Achieve - all that you can

He 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

I cannot believe it is the end of Term 1. We have had an amazing term filled with learning for both the children and the teachers. Our new staff all feel very much part of the community. Thank you to everyone for your support in making St Monica's a great community. 

Yes it is almost enrolment time, please spread the word. This year enrolments will be able to be submitted online, which is very exciting. The online option will not open until the commencement of next term. Lots of families have offered to deliver our open day fliers. We still have a number of areas not covered; if you are able to help please drop into the school office to collect a bundle. Unfortunately last year we had issues with the company we engaged to deliver the fliers so we are reaching out to our community this year for help. The holidays is a great time to go for a walk with the family and deliver our brochure.

Many thanks to Jodie May for her work in 5F this term. Commencing next term we welcome Miriam Hilton who will work in 5F on Thursdays and Fridays to enable Liz Foster to fulfil her leadership responsibilities.

We continue to move to additional options on on new SZine App. Have you downloaded the app to your phone. Early next term we will commence sending out our alerts through the app and close down our Skoolbag app. The change is due to the Catholic Education Office covering the cost of the subscription,  a saving for the school.

Our solar panel project is well underway. Installation will continue over the holidays with the project to be completed early next term.  

Commencing Monday Term 2 the children are to wear their winter uniform. Our Uniform Shop will be open on Friday morning between 8.45am and 9.15am tomorrow, 12 April. The shop will not be open in the holidays. The shop will reopen in the first week on Monday and Friday mornings.

Recently I expressed my concern regarding the new bus arrangements serving St Monica's, from the commencement of next term. Below is a copy of the response your your reference.

Response received from the School and Community Liaison Officer 

While I understand that you continue to have concerns about the changes to the public transport network, there are no current plans to make changes to services for St Monica’s Primary School. The new public transport network will commence on the first day of Term 2, 29 April 2019.

However, the Government has committed to an annual review of public transport services for schools, and if any issues are identified once the new network has commenced, they could be considered as part of this regular process.

The new bus network together with the commencement of Light Rail represents the most significant investment to public transport in the ACT ever. Customers will also be able to take advantage of the new integrated transport network with a month of free travel when using a MyWay card from Monday 29 April.

If your student catching a bus on Verbrugghen Street is on bus route 41, they will be able to hop on this service from Moynihan Street instead.

Through the Active Streets for Schools program, Transport Canberra and City Services is consulting school communities to support infrastructure improvements around schools to support walking, riding and use of public transport. Improvements will commence in 2019 following the consultation process. I have sent your concerns of not having a school crossing to this area for consideration.

Congratulation to Ryan Matchett who is graduating with a Masters of Education tomorrow. Ryan currently holds a Master in RE. Well done!

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter and may it be a time to stop, pray and reflect with family and friends.

God bless

Carmel Maguire 

Stations of the Cross Every Friday during Lent - 7pm at St Michael's and 7pm at St Monica's.

Holy Thursday 18 April - 7.30pm at St Michael's and 7.30pm at St Monica's.

Good Friday 19 April - 10am -  Stations of the Cross, 3pm -  Adoration of the Cross - at St Michael's and St Monica's.

Holy Saturday 20 April - 10am-12 noon -  Reconciliation, 7.30pm -  Easter Vigil - at St Michael's and St Monica's.

Easter Sunday 21 April - 8am at St Michaels (no 5.30pm Mass), 10am at St Monica's

All parishioners are invited to the Chrism Mass of the Holy Oils which will be celebrated at St Christopher's Cathedral, Monday 15 April, at 7.30pm. It is at this Mass that the Holy Oils used in the various sacramental rites of the church are blessed and consecrated.

On Monday 8 April, Years 5 and 6 had a very special guest come to speak to them in the lead up to ANZAC Day. Mr John Fleming who is the great grandfather of Haylie (6E), Logan (3M) and Alec (KRC) spoke to the children about his service in the Second World War. Mr Fleming is 99 years old and served with the 9th Division of the 2nd AIF (Australian Imperial Force) in places such as Tobruk, El Alamein and New Guinea.

Mr Fleming shared some of his experiences and memory of how the men in these notable battles shaped the outcome of not just the North Africa campaign, but the Second World War. 

Years 5 and 6, their teachers, and especially Mr Evans would like to extend their thanks to Mr Fleming for making the time to visit and share his experiences of these historic events. Our students are very lucky to be able to say that they have met one of the renowned 'Rats of Tobruk'​.

Book Fair

We will be holding a Scholastics Book Fair during Week 2 in Term 2.  Students have received a Brochure inviting them to the book fair and showing the great titles that students will be able to purchase while supporting the school. The Book Fair will be in the library and will be open from 8.30am to 9am Tuesday to Friday and Monday to Friday 3.10pm until 4pm.

Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge

This year St Monica’s is participating the Chief Minister’s Challenge.  The challenge involves students reading 30 books before 13 September.  There will be prizes awarded to winning schools, but most important it is a challenge that engages students in reading.  The students may read 30 books of their choice. Information about the challenge can be found via the link to the The Chief Minister's Reading Challenge. The students  in Years 1 - 6 received their Individual Student Reading Record today.   When the students finish a book, it must be initialled by their parents or teacher. Kinder will do the challenege as a class group.

On Sunday, St Monica’s participated in the Catholic Schools’ Soccer Carnival at Calwell Playing Fields. We entered 6 teams – 3 in Years 3/4 and 3 in Years 5/6. It was pleasing to see so many children participate and try their best, for many it was their first soccer carnival. All children were a credit to St Monica’s, displaying team spirit and fair play. A very big thankyou to our coaches, managers and parents who supported and helped on the day.

2019 Cross Country Results

The 2019 Cross Country Carnival was held at Stromlo Running Park on Tuesday 9 April. We were blessed with a beautiful sunny day, with some gusty wind. It was wonderful to see the children participating with great enthusiasm for their house teams and cheering each other along. A very big thank you to the parent helpers who assisted in the canteen, as track officials and marshals. Days such as these are only possible when we have lots of volunteers. Thank you to Mrs Manning who organised the canteen facilities and all the teachers who supported and assisted the children.

Congratulations to the students who came in the top placings for their race. Students who will be selected for the Belconnen Cross Country will announced at a later date.

Thank you to Emma Russell, Ryan Matchett and the teachers for their organisation. 

Congratulations to the following students who placed in the Belconnen Swimming Carnival -

Annabelle F - 1st place - Girls 10 & Under 50 LC metre Butterfly

Annabelle F - 2nd place - Girls 10 Year Olds 50 LC Metre Freestyle

Claire H - 3rd place - Girls 11 Year Olds 50 LC Metre Backstroke

Harry P - 3rd place - Boys 12 50 Metre Fly

2019 ACT Primary Schools Girls Teams Chess Championship

Congratulations to the St Monica’s team who played in the final of the 2019 ACT Primary Schools Girls Teams Chess Championship last Friday. The team came fourth, narrowly missing out on third place. Congratulations to the following players who represented St Monica's in the seven match tournament: Sarah D-H (4.5 points),  Charlize S and Mary D-H (4 points), Annalise S, Annalene L, Indiana H, Zarah L and  Isabella H (3.5 points). The team showed great team spirit and were great representatives of the school. Wonderful work girls! Chess ribbons will be presented at Assembly tomorrow.

Thank you to Evelyn David-Hoole for coordinating this event. Very much appreciated.

Happy Birthday to the following students celebrating a birthday next week and throughout the school holidays.

Mackenzie B, Lachlan F, Jodie D, Charlie G, Anica P, Ashton Mc, Zane Mc, Peter M, Haylie F, Joseph O, Evie K, Bastijan P, Joshua D, Mitchell B, Patrick H, Raylah O, Oliver V, Hena L

Council met last week.  The Council congratulated the fete team and all who contributed on the awesome effort to raise $40,000 for the school.  Council are planning to use these funds towards the construction of an outdoor classroom -an alternative space for students to learn.  Council also discussed the need to do some succession planning for our fresh tastes/gardening team - our team have a few families who are due to leave the school in the next 2 years. We would love to hear from anyone who is interest in getting involved? Council also discussed the possibility of a social function for families or parents to help grow connections in our community - we would be interested in hearing about preferences or ideas?

 If anyone has any issues/ideas they would like to discuss please email Fiona Steinberg - Council.StMonicas@cg.catholic.edu.au 

A friendly reminder to families that full payment of Term 1 school fees is due.

If you have a Direct Debit arrangement in place, please ignore this reminder, no additional payment is required.

As always, please contact the School Finance Officer should you need to discuss your school fees account.

Canteen Roster  - Term 2, Week 1

Monday - Vacancy

Tuesday - Evelyn David-Hoole

Wednesday - June Manning

Thursday - June Manning

Friday - Samantha Cox, Tracy D'Ambrosio, June Manning, Wendy Regan

Samantha Manning - Canteen Manager - 62584687

A reminder regarding bus route and timetable changes that will be in place on 29 April 2019, the first day of Term 2. Please note that every bus route will have a new number/timetable and route.

You can check your child’s new timetable/route by referring to the attachment to this email. This attachment provides a summary of all services for St Monica’s PS, as well as details for each individual route/timetable.

You may also use ACTION’s website to find information on the new timetable. Use the following link to access this information https://www.transport.act.gov.au/. Please note that there is an “options” box to select preferences such as fewest interchanges, fastest route, combined walk & ride options etc. You may also ring ACTION on 13 17 10 if you are unable to access necessary information on the ACTION website.

I encourage families to look at the  detailed documentation and provide feedback to Transport Canberra at https://www.accesscanberra.act.gov.au/app/forms/transport_feedback

Details of the bus routes serving St Monica's 

st_monicas_Term_2_Bus_routes.pdf

Also refer to the website

New School Bus Routes From Term 2

https://www.transport.act.gov.au/getting-around/new-network/schools

In the coming months St Monica's will be joining the Active Streets Program. This is very timely due to the changes occuring with the introduction of the new bus arrangements and timetable.

​The Active Streets for Schools program is an infrastructure program – supported by educational resources – to make it safer and easier for children to walk or ride to school. Our school will be supported by the program over the next four years. Active Streets helps to make school environments safer and more accessible by providing a range of tailored solutions depending on the school and local environment. Improvements may include new or improved footpath connections, more dedicated crossings or traffic calming (e.g. speed humps) to ensure the trip is safe and easy for children to navigate.  

To commence the program, Transport Canberra and City Services (TCCS) would like to discover how children currently travel to and from school and find out where you think improvements can be made around the suburb and the school.

TCCS have set up a survey to gather this information. All the information collected will be de-identified and confidential. The final survey question asks about the type of infrastructure improvements our community would like considered through the program. To complete this question you can either:

-          Provide an explanation in the text field in the survey, or

-          Drop a pin on our Ride or Walk to School map and provide a comment

To drop a pin on the map, you will need to be signed in to a Google account, which is as simple as signing up if you don’t already have one. More information about setting up an account and dropping a pin on the map is available in these instructions.

TCCS will also welcome feedback about our Ride or Walk to School map, so please use the drop pin feature to comment on the highlighted routes. Alternatively you can print our map, write on the map and return it to TCCS.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to complete the survey. Your response will help to influence how the program is delivered to suit our school community. 

Please contact Ryan Matchett at school if you would like further information.