Dear SCA families,

Happy New Year! The new Church year commences this weekend with the first Sunday of Advent.

Advent is a season of waiting; we wait with hope, desire and expectation. One of our Advent companions is Mary, and during these weeks we remember her as she waited for the birth of her child. We know what waiting is like, as many of us wait with anticipation for the holidays.

Advent is also a season to prepare for Christmas. We know that the first coming of Jesus at Bethlehem will not happen again, so during Advent, we prepare for a new coming of Jesus into our lives. We take this time every year to practise how to receive Jesus every day of our lives. We remember Jesus’ call to us, to make our world a peaceful and loving place, and so, during Advent, we make special efforts to be signs that God is with us. This is what the word ‘Emmanuel’ means – God-with-us.

Advent is a season with its own special mood, colours, sounds, words and joys. Sometimes it can be swamped by Christmas and we can be tempted to celebrate Christmas too early. This Advent, may we all try to wait, as the world waited long ago for the coming of Jesus, the “Light of the World”.

First Eucharist

This week many of our Year 5 children will, for the first time, receive Communion, or Eucharist, in our Parish. The word “Eucharist” comes from the Greek by way of Latin, and it means "thanksgiving”. As a Parish School community we will share in this thanksgiving. We give thanks that we are a community. A community of faithful, blessed people. We give thanks for the love of God and for the sacrifice of Jesus which gives us all the promise of eternal life.

We pray this week for the children and their families, and may we all give thanks for the blessings we have.

Parent / Teacher Interviews and Reports

Following the topsy-turvy, COVID influenced, semester, we are inviting parents to have a conversation with their child’s teacher before reports are sent home in Week 10. During this meeting, teachers will be able to share your child’s journey, success, challenges and areas for development. By attending this meeting, parents should be in a good position to talk with their children about reports in a constructive and informed way.

Interviews will be via MS Teams on Wednesday 8^th and Thursday 9^th December. Bookings will be available today through Compass.

Reports will also be made available on Compass on Friday 10^th December.

COVID Safe Measures

Besides not having parents on site, our biggest COVID challenge is keeping Year Groups separate. This has proven to be essential in the various schools that have had a COVID case. In keeping the Year Groups separate, we greatly minimise the potential of having to shut down much or all of the school.

Keeping the Year Groups separate, means that some of our end of year activities will not be able to go ahead as usual. (Thanksgiving Mass, Leadership Handover, Year 6 Graduation, Kindergarten Christmas Concert, Farewell Assembly). We will do our best to include as many people as possible in each event, while always keeping safety as our number one priority.

Kindergarten Orientation

COVID did not stop us welcoming our 2022 Kindergarten students and parents to the school today. Of course we had to do things differently!

Our Kinder teachers waited outside with a bag of goodies, handing them to children as they drove through our carpark. It was lovely seeing the smiles on faces as our next generation of SCA students met their first “big school” teachers.

Term Dates

The last day of this school year is Friday 17^th December. Term dates for 2022 are as follows:

Library

Please have a look in your home for any SCA Library books that may not yet have found their way back to their own home. You can help us to minimise the number of books we need to replace by returning them as soon as possible please.

It was once said…

“Advent is a time of waiting for our Lord, who will visit us all in our own hearts. The Lord is coming! Let us wait for him!.”

– Pope Francis

Blessings to you and your family. Be the light.

Matt Egan-Richards

Principal