Dear St Monica’s families and friends,

Isn’t Autumn just a beautiful time of year? Yes, it’s always sad that the summer is over but the extraordinary and vibrant colours of the leaves on the trees at the moment truly is breathtaking.

After a holiday filled with enjoyable activities, it can sometimes be difficult going back to school or work. However, the students at St Monica’s appear happy to be back with their friends and teachers! I wish to thank the teachers for their time over the break to plan and program some fantastic teaching and learning experiences for your children.

Each year level will be sending home an overview of the curriculum content that will be covered this term, as well as important dates. As always, your child’s classroom teacher is always the first point of contact if you have any queries, questions or concerns you wish to raise.

This term, we welcome 7 new families and 10 new students to our school!! We wish the Nash, Singh, Merz, Sega, Yemofio, Burton & Ezeokwelume families a very long and happy association with the St Monica’s community.

With the changeover of seasons, where it is cool in the morning but warmer during the day, jumpers get taken off and get left around the school. When there is a name on the clothing or belongings it makes it a lot easier to find the owner! Please make

sure all of your child’s belongings are labelled. On Monday afternoon we will  put some tables out on the grassed areas outside the demountable. Please come down from the carpark and have a look through these items. Anything that is not collected and is in reasonable condition will be donated to the clothing pool. 

St Monica’s Open Days – Tuesday May 16 and Thursday May 18

I am pleased to announce the dates for the St Monica's School Open Days. Word of mouth is always the best advertisement for prospective families looking to enrol their child into a school. Please share the good news about our school and invite people to come for a visit in May. A letterbox drop and advertising campaign is currently being organised in preparation for the Catholic Schools Enrolment period.

Warmest wishes,

Happy Birthday to the following students  celebrating a Birthday this week -

Elijah G, Pat H, Raylah O, Maddie P, Lucy P, Catherine V, Ella F, Leila M, Eliana D, Sienna B, Grace E, Brax N

Sacrament of First Eucharist

This will be celebrated across the four Sunday Parish Masses:

5.00pm - 17 June at St Monica’s Church – Evatt;

8.00am - 18 June at St Michael’s Church – Kaleen;

10.00am – 18 June at St Monica’s Church – Evatt; and

5.30pm – 18 June at St Michael’s Church – Kaleen.

Registrations will close this Friday 28 April 2023.

Registration for the Sacrament must be made via the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Qkr! App (NOT the school app).
If you are registering more than 1 child you will need to fully complete and pay for each separate registration.

No late registrations will be accepted after the closing date.

Parent Formation Meeting 

Parent Formation Meeting for the Sacrament of First Eucharist– 6-7pm tonight - via MS Teams – address is: 
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3a67706884b03b47ea973689481e9d2367%40thread.skype/1681969741474?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%229ba8c2d6-be27-4583-a686-5c6f5c4a9e97%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22bb949535-9d39-4203-b664-93d90c050e23%22%7d

At least 1 parent and the child should be in attendance.

Commitment Masses

Students and parents must attend one of the weekend Masses at either St Monica’s Church (5.00pm Saturday or 10.00am Sunday) or St Michael’s Church (8.00am or 5.30pm Sunday) on one of the following dates to make their commitment for the Sacrament - Saturday 29 April and Sunday 30 April and Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 May. There will be no additional commitment masses beyond these dates.

Purchasing a stole for First Eucharist

Purchasing a stole is optional and is not compulsory (you can borrow one on the day). If you wish to purchase a stole, please make a payment of $20 through Qkr! with the registration and the stole will be delivered to the schools and the School of Religion (SOR).

Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated on 5, 6 and 7 September 2023.

Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated in Term 1 in 2024. 

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

WE ARE LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS

On Friday 12 May we are holding our MOTHERS DAY STALL. We are looking for some lovely volunteers who can give a few hours of their time from 8:45am onwards on the day to help with the stall. In preparation we also need volunteers to assist in wrapping on Monday 8 May and Wednesday 10 May. Every bit of help is greatly appreciated.

If you can help at all, please contact Sarah Clark at stmonica.stalls@gmail.com

Scholastic Book Club 

This week your family will have received a copy of Book Club catalogue Issue Number 3. Orders from the catalogue help develop your child/children’s love of reading, build their personal library, and assist with the purchase of books for the library. The closing date to place orders for this issue is Monday 15 May. There will not be another Book Club issue for Term 2 as we are holding a Lamont Book Fair in Weeks 9 and 10.  

Book Launch Cate Whittle – Starberries and Kee 

Cate is a local author and ran a workshop with the winners of our 2022 Writing Competition. 

ACT Rep Opportunities 

Over the last few weeks there have been several sports putting out information for representing the ACT at Primary School level. Please sign up to the School Sport ACT website- https://schoolsportact.org.au/ or follow them on Facebook to get up to date information. I will continue to share these on our school Facebook page and on Compass. There are trials being held soon for Tennis, Touch Football, League, Golf and Hockey.  

Term 2 Gala Days and School Carnivals 

Dates for your diary -  We have the following gala days (Years 3-6) and school carnivals days (Kindergarten-6) coming up this term: 

• Union (Matt Giteau Cup) -  Tuesday 16 May (Southwell Park) 

• Netball Finals Day -  Thursday 11 May (Lyneham) 

• League (Sullivan Shield) -  Tuesday 30 May (Southwell Park) 

• Oz Tag -  Boys - 31 May, Girls - 1 June (Southwell Park) 

• Cross Country - Thursday 4 May (on school and surrounding grounds) 

• Athletics - Friday 26 May (Merici College) 

Permission notes and further information have either been put out on Compass already or will be in the coming weeks. As always, we will be looking for parents to volunteer to help on these days. Please consider a day you may be able to help (even if its for a few hours). We also appreciate that these days are all close together so any help is greatly accepted. 

We will advise if any more gala days will be going ahead based on student interest, our school calendar and availability from school sporting organisations. Please contact me if you have any queries or concerns.  

Welcome back to Term 2. The Canteen is back in business this week as usual. Next week we will be having our first sausage sizzle in over 3 years at our Cross Country Carnival on Thursday 4 May. Snack foods and drinks are available as usual but instead of the usual canteen food for Thursday we will be having our sausage sizzle. $2.50 per sausage in bread, $2.00 for sausage with no bread (suitable for those with gluten free needs - just supply your preferred bread) and $3.00 for vegetarian “sausage” in bread.  Orders to be placed via Okr! and the cut off time for placing orders  is 8.45am on Wednesday 3 May. This will allow time to purchase our goodies, with limited wastage. Tomato and BBQ sauce will be available at no extra charge for this special lunch.

As always, I am looking for volunteers this term.  Please show your availability by signing up on our volunteer form, link shown below.  I would love to have you on the team -  volunteersignup.org/4DWMQ

If you require further information please email groupleader.crowajingalong@scoutsact.com.au