Achieve - all that you can

Jesus said therefore

‘What is the Kingdom of God like?  And to what shall I compare it?  It is like the mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches’.    

Luke 13: 18-20

St Monica - A Model of Perseverance

Family - Responsibility, Perseverance & Inclusion

Dear Parents

Engaging Faith, Minds and Community

‘Send Out Your Light and Your Truth, Let Them Lead Me’ Ps 43:3

The theme for Catholic Schools Week 2019, ‘Engaging Faith, Minds and Community’, best describes the Catholic school experience. It illustrates our holistic approach to educating children to become adults who personify Catholic values and serve their communities.

The theme highlights the faith based nature of our Catholic schools while emphasising our inclusiveness – that all are welcome. Catholic Schools are places where we strive for all to be engaged in faith, inspire the mind and build strong communities.

The theme explores what makes our schools unique, in particular the richness of our Catholic school communities.

Faith – placing Christ at the centre.

Minds – inspiring achievement and the fulfilment of each child’s potential.

Community – to become valuable, caring members of the school and extended community.

St Monica's strive to embody these values every day, so it is fitting that they form the theme for celebrating Catholic education in 2019.

Pope Francis at the World Youth Day 2019 final Mass, reflected on the importance of young people for society. He said their gifts are not reserved only for tomorrow. Young people, he said, “are the today for tomorrow. They are not ‘in the meantime’, but are the ‘today’, the ‘now’, of the Church and the world.” To inspire young people of today Catholic Schools are places that embrace their joyful presence and provide a community where young people can personally encounter God through the nurturing words and actions of others.

As part of a Catholic community St Monica’s is called to celebrate the gifts and diversity of all its members, inspire the minds and spirit of all those in our midst and help shape the young people to care for and serve those most in need.

A Prayer for Catholic Schools Week

God, thank you, for the blessing of Catholic Schools.

Help our school to grow in Faith, Hope and Love.

Jesus, thank you, for the blessing of all those who work in Catholic Schools.

Help our school staff to always be your face to those they encounter.

Holy Spirit, thank you for the blessing of the families, children and parents who are part of Catholic Schools.

Help our school families, children and parents to grow in understanding of the world and grant them the strength to make right choices when the world challenges what is right.

Amen.

Celebrating and sharing with our Mothers of all ages 

A beautiful morning around the school

Our assembly will be held at 10.30am tomorrow due to a guest speaker coming to tell the children about our new venture - Global School Partners. Through this program we will be supporting a needy school overseas. 

God bless

Carmel Maguire 

Everything you do is based on the choices you make.

It’s not your parents, your past, your relationships, your job,

the economy, the weather, an argument about where you live,

or your age, that is to blame.

You and only You are responsible for every decision and every

choice that you make.

It is taking responsibility.

We had the perfect day for our carnival. Thank you to Susan Carswell for her excellent organisation; our new format ensured the children were busy for most of the day. Many thanks to the parents and teachers for your help with the carnival. The winning team will be announced once all the points have been collated. Ribbons will be distributed in the coming weeks - date to be advised. 

The Mother's Day Stall will be held tomorrow morning from 9am onwards in the morning. The prices for gifts will range from $2-$10. This is a wonderful opportunity for all children to purchase a gift for their Mum, Nanna, Aunt or special someone in their life. Children will able to purchase a gift each.

Mother's Day Raffle

Our Mother's Day raffle will be drawn tomorrow afternoon. The prize is a beautiful hamper gift basket. Tickets are $1.00.

Our Year 3 and 5 students will be completing NAPLAN next week. Below is the timetable we will follow. If you have any concerns please do not hesitate to contact your classroom teacher or Luke Donnelly.

Parent-Teacher Interviews will take place from Monday 20 May - Friday 24 May. 

Bookings will be available online via School Interviews from the evening of Friday 10 May. Instructions for making your appointments are attached to this message. Access to School Interviews is also available on our school website, under Links - Parents. Families of KGH will be notified of interview times once Mrs Godschalx returns from leave next week.

The booking code for these interviews is c2vma

Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge

This year St Monica’s is participating in the Chief Minister’s Challenge.  The challenge involves students reading 30 books before 21September.  Information about the challenge can be found at this link The Chief Minister's Reading Challenge. The Students have received their Individual Student Reading Record.  When the students finish a book, it must be initialled by their parents or teacher.

Have you looked at what our students have to say about Home Learning yet?

The display of student responses is in the main corridor outside 1E.

Tomorrow our Home Learning Review Committee will be meeting to go over the results from our students and create a parent and staff survey to be completed in the coming weeks.

Here is how all of the students at St Monica's feel about completing Home Learning:

On Friday 17 May (Week 3) we are encouraging all families to participate in Walk to School Day. This event is in it's 20th year and encourages families to consider the health, environmental  and personal benefits of walking to school instead of catching a bus or traveling by car. Please see the flyer attached which contains more information. It would be great to see as many families as possible participating and you may even consider walking or riding bikes to school together. 

Walk_to_School_Day_17_May.pdf

Term 2 School Fees were invoiced earlier this week. Statements have been emailed to nominated accounts, or sent home with children.

Full payment of school fees is due by Friday 7 June. 

If you have a Direct Debit arrangement in place no additional payment is required. However, please ensure you have sufficient funds in your account for the debits to take place successfully. In the event one of your debits is refused, you are required to make a separate payment to cover the missed payment.

As always, please contact the School Finance Officer should you need to discuss your school fees account.

ACT Trials

Please refer to last week's newsletter for information on trials for ACT representation in Football, Rugby league and AFL. Notes for boys and girls 11/12 Hockey were also handed out this week. All of these notes are also available on the school app.

SSACT_top.png

Athletics Carnival

A big thank you to all our parents and students from SFX who helped coordinate our school Athletics carnival today. Also a big thank you to Mrs Carswell who coordinated the event and put a huge amount of work into the preparation of the carnival. Results and photos will be shared in the newsletter in coming weeks.

Belconnen Cross Country

Notes for the Belconnen Cross Country were handed out this week. Congratulations to the students who were successful in gaining selection. This carnival will take place on Thursday 30th May.

Catholic Primary Schools Basketball

Notes for expression of interest in attending the NSW Catholic Primary Schools Basketball Challenge were handed out on Wednesday. This is open to students in Years 3-6 and needs to be returned by Friday 24 May (Week 4). Note attached in case it didn't make it home.

CPS_Basketball_expression_of_interest.pdf

Happy Birthday to the following students -

Clancy P, Sienna R, Marley B, Lilli P, Tyler S, Charlie C, Maddie R, Tara H, Sam J, Max S

Canteen Roster  - Term 2, Week 3

Monday - June Manning

Tuesday - Evelyn David-Hoole

Wednesday - Vacancy

Thursday - June Manning

Friday - Tracy D'Ambrosio, Samantha Cox, Jane Rabbets, Wendy Regan, Katrina Ciampa

Samantha Manning - Canteen Manager - 62584687

Community Council Meeting

The Community Council are meeting on  Wednesday 15 May.  We would love to hear your thoughts or concerns.  Please email them through to our Secretary Fiona Steinberg at Council.StMonicas@cg.catholic.edu.au We are especially keen to hear if parents/families would be interested in meeting socially for a picnic/social gathering?

 Support Staff Day

St Monica's will be celebrating School Support Staff day on Thursday 16 May. The Community Council would like to acknowledge the extraordinary contribution that our Support Staff make to our school.  We are planning a Morning Tea for our Support Staff on Thursday 16 May and would welcome any contributions from parents.  We hope the school community takes this opportunity to let our Support Staff know how much we appreciate their time, energy and care!

Transport Canberra launched their new bus network last week. There have been a number of changes to the buses servicing our school.

We understand you may have some concerns regarding the new bus services. You are invited to drop in to the school office to sign a petition addressed to the Assembly requesting them to call on the ACT Government to reconsider the recent changes, in terms of dedicated school services.

If you would like to contact Transport Canberra directly, they always welcome feedback on public transport services. You can provide feedback via the Transport Canberra website, under www.transport.act.gov.au/contact-us/feedback. This feedback will be considered as part of the development of future changes to services and timetables.

Vsevolod K (3/4C) competed in Jack Newton Junior Golf, Juniors on the Move ACT #4 at Queanbeyan Golf Club and was runner-up. Congratulations Vsevolod!! 

Woolworths Earn & Learn is back for 2019.  Please collect your Earn & Learn Stickers and send in to Front Office. There are many exciting prizes available this year for our school to earn ranging from musical instruments to maths equipment, and from sporting gear to science kits.  This year there is also a Bin located at Woolworths Belconnen Store for St Monica's School.