St Cecilia's Newsletter Term 1, Week 2 2024

A word from the Principal

Dear School Families, Staff and Friends,

Welcome to the first school newsletter of the 2024 school year! I sincerely hope that everyone had a restful and relaxing summer break and hopefully the holidays don't already feel like a distant memory, if so, hopefully it's a pleasant memory.

It has been wonderful to catch up with the children as I welcome them at the school gate each morning, rove around school or playground duty and visit the classrooms when I get a chance. All the children seem refreshed, very settled, excited to embrace new beginnings and no doubt trying their hardest to make the best first impressions for their new school year with their new class teacher/s and specialist teachers.

A huge welcome to our new Kindergarten children who had their first day of school last Friday. There was a real buzz in the air and it was heartwarming watching the year five buddies welcome their new Kindy buddy and great to see the Kindy classrooms filled with smiling faces (mostly) and settled children ready to begin this new and exciting chapter of their educational journey. A big thank you to the existing year one families who prepared for, catered and served our new incoming kindergarten parents at the Tears and Tissue morning. The hall was full of parents connecting with other parents feeling the same excitement, nervousness, happiness or sadness before  heading to work or back home for the day.

The start of the school year is a particularly special time for the children who are beginning in Kindergarten and those joining us from other schools and their families. I hope that during this transition into our school community that you feel warmly welcomed and trust that through our strong partnerships with families you will feel connected with your children’s development as they begin their learning journey at St Cecilia's.

To all families old or new, please remember that we are always more than happy to assist with any queries, concerns, ideas or just to be a listening ear. You are always welcome to contact us by phone or email at school for any queries. Please remember that if you would like to email your child's teacher YOU MUST email the school office at scw@dbb.catholic.edu.au with the Subject including your child's teacher name, class and students e.g. Mrs Jordan - 4G; Jerome Lisgard  This format helps to streamline all  communication with families. 

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge and welcome our newest staff members this year at St Cecilia's
We are excited that Mrs Curnow (4B), Miss McArthur (4B), Mrs Alchin (3B - Fridays) and Miss Cilia (KB)  have joined us as classroom teachers this year and Mrs Caboche will be working as a Learning Support Assistant on the Learner Diversity team. We also welcome back Mrs Sartor as 3G classroom teacher and no longer a member of our school's Learner Diversity team. Lastly I would just like to remind the community that Mrs Tori Jones is continuing as our Acting Assistant Principal for this term, till Mr Madigan returns in term two. 

Thank you once for reading the newsletter to remain informed and help us as we work with you to have a settled start to the learning for 2024. 

God Bless

Marta Chylewska

Staying Connected

Kindergarten 2025 Sibling Enrolments Expression of Interest

If you have a child due to start Kindergarten in 2025, can you please complete the attached expression of interest form as we are already receiving inquiries for 2025 and we were unable to accept all positions for Kindy 2024. 

Please note this is not an enrolment application just and EOI to give us an indication of siblings numbers who are priority 2, unless of course baptised and Catholic, which are priority 1 for enrolment. We kindly request you complete the information by Friday the 15th March and should you have time to complete an enrolment form, please don't hesitate to do so online or we can send home a paper copy with your child's sibling, after you complete the online form below. 

Sibling Enrolment EOI

Date Change to Schoool Photos

We have had to move the  school photos to Friday 3rd May (week one of term 2). We request that all children still wear summer uniform in the first two weeks of term two to ensure everyone is dressed in the same uniform for photo day. The weather remains warmer for longer these days, so hopefully this shouldn't be a problem with summer uniform worn in late Autumn. If children normally have sport on a Friday, they will be required to wear their normal uniform on schoool photo day.

Morning drop offs and pick ups

School starts at 8:45am and pick up is at 3:05pm. There is no teacher on duty before 8:15am, so if you need to drop your child off before 8:15am, there is no supervision for them on the playground. Please make alternate care arrangements and ring Busy Bees on 0417 345 418 to organise before school care, which ensures your child has supervision. 

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents who are departing at the end of the day through the front gate and hot the back gate. I requested last week to families who were at pick up that once you greet your child at pick up, please follow out past the canteen, down the passage outside the library, following through the hedges corridor outside our staffroom and office building and finally exit out the front gate.

We are preparing for the new exit route at the end of the day once demolition of the existing Learner Diversity space, Year 4 and 6 Gold classroom happens. When part of the school will become a building site we will not have access to the back gate and alternate exit routes and pick up points will need to be established. Trialling some of these possible processes at pick up will help the leadership team inform future decisions around collection time.

Thank you for your cooperation with this matter. 

Teaching and Learning Matters

Over the holidays 18 of our children participated in the reading challenge where they were required to read for 20 minutes every day. Did you know that if your child reads for 20 minutes every day, they will have read 3,600 minutes per school year and read approximately 1, 800, 000 words per year. 

Congratulations to the following children who returned their reading log and acheived the challenge. These children will receive their award and certificate at Friday morning's assembly: 

Year 1 - Kenzie A., Isabella W., Emilia K

Year 2 - Tomas J., Claudia S., Scarlett B., Fletcher B.

Year 3 - Ava S., Indie A., Grace W.,  Samantha M., Zoe S., Lena G., Ava J., Maggie G., Aine H.

Year 4 - Sama G.,Frankie P.

We are incredibly proud of these children and look forward to acknowledging and celebrating their efforts as a community. 

From the Canteen

Dear Parents and Carers,
An important update concerning the canteen. Orders for the canteen will now close at 7:45am in the morning. If you are attempting to order after this time, you will no longer be able to submit a canteen order for that day.
We are also in need of volunteers for our canteen. We know this service is only able to operate if we have sufficient volunteer helpers, and your assistance is very much appreciated. If you are able to assist please the form in the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/9tB8wYBnfw

We are aware that there are some issues with the Qkr! App on new android phones. We received the following update from Qkr! and will continue to keep you informed as we learn more.

QKr! : 

We have just completed a major upgrade which now allows the app to be updated in the store. We are just waiting on confirmation as to when that will happen. In the meantime please ask parents to use the Qkr website if they need to make a purchase asap.

Qkr website

Qkr! by MasterCard (qkrschool.com)

Religious Education Update

SHROVE TUESDAY

At St Cecilia’s we will be celebrating Shrove Tuesday (popularly known as ‘Pancake Day’ or ‘Pancake Tuesday’) on the day before Ash Wednesday. In our classrooms we will be discussing how the Season of Lent is a time in which we reflect on how we can have a change of heart. We reflect on this in special ways: by prayer; by giving to our brothers and sisters in need and by fasting. When we fast, we get just a small taste of what it must be like to be hungry all the time and so we hopefully realise some of the pain of people who are marginalised in society.

Shrove Tuesday is also an opportunity for our school community to support Project Compassion. We will be providing pancakes before morning tea and are asking for the children to bring in a cold coin donation to support this important initiative.

OPENING SCHOOL & ASH WEDNESDAY MASS

Father Alex will be celebrating our special Opening School and Ash Wednesday Mass on Wednesday, the 14^th of February in the Assembly area at 9:30am. During the Mass the school leader commissioning will take place and the blessing of kindergarten students by their Year 5 buddies. During the mass we are fortunate to have students from St Peter’s distribute ashes to our school community. We will receive a sign of the cross on our foreheads from ashes (ashes from the blessed palms used on Palm Sunday). All are welcome!

2024 SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM

There are seven sacraments: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony (Catechism of the Catholic Church 1113-1131). Sacraments are ongoing symbols of God's care for all of us.

Information regarding the 2024 sacramental program has been communicated via Compass. If you require further information or have any enquires about the sacramental program, please contact Margaret Vandenberg at the St Cecilia’s Parish Office on 4352 1011. A summary of the important dates are as follows:

PEC Update

Welcome back to 2024, I hope you all had a wonderful break and are rejuvenated for the new year.

I would like to briefly reflect back on the end of last year to our Christmas Eve Mass. It was absolutely wonderful to see so many of our beautiful children and their families come along to celebrate with us. 

I have included a few pics below of the night and would like to thank everyone for joining us.

Parish Family Picnic Day

Please also see below and invite to the Parish Family Picnic on Sunday the 25th of February, we hope many of you are able to attend.

Triple P Parenting Program

Our Lady of the Rosary Parish at The Entrance are holding the Triple P parenting program beginning on the 22nd of February. If you would like more information on this program please don't hesitate to contact me.

Blessings 

Jo Helm

Staff Spotlight

Sports News

Please find attached school playground soccer rules that were established last year with ex Socceroo's captain Paul Wade who ran clinics with children in grades 2-4. 

There has definitely been some productive discussion around the rules outlined to children, however Paul explained to the children that our goals and fields are too small to have goal keepers, hence the 'No goal keeper' rule. The children are still adjusting to this rule in particular and should we get bigger soccer goals or be playing on a bigger soccer field, of course this rule can be modified, however not while the children play soccer on our school oval that is split into Oval 1 and Oval 2 to ensure we share the space with all grades. Hopefully you can talk through these rules with your child if required and remind them what they are. Once the children are more familiar with the rules, we hope the rules are just followed, no time is wasted and playing time is maximised during their breaks. 

Teachers will also recap these rules with the children in class and they will be displayed in the playground soon. 

Classroom Connections

First Day of Kindergarten

Last Friday, we welcomed our 2024 Kindergarten students for their very first day of Kindergarten. It was a beautiful morning with lots of excitement mixed with some nerves. Following drop off we gathered with our Kindergarten families for our Tears n Tissues morning tea.

Thank you to our families who assisted with the morning tea, it was the perfect way to debrief with each other.

The Kindy students are settling in wonderfully and enjoyng their new surroundings.

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Awards & Acknowledgements

Congratulations to the following children for their achievements! The listed award recipients will receive their award at Friday morning's assembly at 8:45am!

Academic Achievement Award

PBL Award

Personal Best Award

Key Dates