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Dear Parents and Friends of St Kevin's,
This week during my learning walks and talks it was awesome to discover the growth in the learning of our students. Year 4 in particular, were able to demonstrate growth and improvement in their spelling skills and vocabulary knowledge. These skills are imperative to future success as they progress through upper primary and high school where writing reports and essays are part of their everyday school life. Congratulations Year 4 and keep up the great learning.
Year 5/6 continue to demonstrate great leadership to the whole school through their words and actions. They are demonstrating how to play together at lunchtime displaying skills in getting along and being respectful of each other. The footy tennis game yesterday was just awesome to watch and listen to. Playground games are where many students need to learn skills of getting along and sharing, and Year 5/6 are to be congratulated on their growth and learning in these areas.
So we continue to learn each and every day here at St Kevin’s, ensuring that we all work towards being the best person we can.
Take care and enjoy the weekend.
Mary-Anne Jennings
Principal
COVID and INFLUENZA A
We still have these 2 viruses circulating within our school community with students being particularly sick with the Influenza A virus. Both viruses are easily spread through coughing and sneezing, and we ask that you keep children home if they are displaying any cold or flu symptoms. Parents are also reporting very high temperatures and gastric symptoms in their children.
Open Day
We have rescheduled our Open Day to be on Friday July 1. We are combining this with our NAIDOC celebrations with lots of cultural activities planned that Mr Taylor has identified in his report later in this newsletter. We look forward to seeing lots of mums, dads, and grandparents visiting us during the day.
The timetable for the day looks like this:
9-11:30am open classrooms and Bush Tucker lessons – all welcome. New kinder enrolments are also invited to come and meet Mrs Boudan during this time in the school hall for a chat about “Big School”.
11:30 – 12:30 BBQ lunch for students and visitors. Please advise if you would like to join us for a sausage sandwich (so there will be enough sausages to go round!). All St Kevin’s students will automatically be catered for in providing a sausage sandwich. No canteen this day!!!
12:30 – 2:30 Games and cultural activities based on our NAIDOC celebrations.
2:30pm – Liturgy in the hall / COLA to celebrate NAIDOC Week and the end of Term 2.
3pm – School holidays begin.
Semester 1 Reports and Parent /Teacher Interviews
The booking request for a Semester 1 interview is now live on COMPASS. Some parents have already met with their child’s teacher this term so may not wish to engage in another interview on June 29.
Semester 1 reports will go live on June 24.
The semester 1 reports are different to reports of previous years. Please read the attached information on the reports for this Semester found as an attachment at the end of this newsletter.
Pupil Free Day
School returns for Term 3 on Tuesday July 19. Teachers will be engaged in Professional Learning on July 18.
OOSH Update
Unfortunately there is very little in the way of updated information around OOSH. Casual bookings are still unavailable at this stage. Staff shortages continue to be an issue due to illness. OOSH must maintain its supervision ration of 1:15 to be compliant and not in breach of its operating licence. Management is working through the current situation with the goal of getting a reliable and operational service back on track ASAP.
News from the Assistant Principal
Swimming Term 4
We have been exploring the possibility of a swimming program in late Term 4. We believe that it is essential that all children are competent swimmers. As such we have investigated a K – 6 program run by qualified instructors at Speers Point pool. Students will receive a 30 minute lesson daily over 10 days (Weeks 8 and 9). Instructors will work with groups of approximately 12 students, with supervision of students at a ratio of 1:6.
Each term we apply for a grant from Sporting Schools Australia. So far, we have been very successful, but this cannot be guaranteed. The cost for this program is $60 per child for pool entry and instruction. The cost for transporting students to and from the pool for 10 days is $4000 or $30 per child. If we win the grant the total cost per child will be $70. If we are unsuccessful the cost would be $90 per child. As this is a very significant cost the school was not comfortable in making a decision without consultation with our parent body. We have already sought advice from the P&F. We seek your feedback on whether you support this initiative. Please complete the following survey (approximately 30 seconds to complete) so that we may decide whether to go ahead with this project. Survey closes Monday 20th June. Microsoft Forms
God Bless
Kim Hogan
Assistant Principal
A heartfelt thank you to the beautiful parents who emailed their reflections on Mary MacKillop’s life in the last newsletter. Today I invite you to reflect upon this clip about Mary MacKillop growth. Please Click here and scroll down a little to the ‘growth’ video.
As you watch, what themes do you feel are present here? What do you think the St. Kevin’s school community could draw upon for the future? Please complete this form with only 2 short questions.
Once again, I have more little treats to send home with your children to say thank you for your time and thoughts! This time, you will notice that the first question asks for your name to allow me to send you your gift. It is priceless to hear from you all so that we can truly base our new pillars upon the thoughts of all members of our school community.
PENTECOST
Thank you to Year 4, Mrs Hogan and Mrs Arthur for a truly beautiful and prayerful celebration for the feast of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, many gifts came upon them...courage, right judgement, reverence, knowledge, wisdom, understanding and my favourite, wonder and awe. Where do you see these gifts in your own life?
SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM
Fr. Joseph has now confirmed dates for our Sacramental Program for 2022.
Children from Years 4, 5 and 6 who have completed their Reconciliation are invited to take the next step along their faith journey by participating in the sacraments of Confirmation and First Eucharist. Please pop the following dates in your diary.
CONFIRMATION
Confirmation will be celebrated on September 13th.
Donna Morgan (mum of Harper, Year 6) has volunteered to run two sessions to prepare the children for the sacrament of Confirmation. These will be held at St. Kevin's on Tuesday 9th August and Tuesday 16th August from 5 – 6pm.
FIRST EUCHARIST
Donna will then run two sessions to prepare the children for the sacrament of First Eucharist. These sessions will be held at St. Kevin's on Tuesday 30th August and Tuesday 6th September from 5 - 6pm.
Following these sessions, families are welcome to attend any mass service over the next couple of weekends for the children to receive Holy Communion for the first time. There is no specific First Eucharist Mass.
RECONCILIATION
Details have not been finalised. I will be in touch with Year 3 parents later down the track.
We would love some parents to help Donna. No experience necessary and everyone is warmly welcomed! If you have any questions regarding the Sacramental Program, please contact Donna at donna.morgan@mn.catholic.edu.au
OPEN DAY FOR NEW ENROLMENTS
We are holding an open morning for anyone looking to enrol their children at our beautiful school for 2023. Please come along for a tour around our school, a chat with staff and a little look into what makes St. Kevin’s such a special community to be part of. Please share the flyer below with anyone you know who may be interested and keep an eye out on Facebook for updates and reminders.
Please email Kim or Kirrily to register your interest. admin@cardiff.catholic.edu.au
Yaama Ngindaay
NAIDOC Week: 3 – 10 July
NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920′s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
National NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth.
Our school celebration of NAIDOC Week will be on the last day of term, 1 July. We have several exciting activities planned, so please join us to Get Up! Stand Up! And Show Up!
In classrooms during the last week of term the students will be learning about NAIDOC Week and exploring the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Yaluu ngali ngamilay
Phil Taylor
Aboriginal Education Teacher
Premier’s Reading Challenge
40 students from St. Kevin’s have completed PRC
Congratulations to the following students for completing PRC in the last fortnight.
Kinder – Bhavamanya,
Year 2 – Porter, Harper W, Archie
Year 3 - Blake
Year 4 – Jonathan, Emerson
Year 5/6 - Patrick, Eva
Keep up the fantastic reading.
Please encourage your child to borrow PRC books each Friday and enter them online. The children have 3 months to complete PRC, keep up the great reading.
Scholastic Book Club
Online Book Club orders through LOOP close this Friday 17th June. Thank you for your continued support of Book Club.
Term 3 Book Week
Please put in your diary, Book Week and Book Fair, August 24th, 2022. This year is a very exciting theme, “Dreaming With Eyes Open”
More information will be sent home after the holidays.
Please encourage your children to do lots of reading during the holidays and add them to Premier’s Reading Challenge.
Dianne Binkin
Teacher Librarian