Dear Parents

As we have almost reached the end of Week 4 it is now time to establish learning goals with the children to direct their learning. Over the next two weeks, the teachers have set aside time for our CoG sessions. CoG sessions involve a child's teacher, the child and parent/s sitting together to establish two or three goals to be achieved by early next term. 

As the classroom teachers each have different availability times please make your bookings early to avoid missing an appointment. Our Year 5 and 6 teachers will be unavailable during the second week as they will be attending camp with the students.

This year we are using our current Schoolzine platform to make online bookings. Please follow this link to access the booking site.

Click here to make your bookings

Please contact the front office if you experience problems making your bookings, or need assistance to make your bookings.

Kinder BBQ

There was a great gathering of Kinder families on Tuesday evening. Thank you to everyone for making the occasion a great success. It provided a wonderful opportunity for new families to connect with the community and the children to have fun together.  

Principal Retreat

Next week I will be away from Tuesday at midday until the end of the week at the Annual Principal Retreat. Please direct any concerns to Luke Donnelly in my absence. 

Swimming Ribbon 

Sport Ribbons will be presented on Monday morning at our assembly along with the announcement of the winning house. 

CE Parent Survey - Coming Soon

Catholic Education, Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn (Catholic Education), will shortly release an online survey to better understand your opinion of the value Catholic schools like ours provide and what that means for you and your children. The findings of this research will be used by Catholic Education to improve the offering of Catholic schools.

The survey will be sent out to parents via email in the coming week and should take less than 15 minutes to complete.  

Privacy and confidentiality

Please note that Catholic Education has engaged JWS Research to host the survey, collect the data and analyse the results. JWS Research is an independent, fully accredited, Australian research agency (see www.jwsresearch.com for further information). Survey results will be reported in the aggregate with individual responses remaining completely confidential and treated in accordance with the relevant privacy laws, including the Market and Social Research Privacy Principles and the industry’s code of professional behaviour.

I encourage all parents to respond to the survey. Thank you in advance for your time and participation.

Wishing God’s blessing on you and your families.

Carmel Maguire

Principal  

First Week of Lent - reflection

This week marks the beginning of the Lenten season. We gathered as a school and parish community on Wednesday to contemplate how we are going to prepare ourselves for Easter celebrations. Fr. Loi encouraged us to look deeply at ourselves as we journey through Lent. We have all begun to do this as we set ourselves our Lenten promises. Our promises should be ones that challenge us enough to bring about a renewal. A renewal of mind, heart, spirit.

This Sunday’s reading is from the Gospel of Matthew – The Temptation of Jesus. Jesus is able to withstand being tempted by the devil. Firstly, our Lenten promise should be a positive one that will enable us to grow spiritually, rather than something that may weigh us down. How are your New Year’s resolutions going?

Secondly, we need to have a plan. We make plans all the time. How are we going to overcome temptation? What can we foresee that may get in the way of our Lenten promises? What will we do about it? We can call upon the Holy Spirit to guide us on our journey. Follow in Jesus example in this weekend’s reading, the Holy Spirit was with him the entire time.

School Focus – Weeks 4, 5 and 6

This week, we began our school focus of SUPPORT. As a school community we will be exploring how we are supported at St Monica’s, who we support and what support looks like and feels like. A community who grows together, supports one another. During Lent, we will be supporting Caritas’ Project Compassion. Students will be learning about the communities around our globe who benefit from our support. Next week we will be coming together to discuss learning goals. All classes are exploring how our learning goals are supporting our learning at St Monica’s.

Term 1 school fees have been emailed and sent home to families.

Generally, statements are not sent to families with a formal Direct Debit Arrangement in place as it causes some confusion as to whether we are asking you to make an additional payment. If you would prefer to receive a statement when fees are invoiced please let the office know.

The school runs 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.

Full payment of school fees is due by Friday 20 March 2020, except for families with a Direct Debit arrangement in place. Please don't hesitate to contact the School Finance Officer, Allison Walsh should you need to discuss your school fees.

Thank you

Calling for a new Uniform Shop team

Our current team are moving on to the new world of high school so we need some eager recruits to take over the shop. It only takes about an hour a week out of your time and is a great way to meet families at school. A team of around 3 works well to balance the roles and have back up for those times when you can’t make it. 

Send us an email at stmonsuniform@gmail.com or pop in to the store Friday morning for a chat about the role. 

Come on it will be fun!!

Community Volunteer Form

Thank you to all those that have responded to date - your names are being passed on to staff and volunteers heading up to the fete and fundraising activities.  While we strongly encourage parent engagement in your child's schooling we do appreciate those who have some extra time and can help out from time to time.

Our new Community Council are meeting tonight.  If you have any queries can you please send an email through to our secretary Fional Steinberg at council.stmonicas@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Happy Birthday to the following students - 

Aria G, Emilia H, Lucy O, Imogen S, Kobe B, Ava S, Sophie S, 

We are up and running, thank you to all the children who have already visited me in the canteen.  I am pleased to see that they are enjoying some of the new products we have on offer.  

I currently have fruit salad on for $1.50 a cup, it is delicious. Hopefully, we can encourage lots of kids to enjoy this so that it is viable to keep it on the menu.

Tomorrow our first child will receive their Birthday Pack Bonus of a meal deal (Nuggets, Moove and a packet of Jumpy's).  That special child enjoyed some Zooper Doopers with their classmates yesterday.  All this cost just $12. Please order on Qkr if this is something you would like to treat your birthday child with.

A huge thank you to my super volunteers this week, I would not have been able to do it without you.

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.

DANCECORE -  Dance classes are held on Wednesdays at lunchtime in the school hall. Forms are available at the Front Office. Contact Cassie 0417 442 750.

CHESS -  Chess classes are held in the library on Mondays at lunchtime. Forms are available by contacting Sydney Academy of Chess (02) 9745 1170.

GUITAR - Guitar lessons with Geromy are on Thursdays. Please contact Front Office for Geromy's contact.

PIANO - Piano lessons with Lis O'Daly. Pease contact Front Office for Lis' contact.

Instruments- Small group intstrumental lessons for Years 2 - 6 available on Tuesdays throughout the day. Enrolment fliers can be collected from the Front Office.

School Choir & Japanese Choir - Children self nominate to attend choir led by St Monica's teaching staff. 

Here at St Monica's we are fortunate to have a great community of students, teachers and families who provide a caring, enthusiastic and positive place for our children to learn, grow and shine. We invite you to get involved in our community!

We understand that families have busy lives at work, at home and with other communities that they are part of. As such, we have a varied number of opportunities for involvement with differing levels of time commitment - we value them all. We also take this opportunity to give a heartfelt thanks to all our current and past volunteers who help make this community function and thrive - THANK YOU!

Please consider this an invitation. If you are looking to connect, improve your sense of wellbeing and your child/ren's happiness, we invite you to consider volunteering and complete the form below. Spending a little time volunteering at St Monica's may be your best-spent time yet!

Please don't hesitate to contact us via email if you have further queries or ideas. Council.StMonicas@cg.catholic.edu.au

We would love to hear from parents/carers, grandparents and older siblings. We encourage existing volunteers to list the activities they are already involved in.

MERICI COLLEGE ENROLLING NOW CAMPAIGN

A wonderful opportunity for prospective families to see the College in action, meet our students and attend the Principal’s Address, Year 7 and 11 Information Evenings and lots more.

We are enrolling now for 2021 and beyond!

Please visit www.merici.college for all dates and information for our Open Day, Be a Merici Girl Days and Talk and Tours. Register online now!

Open Day and Year 7 2021 Information Night: 7 May

Be a Merici Girl Days: 30 April, 4, 5, 12 May

Talk and Tours: 22 February, 4 April,  9 May, 15 August, 24 October