Dear Parents & Friends,

Last weekend the school and Parish Community celebrated the Confirmation of 165 children over four Confirmation Masses.  I must admit I am sometimes challenged by the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, sometimes not clearly apparent to me till after a challenging time has passed and I have had time to reflect on its impact. 

Jesus said: “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who issues from the Father, will be my witness.” (Jn 15:26)

As a Catholic school community we are dependent on the Spirit’s force to build God’s Kingdom here and now and to build kindness and fidelity in the young people who presented for Confirmation last weekend.

As I reflected on this special occasion, many questions entered my brain with very few answers, perhaps it is not possible to answer them!  How aware, as a school community are we of the importance of the Spirit in the school?  How often do the staff and children pray together?  Do the staff spend regular time together asking that the Spirit may be their inspiration and strength as we go beyond the call of duty in our work for the children?  Are the prayer spaces in each classroom and special areas setting the atmosphere for a praying community?  Is our school a loving and compassionate place? Is this modelled by all, teachers, parents and students?

With the Holy Spirit, the Advocate (one who walks with you), we are forming our answers to these questions each and every day.

Confirmation is a significant point in a young person’s life as they grow into young Catholic men and women who will be forming the Catholic Church of the next generation.  Has our legacy, as Catholic parents prepared them to be this?

This is really deep thinking on my behalf for the last week of term!

I’ll leave this with you to reflect on, I know I have in recent days.

Enjoy the break with your children,

Michael Reardon
Principal

Compass

The reporting transition to COMPASS is now complete. Often changes to system process, can create feelings of stress and frustration as the familiar becomes the unfamiliar for a period of time until one becomes accustomed to the change. Albeit with a few technical issues from the system level at COMPASS, parents now have access to view their child’s current and past academic reports through the Parent Portal. Parents also have the option of printing reports if or when required. The transition to digital reporting, booking interviews and adding attendance notes has been met with a sense of positivity within the school community. The administration staff is to be acknowledged for their work in assisting parents through the process of logging in and navigating the portal. Thank you to parents for your patience and support throughout this transition period.

Letters and Sounds

It has been a very busy term for all the students in relation to reading and word knowledge taught through letters and sounds.

Kindergarten are actively learning about single sounds and now beginning to learn about consonant digraphs and syllable types. Year 1 have been engaged in understanding how some graphemes can have alternative pronunciations and spellings and are exploring further syllable types. Whilst Year 2 - 6 are learning about the morphology of words by exploring suffixes, base words and root words through spelling.

As I go into the classrooms each day to support, demonstrate and co-teach, I am pleased to  observe students applying the skills, knowledge and understanding of how words and language operate when reading and writing. Having this knowledge is a crucial component in learning how to read so that eventually we can read to learn.

Below is a glossary of terms you may hear your child speaking about related to their reading and writing:

Phonics: Knowledge and skills of segmenting and blending, knowledge of the alphabetic code and an understanding of the principles underpinning the way the code is used in reading and spelling.

Phoneme: A phoneme is the smallest unit of spoken sound in a word. For example the word boat has 3 phoneme b / oa / t

Grapheme: The symbolic representation of a phoneme, that is a letter or group of letters that make that one sound. For example the phoneme ‘a’ can be represented by the following graphemes: ‘a’ in apron, ‘ai’ in rain, ‘ay’ in play, ‘a-e’ in lake, ‘eigh’ in sleigh, ‘ey’ in obey, ‘ei’ in veil

Syllable: A unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or part of a word.

Closed Syllable: A syllable that ends with a consonant. The vowel has a short vowel sound as in the word ‘bat’.

Open Syllable: A syllable that ends with a vowel. The vowel has a long vowel sound, as in the word ‘go’.

Silent e Syllable: A syllable in which the final e is silent and makes the next vowel before it long, as in the word ‘ride’.

Vowel Team Syllable: A syllable type in which 2 vowels next to each other make 1 vowel sound, as in the word ‘read’

Diphthong Syllable: A syllable type in which 2 vowels next to each other combine to make 1 new sound, as in the word ‘mouth’

Consonant le Syllable: A syllable type found in words like ‘handle’, ‘table’ and ‘middle’

R-control Syllable: A syllable type where 1 or 2 vowels are directly followed by the letter r. The r controls the vowel/s and changes its sound, as in words like ‘car’, ‘turn’, ‘stir’, ‘flower’, ‘born’, ‘bear’, ‘door’, ‘chair’, ‘dare’

Sheereen Brunetta
Assistant Principal

Staff Development Days - (Pupil Free Days)

Last Week of Term 2 - Friday, 5 July 2019 - This is the Staff Spiritual Formation Day.  This day will be held  off site and no staff will be present in the office.

Also first day Term 3 - Monday, 22 July 2019 - The staff will be reviewing their classroom practice concerning the teaching of Writing and automaticity using basic number facts in Mathematics.

Weekly Assembly

Due to the Pupil free day this Friday, our regular weekly assembly will be held Thursday, 4 July 2019 and Principals awards will be presented.

School Fees

Yesterday, end of Term 2 fee statements were emailed to families. Please check that the instalments you are currently paying are ample to ensure your fees will be paid in full by Friday, 6 December 2019. Families that have not supplied their email address as yet will receive their statement via post. Should you have any financial difficulties, please make contact with the school via info@spcdow.catholic.edu.au  

Sts Peter & Paul Feast Day

This Thursday is Sts Peter and Paul Feast Day. We will celebrate with a Liturgy beginning at 10:00am.

After the Liturgy, students will particiapte in tabloid event throughout the day. All students are to wear their sports uniform.

Presentation of Athletics Ribbons

The final Athletics ribbons and Age champions ribbons will presented this Wednesday morning.

Lost Property

Last week Mr Reardon and Year 6 children went through the lost property box and handed back any items with a name on it along with a letter explaining the process.

25 items were returned with names and another 25 items were either unlabelled or unable to read. 

Please follow this up with your child/ren, as this is not the schools responsibility.

Rewarding Student Behaviour

At St Paul’s students are regularly rewarded for displaying positive behaviours. Your child, may be rewarded in a few different ways. Student rewards should be easy to deliver on the spot. Your child’s teachers work together with their grade partners to design various rewards in additional to the School-wide award System (blue awards) that encourage positive behaviour. 

Examples include:. positive verbal  feedback, smile, thumbs   up, high five, stamps, stars, stickers, raffle ticket, Dojo points.

Rewarding does not always need to be tangible. As parents, we sometimes like to reward our children with an item. However, rewarding our children can be as simple as sitting and spending time with your child, doing something that they enjoy.

Parents Can:

• Reward child behaviour through praise - e.g. “I like the way you set the table.”
• Aim to comment on your children’s behaviours using  a ratio of 5:1 - 5 positive comments to 1 negative - this could be as simple as: “I like the way you brushed your teeth and got ready for school. I like the way you put your plate on the sink after dinner. I like the way you made your bed and put your clothes away.”
• Since you have done all these things today, tonight when I get home from work - let’s sit down together and colour in… play a game…
• Try to avoid rewarding with material items. with something that is materialistic. 

At St Paul’s, the teachers are  also encouraged to reward children with experiences or opportunities, rather than material items. 

Types of awards at St Pauls:

• Descriptive, encouraging and meaningful feedback: E.g. I really liked the way that….
• Stamps/stickers - in class books
• Blue Awards - 
• Gold Awards - After 5 blue awards are given to the class teacher.
• Principal Awards
• Mackillop Awards
• Whole Class Awards - where students work together to earn a whole class reward.. 
• Playground tokens - given on the playground for displaying positive behaviours.
• Truth Love and Faith Awards - awarded in Term 2 and 4.

Diocesan Cross Country

On Tuesday, 7 May 2019, 24 students represented St Paul's at the Diocese of Wollongong Cross Country Championships at Nowra. All our students ran the tough Willandra track with great determination. We achieved some fantastic results throughout the day with special congratulations to the following students on their medals.

Bronte Clarke - 2nd - U11 Girls

Harrison Kourembes - 1st - 8/9 Boys

School Athletics Carnival

On Wednesday, 22 May 2019, we held our School Athletics Carnival at Campbelltown Athletics Stadium.  Our students wore their sporting house colours proudly in a friendly and competitive spirit  throughout the day. The day saw some records broken on the track and in the field. It was the team novelty event points again that enabled Macarthur to take out the crown of winning school sporting house. Without the support of our parent & staff community we would have been unable to hold such a successful event.  So thank you

Congratulations to the students who will be competing at the Western Region Athletics Carnival on Friday 9 August 2019 at Campbelltown Athletics Stadium.

Finals and Age champion ribbons will be presented this Wednesday morning.

Age Champion Results

Records

CPS Cross Country

On Friday, 14 June 2019, Bronte Clark and Harrison Kourembes who competed at the CPS Cross Country Carnival at Eastern Creek. Bronte finished 17th out of 56 athletes in the U11 Girls & Harry finished 5 of 62  athletes in the U8/9 Boys. A fantastic result for both students in tough competition on the track against students from around the state. Good luck to Harry who will now compete at Eastern Creek in the NSWPSSA championships on Friday, 26 July 2019.

NSW PSSA Hockey

Well done to the following students, Georgia O'Grady-Shorten & Valentina Vaccaro who were selected to represent Mackillop at NSW PSSA championships. The Mackillop team were joint champions with North Coast with Georgia having the honour of captaining the team. Congratulations to Georgia, who following the championships, was named in the NSW PSSA team  to play at the School Sport Australia Championships in Ironbark, VIC from 18 - 23 August 2019.

The game was live streamed on YouTube (3hr 45 min mark) -  https://youtu.be/me1zy5qgBqA

Western Region Netball

On Thursday, 27 July 2019, 90 students in 10 teams represented St Paul's at the Western Region Netball Gala Day. Congratulations to all our students who displayed fantastic sportsmanship throughout the day. The primary purpose of the diocesan gala days is about students playing and experiencing the game in a non-competitive environment. It was fabulous to see all our students developing new skills and enjoying themselves during every game.

Finally a huge thank you to all the parents and teachers who assisted and offered assistance on the day in various roles. Without your contribution, we would not be able to attend these gala days.

Kindergarten ANZ Hot Shots

As part of the sporting schools program in Term 2, students participated in a Tennis program. As part of this School Partnership program, we were able to apply for a program focussed on Kindergarten students. We were lucky enough to be successful, and every Kindergarten child will today take home a free racquet thanks to the ANZ Tennis Hotshots program. This program is aimed to encourage our students to move, have fun, play and be active in the community. We would love to see photos of our future tennis stars in action at home. Please email them through to info@spcdow.catholic.edu.au

Welcome to the Very Reverend Bernard Gordan
Father Bernard was ordained in 1994. His first appointment was to Nowra and stretched from the time of his ordination until 2001. He then studied in Rome for two years. Upon returning from Rome he was assigned as PP of Picton/Tahmoor for four years. He then served as First Year Director of the seminary at Homebush for nine years. He returned to the Diocese of Wollongong as Administrator of The Oaks for 18 months before being appointed at the Vicar General of the Diocese by Bishop Brian Mascord. We welcome Father Bernard to the parish this weekend for our Confirmation Ceremonies in which he’ll be the Principal Celebrant. 

Confirmation Programme 2019

Our congratulations are extended to all the children and teenagers who will be celebrating their Confirmation this weekend. This most sacred experience is another pivotal moment in the further – and very significant – development of their spiritual formation. 

With the reception of the Gifts & Fruits of the Holy Spirit, the Sacrament of Confirmation commissions the newly confirmed to bear witness to God with lives of genuine discipleship. 

Mums, dads, uncles, aunties, grandparents, carers & sponsors are encouraged to reflect upon their own Confirmation and – because of their adulthood – to an even deeper calling to genuine and enduring discipleship. Sunday Mass each week will always be a pivotal way of growing in the ways of the faith. Gratitude is extended to the wonderfully large majority of families who have been so supportive in recent months, and who have also been so responsive to the requirements of the programme. 

Sincerely hope that all have had a positive experience of the programme, Sunday Mass, our parishioners, our sacred music and (dare we say!) our local clergy. And very special thanks to all our regular and dedicated parishioners for your supportive presence at Mass over the past few months.