Dear St Monica’s families and friends,

What is the Learning Zone?

When you had a baby for the first time you learned how to care for it, when you enrolled into a Day care, Pre-School or Primary School you learned how the centre or school operates, when you buy a new car, phone or TV you need to learn how it works, when you enter into a new relationship or friendship you learn things about the other person. Learning is a continuous process; I wonder if it ever ends?

Each day, week, month or year we learn something new. How do you feel when you are in the Learning Zone? When you are:

• trying to work something out,
• solve a problem,
• need to access a manual,
• talk to someone else about a topic,
• get something wrong and have to start again… you are in the ‘Learning Zone’.

The Learning Zone is a safe place and one that the students at St Monica’s find themselves in every single day!

Maths Olympiad and Maths Games Challenge - Yesterday was the 3rd sitting of the Maths Olympiad and Maths Games Challenge. Many of the students who participated in this were in the Learning Zone! Here are the types of questions our Olympiads are presented with, could you solve them?

Brenda wants to purchase a bicycle but is $23 short. Claire wants to purchase the same bicycle but is $25 short. If they combine their money, they will have just enough to buy the bicycle. What is the cost of the bicycle? (Suggested solving time 4 min)

Semester One Reports

Student Reports will be available via Compass from 3.30pm on Friday 24 June. The report structure for Catholic Education Canberra / Goulburn has continued to develop and change. This semester, the A - E reporting scale for each of the subject areas will still apply. Under each subject, there will also be a comment which outlines the main content and skills that have been covered. Individual comments will not be included in your child's report. Instead, we have opted to have parent - teacher conferences in Week 10.

This meeting time provides teachers and parents the opportunity for conversations about how each student is progressing and for teachers to share with you your children’s strengths and areas for further improvement. It also enables teachers and parents/carers the opportunity to have 'real time' conversations about development and growth of the child. 

Online Booking for Parent/Teacher Conferencess - Parent / Teacher conferences will take place from Monday 27 - Wednesday 29 June (week 10) Booking times for these interviews will go live on the Compass Portal tomorrow Friday, 17 June. See the diagram below for instructions on how to book. Please contact your classroom teacher if you are experiencing any issues booking these sessions.

Peace and blessings to you all,

St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

Thank you to everyone who has kindly brought in donations for our Vinnies Winter Appeal! We are still collecting donations right up until the end of the term. You can bring your donations in to your child’s class or drop them off at the front office.

We are still hoping to collect the following new items:

• Gloves
• Socks
• Jackets
• Beanies
• Blankets
• Scarves
• Jumpers
• Tracksuit pants
• Sleeping Bags

All your kind donations go directly to people in need in our community or are sold at our local Vinnies Centres to raise funds for other forms of assistance like respite programs and crisis accommodation.

As a thank you celebration for the kind donations, we will be having a ‘Winter Woolies’ Day on Thursday 30 June. Children will be able to wear their warmest winter woolie clothes instead of school uniform. Keep an eye on Compass for the notification!

Sacrament of First Eucharist

Please continue to keep our First Eucharist Candidates and their families in your prayer this weekend as they receive the sacrament for the first time. You are all welcome to join in the masses over the weekend at St Michael’s Church and St Monica’s Church.

Next Thursday, St Monica’s and St Michael’s will be coming together to celebrate our Parish, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Feast Day. We are so excited to be able to celebrate together after being unable to over the past two years.

Did you know?

The Feast Day is celebrated each year on June 27.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help is known for miracles and answers to prayer.

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, pray for us.

Happy Birthday to the following students  celebrating a Birthday this week

Sarah D-H, Isabelle J, Milla F, Leonardo S, Christian M

Thank you to everyone with their patience with Qkr! on Thursday. It certainly makes me appreciate our systems and processes that they work most of the time. Thanks to my wonderful volunteers on that day Deanna Robertson and Sarah Clark for helping one very frazzled canteen lady to get back on track and have a smooth day.  Special thanks to the lovely Liz Foster and Kirra Thompson for helping all the children give us their version of orders. The patience and understanding of both the children and their parents is appreciated on days when things don’t quite go as planned!

Thanks to my wonderful team for Friday too, always great to catch up with you all and have your valuable assistance -  Katherine O’Sullivan, Jane Rabbets, Samantha Cox, Megan Rhind, Udayani Iiyanage and Tim Porter.

The canteen marketplace is now open for orders for holiday Juice Bomb packs.  The Juice Bombs will be sent home with your children on Wednesday 29 June 2022, cut off for orders is Tuesday 28 June 2022 at 3pm. Once sold out the product will no longer show on Qkr!. Please email me prior to the cut off if you have missed out but would like to order and I will try to put packs together for you.  Please note, some flavours are not currently available at the moment. The special lunch menu will be up by the end of this week so that we can celebrate the end of Term 2 with a fun lunch.

Pupil Free Days

Friday July 1 and Monday 18 July (Term 3) are pupil free days for all St Monica's students. On these days staff will be involved in teacher collaboration, planning and programming and focusing on our wider system Catalyst priorities. SMOOSH will offer out of school care on all of these days. Enrolment for SMOOSH on Friday 1 July and Monday 18 July will be included in the July Vacation Care Enrolment Form, which is in this week's newsletter.

Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey - closes tomorrow Friday 17 June

Parents, Teachers and Students in Years 4 - 6 are invited 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 value the role of parents and carers within our school community, and we would 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 School. The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You are able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device through URL link that was sent out with today's newsletter on Compass. 

Sacrament of First Eucharist 

Will be celebrated this weekend (Corpus Christi Sunday) across the four Parish Sunday Masses.

Please keep these candidates for First Eucharist in your prayers.

Home Booklets

The completed home booklets should have been returned to the school (with the last page, the ‘Parents’ Discernment of Readiness’ completed) and handed back to the school for Fr Loi to sign.

The home booklets will be returned to the candidates at the celebration of the Sacrament.

Sacrament of Confirmation 

For eligible Year 6 students -  will be celebrated on 13 September 2022 in St Michael’s Church and 14 September 2022 in St Monica’s Church.

Registrations will open on 27 June 2022 via the parish Qkr! App.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

 For eligible Year 3 students - will be celebrated in Term 4, 2022.

Registrations will open on 19 September 2022 via the parish Qkr! app.

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

Are you a family that loves to ski or snowboard? Registrations are now open for any student who would like to participate in the ACT/Southern NSW Inter-schools snow sports competition. This year, St Monica's is registering a team and there is room for more participants!! If you are interested in participating or finding out more information about the interschools simply click on the link below or send Mrs Harris an email. lisa.harris@cg.catholic.edu.au

Interschools Snowsports 2022