Dear Parents

Staff Support Staff Day - Thank you

"Thank you to Evelyn David-Hoole and Community Council, Carmel, Jacinda and parents for the wonderful morning tea given to Support Staff on Monday. Thank you also for the lovely gifts. We enjoyed celebrating our day" - Support Staff

Mr Dalton, Mrs Levi, Miss Murphy, Mrs Byrnes, Mrs Flynn, Mrs Shah & Miss O'Leary

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Mrs Thompson, Mrs Austin, Mrs Friend, Mrs Regan & Mr Thomas 

Enrolment Time

Presentation of Star Awards

Commencing next week we will present our star awards at an afternoon gathering in the courtyard, commencing at 2.30pm. This will enable family members to attend. As SMOOSH needs to set up in the hall of an afternoon our access to the hall is restricted. Remember we need to observe the current COVID restriction still in place - physical distancing, please do not attend if unwell, register via our CBR Check in QR code that will be located on the wall near the canteen. This will eliminate parents crowding in the foyer of the school. Dust off the cameras!

Compass

Please register with the Compass Parent Portal if you have not already done so. Please ensure your email address is correct for registration to go through. If you are having difficulties with registering please contact the Front Office. Reports will be distributed via Compass so please register. 

CE Changes to Semester One Report 

Our teaching team has begun the process of creating each child’s Semester 1 2021 report.

In Semester 1:

For Kindergarten students:

• Achievement in each subject will be reported using a four-point scale (Well Above Expectations, Above Expectations, Meeting Expectations and Working Towards Expectations).

For Year 1 to Year 6 students:

• Academic grades for each subject using a five-point scale from A-E will be reported using the Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards.

For all students:

• Strand Achievement will be reported in English, Mathematics, Humanities and Social Sciences, Health and Physical Education, and The Arts using a five-point scale (Excellent, High, Sound, Basic, Elementary).
• Engagement with Learning statements, which are taken directly from the Australian Curriculum, will provide specific information about your child’s Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Responsibility, using a three-point scale (Beginning, Developing, Consistently).

Please note - With changes currently being made to Semester One reports, Catholic Education has also made the decision not to include individual student comments in the reports. 

Dialogue is an important feature of reporting. The Semester Report in this format encourages parent engagement and conversation about student learning. We want the report to be the entry point for parent-teacher interviews so we can engage in a genuine conversation about your child’s strengths, challenges, effort and areas for growth.

You are encouraged to keep in touch with your child’s teacher should you have any concerns as our next formal parent-teacher meetings will occur in Term 3 Week 1.

The new approach to Academic Reporting is a developing process. Further work will be undertaken in the coming months to determine how progress and achievement are best reported based on what we know to be important information about a student’s learning and progress.

Open Council Meeting

Sincere apologies for the confusion over the communication to our Open Council meeting, via zoom, last week. I am still learning how our new Parent Portal via Compass works and discovered I had actually invited all the children to the meeting and not the parents. We will attempt another meeting in the coming months as parent input is so important to the growth of our school.

Key areas discussed with those who had discovered the link

1. Land Acquisition around the school  - work in progress due to the zoning of Urban Open Space.

2. Hall Items - White Elephant sale this weekend.

3. Canteen - Changes required to the phasing out of plastic items ie spoons, cups. Considering other alternatives. 

4. SMOOSH - calling for parents interested in developing a survey to review our service and to consider ways to spread the work. Any parents interested in joining a small committee please email carmel.maguire@cg.catholic.edu.au 

5. Outdoor classroom - Council members support the move to gather new quotes and contribute $30 000 to the cost. These funds have been held over since our last fete in 2020, for the purpose of developing an outdoor classroom.

Principal discussion points

1. Development of our student management policy.

2. Changes to the Semester One Report by CE.

3. Enrolment time and parents promoting the school.

4. Moving to more school gatherings including awards, the possibility of a Father's Day Breakfast etc.

5. Grandparents Day - delaying to later in the year when the weather is warmer, we can incorporate outdoor spaces and allowing more time for people to access the COVID vaccine. 

6. Issue with submitting teams for Gala Days - qualifications of coaches, numbers of children interested. An area we are exploring further. 

Rostrum School Finals

On Friday morning our school finalists from Years 5 and 6 will present their speeches. Children involved will be advised tomorrow what time the speeches will be starting.

Baby News

Congratulations to Declan H (6M) and Layla H (2RR) on the arrival of their little brother Ethan.

Principal  

First Eucharist Retreat Day

Why do we have a Retreat Day as part of the sacramental preparation at St Monica’s?

A Retreat Day is a wonderful opportunity for us all to gather as a faith community for the purpose of learning about and experiencing God’s presence through the sacraments. Tomorrow, our First Eucharist candidates will gather together with their peers to investigate scripture using the Three Worlds of the Text, reflect on the symbolism of loaves, fish and baskets in the scripture – Feeding of the Five Thousand, and learning about what it means to be a part of the Eucharistic Community.

Each student will have the opportunity to develop a call to action by exploring the following concepts for living a Eucharistic Life:

• Loving others
• Looking after God’s Creation
• Caring for people who are in need
• Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord
• Always doing your best
• Helping someone
• Sharing with others
• Showing kindness

We are really looking forward to celebrating with all of candidates and their friends tomorrow during the Retreat Day!

Sacramental Program 2021 – First Eucharist for Year 4 students in 2021

The Sacrament of First Eucharist will be celebrated in Term 2 of 2021 on the following dates:

• Tuesday 8 June at 6pm in St Michael’s Church
• Wednesday 9 June at 6pm in St Monica’s Church
• Thursday 10 June at 5.30pm in St Monica’s Church
• Thursday 10 June at 7pm in St Monica’s Church

Please keep the candidates for First Eucharist in your prayers.

Parent Child Formation Night – 6.00pm - Thursday 20 May 2020

The parent/child formation night is this Thursday via zoom at 6.00pm.
Zoom address is https://cgcatholic.zoom.us/j/98317292168

Registration for the Sacrament of First Eucharist

Registrations have now closed and no further registration can be accepted.

Commitment Masses

There will be no additional commitment masses.

Booking a Mass time for the Sacrament

Once you have decided on the date and church you wish your child to celebrate the Sacrament, bookings can be made through ‘Trybooking’ on the parish website at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth
Bookings will be open from 10 May 2021 to 21 May 2021.

COVID Restrictions - due to current Covid restrictions we can only have 200 people in the church for each celebration.
This means the number of people attending is restricted to 8 to 10 per family only (This may include parents, siblings or other family members or friends).

Booking will close once 200 bookings are made for the service.

Purchasing a stole for First Eucharist

Purchasing a stole is optional and is not compulsory. If you wish to purchase a stole please make a payment of $20 through the Qkr! App and send an email to sc.belconnennorth@cg.org.au and arrangements will be made for delivery/pickup.

For further information please contact the Sacramental Program coordinator at sc.belconnennorth@cg.org.au or the parish website at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth

In the coming weeks, we will be inviting students, teachers and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.

We would like to invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Monica’s Primary.

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You will able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using a special URL.

I will advise when the survey URL will be launched; I'm expecting it will be towards the end of next week.

The students in Years 4 to 6 will also take part in completing a survey. Please refer to the letter attached.

WHAT MATTERS?

Over the past two weeks I have been fortunate enough to work with a talented group of Year 5 and 6 students on a piece of writing for the Gough Whitlam Institution “What Matters” writing competition.

These students wanted to write about what matters to them as children of the 21st century. The topics they chose to write about covered a range of topics including poverty, climate change, pollution, racism, poaching and cancer research. Their finished pieces of work left me speechless. They wrote from the heart and clearly showed a great passion for wanting to make a change in the world. Congratulations to the following students for all their hard work!

Bella P, Makenna M, Shaye S-A, Jesse F, Josh Mc, Archie S, Sam G, Amour A,  Indiana H, Jaiden B, Emilia H, Sarah D-H.

Did you know that St Monica’s has its very own robotics team?

Students from year 5 and 6 who are keen on all things Tech participate in weekly sessions to build and code EV3 and Sphero robots. They are preparing for an ACT schools robotics competition called Robocup Jr.

This week we were lucky to host our second interschools meeting where teams participated in an intensive coding workshop to learn how to make their robots follow a line around a specially made course.

Our teams learnt so much and are looking forward to testing out their skills as they prepare for the competition on 28August.

Please find below this weeks Maths problems. Please email your responses to me ryan.matchett@cg.catholic.edu.au by Tuesday morning. 

 K-2

Domino Sequences

What might the next two dominoes be in each of these sequences?

Can you explain why you chose those two dominoes?

Belconnen Cross Country

Best wishes to our 50 students participating in the Belconnen Cross Country Carnival next Wednesday 26 May. A note with some important reminders went home yesterday. Please contact me if you did not receive it. Students are reminded to meet Mr Fletcher and Mr Hague at 8:20am near the kinder play area for an 8:30am departure.

Last week there were some issues with Qkr! on Friday morning which caused upset for some of our families. If this occurs in the future please don't worry, simply send me an email to wendy.regan@cg.catholic.edu.au, (there is no need to call the office, or phone me or message me privately).  Please include your child's name and class and what they would like in their order.  Due to the busyness of Fridays, those emails would be appreciated by 9am.  I am rarely on my email again after this time, so this will ensure I can provide your child with lunch.  Prompt payment on the Forgotten Lunch tab (on Qkr! when it is back up) would be appreciated.  The same can be done if your child is sick.  If I have prompt advice of their absence I can ensure the food is not sent out and therefore can hold the order over for the next week.

Thank you to my tremendous volunteers last week. It was wonderful to welcome some new people into the space and your time is truly valued. Thanks Sarah Clark, Lorraine Coleman, Sam Cox, Laura Davern, Evelyn David-Hoole, Neridda Leen, Katherine O'Sullivan, Rach Pentes, Jane Rabbets and Fiona Steinberg.

Volunteer opportunities for "Canteen Volunteers - Term 2 2021" are still open.

Please click on the following web link (or copy it into your web browser if clicking doesn't work) to go to the signup sheet:

volunteersignup.org/XF84H

To sign up, just follow the instructions on the page. It only takes a few seconds to do.

Thank you for volunteering!

Happy Birthday to the following students  celebrating a Birthday this week 

Billy S, Lewis H, Lachlan J

If you have any ideas or concerns please email them through to our Secretary Noel Chan at council.stmonicas@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Reminder all families: 

Catholic Education COVID-19 Website - Click to open web updates