T1 W5 Newsletter 2021

From The Principal

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley.  A large crowd gathered, and they all admired his heart for it was perfect.  There was not a mark or a flaw in it.  Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen.  The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, “Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.”

The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart.  It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges.  In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.

The people stared – how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought?

The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed.

“You must be joking,” he said.  “Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”

“Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you.  You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love – I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared.  Sometimes, I have given pieces of my heart away and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me.  These are the empty gouges – giving love is taking a chance.  Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space I have waiting.  So now, do you see what true beauty is?”

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks.  He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart and ripped a piece out.  He offered it to the old man with trembling hands.  The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old, scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart.  It fitted, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.

The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his.  They embraced and walked away together... REACH OUT TO LOVE OTHERS – IT’S RISKY, BUT LIFE GIVING!

Author Unknown

Without risk, there is no reward.  Without reward, the risk is still rewarding!

Giving of one’s time and giving of oneself is not easy.  Life is not easy, in fact it is quite the opposite, a challenge.  It cannot be controlled, managed or organised into neat compartments.

This term I have seen much parental commitment and giving of time, love, work and energy directed towards our school - assemblies, morning greetings, Curriculum meetings, P&F meetings, Board meetings and the establishment of committees.

On behalf of our staff and our students we thank you for this keen enthusiasm.   There will always be times when the work we do is not acknowledged, seemingly not noticed or just plain, hard slog, filled with sweat, anxiety and tears.  To risk is to challenge, but challenging oneself and others, brings growth and life.  Some roots hibernate, some get tangled, some blossom instantaneously, but all growth brings life and light to those around us.

During this year, I ask God to give us all the wisdom to see the risks and opportunities, the will to choose them and the strength to make our plans a shared reality.

Principal's Messages

ENROLMENTS FOR 2022  |  Enrolments for Prep are currently being taken for the 2022 school year.  If you have a child due to commence Prep next year born between 1 July 2016 and 30 June 2017, please complete an online enrolment form available from the school website: https://www.sasrok.catholic.edu.au/

Enrolments for Years 1—6 are also currently being taken for 2022.  Interviews will commence in Term Two.  We need to sight the original birth certificate or have a certified copy please.

We are very proud of your selection and know you will do an excellent job in supporting the students across our school.  They were recently presented with their badges and will continue to work with me in producing a charter for 2021.  Congratulations to you all!

Please keep your eye peeled for a roster whereby you will give a report on assembly.  I am looking forward to working with you in a very real way that makes our community better. Mr Oches

YEAR 6 LEADERSHIP SHIRTS  |  Thank you to our very active P&F Association for once again sponsoring our year 6 leadership shirts.  These shirts look magnificant and are being worn with pride.  So many of our students are being seen around the school 'doing things for others'.  Well done year 6 on taking your role so seriously.

Parents please continue to remind your children that these shirts must be tucked in.

Student Protection Contacts

Across The Curriculum

STUDENT-LED INTERVIEWS FOR PREP TO YEAR 6

Prep to Year 6 teachers will be holding their Student-Led Interviews in Weeks 9 & 10 of Term 1.  All appointment times will be booked through Parent Lounge over a 2-week period between Weeks 7 and 8.

Please check to make sure you are able to access Parent Lounge before the interview dates.  If you are having issues with this, please speak to Kathy Grimmond in our administration office.

Once you have selected your interview time, I encourage you to record this somewhere important, so you arrive to your child’s interview at the correct time.  If you need to check the time that you have selected, you are able to log in to Parent Lounge and click on the Parent Teacher Interviews tab and your interview times will be displayed on the screen.

Parent Lounge – Week 7 and 8 Booking Time for Parents:

OPEN to Parents for booking appointment times on:

• Monday 8th March at 7:00am
• CLOSED to Parents Friday 19th March at 5.00pm

Spelling Strategies Part 2!

Last week I talked about the 5 key spelling strategies we use to help our emerging spellers (sound, visual, meaning, connecting and the checking strategies) and briefly outlined the sound strategy. This week, we will look at the visual strategy!

The Visual strategy:

Clusters of letters (visual patterns) appear in predictable patterns in words, such as the sh, ch, th, and ee diagraphs (sounds) and in rimes, such as bell, tell, sell. Words or parts of words keep a visual relationship to other words that have other meanings for example, crumb and crumble. These words have a common base and share a meaning connection, like 'rupt' in disrupt and erupt or 'tw' in twin, two and twice.

How to help spellers use the visual strategy:

• Think about the letter patterns in the word. Try several different patterns and see which one looks right.
• Think to yourself: which letter patterns can represent that sound?  Which letters often go together?
• Can you picture the word? Have you seen the word before?

Next week I will outline the meaning strategy!

NAPLAN 2021

Recently, a letter went home with our students in Year 3 and 5, outlining the processes for NAPLAN 2021.  Due to COVID restrictions, NAPLAN was cancelled in 2020, so it has been two years since schools have participated in NAPLAN testing. 

St Anne's successfully transitioned to the online testing platforms in 2019, with the exception of the Year 3 writing task, which is still completed on paper. For online schools, a practice test is scheduled, not only to assist in familiarising our Year 3 and 5 students with the test procedures, but to test out internet capacities for the duration of the assessment.  Our practice test has been scheduled for Tuesday, 23rd March, 2021.

In 2019, our students performed particularly well in the online testing, as our students are very familiar with completing some work online.  The NAPLAN tests were surprisingly engaging and interactive, which our students enjoyed, and it felt like another classroom activity to them.  The results give our school great data to work with, and helps us to identify areas of improvement for both teaching and learning.

In saying this, some parents and carers, for varying reasons, don't wish for their students to participate in the NAPLAN process.  If this is the case for your family, a withdrawal form can be picked up from our front office. This withdrawal form covers both the practice and real NAPLAN testing periods.  Should you wish to withdraw your child from NAPLAN testing, this form needs to be returned to John Ballinger-Oches, no later than Friday 12th March.

If you have any questions or queries about anything curriculum-wise, please don't hesitate to contact me on:

linda_holmes@rok.catholic.edu.au

Have a blessed week!

The Good News

Sunday's Gospel Reflection - Sunday 28th February

Like so many other important events in the Bible, the events of this week’s gospel occur on a high mountaintop. Mountaintops were places of special and dramatic encounter with God and the disciples’ experience of the transfiguration is clearly no exception! In this instance, the disciples suddenly see Jesus’ power fully revealed but they fail to fully understand what is going on. One might think how much more obvious could God be about trying to reveal Jesus’ identity to the disciples, but still they don’t really catch on. Peter thinks he has caught on to the message.

When the great prophets Elijah and Moses appear beside Jesus, Peter understands Jesus to be part of the line of prophets in the Hebrew tradition. He believes he has had a great insight and is so impressed that he wants to remain on the mountaintop – setting up tents in honour of Jesus, Elijah and Moses. In essence, Peter has still only partially understood who Jesus is. He thinks he is the Messiah, but a Messiah in the same mould as the prophets of old, a prophet of the old tradition. He has not understood that Jesus is breaking that mould and creating a new vision, a new tradition – one that is endorsed by the voice of God on the mountaintop.

Rather than allowing the disciples to set up tents and remain in the ‘high’ of this experience, Jesus immediately leads the boys back down the mountain. This is perhaps the greatest message of this passage: that life is not lived on the mountaintop but back down in the valley. Although the mountaintop experience may have provided some new insight and new energy, it is back down in the valley that the world waits; that the real work needs to be done; that the sick and the poor are crying out for God’s love and mercy.

School Virtues

Our new St Anne's Catholic Primary School virtues have been officially launched to the school community. 

A virtue is an interior or disposition, a positive habit, a passion that has been placed at the service of the good (CCC 1803, 1833 - Life in Christ)

“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)

That means we must change our way to God.

As a Catholic school, our staff and students are reminded each day to make Jesus real by following these virtues. These will also be displayed in our classrooms and around the school as visual reminder of how we can all be like Jesus every day. 

2021 Sacramental Program

The 2021 Sacramental Program commences on Sunday 7th March. Please contact Mr Presley if you have any questions. 

Project Compassion

Project Compassion - Week 2

This week through Project Compassion we learn about 39-year-old Margret, a teacher at a vocational school for deaf students in the Solomon Islands. She was born deaf, so she knows the challenges it poses to education and employment. Apart from the difficulties the students all have, the school also faced water shortages, with not enough to supply staff and students with safe water for drinking, cooking, washing and growing vegetables.

Then Tropical Cyclone Harold damaged the school and its vegetable garden, amidst the threat of COVID-19. Staff and students rely on the vegetable garden to provide food for their meals.

With Caritas Australia’s support, the school installed water tanks, provided cyclone-proof building materials and helped to implement COVID-19 prevention measures. Margret’s school now has enough water for its students and the capacity to cater for more, with plans to boost food security, through increased agricultural production. 

• Around 60% of people in rural areas in the Solomon Islands don’t have access to piped water, while about 80% don’t have access to latrines or toilets. (UNICEF, 2019)

Have a great week! 

Blessings,

Mr Stuart Presley

Assistant Principal - Religious Education

stuart_presley@rok.catholic.edu.au 

Finance News

TERM ONE FEES  |  Term 1 school fees were emailed out this week. If you foresee any issue with payment by the due date and do not already have a payment plan in place, please contact the Finance Office Monday to Thursday 9:30am - 3:30pm to discuss options. 

Sports News

St Anne's Netball Team For The Sarina Competition  |  The 2021 Netball season starts at the beginning of March.  One of our parents, Justeen McDonald, has kindly agreed to place a St Anne's team into the competition on our behalf.  Any students wishing to play netball in the St Anne's team for 2021 please ring Justeen on 0418474560 to register your interest.  Training will be Friday afternoon during school hours and every 2nd Monday afternoon from 3-4pm in the school hall starting Monday 1st March. 

St Anne's Sports Teams And Challenge Cup  |   Every year St Anne's tries to participate in the local school boys/girls football and netball competitions and in the Catholic Schools Challenge Cup carnival in Rockhampton.  Below is a copy of the form sent home last week asking for nominations to play in either the local competitions and/or the Challenge Cup carnival.  If your child is interested in playing football or netball for St Anne's please complete the form and return as soon as possible, if you have not already done so.

Students Of The Week

Congratulations To Our Students Of The Week  |   Max M, Lincoln F, Mathew W, Harrison B, Axl B, Cally O, Zan'eisha M, Dustan G, Montana W, Khai T, Eddie R, Sienna W, Neena P, Mitchel A, Kiara W, Odessa W, Lotoya W, Brady K, Archie V, Damon A.

Birds Of A Feather

Tuckshop Volunteer Form

Prep Vision Screening

Crossing Supervisor Position

CASUAL POSITION VACANT

A casual position exists for a School Crossing Supervisor at ST Anne’s School.

The School Crossing Supervisor may be required to work five days per week in all weather conditions. The hours of work for School Crossing Supervisors are 1 hour a day and usually comprise of 40 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon Commencement date to be advised a Pay Rate of $30.34 per hour.

The successful applicants will be dependent on:

• The suitable outcome of a health assessment carried out by a GP of your choice according to the guidelines in the “Notes for Medical Practitioner” on the School Crossing Supervisor Scheme – Health Assessment Form; (this is paid by the Department)
• A Positive  Blue Card Notice (This is also paid by the Department and means you do not need to have a blue card to apply for the position)

If you are interested in the position please collect an application form from the School administration or contact Karen Cantoni (Road Safety officer) on 49 518331.

The School Crossing Supervisors Application is to be returned to School for the school principals' recommendation.

General Information

Community News