Week 4 Term 2 2020
Dear Parents,
How quickly this term is going! It may be due to the fact that we are again seeing our classrooms and playgrounds beginning to fill with the happy smiling faces of students excited to be back at school, reconnecting with their friends and beginning classroom learning again.
We are now even more excited as we heard the news from the NSW Premier that students will return to school on Monday. We know that there will be mixed feelings with both students and parents, particularly for those who have not yet experienced a full week at school for a couple of months and these feelings are all very normal. There will be some parents who will choose to keep their children at home because your child or someone in your household is vulnerable and that is also OK but please let us know if this is the case by Monday 25th May.
I would like to thank our parents and carers for adhering to our pick up and drop off protocols; dropping children at the gate when they can and using Cathedral pickup as an alternative to coming into the school grounds in the afternoon. Whilst this is not always an option we thank you for maintaining social distancing when on the school grounds to keep our school community safe. We have opened a few of our bubblers but we do encourage students to bring their own water bottles to school and to only use the bubblers when absolutely necessary. Bubblers will be cleaned regularly. We have also opened our fixed playground equipment in line with government easing of restrictions and again these will be cleaned regularly.
We are now hand washing like never before, wiping surfaces like we never thought possible and being really terrific with our social distancing as a matter of routine. But it is not time to let our guard down! We ask, that if your child is even only slightly unwell, don’t send them to school. This plan to return to school relies on staff staying well and we ask you to support our decisions around this please.
School events are currently cancelled or postponed in order to maintain the current requirements for the number of people gathering in a given place.
There will be a Blended Learning plan developed for Weeks 5 and 6 but please be aware that most teachers will be face to face teaching as of Monday and these teachers will be unable to support this platform. We ask that you remain patient knowing that a teacher (this may not be your class teacher) will get back to you when they are able. If you have any urgent requests, please contact the front office.
I would like to take this opportunity to again thank all school staff for the very professional way they have managed the chopping and changing, planning for blended learning and the changes to routines over all these weeks. I am sure you will all agree that they have been amazing!
'Thank you Janelle, teachers and staff for all your amazing work during COVID19. We are all very blessed to be involved in such a high work ethic and ‘respect for all’ school.'
'I would like to thank the school for the way you have conducted yourselves throughout. My daughter has managed to get through this difficult time, both scholastically and mentally, easier than anticipated & for that I thank the school collectively for your efforts. It is appreciated.'
We look forward to welcoming all our students back to school in the coming weeks and again thank our amazing parents and carers for their ongoing support, positivity and adaptability over the past couple of months!
We pray that Australia continues to manage this pandemic in such a way that maintains the safety and wellbeing of all.
Semester One Reports
As I am sure you have guessed our Semester One reports will look very different to what we are used to. It has been decided by NESA and higher authorities, that we cannot/could not report on A-E grades, given the turmoil of the last couple of months. An alternative plan to report, through comments, has been formulated by the Catholic Schools Office. Reports will include an English and Mathematics comment and a General Comment that will include Religious Education. The Catholic Schools Office has also advised that there would be no need for formal Parent/Teacher Interviews this semester however, if you have concerns about your child please contact your child's teacher.
Cathedral Pickup
It is great to see so many families accessing Cathedral pickup each afternoon. The drive through is designed for parents to stay in the car and for teachers to send children to each car as it pulls up. This allows for a quick and safe pickup and free flow of traffic.
- It is important that, if you intend to get out of your car, even to strap your child in, that you park in the centre and come over to get your child. This allows for traffic to continue to flow.
- All parents/carers must come across the driveway to collect children. Please do not stay in your car or stand near your car and call a child to come across the driveway.
If you are walking to your car, please do not step out in front of traffic that is merging or driving out.
New eNewsletter Format
We are proud to inform you that we will be producing a new eNewsletter format with Schoolzine. The purpose of moving to this new format is to engage the school community more effectively and provide parents, students and the community with a more functional and content rich newsletter format. This new format will include videos, image galleries, calendars, an app and much much more.
We are also in the process of updating our school website with Schoolzine. We will keep you informed of when we are ready to launch this. Our hope is that this new website will be more user friendly and allow for a more streamlined way of communicating with our families.
Nationally Consistent Collection of Data (NCCD)
The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) is a yearly count of students by all Australian schools across the country. The aim of the NCCD is to provide the Government with information about the number of students with disability in Australian schools and the type of adjustments they need in order to access and participate in education on the same basis as other students.
The following images provide you with further information regarding the NCCD.
Learning From Home
Our students have been doing some great work from home over the last few weeks. We wanted to share some of this work with you all. Great work everyone and a big thank you to those who have been helping them at home!!
St Carthage's Feast Day
Our Lady Help of Christians
For peace in our country...for the beauty of our country and its weather...
for our standard of living ... for freedom of religion...
for our young people and our older people...
for our parents and families and the values passed down to us...
for our multicultural nation... for our indigenous brothers and sisters...
for the intercession of Mary, Help of Christians... Pray for us. Amen
Kinder enjoyed taking time to draw their Our Lady help of Christians!
The Ascension of the Lord - Sunday 24 May
The Ascension of the Lord (also known as Ascension Thursday) is one of the great solemnities in the Christian liturgical calendar when we remember the bodily ascension of Jesus into heaven. For Catholics, this is a constant reminder that, with the continuing presence of Jesus and the support of the Holy Spirit, it is our responsibility to only speak about our faith but to try our best to ACT according to our faith.
Celebration of Learning - Story Snippets
Year Six have been producing some wonderful creative writing from home. Here are just a few examples:
The Dream Giver Description -
His skinny slick body drifted smoothly in the freezing cold air. The wings were waving into the darkness. Paper thin wings propelled continuously in the air. His legs that were as thin as paper and as long as a crane drifted a few meters from the ground. The creature's back was hunched and crooked. Its head was as shiny and bald as a bowling ball.
By Charlotte Howcroft
Poem - The Listeners Fate
“The indestructible economy” the friendly postman said, though looking straight into his house not at the great man's head. “Well the government publicly had an unfortunate mishap, the Prime Minister ate some honey, turns out he can't have that.” “ This chat was quite interesting and I did enjoy it, but I must be off now to see a friendly postman kit.” The occurrence of these talks with the man and postman tom, made people soon believe that gossip wasn’t wrong. The introduction of this thought was not at all meant, for it was heard coming through a faulty motel vent. A small young girl the age of 10 with her Mother and good friends, clumsily through a jungle of noise happened too listen to two grown boys, she heard what she heard and it had to be spread for gossip was good according to these full grown men, there stomachs had churned the worry had come what had they done who had they become, but to this day it is still to late so gossip still roams through fences and gates, but what’s done is done and no one is safe for what’s heard through vents is the listeners fate.
By Elizabeth Maginnity
My Rap
An abundance of work we have to do today, our amount of infrastructure isn’t okay. All I want to do is go back to school, where productivity is the rule. I am working through interruption at home, it’s like being stabbed with a bludgeon from Ancient Rome.
My brothers malfunctioning in multiplication, Veiko’s percussion is letting down the nation. All my grandparents cooking is very scrumptious, but it still won’t stop the boys being rambunctious. I’m trying to resuscitate productivity, but all I’m getting is fluctuating inactivity. Dalziel’s repulsive as he has always been, I suppose it is the encumbrance that this situation has been.
The publicity is a sure indication that this virus is moving on to it’s next station.
By Elisha Lovell
My New World - intro
His thighs were in pain. His calves were in agony. His feet ached from hours of walking. James was nearly at the top of the mountain. He had been climbing for hours, preparing for days. His heart hammered. Who knew what was at the top of the peak.
He had been the first to climb this mountain. It had never been on the map, until someone woke up one morning with a gigantic mountain looming above them, that had never been there before. Most people were too scared to climb the mountain, not knowing what it could be. Some people thought it was a warning from God to be good, others thought it must have been something to do with earth’s plates rubbing. But there was no scientific proof of the real reason………
By Olly Rose
Buddy Reading
Buddy Reading has assisted our younger students with transitioning back into the classroom. It promotes a love of reading, improved engagement whilst building relationships within the school community. Our Year Five and Six students have also relished in this experience and are growing in confidence and self-esteem.
Due to COVID-19 all representative sport in Term 2 has been suspended. At this stage there is uncertainty surrounding representative sport for the remainder of the year. More information will be provided to you when it becomes available.
The St Carthage’s Athletics Carnival has been postponed until the beginning of Term 3. This includes the 800m and 1500m events. More information will be provided about our school carnival at a later date.
During the remainder of the term, students will engage in learning experiences that focus on running, jumping and throwing. Shot put and long jump events will be held at a grade level during Weeks 7-10.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Happy Birthday to all the Staff and Students that have a birthday at this time.
Cooper Green, Hamish Peters, Anthony Sims, Ziggy Lake, Kalani Riley, Samual Conlan, Hallie Standing, Finn Boxsell, Jared O'Brien, Zack O'Driscoll-Wilson,, Andreas Pereira, Willis Rielly, Brody Johnson, Zack Connolly, Adrian Brickhill, Jak Scofield, Lacey Simpson, Erin Byrne, Noah Watt, Manny Woods, Masen Murray, Dylan Walters, Lachie Marshall, Lachlan Andonov, Liam Byrne, Bianca Hodges, Charlotte Howcroft, Lachlan Wu, Angustus Norwell, Archie Sauer, Autumn Taylor, Mali Cooper, Laura Dennett, Nymarli Davison, Levi Dunstan, Jonah Hudson-Sheaffe, Sophie Lane, Lily Peters, Mrs Allen and Mrs Shea
Be a Veg Exploring Family – Creating Curious Eaters
It is quite common at some point throughout childhood, for your child to become a picky eater. At this time, it is useful to remember that as a parent it is your job to provide the food and structure at a meal time, while your child decides what they are going to eat. Another plan you may wish to try is creating opportunities for your children to explore vegetables (or other foods) with their 5 senses… In other words, become a Veg Exploring Family! Each sense plays an important role in children being comfortable trying new foods…
DID YOU KNOW: the “crunch” of biting into a crunchy food impacts our perceptions on how “fresh” a food may be, or that up to 95% of what we taste is based on smell?
Below are some of our favourite activities for exploring vegetables using each of the five sense.
SIGHT: talk about colours, patterns, shapes and textures of different vegetables. If you have magnifying glasses or microscopes take a closer look at the seeds and structures you can see.
SOUND: download a sound meter app on your phone and measure which foods “crunch” the loudest? Do they crunch louder when biting in to them or snapping between your hands?
TOUCH: use vegetables for craft activities such as potato (or celery) printing cards to post to friends or relatives you haven’t seen in a while. Children also practice their sense of touch while helping to wash and chop vegetables for dinner or selecting them from the grocery store.
SMELL: grow a herb garden. Crush the leaves and notice how each herb has a distinctly different smell.
TASTE: get your children involved in selecting a healthy recipe to cook. Use produce they have helped select from the supermarket, farmer’s markets or green grocer and have them help to create the dish in the kitchen. It may take 8-10 exposures to a food before a child is willing to try it so stay patient.