You are reminded that all whole-school events, such as assemblies, liturgies and sporting events have been cancelled until we are able to have large gatherings.

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are now into our fourth week of school since all students have returned five days/week. It has been pleasing to see the children settle back into the routines of school quickly and they are engaging in their learning effectively. They have shown themselves to be resilient, coping well with the changes that have happened during this year.

Symbolically, this return to something that resembles normal times at school is also reflected in the church entering back into Ordinary Time. This occurs between the Easter and Advent seasons and focuses on the time in which Jesus walked among the people, thus transforming their, and our, lives.

Student reports

A letter was distributed yesterday via Compass explaining a change to the student reports for this Semester. The letter explained that the Interim Report will be available on Compass this Friday afternoon and will focus on the engagement and effort of students over the course of Term 1 up until the middle of Term 2, 2020. A significant portion of this time involved remote learning which made it difficult to effectively determine the academic mastery of every student in every subject. The Key Learning Areas of Religious Education, English and Mathematics were the focus for many of the classroom and remote learning experiences delivered during Terms 1 and 2, and this will be reflected in the report.

Parent/Teacher interviews will be provided during the last week of this term. Due to the restrictions placed on schools which limit parents being on site, these interviews will be held by phone. More information will be provided about these will be provided via the Compass app.

Updated restrictions

In reference to information that was provided on Compass on Monday of this week, some of the changes to current restrictions do not effect most of our operational procedures. Drop-off and pick-up will still continue in the same way, and parents and other adults are still restricted from being on school for non-essential reasons. While we are able to conduct assemblies and liturgies, they are not to last more than 15 minutes and cannot include visitors. To keep up to date, please see the COVID Information Centre (link).

Student pick-up

I would like to thank the many parents who ensure child safety and physical distancing are paramount during the afternoon pick-up routines. There are some points I would like to remind you of:

• Kinder to Year 2 (and older siblings) can be collected between 3.00-3.15pm
• Years 3-6 can be collected from 3.15pm
• Give yourself plenty of time to find a park. Like many schools, their are limited parking spaces available in our carpark (ie the Parish carpark), and so most parents need to park in local streets. This may add time to your trip so being prepared and patient will alleviate any potential frustration. 
• Ensure you observe the parking rules, taking note of any signage for disabilty parking, no parking and time limits. A parking fine is the last thing anyone needs!
• When collecting your children, ensure you move off the school site promptly. Any catch-up conversations with friends will need to be held off the school grounds.

Thank you for support with these procedures.

God bless.

Paul Moroney
Principal

Online Gaming 

Online games can be great fun for your child, but make sure you can help them manage the risks.

Many games can improve your child’s coordination, problem-solving and multi-tasking skills, as well as help build social skills through online interactivity with other players. But it is also important to understand what might go wrong and have a negative impact on your child. 

Recently, it has come to our attention that some of our students have been spending an increasing amount of time engaging in online gaming and social media. We have become aware of some inappropriate and unkind communication between students while online at home, and some concerning incidents, such as children waking up at 4am for an online game to release new material, not going back to sleep and falling asleep in class the next day.

Research has found that when it comes to our children and online safety, there is a strange disconnect between our worries about letting them go into cyber-space and the way in which we monitor them while they are there.

Some interesting statistics…

81% of children aged 8 to 17 have played an online game

64% have played a multiplayer online game with others

52% have played with people they did not know

17% have experienced bullying or abuse while playing a network game with others

34% have made an in-game purchase and this rose to 45% when they played a network game with others

Some links for parents and carers on the safety website (link below):

• How to create a safer gaming environment for your child
• Is your child spending too much time gaming?
• Grooming and bullying through in-game chat
• Limiting in-game purchases
• Games with gambling themes

Please follow the link to the esafety website for support for parents in managing children’s online behaviour: https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

Helen Libro and Kylie Billett

Acting Assistant Principals

First Holy Communion Classes
Dear Parents
First Holy Communion preparation classes have commenced online.
To join the classes, you need to do the following:
- Visit the Parish Office
- Complete an Enrolment Form at the Parish
- Pay $25 fee to the Parish office
- Pick up your child’s Eucharist book for them to work with during the lessons
- Join the Google classroom with the code given to you by the Parish
- Parents to watch the Video under the “Information for Parents” tab on Google
classroom
- Your child is to complete all the lessons online and complete all the homework in the
Eucharist book
- Hand in your child’s Eucharist book to the Parish to be marked at the completion of
the online program. This book will be returned to you.
There are 4 lessons in this preparation program. The online program is already up to
lesson 3. Parents, you need to enrol as soon as possible, or your child might miss
the opportunity to make the Sacrament of First Holy Communion this year.
This is the only opportunity for children to prepare for this Sacrament and as
soon as restrictions are eased further, Father John will be holding the Masses
to celebrate this important Sacrament.
Any questions at all, please contact the Parish office on 4625 8044.

Knit 4 Need
A new initiative from the Catholic Education Office to support the St Vincent de Paul
Winter Appeal is the ‘Knit for Need’ project.
An Educational Officer for Social Justice, Dave Gearin, is promoting the collection of
handmade scarves to support those in most need over the winter months.
As a response, the KNIT4NEED challenge is being extended to us.
 
The challenge is to actually make (knit/crochet) a garment for a marginalised person
in our community.  We will then wrap it up as a gift with a personalised note from the
creator (hopefully including a photo) and present each item to those in need at the
end of July via the Vinnies Van.  
If you need inspiration to be involved you can view a riveting(?) video of Dave
knitting via the following link: KNIT4NEED.MOV
If you feel you are able to knit a scarf for homeless people in our Diocese, please get
those knitting needles warmed up!
This is one scarf I started yesterday when I got home from school. It is just plain
knitting – every row knit – garter stitch. I just used 7 mm knitting needles. The wool
I used is Veronica by makr – a brand at Lincraft. It is $5.50 a ball or $4.00 for
members. It is for a 100 gm ball. This one ball knitted 80 cm of scarf. So therefore,
roughly 4 balls would knit 3 scarfs! Just use any soft wool because remember it goes

around someone’s neck and it needs to feel nice and soft for them. Just a hint – the bigger the needles and thicker the wool,

the quicker it is to knit.  Can you help us out with a scarf or two?  

Mrs Kathryn Hampton

Religious Education Coordinator

Happy Birthday to the following students and staff who are celebrating their birthday this week, June 15th - june 21st

Having been through a period of time in which there were many significant changes to the way our school has had to operate (of course, we are still in a different phase), we are seeking some feedback from parents and carers about how we can learn from our COVID-19 pandemic response. By completing this short survey, you will be able to identify better ways of operating, aligning and integrating improved practices in all aspects of our school. The survey focusses your thoughts on what you would like to see the school 'Keep, Improve, Start and Stop.' It would be appreciated if you had time to complete the survey. You can access the survey here.

Due to COVID restrictions parents are currently not allowed on school grounds. We also need to limit the amount of visitors that come into the office, so please only come into the office if necessary.

  It is important that you let the office know as soon as possible, via email or phone, if you are picking your child up prior to dismissal (including time).  We can then arrange to have them in the office ready for you. Please note we are unable to arrange collection of your children during break times (11.15am-12 & 1.15pm-2pm) without prior notice. Please do not enter late arrivals or early departures into compass, this needs to be done by the school office.

Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

Please note that applications for Kindergarten 2021 are still being accepted. Interviews are curently being held so forms will need to be received as soon as possible. Please contact the school office for more information.