St Monica’s Primary School - Evatt eNewsletter

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 Praise

School - Forgiveness, Service & Thanksgiving

Friday 15 November

Assembly - 10.20am - led by Year 6. Class Awards for Week 6 and Star and Pride Badges will be presented.

Monday 25 November

SABBATH Week

2020 School Leaders presented to the school in the hall at 9.10am. No prayer. Value Awards for Week 6 will be presented in the hall.

Bush Fire Fundraising day - Donate a gold coin and wear something yellow or orange.

Pride Lunch Day.

Dear Parents

Year 6 Assembly tomorrow commencing at 10.20 am

Tomorrow at 10.20 am the Year 6 children will be presenting their final St Monica's assembly. As advised earlier in the week the assembly is earlier in the day due to the number of children attending swimming. Class awards and stars will also be presented at the end of the assembly

2020 Leadership Groups and Values

Our Year 6 Leadership Groups for 2020 will be announced to the community on Monday morning, 25 November. The school will gather in the hall at 9.00 am. The prayer liturgy, to be presented by 5MF, has been rescheduled to later in the term. Values awards for this week will be presented in the hall following the announcement.

Carols on the Oval - Save the Date 5 December

This year our Kinder, Year 1 and 2 children will lead our Carols on the Oval. This is an evening for our families to gather for a picnic evening meal, watch the nativity story and join in carol singing. The evening will commence with families gathering from 5.30pm for dinner and the singing to commence at 6.15pm. Years 3 to 6 and the Japanese Choir will also share in the singing of Christmas Carols.

Orders for a sausage sizzle will be sent out soon. Canteen drinks and snacks will also be on sale. Volunteer help will be needed with cooking and serving from 4.15 pm. Please email the office if you can lend a hand and your name will be passed on to Evelyn David-Hoole.

St Monica's Bush Fire Appeal

In support of the many families who have lost everything in the recent bushfires St Monica's will be holding a special fundraising day on Monday 25 November.

To acknowledge the service and work of our emergency service personnel, the children are encouraged to wear yellow or orange items and donate a gold coin. All money raised will be sent to the Vinnies Fire Appeal. The children have been encouraged to earn their coin by showing an act of service at home this week.

Any family wishing to make a donation, via St Monica's, can do so through Qkr.

The year is rapidly drawing to an end with only four weeks to go. Just a reminder that the school year officially ends on Thursday 19 December. There is also is no SMOOSH care on Friday, 20 December.

May God's blessing be with you

Carmel Maguire

Principal

The school Community Council is an essential component of our school. Constitutional requirements for Council membership means there will be vacant positions on the Executive of the School Community Council from 2020.

Any parent in the School community is eligible to nominate.

What does the Community Council do?

The Constitution states that the Council ‘provides opportunity for members of the community to support the mission of Catholic education in the school. Working with the Principal, Parish Priest and staff, the members of the Council and its committees provide leadership to the wider school community’

The Community Council works with the Principal, Parish Priest and staff collaboratively to ensure the smooth operation of the school. The Council takes a decision making role in areas such as developing capital and maintenance programs, promoting the school in the local community, approving school uniform, developing and monitoring school enterprises (eg hall hire) and fundraising to name a few items. The council also has an advisory role in areas such as curriculum, student welfare and educational policies for the school.

Meetings are held twice a term and a commitment to attending these meetings is required.

How to nominate

Each nomination must be made on the Nomination Form attached and available from the Front Office (emails will not be accepted as a formal nomination). The nomination must be seconded and agreed to by the person being nominated. All nominations are confidential. Please send nominations addressed to Carmel Maguire in a sealed envelope labelled ‘Community Council Nomination’ by 3pm on Friday 29 November 2019. All nominations will be placed in a sealed box in my office and will be opened by Father Loi (or a parish representative) and the Principal after this date.

Refer to documents attached for additional information and the nomination form.

LettertoParentscallingfornominationsin2020.pdf

Nomination_Form_2020.pdf

The following students will be sharing a Pride Badge Lunch with Ms Maguire on Monday 25 November - Willem A-C ((3L), Giselle S (5MF), Geordie T (5MF), Nethan W (5MF), Ella K (5MF), Charlize S (5W), Sophie S (5W), Isabella C (5W), James Mc (5F), Aiden S (3/4C), Natalie R (2R), Layla R (5F), Caitlin M (5W), Tyler S (5MF), Angelino S (5F), Violet P (3M), Freya S (2R), Amelia H (3L), Madison R (3/4C), Anneliese L (3L) and Riley Mc (5F).

Children are allowed to wear casual clothes and runners on the day.

Service

God who serves,

You lead us on life’s journey

As we gather in Your name,

Open our ears to hear Your voice.

Open our hands to Your work.

And open our hearts to Your Spirit.

Amen

St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal

Many thanks to those who have already sent in donations. The local Conference of the St Vincent De Paul Society appreciates all donations. As they pack the hampers, they try to create a Christmas dinner for their clients. So the tinned vegetables are valuable as are the sweet items! Health and Safety regulations require us to check use by dates and not include food that will expire before Christmas. In the past St Monica’s School has been one of the major contributors to the 50 Hampers packed and distributed in our local parish. Let’s continue the tradition! Classes have been allocated differing items.

6E - Minced pies and fruit tarts

6M - Long life custard & packets of jelly crystals

5MF - Sweet and savoury biscuits

5W - packets of muesli bars/fruit bars

5FH - Tinned vegetables beetroot, potatoes

4M - Tinned vegetables – carrots, peas, corn,

4H Tinned fruit – pineapple, peaches, pears

3/4C - packets of pasta

3M - packets of chips/pretzels/etc

3L - packets of coloured popcorn

2RD - boxes/packets of chocolates (without nuts)

2D - Christmas bon-bons

2R – Drinks – Fruit juice 1 litre

1E - Drinks Cordial – 1 litre

1B – Tin salmon

KRC - Sponge jam rolls – check expiry date is after Christmas

KGH – Packet of sweet biscuits

St Monica’s will collect donations up until Monday December 16. Many thanks for your generosity.

Thanksgiving Mass

St Monica’s School will gather for our Thanksgiving Mass on Wednesday 4 December. We will celebrate all our major achievements and give thanks for the year together. We have achieved great things. You will find a special invitation in this week’s newsletter for all our wonderful volunteers and anyone who has supported us in anyway across the year to join with us at this Mass.

At this Mass we also present the St Vincent De Paul Society with some of the goods we are collecting for their Christmas Appeal.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Just a reminder that QkR! is still open for those who have not as yet paid their $30. The money covers printing, paper laminating, wooden hearts and hire of stoles.

Each year we invite any businesses amongst our school community to place an advertisement in our school magazine. It is a great opportunity to advertise at a very competitive rate and also provide sponsorship to assist us in the cost of producing the publication. We do apologise for giving you such late notice to get organised.

Please see the attached letter for pricing details and further information.

Advertising Sponsorship Information

Advertising Sponsorship Information 172.68 KB

Term 4 School Fees Due Now

A reminder to families that full payment of Term 4 fees is due tomorrow, except for families on Direct Debit payment arrangements.

The school is running on an extremely tight budget, every cent of fees income is expended on students curriculum, resources and school running costs.

A reminder to families that

Enrolment of children at a Catholic diocesan school in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn carries with it the undertaking by parents/guardians to accept the obligation to pay all school fees. It is, however, a matter of Catholic Education Commission policy that inability (not unwillingness) to pay school fees should never exclude any child from a Catholic school.

Please contact the School Finance Officer or Principal should you be experiencing genuine hardship and will not be able to pay your fees in full by the due date.

Families experiencing genuine financial hardship are invited to apply for fee concession for the 2020 school year. Fees matters are treated in the strictest of confidence.

Application forms have been sent home this week to families currently on a concession. Forms are available from the Finance Officer if required.

Forms and all supporting information need to be submitted by Friday 6 December, please.

Restorative Practices assists teachers, students and parents to build, maintain and restore relationships. RP helps students to learn how to self-regulate behaviour and enhances the capacity to improve learning outcomes.

This week Kindergarten learnt about RP with Mrs Russell. The children learnt some techniques about:

How to make things better when we are hurt, or we hurt others
How to become better friends again when something goes wrong
The importance of being able to LISTEN, SPEAK and UNDERSTAND
The key questions we can ask when something goes wrong.

What happened? Who or what was hurt? How can we fix it?

Book Fair

Thank you to all the families who supported the book fair. It was great to see so many children excited about purchasing a book to take home to read. The school received a 25% commission of sales that will be spent on books for the library.

Next Tuesday Steve from Musicorp will be giving a demonstration at lunchtime to show off a few wind instruments with the hope of inspiring a future band! Students from Grades 3 and up are invited to bring their lunch to the Creative Arts room and enjoy hearing a variety of instruments. Interested students may bring home an information pamphlet for more information.

Changes to School Sport ACT

From the commencement of this year there will no longer be Belconnen Region level trials for specific sports. To replace the regional level completion, many sports are holding gala days for schools to attend. We will enter teams in these gala days where there is student interest. The pathway for selection to an ACT sporting team is through trials offered in the same way as they have been previously. Please see the information below in relation to the process of registering your child for ACT trials on the School Sport ACT website.

SCHOOL SPORT ACT TRIALS

Please keep an eye on the School Sport ACT website www.schoolsportact.asn.au for upcoming ACT trials. The process for registering can be found below. If you need any assistance registering your child please feel free to ask for assistance.

How to register your child with School Sport ACT

School Sport ACT now collects all registration information online – this is to prevent the movement to and fro of a paper note and have all information readily available to officials prior to the trial. As this process incurs a fee for data storage, system maintenance and admin, a small $5 fee payment via credit card will be required.

Go to the School Sport ACT website – schoolsportact.asn.au
Click Register (top right corner of homepage) for an Account – enter parent details and password
A confirmation email will be sent to your chosen email that will contain a link that you must click on to verify the email account.
Click Log In (top right hand corner of home page) enter password then click on top tab My Profile
You will see a ‘dashboard’ of your information, click green box to Add Student – enter student and medical details and save.
Go to the Sports Tab – choose your specific sport, click on Trial Information box then click on the Register to Trial link.
Select your child’s name from the dropdown box and then enter the optional fields for Playing History, Preferred Position (if applicable) and Representative Experience. If you are already in the system, ensure your child’s school is up to date in your profile – have they moved onto High School?
Make the $5 credit card payment then click to register.
An automated email will then be sent to your Principal/School Approver for their approval to trial (no need to take anything to school for the Principal to sign).
You will be able to see the process has been complete back in My Profile – once your Principal/School Approver has completed the approval process your child’s information will be collated onto a list for the Team Manager and Coach prior to trial.
Note the registration process closes two days before the first trial date to allow sufficient time for approval and sharing of collated information.

Looking forward to another big year of sporting participation in 2020.

Late last year the Community Council approved the purchase and installation of solar panels for the school. We are glad to see that the solar panels are doing their job well and are producing energy to reduce the school's energy consumption. The September 2019 electricity invoice showed a 20% reduction of energy consumption against the September 2018 invoice. As can be expected the invoice showed a 20% reduction in cost despite an increase in electricity prices. Additionally, the school has also received a credit for the excess electricity exported back into electricity network.

The community council will meet next week. If you have any ideas or concerns please email them through to our Secretary Fiona Steinberg at Council.StMonicas@cg.catholic.edu.au

Our SMOOSH care will be releasing their enrolment details tomorrow for the January Vacation Care program. All families need to ensure that accounts are brought up to date by Friday 13 December to secure their care enrolment for the 2020 school year. Any concerns please direct to Molly, our SMOOSH Director, or raise with Carmel Maguire.

All parents volunteering at our school must have a current WWVP card. When your card is due for renewal please ensure you have your updated card copied at the Front Office.

	Value Award Service	Class Award Teacher Choice
KGH	Joseph F	Elsie F
KRC	Lola B	Beau R
1B	Tasharna S	Natalia S
1E	Marissa den H	Archie N-H
2D	Hamish C	Lily H
2R	Jake W	Aiden H
2RD	Gus O	Lachlan J
3L	Mitchell B	Luca S
3M	William Mc	Cody M
3/4C	Xavier M	Giuseppe C
4H	Paige H	Maeve J
4M	Anthony M	Dale S
5F	Mary D-H	Lucia M
5MF	Aurelia S	Laura G
5W	Sophie S	Charlize S
6E	Harry P	Haley R
6M	Marin J	Alex O
St Monica’s Stars - James G (KRC) - 1st star, Patrick I (2R) - 1st star, Millie W (2RD)- 2nd star, Marianna R (2RD) - 3rd star, Antonia H (3/4C) - 4th star, Alissa H (3/4C) - 1st star, Marquez P (3/4C) - 2nd star, Angelino S (5F) - 7th star, Layla R (5F) - 4th star
Pride Badges - Marianna R (2RD)