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| 15 - 19 August | St Michael's Book Fair | |
Dear Parents and Carers,
A very warm welcome back to everyone, the students have settled seamlessly into routine and are enjoying being with their friends and learning at St Michael’s. Everyone is noticing a calmer environment- so what’s changed?
Ian Luscombe was able to suggest a few ideas for whole school routines including assembling together with a song after each break- if you’ve been hearing ‘Fight Song’ at home and seeing actions happening this is the reason. Apologies if you are sick of hearing it!
We now have a flow chart and script with reminders and a yellow card system in place for office referrals. We are finding that a few simple strategies and a common language is really supporting students to work cooperatively within boundaries.
One of the best changes is that at our gatherings, teachers choose school members who are acting out on the playground in ways that support Harmony and our Mission and Vision to be kind and forgiving.
Ian will be visiting again on Wednesday 12 August where we had planned a parent meeting. With the COVID-19 restrictions coming into place again, we are looking at a digital meeting- don’t miss this one!
COVID-19 Updates
I have sent home a letter from Ross Fox via COMPASS but will also attach to this newsletter:
- Please notify us immediately if your child tests positive to COVID-19, so we can track numbers in classes and notify you if we have a cluster happening.
- CE has recommended that if your child is a household (close) contact they study at home where possible.
If your child is a household contact and you wish them to attend school they must take a COVID-19 test 24 hours prior to attending school and then every 48 hours if ongoing attendance at school. - Please contact us if you require Rapid Antigen Tests.
- Your child must be experiencing no symptoms and have a negative test result. We want to keep everyone safe and well, so please do not send your child to school if they are experiencing cold and flu symptoms.
- We have been advised to limit visitors to the site- only essential workers, allied health, clinics and incursions can take place. Our K-2 will be permitted to attend the Theatre excursion but as of Week 3, no further excursions outside the school are permitted. We are unsure of what will happen in Term 4 but hopefully 5/6 Camp will go ahead.
- Limiting visitors means we will not be able to invite parents to assemblies, Masses or Whole school prayer. We will look to ways we can share events digitally. All parent meetings with teachers are required to return to digital format unless special arrangements in place.
- Parents can collect students via drop off and pick up as usual but are encouraged to maintain social distancing and not enter the school.
- Parents are required to sign in late students and can sign out and collect students for appointments, best to call Lynda so she can have your child ready to be collected.
- St Michael’s will continue with our protocols for hygiene and cleaning already in place.
- Where we do not have staff to cover classes, you will be immediately notified.
- If students are required to work from home we will provide links for parents to access learning.
Thank you for working with us as we navigate another wave, please reach out if you have any questions or concerns. Your children’s safety and wellbeing are our top priority. Please keep an eye on COMPASS so that you can be up to date with any communication. We remain positive and hopeful that we can minimise impacts and disruption as the term progresses.
Many Blessings
Judy Egan
Principal
Census
Special wishes to those children who will celebrate their birthday this week and in the school holidays:
Gordon D, 1/2H, Aaliyah J, 1/2B, Christopher J, 1/2H, Oscar W, 5/6H.
We hope you have a great day!!
Parish Sacramental Program 2022
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.
Registration for the Sacrament of Confirmation
Registration must be made via the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Qkr! App (NOT the school app).
Registrations are open and will close this Friday 22 July 2022.
No late registrations will be accepted after the closing date.
Online Parent Formation Evening – will be held this Thursday - 21 July at 6pm online via MS Teams. Here is the link:
Commitment Masses
Candidates and parents must attend one of the weekend Masses at either St Monica’s Church (5pm Saturday or 10am Sunday) or St Michael’s Church (8am or 5.30pm Sunday) on one of the dates listed below to make their commitment for the Sacrament.
Saturday 23 and Sunday 24 July
Saturday 30 and Sunday 31 July
There will be no additional commitment masses beyond these dates.
Saint’s Name for Confirmation and Sponsor’s Name
If you did not provide this information in your registration form, please provide this information as soon as possible to the Sacramental Program Coordinator at sc.belconnennorth@cg.org.au
Purchasing a Stole
Purchasing a stole is optional - it is not compulsory (you can borrow one on the day).
If you wish to purchase a stole, please make a payment of $20 through the Qkr! App when you are registering your child for the Sacrament.
The stoles that are purchased will be delivered to the schools and the School of Religion in the first two weeks of August.
Trybooking for the Sacrament
The Trybooking for you to book which service you would like to attend with your child to celebrate the Sacrament will open on 8 August 2022.
The links to book will be published on the parish website at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth
The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated on 8, 9, & 10 November 2022 – Registrations will open on 19 September 2022.
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 updates at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth
Religious Education
Students in Years 5 & 6 will explore some big questions this term around charity and love. These questions are:
- What is Jesus’ New Commandment?
- How do we show that we ‘love one another’ every day?
- What are the corporal works of mercy?
What would our world look like if we could truly live as Jesus taught us? How can we show love for everyone each day? What can you do this week to demonstrate love for another person – especially a person whom you find it difficult to love?
Religious Life of St Michael’s
NAIDOC Week
The NAIDOC Whole School Prayer Time has had to be moved to an online, in-class event this Friday. Students in the three 5/6 classes will lead prayer in each of the other classes within the school after lunch on Friday. We will pray together as a community for ongoing efforts of reconciliation and find ways to celebrate the culture of our Indigenous Peoples.
Winter Woolies Day
Next week on Friday 29/7 we will hold our annual Winter Woolies Day. As usual children are invited to wear warm Winter Woolies (or Pyjamas or a onesie if they wish) and in return to bring in a donation of warm winter clothing for donation to St Vincent de Paul. Suggestions from St Vincent de Paul of Winter essentials include socks (new only please), blankets, beanies, gloves, jumpers and coats. During the day we will hold some special activities to raise awareness in the children of life for homeless people within our own Canberra community. Hopefully we will also be visited by the Night Patrol Van and see how it works to support the poor in Canberra.
Children are also invited to bring a gold coin donation for a hot milo at Recess. All money raised will be donated to the Night Patrol Van by St Vincent de Paul.
Today we played indigenous games with Chaydin. We played a game called kalkadoon kee'an, which is an indigenous hunting game used to practice hunting. To play this they used an animal bone with some wool on the end. This game is from the land of Wik-Mungkan language. The second game we played was called gorri. We played this game with tennis balls and exercise balls. The goal of this game was to hit the exercise ball with a tennis ball for twenty points. The last game we played was Buroijin. This was played in kabi kabi land. It is sort of like basketball but you take three steps then you have to either shoot for a goal which is a pole in this case or pass it to a teammate.
Jackson M
Today we played indigenous games with Chaydin. First Chaydin taught us how to play kalkadoon kee'an.How you play is you have a kangaroo tail and a small bean bag and you try to throw it into hula hoops and each row of hula hoops has different points so the it goes ten, twenty, thirty, forty etc. and you have to try to throw the kangaroo tail and small bean bag into the hula hoops to get more points.The next game is gorri. In Gorri you have to try and throw tennis balls at an exercise ball and each tennis ball is 20 points each. And the last game is Buroinjin. In Buroinjin there are two teams one with braids and a team without and you have to try and score a goal without going into the no go zone and if you do the other team get a through in and the team with most points at the end wins.
Milena J
Today We did amazing indigenous games called kalkadoon kee’an, Buroinjin and Gurri. I would recommend these games to everyone of all ages because they are so fun.
Charlize
Children's Book Council of Australia Book Week
This year’s them
e for Book Week is ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open’ and we are very much looking word to our celebrations here at school during Week 6. Our dress up day will be held on Friday 26th August. We encourage students to take inspiration from the theme or from their favourite book. We can’t wait to see everyone’s costumes in the parade!
We are also excited to be welcoming some authors to school to talk to our students about their latest books and what inspires them in their writing.
Book Fair
We will host our annual book fair in Week 5 from the 15th – 19th August! After a few years of COVID restrictions preventing us having our fair, we are hopeful that this year our fair will still be able to go ahead. We may need to limit the fair to only students but would very much appreciate your support. A generous percentage from the sales comes to the school as rewards and we use this money to purchase additional books for our own library. The students are looking forward to having this much loved event, so we will keep our fingers crossed!
