Welcome Back

Welcome back to another term of learning. Staff are well rested and ready to provide students with engaging learning experiences again this term. Tomorrow our whole school is excited to be heading off to Healesville Sanctuary for an excursion that will kick start our term two integrated concept Life and Living. Many thanks to a number of parents who have volunteered to support us on the excursion.

Students need to be at school by 8:30am for an 8:40am departure. Students are reminded to bring a small backpack with lunch snack and a drink. Please bring a school hat and coat if needed.

Curriculum Term Outlines are now available for parents to find out what their child will be learning about this term.

ANZAC DAY

This term students have been learning about the history and story of ANZAC DAY. Classes have produced beautiful artwork that is currently displayed just inside the junior school building. Today we gathered as a whole school to participate in an ANZAC DAY liturgy.

We gather together today to remember those who fell amidst the valleys and ridges of Gallipoli, on the terraced hills of Palestine, in France and Belgium, on the sands of the North African desert, amidst the mountains and olive groves of Greece, Crete and Syria, in the skies over Europe, in Singapore, in the jungles of Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands, in Korea and Vietnam, East Timor and most recently in Afghanistan.  We remember Lord those who suffered as prisoners of war, and those who died in captivity. We pray for peace and the wisdom to learn from our past mistakes.               

Amen

Reconciliation

Congratulations to the following students who received the sacrament of Reconciliation on the weekend.

Willow Mitchell

Veronika Cary

Cameron McKell

Cristina Chiodo

Gus Welsh

Finn McGuire

Ben Anstee

Sophie Brown

Daraius Mendonca

Dylan Carvalho

Thanks  to families and staff, Carmel Donlon, Megan Moore and Sandra Renehan for their work preparing the students and the ceremony.

Playgroup

Mr Harding has now completed our new fence, so our outdoor play area for playgroup is nice and secure for our playgroup friends. Last week we had 25 families attend our playgroup. Playgroup every Thursday from 9:00-10:30am. All welcome. Please encourage families and friends to come. 

School Uniform

As of 3 May all students need to be wearing winter school uniforms. Please contact Paula or Laura in the school office if you require any second hand uniform items.

Learning Assemblies

Last term MACS media composed a video highlighting learning at  our school. We are very proud of creating interactive opportunities to engage parents and showcase our students’ learning. We thank your parents for supporting our assemblies and in particular Toby Sloan and Cassie McDonald for featuring in our video.

Learning Assembly dates for term 2:

• Thursday 27 May- Years 1-2
• Tuesday 1 June- Years 5-6
• Friday 11 June- Foundation
• Thursday 17 June- Years 3-4

Parent/Teacher/Student Meetings

Feedback we received from students and parents indicated that providing opportunities for students to be active in the reporting process was positive. Our next Parent/Teacher/Student Meetings will take place next term on Tuesday 27 and Wednesday 28 July. Booking information will be available later this term.

2022 Foundation Enrolments

Current families are reminded to please return enrolment forms for siblings as soon as possible.

For Dad’s Only 

Hard copy information about the Mother's Day stall went home with students last week. Students were asked to return the form indicating how many gifts are required and money for the gifts. Please contact your child’s teacher if you need another form. Mother’s day stall is on Thursday 6 May. Abbey Walters and students from OLSH have organised the stall and OLSH students will be attending to sell items to our students.

Congratulations to the following children and their families that celebrated their First Reconciliation over the weekend. The Parish Team were impressed by their reverence and prayfullness. Thank you to Megan Moore for attending the service to support the students and their families.  The remaining students will celebrate the Sacrament on the 16th of May and 20th June.

Dates for your diaries...

Confirmation- Year 6 Students Term 2

10 Year 6 students will be making their Confirmation at 7pm On Thursday , 3rd June.

Planning is well underway. 

Wednesday 12th May- Family Workshop

Sunday 23rd May- 10.30am Confirmation Candidates presented to Parish

Tuesday 25th May- 1.30pm Students & Staff meet with Father Brendan Hayes @St Peter’s

Wednesday 26th May- Confirmation Reflection Day

Thursday 3rd June- 7pm Confirmation celebration @St Catherine’s Church

Eucharist- Year 4 & 5 students- Term 2, 3 & 4

Wednesday 2nd June- Eucharist Reflection Day- Term 2

Wednesday 21st July- 7pm Family Workshop- Term 3

Sunday 8th August- 10.30am Presentation Mass to Parish- Term 3

Sunday 15th August-10.30am Presentation Mass to Parish- Term 3

Sunday 15th August- 10.30am Eucharist Group 1- Term 3

Sunday 19th September- 10.30am Eucharist Group 2- Term 3

Sunday 17th October- 10.30am Eucharist Group 3

Crazy Hair/Easter Hat Caritas Fundraiser

Congratulations to St Catherine's families for raising and donating  a record $504.55 at the end of last term. This generous donation will allow the Caritas organisation to support many needy families and communities. Please visit the website for more information on their current projects.

www.caritas.org.au

Year 1& 2 Family Faith Night- Creation

6pm Wednesday 5th May

The Year 1/2 parents and children are invited to a Faith Development Night focussing on the Stewardship of Creation, on Wednesday, 5th May.  During the evening there will be various activities that you and your child will participate in together. It is an expectation that all students attend with one or both parents.

We look forward to seeing you all on this night. Please note that this session is particularly aimed at Year 1/2 children, siblings cannot be included. The session will take place in the Learning Hub at 6.00pm and finish at approximately 7.00pm.

Foundation Students in Pyjamas- My Prayer Space

Family Faith Night-

6pm Wednesday 19th May

It has been a tradition at St Catherine’s for many years to hold a ‘Foundation Students  in Pyjamas’ Prayer Family Faith Night. On this evening, the children come to school dressed in their pyjamas and together with their parents they complete activities that will support family prayer time at home. 

This evening will take place on Wednesday, 19th May at 6.00pm in the Learning Hub. It is an expectation that all Foundation students and a parent attend. As you will be working with your child on a rotational basis, siblings cannot be included. The evening will go for approximately an hour. We ask that children attend dressed in their warmest, favourite pyjamas.We also ask that families bring along a religious gift or memento from home (bible, crucifix, cross, rosary beads, prayer book, mass book, holy picture, statue, baptism candle, medal etc). We will have spare items/symbols for families if required.

We look forward to seeing you on this evening.

Carmel Donlon

Religious Education Leader

carmel.donlon@scmoorabbin.catholic.edu.au

It was so nice to return to school last week and see all the beautiful St Catherine’s children and staff. I was made to feel very welcome by everyone and look forward to an exciting Term 2.

It has been a very busy start to term 2 in 1MH. We have been learning all about the Paschal candle and what all of the symbols on the candle represent. We visited the church to look at St Catherine’s Paschal candle and to see the church dressed in the Easter liturgical colours.

We were all very excited to see Mrs Patto on Friday for our PE lesson. We have started to learn all about hockey and finished the lesson with a game where we had to play against a friend to see who could score a goal.

This term our concept is “Life & Living” and we are all very excited about our excursion this week. Last  week we worked in teams to complete a concept map about what we thought were good criteria to determine if an object was a living thing. We compared answers from each of the groups and came up with a great list. We went outside and used our senses to see what we could see, smell, feel and hear around us in our school environment. Then we took a magnifying glass and went on a living and non living scavenger hunt, some groups found all 16 items.

We are going to be learning how to write information reports this term and we have started learning how to read information to find facts and the main idea in a text. Last week we read all about bees. We labeled a diagram as we learnt about the different parts of a bees body. We learnt some interesting facts about bees. 

Did you know:

• Bees have 5 eyes
• They flap their wings 200 times in 1 second 
• They use their antennae to smell, taste, check the air flow and temperature to help them land safely  

SRC NEWS                                                                         

Last term the SRC members asked the students in their classes what activities they would like to do during recess and lunch times. At our meeting we shared the ideas that our class brainstormed. We chose the five most popular activities and Mrs Hills asked for teachers to supervise them during the week. We have the following activities organised for students to participate in during the week: Lego & Building, Chess, drawing, craft and the Reading Combi in the courtyard. We would like to say thank you to the teachers for supervising the activities.

We have two new projects we are going to get started this term. The first is reintroducing NUDE FOOD Day. We will share more information soon. The second project is creating portable play centres, these will be set up in wheelbarrows that have been donated to the school. We would like to ask everyone to check at home to see if you have any small toys at home that you are not using anymore like: matchbox cars, small trucks, plastic animals & dinosaurs or any little fairy dolls or furniture. We will place a tub in each classroom for any donations over the next few weeks.

We look forward to sharing photos of our completed play centres.

From Veronika and Cameron SRC Reps

With season 3 of Lego Masters starting again last week, we were inspired to have some of our own Lego fun at St Catherine’s. 

Drum roll please…

Ladies and gentleman, boy and girls, welcome to St Catherine’s ‘Life and living’ Lego competition.   

In line with our Inquiry concept this term, you (with the help of your family if you’d like) are to create an original living creature and/or habitat for your creature.  This creature can be alive, extinct or even make believe. 

Now, there is no need to bring it to school. We know how delicate Lego is.  When you have finished your masterpiece, take a couple of photos and email these to Mrs Moore at megan.moore@scmoorabbin.catholic.edu.au  Don’t forget to include a little blurb about your creation.

Submissions close on Wednesday 26th May.

We will announce our top three Lego creations (and their Lego Masters) in early June. We look forward to seeing your creations come to life!

Scholastic Bookclub Issue 3 

PLAYGROUP IS BACK IN TERM 2

Welcome back to school!

The Secondhand Uniform Shop will be opening this Friday from 3:15 - 3:45 and the last Friday of every month.

**This month we will be selling all items for $2 each**

Hope to see you there!

Suzanne and Claire