Dear Parents/Carers,

Last week and this week was an interesting one, with the floods surrounding the CBD of Camden.  I hope, on a local level, the heavy rain and flooding didn’t significantly impact families within our community.  

Unfortunately, we had to make a decision at the last moment to cancel the P&F AGM.  It has been rescheduled to Wednesday, 16 March 2022 at 7.00pm. This will be when new office bearers for the P&F Executive will be elected. Having the opportunity new people in the roles of President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary is a good thing, therefore, if you would like the opportunity to be more actively involved, this is the perfect avenue. Please come along to the meeting on Wednesday held in the Heritage Hall.  This is the key parent forum which is an advisory to the principal.  It is my wish that all who participate in our P&F meetings (which have been few in the past two years) come with a listening heart. With people, the fruitfulness of God’s spoken word is dependent on the openness of the person to attend with a listening heart.  If our Catholic school is to reflect this, there will be the challenge to have our community come together as a listening community where the Word Of God is generated through relationship and action.

Please come and share your thoughts with a listening and active heart.

Go Gently,

Michael Reardon
Principal

Parent Volunteer Orientation

Any parent who wishes to support students in the classrooms during group work, or as helpers at any sporting event or excursion, must complete our parent/carers volunteer orientation.  We keep a list of parents who have attended and they remain valid for two years.  Therefore, many parent volunteers by now would have lapsed.  We have a list at the school of parents who are still current as well as those whose volunteer’s orientation requirement has lapsed.  If you are not sure whether your volunteer status is current, please call the school and we can inform you.

In the past I have run Volunteer Orientation sessions during the day and evening for parents and carers.  We always seem to have the need to run additional sessions because parents have missed the sessions.  To make it easier on your time as well as my time, we have created an electronic orientation session.  It will require parents to dedicate an hour to viewing and completing the activities required.  At the end of the session there is a small set of multiple choice questions, once completed by you, finalise your status to be a volunteer.  The presentation slides have a voice over by Mrs Hatter and I as we cover the content of managing student behaviour and Child Protection. This gives greater flexibility to parents as to when they complete the volunteer’s Orientation.

Once the course is completed your status as a volunteer is electronically recorded on our database.

Today we will send out to all parents, through compass, the link to the Volunteers Orientation and I encourage all parents and carers who wish to be a volunteer, to complete the course.  If you have difficulty accessing the course please inform the office to quickly remedy this situation.

Staffing Update

Miss Lopreiato has informed me that due to an opportunity of a permanent position at another school in our Diocese she has decided to resign from her temporary teaching position at St Paul’s, Camden. This Friday, 11 March 2022 will be Miss Lopreiato last day in our school. We wish Miss Lopreiato well in her new position at St Francis Catholic College, Edmondson Park.

From Monday, 14 March 2022 Miss Jackie Bazzi will commence as the 2 Truth Teacher. Miss Bazzi is currently a PPT teacher in our school and is known to the children in 2 Truth. 

Kindergarten 2023 Enrolments

Enrolments for Kindergarten 2023 are now open. Enrolment packs will be available to download from our school website. 

https://www.spcdow.catholic.edu.au/parents/enrolment-information/

Enrolments close Friday, 8 April 2022 at 3:00pm

Ash Wednesday Mass –The beginning of Lent

Last Wednesday, Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 celebrated Ash Wednesday with a liturgy of the word. Considering this was the first time many of the students had celebrated in the church as a school community, it was wonderful to witness their response and behaviour in the church. Years 3 to 6, celebrated mass with Father Victor. Father Victor congratulated the students for their outstanding reverence and beautiful singing. Well done to the staff for preparing our children so well for these celebrations. Thank you to our families for teaching the children the values of reverence and respect.

Ash Wednesday marks the commencement of the Lenten Season and culminates in the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. Lent is the forty days before Easter when we are encouraged to prepare ourselves to get closer to God through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It is a time for personal reflection as we find new opportunities to turn back to God. Lent is a wonderful opportunity to spring clean our lives and start anew.

Many of us will connect Lent with Project Compassion and donating money to help with projects around the world. We have placed a Project Compassion box in each classroom and we encourage the children to make some small contributions to help those in need. We also connect Lent with giving up something we enjoy, like chocolate. Making sacrifices is also an important part of Lent, we are called to come from a place of selfishness towards caring about and appreciating others and hopefully our lives will take on a meaning that is more about others than ourselves.

As a Catholic school community, we aim to engage our students with a faith inheritance which facilitates knowledge, commitment and behaviours that enable personal transformation.

Religious Education and Pastoral Care Coordinator
Maria Debrincat

This week we will explore the second of the 5 core components of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). 

Self Management is… controlling and directing our emotions in appropriate ways. These include the skills of perseverance, resilience, seeking help and managing our moods. 

Over the past two weeks, students have unpacked the topic of Self Management and interacted with scenarios they may face in their day to day lives. They have then role-played and discussed different ways in which they can handle these situations. 

Some of these scenarios have included: Staying on task, asking for help, accepting criticism, a consequence or a compliment and not giving up. The daily mindfulness tasks in each classroom has further supported this component, strengthening students self-management skills and helping them recognise that they have the tools within themselves.