Filter Content
- Weekly Happenings
- Principal's Message
- RE News - Haley Stonham
- Saint of the Week - Haley Stonham
- Parish Sacramental News
- Remote Learning - What does a students day look like?
- How to Support Your Child's Wellbeing with Mindfulness - Emma Russell
- Library News - Veronica Melville
- Happy Birthday
- Community Council News - Evelyn David-Hoole
- COVID-19 Updates
- Parent Corner
| Friday 27 August |
Class Meetings Virtual Book Parade Remember to dress up on Friday and bring your book to the class meeting
|
| Tuesday 31 August |
Parent/child formation night for Confirmation Via MS Teams at 5pm.  |
Dear Parents
I hope everyone is looking after themselves and taking remote learning one day at a time. The teachers have been asked to do regular check-ins so please if you need any support let them know or feel free to contact me directly - carmel.maguire@cg.catholic.edu.au. We are all here to support you and your child/ren. Remember you don't need to replica the school experience and be the classroom teacher. Your child is learning from you every single day. Go gently.
Several general reminders
- Check your child's weekly schedule; they are sent out on Fridays via Compass. This will help you organise your week.
- Children are expected to attend their daily class meeting, their scheduled small groups session/s and submit quality work to be registered by their class teacher as attending school for the day.
- Please send through an absentee note if your child is sick and is unable to report in for their daily check in sessions or submit any work.
- Do not hesitate to contact me directly if you have any concerns with our remote learning program or need assistance in any way.
- Remember technology can have a mind of its own and we are here to help as we want the children to be able to engage in their learning every day. We are all learning so please ask your child's teacher to help.
- Parents are expected to monitor screen time at home and any form of messaging occurring between students.
- Children should be suitably dressed to attend their online sessions. No one should be still in their pyjamas.
- If you are required to quarantine and need help please don't hesitate to call or email.
- In an effort to keep everyone safe and maintain our Remote Learning programs we only have a few staff at school each day. They are providing supervision and support to children whose parents are emergency essential workers or are in a vulnerable situation requiring support.
- If you need to send your child, advise the school the night before. This helps with our organisation and communication with their class teacher.
- School counselling is continuing. Please refer to the attached document should you require support.
Families Leaving
School Check-in
Continue to stay COVID safe and may God's blessing be with everyone.
Principal
Praying At Home During Remote Learning
As a Catholic school community it is important for us all to stay connected to each other through prayer. St Monica’s has a strong prayer life, we pray each day as a whole class and each week as a whole school. Praying as a whole class each time we connect virtually has been something that I have looked forward to and I know each of the children in 4SG have also looked forward to this.
I have noticed that many of the children in 4SG have used our prayer time to express their concern for those in their family, their community, their country and their world. There is a lot of crazy going on in our world at the moment.
Prayer at home can also offer another way for them to express how they are feeling and open up a conversation, not only with God but as a family.
Here are some ways you can make prayer a part of your day at home:
- Set up a dedicated prayer space somewhere that you can sit individually or as a family.
- You can decorate the space, so it is prayerful and comfortable.
- Include a prayer cloth (we are in the season of ordinary time so green is the colour at the moment), prayer symbols that are special to your family. This could include: candle, cross, bible, rosary beads, books, pictures, olive wood heart from last year, items from nature (shells, leaves, flowers)
- Make a time to pray as a family once a day.
- This could be at breakfast, lunch or dinner times
- Maybe an afternoon break
- Keep a prayer journal as a family.
- You could record prayers you like to say as a family
- You can write and decorate traditional prayers like the Our Father, Hail Mary
- You can record special intentions and write them in the prayer journal each day
- Make a time for some Christian Meditation.
- Look at the slide deck and use it to engage in Christian Meditation as a family
- Build the stamina – start with a 2min Christian Mediation then build up
- This is a great way to take a moment in the crazy time that we are all navigating at the moment!
Attached is the Christian Meditation slide deck. I would also love to see your family prayer spaces and how your family is staying connected through prayer! I will post them to our Facebook page as they come through.
Please send your pictures to haley.stonham@cg.catholic.edu.au
Name: St Monica
Born: 331AD in Tagaste, which is present day Algeria
Patron Saint of: Mothers
Feast Day: 27th August
Bio: When Monica was young, she was married off to a Roman pagan called Patricius, who had a temper. Patricius’ mother lived with the couple and sometimes this proved to be a challenge for Monica.
Monica continued to pray and carry out Christian deeds. It is believed that this bothered Patricius, but he respected her beliefs.
Monica and Patricius had three children: Augustine, Navigius and Perpetua. Patricius did not allow Monica to baptise her children. But when Augustine fell ill, he allowed it. But when Augustine became well, he withdrew his permission.
For years Monica persevered in prayer for her husband and mother-in-law. Then about a year before Patricius’ death, he wanted to be baptised.
As time passed Naigius and Perpetua entered religious life, but Augustine became lazy and reckless. This worried Monica greatly and when Patricius died, she sent Augustine to school in Carthage when he was 17. While in Carthage, Augustine became a Manichaean, which was a major religion that saw the world as light and darkness. After Augustine returned home, he shared his views with his mother, who drove him away from his table. Some time passed and Monica had a vision to reconcile with her son.
Monica went to see the Bishop, who said to her, “the child of those tears shall never perish.”
Inspired, Monica followed Augustine to Rome, where she learned he had left for Milan. She continued her pursual and eventually came upon St Ambrose, who helped her convert Augustine to Christianity. After a period of 6 months, Augustine was baptised in the Church of St John the Baptist in Milan. The pair were led to believe they should spread the Word of God to Africa, but in the Roman city of Civitavecchia, Monica passed away.
Augustine recorded the words she imparted on him when she realised her death was near, “Son, nothing in this world now affords me delight. I do not know what there is now left for me to do or why I am still here, all my hopes in this world being now fulfilled.”
Monica was buried at Ostia, and her body was removed during the 6th century to a hidden crypt in the Church of Santa Aurea in Osta, near the tomb of St Aurea of Ostia.
In 1430, Pope Martin V ordered her relics to be brought to Rome and many miracles were reported to have occurred along the way. Later, Cardinal d’Estouteville built a church to honour St Augustine called Basilica di Sant’Agostino, where her relics were placed in a chapel to the left of the high alter.
St Monica, pray for us!
Quote:
“Nothing is far from God” -St. Monica
Change of dates for the Sacrament of Confirmation
Due to COVID restrictions the Sacrament of Confirmation will now be celebrated during Term 4 with dates to be advised as soon as they are available.
Parent/Child Formation night
The parent/child formation night has been rescheduled to Tuesday 31 August at 5pm. An invite will be sent out through MS Teams.
Saint’s Name and Sponsor
If you have not indicated this information on your registration form – could you please send an email to sue.coll@bigpond.com with the information as soon as possible.
Covid Restrictions
Updates regarding Covid restrictions relating to the Sacrament of Confirmation will be provided in the school bulletins and on the Parish website.
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 have now completed over a week of remote learning. How is it all going?
We would love to promote what remote learning looks like at St Monica's through our newsletter and on social media.
If you have or can take, a photo of the reality of remote learning we would love to use it.
Please email photos of what your children's day looks like to Luke Donnelly at luke.donnelly@cg.catholic.edu.au.
The current pressures families are facing can be tough on everyone, and while most children tend to be resilient, many parents and teachers are actively looking for tools to support the mental health of children during these unprecedented times.
Smiling Mind’s Digital Care Packs use evidence-based mindfulness and wellbeing activities to help children aged 5-12 learn skills and tools to manage change, stress, and pressure in their life. The Care Packs can help children build resilience and wellbeing throughout the pandemic and beyond. Each pack contains fun activities parents can do with their children to help strengthen a sense of connection during this tricky time. There are self-care resources for parents and carers, to help them look after themselves too. Emotions influence our behaviour, and this is particularly the case in children and adolescents. Studies show that mindfulness practice in young people improves self-awareness and the ability to regulate emotions.
Tips for making mindfulness work for your family
- Ask your child how they feel about the changes that might be happening in their lives. Make it a normal part of every day. Change can affect each child differently, so listen with an open mind and be ready to offer them support.
- Understanding what children have heard and what they are fearing or thinking about, and what questions they may have, is a good place to start. If we respond without understanding what is on their mind, we might inadvertently make things worse, point out issues that are too challenging for them to understand, or raise concerns they might not yet have even considered.
- Don’t wait until children start to show signs of stress. Boost their wellbeing through everyday activities, such as those found in the digital care packs.
- If you’re worried about your child’s physical or mental health, contact your family GP for professional assessment and ongoing support.
Information from Beyond Blue. Go to Supporting Your Child's Mental Health
Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Week
On Friday 27 August students will be able to wear a mask or even dress up as a book character for their whole group meeting. This is a chance for the students to be creative with the theme in designing their mask. The theme opens a world of possible whether it be other cultures, an ancient world, or aliens or a book character from an old world, new world or other world. Dont forget to have your book ready to show everyone.
Libraries ACT
If you are looking for books or resources Libraries ACT has great resources online. They have eBooks and audio books, BusyCode that gives an introduction to coding, BusyThings games and activities for 3-5 year olds, and Kanopy Kids a collection of children’s movies and shows. If you are not a member you can join at https://librariesact.spydus.com/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/WPAC/JOIN
It is free to join.
Reading and Sora
The students have been able to borrow extra books for the remote learning. If they read all these books, they can access eBooks and audio books. Your ACEN Overdrive and Sora eBook/audiobook online system is accessible to you with your CE network login 24/7.
The ACEN OverDrive website is located at http://acen.lib.overdrive.com or by searching in the Apple store or Google Play for the OverDrive app. (link). When asked to search for a library, click to search by ‘Name’, not location, and then search for ‘ACEN’.
Happy Birthday to the following students celebrating a Birthday this week
Mason Mc, Isabella P, Pasquale A, Hamish H, Mitchell C, Lily H, Geeza J, Patrick S, Fraser C, Alexandra T
If you have any ideas or concerns please email them through to our Secretary Noel Chan at council.stmonicas@cg.catholic.edu.au