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Back to School
How wonderful it is to have all our students back to school and learning in classrooms. Our year 4, 5 and 6 students have quickly settled back into school routines. Of course when I asked a number of students what is the best thing about being back at school, their responses were to see their friends and be able to play in the playground. Some did say they were happy to see their teachers in person and not just a face on the screen.
Staff are all happy to have our students back and we are all amazed at how much they have grown!
While some things are still the same at school, others are not. We continue to follow the CEM guidelines, with no new changes to what we already have in place. Until we are notified otherwise the following restrictions remain:
- No use of drinking taps
- Parents/Guardians only to enter building if necessary and must enter through office
- Limited access to adults on site (except staff)
- Extended pick up and drop off times- morning 8:45-9:15am and afternoon 3:20-3:40pm
- Parents are to pick up or drop off student and leave the premises
- Parents are not to congregate near school entry or exit points
- Regular hand hygiene practices in place
- Additional cleaning measures in place
- No whole school events
- No level events
- No excursions/incursions
- Social distancing measures for adults/staff in place
- Limited floor time, partner/group work for students in classrooms
- Windows/Doorways open to allow for airflow through buildings
I would like to again acknowledge and thank our parent community for consistently following the guidelines set out by Catholic Education Melbourne. The staff appreciate your understanding and support.
School Uniform
Students are required to wear winter uniform. Sports uniform and sport shoes are only to be worn on the days nominated by the class teacher for sport. Please check with your child or your child’s teacher for these days. Second hand uniforms are available at the school. Please contact Meghan Horwood in the school office to organise a time to visit the uniform shop. New uniforms are available from our uniform supplier PSW. Please ensure that uniform items such as jumpers are labelled with your child’s name.
Term 3- Parent/Teacher Phone Meetings
Conversations about semester 1 student reports will take place in term 3 on Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 July. Parents can book a time with their child’s teacher via the link below or via the szapp school app.
https://scmoorabbin.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/6
The focus of these meetings is to discuss semester 1 reports. Conversations will be 15 minutes in duration. Teachers will call parents at the allocated time.
A link to book PSG Meetings will be emailed directly to parents involved and will take place on Wednesday 15, Thursday 16 and Friday 17 July. Parents attending PSG meetings do not need to book a phone meeting with the class teacher. Please email Carmel Donlon if you require further information.
Arrowsmith teachers will attend either the PSG meeting or the parent/teacher meeting.
School Reports
Student Reports will go home with students on Friday 26 June.
Last day of Term
The last day of term for students will be Friday 26 June. Students will finish at 2:30pm.
Canteen
As you are aware, the canteen has not been operating this term. Our canteen will resume next term and will look a bit different. Unfortunately due to very low over the counter sales, our canteen providers can not continue to offer over the counter sales. They can still offer our families an online order service every Friday.
Orders will be delivered to school at 10:45am. This will mean that students will eat their lunch order at recess time and save their snack for lunchtime. This works out quite okay with our school timetable as our lunchtime is normally quite late in the day. Our canteen providers, Fun Fresh Food offer this service at a number of schools and they report that it works well.
Help Needed- Photographer Wanted
We are seeking the support of a parent who may have some photography skills. We would like to organise some photos of our school grounds and classrooms to use for promotional purposes. Please contact Lynda O’Donnell if you are able to help out in some way.
Lego Competition
Congratulations to our Lego Competition Winners! The staff found it so hard to choose one winner so we have awarded 3 prizes. Today the winning students received a lego set. Here are our winners.
Ben and Holly Anstee
Anika McQuire
Scarlet Novak
I CAN’T BREATHE
Our Federated Theme for 2020 is TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD LIKE THEM TO TREAT YOU. This verse is straight out of the bible in Luke’s Gospel.
At the end of the day life comes down to how you treat others.
I am convinced that when it is my time to have the interview with God to enter His eternal home he will not ask me my Year 6 grades nor my VCE score. God will ask how did you treat others when it counted.
Every day we see examples of how people MISTREAT others. If you were NOT shocked by the words: “I can’t breathe” then something is seriously wrong with how you see the world. I was totally against the protest Black Lives Matter in the streets of Melbourne because of the COVID-19 health risks. BUT I was not against the need to voice that BLACK LIVES DO MATTER.
Saving whales is a wonderful cause but surely saving human lives is also an important cause.
The Catholic Church is not faultless in this issue either. At one stage in their history whether the Church condemned or allowed slavery is debatable but the fact it did not outrightly condemn slavery is deplorable.
Racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism and ageism just to name a few all exist in our society and also in the Church. Each of these ‘isms’ and other negative ‘isms’ are all totally against the Gospel message of love and treating others as you would like them to treat you.
The image of little children playing in the sand pit is always a beautiful and rejoicing image. They are all playing and having fun oblivious to age, race, class, etc. At some stage someone will tell them who they should play with and who they should not play with. If we were true to the Gospel message of love we would let the children play with whoever they liked.
Of course, there are exceptions, like if the other person is a drug dealer or abuser, etc. But even if this was the case we would still want to treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves.
The hearing of three heart breaking words “I can’t breathe” are haunting. The fact that others stood by and did nothing is deplorable. The fact that more people of aboriginal race die in custody is a fact which needs investigating.
God gave us the gift of Free Will. I do wonder at times whether God ever envisaged what dreadful choices humans would make with this gift.
Can we change the world and its attitudes to mistreatment of others? The answer is YES. It first begins with a change of heart. It changes when we hear other people’s stories of life. Perhaps these last two months of isolation has brought back the gift of listening.
Stop and listen to the story and our heart may change for the better.
Edward Dooley (Mission and Faith Leader)
Our St Catherine’s Lego builders sure did bring imagination, creativity and a sense of adventure to their ‘Dream Home’ builds. We want to say a huge thank you to all who participated.
We had over 25 entries so it was difficult for our staff to narrow it down to just three winners.
Congratulations to Scarlett, Holly & Ben and Anika for placing in the top three.
If your entry did not make a place, we still want to thank you for your amazing effort!
Dear Parents and Friends,
I hope this finds you safe, well, settled back into the new normal and looking forward to the well-deserved upcoming school holidays?
While Covid-19 restrictions are lifting in the broader community it is still unclear when we will be able to gather as a school community or have large events. As only essential adults are allowed to be at the school under the current guidelines it is unlikely that we will be able to host a Father’s Day event this year. Planning a Christmas Market is also challenging as the school is unlikely to be able to host so many people on site.
We are hopeful that Term 4 guidelines will enable us to hold a school community event that incorporates the Christmas Carols, the dance and a mini-market for St Catherine’s families. Stay tuned for updates and a date as the restrictions change.
If you haven’t yet completed the P&F survey, there is still time to do so and we would appreciate you taking a few minutes to do this. This survey will help us plan for 2021. Follow this link to complete it:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QHK52JC
During the period the children were learning from home some of our Year 1 children kept their school spirit alive by playing schools with dolls that have their very own St Catherine’s School uniforms. These have been made using the uniforms donated to the school uniform shop that cannot be sold due to staining or other damage. Not only is this a great sustainable use for these items but a wonderful way for our students to ‘play school.’ Our blue shirts are a work in progress.
We are hoping to make uniforms to sell in the school uniform shop as part of our fundraising efforts in a variety of doll sizes. If you or someone you know would like to help make the uniforms please let me know via the contact details below. We will supply the fabric, pattern and any other materials needed.
We’d also love someone to knit some school jumpers for dolls and children’s scarves and beanies in St Catherine’s colours – if you or someone you know can knit we’d love your help! Yarn and patterns can be supplied.
Keep safe,
Karen Glancy
stcathsparentsandfriends@gmail.com
Thank you to everyone for continuing to return Library Books.
CBCA Book Week.
Book Week has been postponed Until Term 4 in 2020. The book council has decided for this year due to the current circumstances to postpone the celebration of the love of books till Term 4.
The new dates for Book Week are as follows from the 17th of October to the 23 rd of October .
The theme for this year CURIOUS CREATURES, WILD MINDS.
More information will be coming in Term 3.
Many thanks
Kath Barca
Kingston Libraries has just released our June-July school holiday program for kids, youth and families. While our libraries are now beginning to open up to the public again, we are still unable to run events for groups in the library spaces. But that hasn’t stopped us from creating a fun holiday program! We are running our program remotely. A range of free activities are on offer via mailout or online including craft and STEAM kits to do at home, online games (Minecraft, Dungeons & Dragons), author talks (George Ivanoff and Jane Godwin), theatrical performances, cooking classes and science experiments. Our annual short story competition for children and youth launches too (27 June), and our daily storytime live stream continues as usual.
The program of events is available to download here and bookings can be made online or by calling us - https://www.kingston.vic.gov.au/library/Kids-Place/Kids-Activities-2#SchoolHolidayProgram
All activities and events are free, but they do require bookings (except for storytime live stream) so that we can share the links for online content and to be able to mail out kits.