Happy St Patrick’s Day (yesterday) to all our Irish families

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Alana Tavcar (year 1-2 class teacher) and her husband Aaron who are expecting the birth of their first child in August. We are excited to be celebrating this news and wish them all the best as they embark on their new roles as parents.

I will begin the process of appointing a new teacher for year 1-2 and will let parents know once this has been finalised.

Term 2 Dates

Term 2 begins on Monday 15 April and ends on Friday 28 June

Important dates in week 1 of term 2

Wednesday 17 April- Whole school mass at 10:00am

Wednesday 17 April- Year 6 Confirmation Family Workshop at 6:00pm in the learning hub

Friday 19 April- HOLT soccer -(parents notified of students attending)

Upcoming events for Easter Week- last week of term

Parents are welcome to join us for these events.

Wednesday 27 March

9:00am - Hat Parade, P & F Raffle draw, casual clothes day (gold coin donation to Caritas)

Students are encouraged to wear an Easter Hat or crazy hair

Thursday 28 March

9:00am - Stations of the Cross in the learning hub, P & F sausage sizzle lunch, end of term 3:20pm

A big thank you to families who have donated lots of Easter goodies for our P &F Raffle. Many thanks to our parents who organised tickets and put together the raffle prizes.

Holy Trinity Parish Easter Holy Week Masses

Upcoming Holy Days

Holy Thursday

• March 28

• 7:30 PMSt Peter's Church, Bentleigh East

• 7:30 PMSt Paul's Church, Bentleigh

• 7:30 PMSt Catherine's Church, Moorabbin

Good Friday

• March 29

• 3:00 PMSt Paul's Church, Bentleigh

• 3:00 PMSt Peter's Church, Bentleigh East

• 3:00 PMSt Catherine's Church, Moorabbin

Easter Sunday

March 30

• 7:30 PMSt Catherine's Church, Moorabbin

• 7:30 PMSt Paul's Church, Bentleigh

• 7:30 PMSt Peter's Church, Bentleigh East

March 31

• 8:30 AMSt Peter's Church, Bentleigh East

• 9:30 AMSt Paul's Church, Bentleigh

• 10:30 AMSt Catherine's Church, Moorabbin

• 10:30 AMSt Peter's Church, Bentleigh East

2025 Enrolments

Families are reminded to complete and return enrolment forms for 2025 Foundation students by the end of the term.

 Reconciliation Celebration

TERM 2: Confirmation- Year 6 Students

Requirements for Confirmation 2024

Family Sacrament Workshop - St Catherine’s School

Presentation to the Parish Community - St Catherine’s Church

Student Reflection Day - St Catherine's School

Visit from Bishop - St Peter’s School

Celebration of the Sacrament - St Peter’s Church

 

Preparation for the Sacraments of Initiation is celebrated within a partnership of the Family, Parish & School. Within the Holy Trinity Parish the Sacraments are Family Supported, Parish Based and School Supported. Students who are baptised Catholics that have celebrated the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist are eligible to  receive the Sacrament of Confirmation in Year six.

An important focus in Religious Education for the children in Year Six in the Holy Trinity Parish will be on the Sacrament of Confirmation. The Schools in Holy Trinity Parish are very conscious of their responsibility to support parents in all areas of faith development, with a special program being taught during Sacramental preparation time and continuing throughout the year.

In 2024 the students will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation on:

Sunday, 26th May at 3.00pm

St Peter’s Church Bentleigh East

844 Centre Road 

If it is your wish your child to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, then please attend to the following:

Confirmation Enrolment Form Return by Thursday 28th March

Please fill out the hard copy Confirmation Enrolment Form and return it to school by Thursday 28th March. Children will need to select a Sponsor (must be Catholic and not their parent) to support them on the day.  Students must also select a Saint’s name.

A hard copy of the Enrolment Form and letter was sent home with eligible students on Friday, 15th March. 

Family Sacramental Workshop 6pm Wednesday, 17th April

Venue - St Catherine’s Learning Hub 

Families will attend the Confirmation Workshop with their child.                                                                                                                                             

As part of the preparation your child will also receive a Confirmation  workbook ‘Becoming Catholic- Confirmation. A Practical Guide for families’ by Kathy Horan. Students will be directed to complete the booklet by Megan and Sandra. Booklets are to be kept at home. Megan and Sandra will direct you to send the booklets to school for periodic check-ins.

Venue - St Catherine’s Church

Presentation to the Parish Community

10.30am Sunday 5th May

You are asked to attend Mass this weekend. At this special Mass, the students will be recognised and presented to the Parish Community. Family, relatives and friends are welcome as we publicly acknowledge the children receiving their Sacrament of Confirmation this year. 

Confirmation Reflection Day for students - Wednesday 15th May

Venue - St Catherine’s Learning Hub

All Confirmation Candidates & Year 6 students (even those not making their confirmation) will participate in a Reflection Day at school. More details to follow next term.

Bishop Tony Ireland - School Visit 

9.15 -1.00pm Friday 24th May

Venue: St Peter’s Church (844 Centre Road Bentleigh East)

Parents are asked to drop students at St Peter’s Office at 9.15am and pick them up at 12.30pm and drop them back to St Catherine’s.

St Catherine’s staff will meet the students and parents at St Peter’s School Office at 9.15am. (These times may change dependent on the Bishop’s availability)

Celebration of the Sacrament- 3pm Sunday 26th May

Venue- St Peter’s Church (844 centre Road Bentleigh East)

Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation

CARITAS 2024 Fundraiser- Wednesday, 27th March

CARITAS 2024 Fundraiser- Wednesday, 27th March

Meet Ronita from the Philippines. Ronita lives with her husband and two children in a barangay (local district) in Quezon City, which is situated in Metro Manila in the Philippines. She went back to school to finish her education so that she could earn income to support her children.

Meet Leaia from Samoa. Not having access to a reliable source of clean water was very difficult for Leaia and her family. But, with the support of Caritas Australia, a water tank was installed at their home, improving their health and living conditions. 

Meet Memory from Malawi. Memory, the eldest daughter from a rural Malawian family, trained to become a carpenter and is now a trailblazer for future generations of women in her village.   

Throughout Project Compassion, you will get to know the stories of Ronita, Leaia and Memory. Journey with them as they forge a path to a brighter future for all generations. 

Watch a short film: Introduction to Project Compassion

Please donate to Project Compassion.

Please contact me by phone or email if you have any questions or require clarification.

Carmel Donlon - Religious Education Leader

Email: carmel.donlon@scmoorabbin.catholic.edu.au

This Thursday 21st March is Harmony Day. This day celebrates our country's cultural diversity and is a day of respect and appreciation for everyone who calls Australia home. Thank you to the families who have returned their family’s jigsaw puzzle piece. 

As the students arrive at school on Harmony Day they will receive an orange ribbon to pin on their uniforms from our Year 6 Learning Leaders. Orange is the colour for Harmony Day. The colour orange represents communication and meaningful conversations between people. 

These puzzle pieces will be joined together and arranged on the bulletin board in the office. Please make some time to come in and celebrate the diversity of cultures that make up our St Catherine’s community.

Foundation Literacy News

This term the Foundation students have been learning about Milo Monkey and his friends in the Little Learners Love Literacy program. They have learnt 9 letters and sounds p,a,c,i,m,f,t,s,b. Each day we do speed sound activities, handwriting tasks and recite chitter chants about the characters from the Milo’s Birthday Surprise book eg- Milo Monkey mmm. Their favourite activity for each sound has been opening the sound box and taking out objects that start with the new sound. Over the last few weeks we have done lots of activities to help us learn our sounds. We went on an insect hunt when we learnt about Izzy Insect for /i/, blew bubbles in the beautiful sunshine for /b/. We made paper pirate hats with our buddies and playdough to take home and use for our homework. The students use mirrors to watch themselves make the sounds. We have started reading decodable books during our reading groups and have been learning about blending 3 letter words using the sounds they have learnt. 

Foundation & Year 6 Buddies

This term the Foundation students have loved catching up with their year 6 buddies. The buddy program is a wonderful way for the Year 6 students to support the foundation students on the playground and in the classroom. They assist them in many ways and especially through their interactions develop a sense of belonging in our school community. Last week the Foundation and Year 6 buddies went to Mass together and Fr Jacob blessed our classroom prayer cloths that we use each morning for our morning prayer and Christian meditation.

Creative Writing

In 1/2 AT, we have been learning how to write creative writing pieces. Students have been practising how to brainstorm ideas, create a plan for their story, and then use their plan to begin writing their stories. 

While following the writing process, students have begun practising how to add adjectives in their writing to make their stories sound more interesting. 

The grade one and two students were given boring sentences to make them more interesting. Here are some examples of our excellent work. 

Character Traits

In grade 3/4 the students have been enjoying learning about character traits through reading a variety of different texts. The students especially enjoyed watching Pixar shorts and understanding different character traits by viewing the character's body language and facial expressions. The students were able to tie in the knowledge the gained from The Resilience Troject to help assist them in reading emotions. 

This term in Year 5, we have been exploring a range of reading and comprehension strategies including finding the main idea, making predictions, making text connections, note taking and summarising important information.

We have used a range of texts to further explore and develop these strategies including, ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ by Lynne Cherry and ‘Flood’ by Jackie French. These texts allowed us to make a range of text to self, text to text and text to world connections. When making text to self connections we have been reflecting on our own experiences and comparing them to various aspects of the book. Similarly, we have been identifying key features or themes and comparing them to other texts we have read. We have found making text to world connections to be a more challenging concept to wrap our heads around as we have to think really deeply about issues that are impacting the entire world or events on the news and compare them to themes or ideas in the story. Whilst this concept is more challenging, we have done some wonderful deep thinking and come up with some amazing and strong text to world connections.

For one of our main activities in making connections, we read the book ‘Flood’ by Jackie French. This text was inspired by the Queensland floods in 2011. 'Flood' is a moving and sensitive story of a natural disaster as seen through the honest eyes of a cattle dog that has been separated from his family. The floodwater mercilessly rips through the towns, and finally recedes, leaving a devastating widespread path of destruction.

We talked about how the flood tore apart a dock where boats went and there was a tugboat that helped out. People from all over the world came to help during and after the devastating flood in 2011. 'Flood' was a book that really got me thinking about what it’s like during a flood and things you lose and you could lose the house you’ve been in your whole life. In the end it was good to know that so many people from across the globe came to help hundreds of people. Our activity was to find connections between the book 'Flood' and what we have seen or experienced in our lifetime. We did a Text to Text, Text to Self and Text to world. Our whole class managed to have a connection with at least one of those activities. It was fun to learn about the 2011 flood but devastating at the same time. I liked the book 'Flood' and the activities afterward. I liked writing about my experience and things I’ve seen on TV and things that I have heard. -Benjamin 

'Flood' was a book about a true story of a massive flood that happened in Brisbane. Our activity was that we had to write about similar things that connect to 'Flood', like books, movies, the news and things that have happened to us or someone else that we have seen. We wrote a text to self, a text to text and a text to world. It was a fun activity to do and it was very interesting to learn. I wrote about things on the news and things that happened to me.- Liana

Year 6 Literacy Learning 

We have been reading R J Palacio’s ‘Wonder’ this term. Some of us have seen the movie (but so long ago, we cant actually remember it!) but none of us had ever read it before. This book doesn't rely on complex language to impress readers. Instead, its poignant portrayal of society is what makes it emotionally impactful and powerful. Within the opening pages, it can evoke tears or laughter, reminding us that amidst life's challenges, there's always room for hope. It transforms perspectives, revealing the struggles each person faces and advocating kindness over judgement.

One more intriguing aspect of this book is that it is told by various perspectives; and we have just finished hearing it from Auggie’s point of view. Here are our thoughts so far - 

So far it's about a young boy called August trying new things - like going to school for the first time or making new friends. He desperately wants to fit in to the school because he was born with a cleft palate which is where the skin and bone do not grow properly. He feels like he'll never fit in.

This book is a really good example of don't judge a book by its cover.  August only has 3 friends - the rest of the people look at him with disgust. In our opinion it costs nothing to be kind to others. - Cameron and George

Wonder is making me feel upset, betrayed and happy all at the same time. We have just finished reading the Auggie chapter and what happened at the end made me upset as someone who made out to be a friend, has ended up not being a friend. I think Auggie, although self loathing, is a lovely kid who is trying hard to fit in. - Gus

TERM 1 HOUSE WINNERS (NEW TO ST CATHERINE’S)

The Year 6 leaders have had so much fun this term facilitating games and activities for all students to participate in over recess and lunchtime. They look forward to continuing this next term, with a few extras added in. During these activities, house points have been allocated for participation, fairness, value and exemplifying our school values.  

This week, the house with the most points will be announced. Please stay tuned for an Operoo advising of this.

What does this mean?

Next Thursday, 28th March (last day of school), all students in the winning house will receive - 

* an icy pole (allergies will be taken into consideration)

* be allowed to wear house colours to school 

* Get an extra 30 minutes playtime - games facilitated by the Year 6s

What a fabulous treat for the winning house! Well done to all who have participated and steered their house team to victory.

Pace: Foundation

Sebastien: 1/2AT

Martin: 3/4DK

Haley: 3/4JB

Cooper: 5JH

Lachlan: 6MR

Terry Hammond Bike Check

On Wednesday 20th March, Terry Hammond of Terry Hammond Cycles is kindly offering a free maintanance check to any student who owns a bike.

Those interested, please bring your bike into school, clearly labelled with your name and Year level visible.

Terry will complete a safety checklist and this will go home with your child. There is no obligation to follow up with Terry Hammond Cycles.

Bikes will be stored in the hall for the day.

This is a great opportunity in light of our Ride2School Day on Friday 22nd March.

Ride2school Day 2024

Friday 22nd March

Friday 22nd March is our RIDE2SCHOOL DAY. This is a special day to promote and develop physical activity in children, while helping the environment by cutting down on car emissions.

All St Catherine's students are invited to ride, rollerblade, scoot or simply walk to school on this day. On arrival, children will have the opportunity to complete some obstacle courses or dance at the dance station.

Fresh fruit will be available, kindly donated by Woolworth's Middle Brighton.

All St Catherine's students who are present on the day, will receive a lucky ticket and go into a draw to win a bike!

Those children who come by car, of course join in the fun on arrival.

All toddlers are welcome as well.

Our Ride2School Day will commence from 8.30 - 9.15/9.30 

Coffee van will be onsite.

New bike to be won in this year’s Ride2School Raffle.

One lucky St Catherine’s child will be taking this beautiful brand new bike home this weekend.
Thank you Sam Hartrick for donating and Terry Hammond for organising.

Click on the image to visit Sam's website

Holt Soccer Squad

Congratulations to the following children for being selected to represent St Catherine’s in Holt Soccer Lightning Premiership; Finn, Daraius, Gus, Lachie, Jensen, George, Dylan, Lachlan, Cameron, Manual, Harry, Ben, Alexis, Harlan, Duke and Aiden. 

We will be requiring parent helpers to transport our team to Caulfield Park Reserve on the day.

Date - Friday 19th April.

Venue - Caulfield Park Reserve 280 Balaclava Rd, Caulfield North.

Start time - 10.00am - 2.00pm

Easter Egg Raffle - EFTPOS available all this week at pick up

Second hand Uniform Shop

Sausage Sizzle Lunch - last day of term Thursday 28 March:

Parents and Friends Committee

Barefoot Bowling - Family event

Click on the image to catch up on the latest Parish News

Easter Mass Times

Bookings are available at Moorabbin and Seaford locations and the perfect activity for these upcoming school holidays!

Click on the image to book

Join 1st Central Scouts

Scan the QR code or visit the website for more information

Scan the QR code or click on the image for more information

We're excited to announce that applications are now open for Year 7 2026 (Year 5 students)

Click on the image to book a tour