St Monica’s Primary School - Evatt eNewsletter

Friday 6 August	Wellbeing Day - Olympic Closing Ceremony
Wednesday 11 August	Year 2 Excursion - Museum Oz Tag Gala Day - Boys
Thursday 12 August	Confirmation Retreat Day & Child/Parent Evening Session Oz Tag Gala Day - Girls
Friday 13 August	School Prayer - Year 3 - 2.30pm

Dear Parents

So Much Fun Celebrating 100 Days In Kinder

The Kinder children had an amazing day on Monday all dressing up and being old for a day. Thank you to Mrs Currie and Miss Battye for creating this wonderful experience.

We are trying very hard to keep all planned activities going while we can. Please check the Compass Portal daily for any updates as this is our main form of communication. Thank you to all the parents who have checked their email addresses are correct.

It's Hats On again!

We are an ACT SunSmart School and all students are required to wear hats at school between August and the end of May. Hats are available from the Front Office or our Uniform Shop, but of course, for the meantime, while the weather is cold, students are permitted to wear a navy or maroon beanie. Remember, "No hat, No play".

Just in case - readiness for remote learning

To ensure we can change over to remote learning, if needed, I encourage parents to email if your child will require the use of a school device to access MS Teams and our online programs. We are currently checking that all passwords are working to make the transition a smooth one, should it be required.

Thank you to the families who have reached out to the school for a device. We will be sending home a letter on Friday to those families, to be returned on Monday, so the iPads can be sent home. Fingers crossed we don't have to go with remote learning. Hopefully, our bubble will remain strong. Whatever happens, we will be ready to assist families.

SMOOSH Survey

Last chance to complete our SMOOSH Survey. We are seeking feedback from all families regarding our SMOOSH Care program. The survey is for families who currently use SMOOSH during the term and/or vacation care or have used the service in the past. The feedback will be used to enhance the service offered by SMOOSH for our community. As we have only received 16 responses the survey will be open until Friday 6 August. Responses will be anonymous.
https://forms.gle/LyGTXuLngmC4g5i2A

School Check-in

Parents and visitors are now asked to check-in via our CBR Check-in app and our Compass Kiosk, both located in the school foyer. While I know it is inconvenient having to do both we need to keep our community safe and maintain our visitor register.

Continue to stay COVID safe and may God's blessing be with everyone.

Carmel Maguire

Principal

This Friday 6August a Mini Olympics is being held at St Monica’s School.

The students will be taking part in mini events throughout the day and competing for Gold Medals for their country. We are looking for Outstanding Talent, Excellent Sportsmanship and Most Improved.

We will also be having a visit from two parents in the community who are Ex-Olympians. They will share their amazing experiences with the students.

Last week each class was given a country that they are representing.

Students are invited to wear any colours from their allocated country flag on Friday with their sports uniform. Please remember there will be lots of sporting activities so sneakers/joggers will need to be worn.

Which class will win the Mini Marathon?

KB	France	4R	Kenya
KCH	Germany	4SG	Egypt
1BH	Chile	4M	Zimbabwe
1R	Brazil	5EM	Fiji
2E	Japan	5MM	New Zealand
2RR	India	6H	Italy
3LG	United States	6M	United Kingdom
3CF	Canada	6J	Ireland

Who will be crowned the synchronized swimming champion?

Will the Gold Medal go to the favourites in Gymnastics?

Critical and Creative Thinking in the RE Curriculum

At St Monica’s we use the Brisbane Religious Education Curriculum and the Australian Curriculum to plan, teach and assess Religious Education. We use a Conceptual Inquiry approach to plan authentic, connected learning experiences that facilitate and support faith development using a real-world lens.

When planning for these connected learning experiences, teachers at St Monica’s aim to develop critical and creative thinkers. We do this by drawing on the Brisbane curriculum knowledge and skills for each concept and link these with the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities. For example, last term Year 4 explored RE and HASS through the concept of ‘COMMUNITY’.

They explored what life was like for Jesus as he was growing up as a Jewish boy and man. Students were able to investigate the groups within the community and what life was like for the early Christian community after Jesus’ death. The teachers, along with Mr Donnelly and Fr Loi, set up a provocation, or experience, so the students in Year 4 could understand better what persecution meant – we took away their right to pray. They were up in arms!!! But they soon discovered that the early Christians developed a way to pray underground and Year 4 did the same! It was fun, but an experience that also developed Critical and Creative thinking! Our learning took us all the way to St Paul and his journeys, where the students wrote letters to him on behalf of a community. This also took some critical and creative thinking.

For more information about the General Capabilities, here is a link to the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities - https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/general-capabilities/

They are being updated, which is exciting. These General Capabilities also inform the ‘Engagement for Learning’ at the end of the school report.

If you would like any more information about Critical and Creative thinking in the RE curriculum at St Monica’s please contact me at school.

Saints of the Week

Name: Sts Joachim and Anne

Lived: Late First Century B.C.–Early First Century A.D.

Country: Palestine

Patron Saint of Anne is the patron saint of grandmothers, and Joachim is patron saint of grandfathers and grandparents

Feast Day: July 26

Bio: Joachim and Anne are the parents of Our Lady, Mary. This makes them the Grandparents of Jesus. We don’t know many details about their lives because they are never mentioned in the New Testament. Everything we know about them comes from tradition – stories that have been passed down through time.

It is believed that they were respected members of the Jewish community. They wanted to become parents so much that Joachim went into the desert to fast and to pray that God would hear their prayer. It is said that an angel told them that they would soon have a daughter who would become famous throughout the world.

Months later, Mary, our Blessed Mother, was born. Tradition tells us that when Mary was three years old, Anne and Joachim took her to the temple in Jerusalem to consecrate her for special service to the Lord. We call this celebration the “Presentation of the Virgin Mary.” It means that Mary was to play an important part in God’s loving plan for the world.

We honour Mary’s parents Anne and Joachim, as Saints and we celebrate their joint feast day on July 26. Their love for one another and for Mary is an example of how God calls us to live. They also remind us to honour our own grandparents and to thank them for the blessings they have passed down to us in love.

There is a Church of Saint Anne in Jerusalem, and it is believed to be built on the site of the home of Sts Anne and Joachim where they lived in Jerusalem.

Prayer:

‘Sts Anne and Joachim,

Grandparents of Jesus,

Pray and Protect all Grandparents’

Amen

Name: St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Lived: January 15, 1842 – August 8, 1909

Country: Australia

Patron Saint of Australia, Knights of the Southern Cross

Feast Day: August 8

Bio: Mary Helen MacKillop was born on the 15^th of January 1842 in Fitzroy, Melbourne. She is the eldest of eight children of Alexander and Flora MacKillop.

Mary MacKillop was educated in private schools and at home by her father. She received her First Holy Communion at the age of 9. However, growing up Mary and her family struggled financially.

To help her family Mary became in turn a shopgirl, a governess, and at Portland a teacher in the Catholic Denominational School and proprietress of a small boarding school for girls.

As Mary grew, she knew in her heart that she wanted to lead a religious life, dedicated to helping the poor. She placed herself under the direction of Father Julian Tennison-Woods who, as a parish priest of Penola, wanted to found a religious society.

The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart; were to live in poverty and dedicated themselves to educating poor children. Not long after, the sisterhood spread to Adelaide and other parts of South Australia and increased rapidly in membership but ran into difficulties. Tenison-Woods had become director of Catholic Schools and conflicted with some clergy over educational matters.

Not long after this, Mary was excommunicated by the Bishop on 22 September 1871 for alleged insubordination; most of the schools were closed and the Sisterhood almost disbanded. The excommunication was removed on 21 February 1872 by order of the bishop nine days before he died.

In 1873 at Rome, Mary obtained papal approval of the Sisterhood. She continued to travel around Europe, visiting schools and gaining knowledge of teaching methods. Mary returned to Adelaide on 4 January 1875 and was elected Superior-General of the Sisterhood. Mary journeyed across Australasia, establishing many schools, educating the poorest of the poor children in these areas.

On one of her travels to New Zealand in 1901, Mary suffered a stroke. She returned to Sydney unwell but able to complete her duties in the Sisterhood. Mary died in Sydney on August 8, 1909.

Quote: “God gives me strengths for what is necessary.” #saintmaryofthecrossmackillop

Sacrament of Confirmation for eligible Year 6 students

This will be celebrated on:
- 7 September in St Michael’s Church at 6pm
- 8 September in St Monica’s Church at 6pm
- 9 September in St Monica’s Church at 6pm

Registration
Registrations must be made via Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish Qkr! App (NOT the school app).
Registrations will close by 9 August and no further registrations will be accepted after the closing date.

Commitment Masses

This is the last weekend - 7 and 8 August.
Candidates and parents must attend one of the weekend Masses at either St Monica’s Church (5pm Saturday or 10am Sunday) or St Michael’s Church (8am or 5.30pm Sunday) to make their commitment for the Sacrament.
There will be no additional commitment Masses beyond these dates.

Retreat Day

Retreat day is on Thursday 12 August (this is a change to the advertised date in the timeline) and it will be held at St Francis Xavier College in Florey.
Candidates from St Michael's and St Monica's schools will be bussed to and from SFX for the day.

Trybooking – will be open on the week of 9 August for you to book your family for the service you have chosen. The links to book the service will be listed on the parish website at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth

Purchasing a Stole
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.

Further Information – please contact the Sacramental Program Coordinator at sc.belconnennorth@cg.org.au or check the parish website for updates at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth

We continue our Protective Behaviours unit having identified our safety network this week. Next week the students will be asked to name their early warning signs.

What are your child/ren's early warning signs? Do they get sweaty? Say they feel sick in the tummy? Have wobbly knees?

You might like to go around the dinner table one evening and share what your early warning signs are before asking your children about their own.

St_Monica_s_Protective_Behaviour_Parent_Overview.pdf

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After learning about the needs and wants of different communities, the Year 1 students were given the challenge of designing a community for the Oompa Loompa’s who had recently been evicted from Willy Wonka’s Factory.

The students worked collaboratively to plan, draft, and construct an amazing place where the Oompa Loompas could come together to work, learn and play. The town was given the name Oompa Loompaville and the Year 1 students were transformed into little Oompa Loompas who lived there. Thank you to all the families, teachers and students who came to visit us. We loved sharing our learning with you!

LITERACY DIAGNOSTIC ASSESSMENTS

This year CE have adopted the DIBELS Benchmarking Assessment for students in Kindergarten to Year 2. This assessment monitors and tracks the student’s acquisition of skills in phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. The results help direct teachers planning and allows for intervention to be implemented where necessary.

This term the teachers in Kindergarten and Year 2 are required to do two of these assessments with each student. These short 1 minute assessments are done individually with their classroom teacher.

The Year 1 students will begin DIBELS Assessments in Term 4. This term they are completing the Phonics Screening Check. It identifies student’s progress in developing phonetic skills essential for reading. Results can indicate any targeted teaching that needs to be put into place to assist the students.

Both DIBELS and the Phonics Screening Check are being done this week at St Monica’s. The children in these classrooms will have a relief teacher in their classroom for part of the day so that the teacher can complete these important assessments with your child.

This week we welcomed Shelly Unwin to St Monica’s. Shelly is an internationally published children’s author and provided the students with an engaging and interactive presentation of 2 of her picture books, There’s a Baddie Running Through this Book and Blast Off. The students were hooked from the moment she ran out in a police costume and enjoyed the illustrating activity (K-3) and writing experience (4-6). A big thanks to Mrs Melville for organising this experience for the students.

‘It was fun when we got to combine 2 wacky animals and draw a picture of it. Mine was an octopel, which was half octopus, half pelican.’ Liam N Yr 1

‘Shelly was really good at sharing her stories with us in an interactive way. We had to design our own baddie, with character traits, a name and reward for finding them.’ Mitchell Yr 5

‘Shelly talked a lot about the 3 main ideas of a book. I’m going to use these when I write my next story’ Emma Yr 4

‘I liked it when Shelly dressed up as a police officer. She was so funny!’ Ruby Yr 2

Shelly_Unwin_Order_Form_2021.pdf

Shelly_Unwin_Order_Form_2021 _pdf 240.50 KB

The Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge finishes on Friday. Students are required to give their completed reading records to Miss Melville for verification. The students reading records have been kept in the library or classroom. Some students have taken their sheets home. If your child has their record at home they need to return it by Monday 9August for verification. It has been great to see so many students recording the books they have read and their pleasure and satisfaction in finishing the challenge.

Oz Tag

We have entered 4 boys teams (2x 3/4 and 2x 5/6) and 1x 5/6 girls team in the Oz Tag Gala Days next week. Team lists were sent home with children today and draws will hopefully be ready by Friday and will be sent home asap. Please contact me if you require any further information.

Belconnen Athletics

We are only 2 weeks away from the Belconnen Carnival. So far I have only had 3 parents offer assistance for the carnival. If you are able to help please get in touch with me.

Remote_Learning_2021_Preparation_Letter_to_Families _pdf 160.80 KB

Fee Statements for Term 3 have been sent home with children and also posted out. Fees for Term 3 are due by Monday 16 August, if not paying by instalments or direct debit.

We have been having some fun in the canteen lately. Some of our Year 6 leaders have been serving at recess on Thursdays. They have been doing a wonderful job and learning some great skills.

Our volunteers joined in the fun of Winter Warm Up/Onesie Day; lots of laughs, lots of hard work, and the children loved it! Thank you so much to Katherine O'Sullivan, Rach Pentes, Jane Rabbets, Tracy D'Ambrosio and Chris Regan for your service and time last week.

If you want to join in the canteen fun I love to welcome people in our community into the canteen. All you need is a current WWVP card and a willingness to help. 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/WRPWC

To sign up, just follow the instructions on the page. Thank you for volunteering!

Lastly, we are no longer allowed single use plastic cutlery. We have introduced metal spoons and forks. About two thirds of the children are doing a fabulous job of returning these, but unfortunately, I have had many spoons not returned each week. I now actually have no spare spoons to give to children to be used for frozen yogurts and slushy cups. Unfortunately, this is not sustainable, and it is likely that I will have to increase the cost of all products that require cutlery. I would prefer not to do this, so if your child is enjoying one of the products that require cutlery, please remind them to return their cutlery to the canteen.