General questions

Did you enjoy the story?

Which part of the story did you like the best?

Have you ever felt like the character?  How?

If you were in the story, what would you do?

What do you really think this story is all about?

What will happen in the future?

What to ask

Show me the part where it tells about ......

Show me the line where it says about ......

Show me the word that tells ......

Listen while I read a line, see if you can find it and finish it ......

Listen to the MEANING of this part, see if you can find where it is printed ......

I'm thinking of a word that starts with "sh" ......

Look at the picture and tell me which part it is about ......

Thank you to everyone who has placed an order through Book Club! It is wonderful that we will have lots of rewards (20% of sales go to the Library). Orders close this Friday 19th February. All orders are placed online. Click here to access an online version: https://www.scholastic.com.au/book-club/book-club-parents/

Just a reminder that students Kinder-Year 4 must have a library bag to borrow books. Please encourage your child to borrow each week. It is a wonderful opportunity to read something that may not be on the shelves at home. 

What is SORA

The Overdrive eBook company has developed a child-friendly eBook reading APP named SORA. SORA has 27,000 age-appropriate books and 2,700 age-appropriate audio books available to download and read.

SORA is designed for children and has easy-to-use vertical screen options, attractive on-screen promotions, easily accessible statistics on reading completed, and rewards for reading.

SORA has been operational since 2019 at Sts Peter and Paul and is easy for you to access.  It is a resource that is funded by Catholic Education.  

You can login to Sora with your normal CENet login – used at school to login to our CE network.

For those that don't have a CENet login (particularly the lower grades), class teachers will get these out to you ASAP.

SORA Link

Visit https://soraapp.com in your web browser, or download the free SORA APP from the Apple and Google Play stores on a mobile device.

Video Link 

https://overdrive.wistia.com/medias/9cm9w959mh

Garden Club and Cooking/Food Science

Garden club, cooking and health have entered the classroom! This term we are combining our curriculum in the classroom directly with cooking and the kitchen garden. It’s fantastic and the children are enjoying it.

Years 1 and 2 are currently spending some time on Thursday and Friday cooking in the kitchen while they learn about the Five Food Groups and healthy eating in the classroom during health lessons. We have also added an Indigenous theme by using our wondering cushions while we share what we have cooked.

So far, both in class and in cooking, we have learnt about the Grain and Fruit Groups and made fruit turnovers and dips with pita bread to help us. We even picked our produce from our own garden!

Update and CALL OUT from Garden Club

Garden Club is back up and running for 2021. Yippee!! We have lots of plans and things to do for our Garden Club Crew. The produce is growing and we are about to start some projects which we will be available for sale in the future – so watch this space!!

You may have seen Woolworths advertising the mini plants again. If you happen to come across any and would care to donate them to Garden Club, 1M and 2W will accept them with pleasure. Just drop them off to either classroom. Many thanks in advance.

Also wanted: Compost Bins and seedling pots

Thank you so much for your help with this in the past. But…we need more ice cream tubs for our compost to feed our wonderful worms - empty of course!! If you can recycle your large capacity ice cream tub with it's lid to us that would be great.

We are also gathering empty yogurt containers and/or egg cartons in order to raise some seedlings. Again if you would like to help us, please deliver any donations to 1M and 2W.

Many thanks

The Garden Club

If you have any wool, cotton thread or material scraps, please send them into Year 6.

They need it for their art unit.

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” via Qkr! for your child/children to go to the canteen to collect something at lunchtime.

NEXT WEEK’S CANTEEN VOLUNTEER ROSTER

Thank you helpers; your assistance is very much appreciated!

Please contact me if you are unable to make your shift, Thank you.

Are you able to help out in the canteen?

Parent/carer helpers are most welcome in the Canteen. A lending hand is always required and very much appreciated. Helping in the Canteen is a great opportunity to meet new people and make a valuable contribution to the school.  No doubt your child/ren will get a buzz from seeing you at the school.  So 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 add your selected time to the roster. 

Please ensure you have your WWVP card.

https://stpandp.schoolzineplus.com/CanteenRosterTerm12021

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.

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 Summer 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.

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

CHICKPEA AND TOMATO SALAD

Ingredients

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

400 gr chickpeas, drained

1 red onion, finely diced

100 gr kalamata olives

2 tsp capers

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 tbs olive oil

Pinch salt and pepper

Pinch sugar

Method

Combine tomatoes, chickpeas, red onion, olives and capers in a salad bowl. 

Mix lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and sugar in a small, separate bowl.

Pour the lemon juice dressing over salad ingredients and serve immediately.

Grab the popcorn and have a family movie night!

My name is David Taylor and I am the Treasurer of the Deanne Calisthenics Club. 

Our enrolments for 2021 are currently open and we currently have a special offer where we have discounted our fees by $50 for the students of your school. 

Calisthenics is the sport with performing at its heart.  We offer a unique combination of dancing, singing, gymnastics, and technical skills for all ages.  Calisthenics develops strong, confident performers through team work.  Discipline and technique, grace and poise are fostered in a fun and friendly club environment, where families can connect and performers can develop skills and friendship that last a life time.  Our performers learn skills that inspire them to take centre stage at competitions, and in life.  Calisthenics suits children from 3 years old right through to adult age.

Our club was founded in 1975 and our current participants come from across Canberra and surrounding NSW including Queanbeyan, Googong and Royalla.

If you would like more information on our club, please don’t hesitate to contact our Club President Sandra Fisher, myself or visit our Website Deanne Calisthenics Club.

Merici’s new Principal, Anna Masters, and her Executive are looking forward to meeting you at one or all of the College’s enrolment events.

This is a wonderful opportunity for prospective families to see the College in action, meet the students and staff, attend the Principal’s Address, Year 7 and 11 Information Evenings and lots more.

The College is enrolling now for 2022 and beyond!

Please visit www.merici.college for all dates and information for Open Day, Be a Merici Girl Days and Talk and Tours.

Register online now!

Open Day and Year 7 2022 Information Night: Wednesday 28 April 2-4pm, 5.30-7.30pm
Be a Merici Girl Days: 22 April, 23 April, 6 May
Talk and Tours: 20 February, 27 March, 1 May, 21 August, 23 October

Telephone 02- 6243 4178 for all enquiries.

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