Dear SCA families,

This week we celebrate the feasts of St Mary MacKillop of the Cross on Thursday 8^th August and St Clare of Assisi on Sunday 11^th August.  In anticipation of the Feast of St Clare we will celebrate Feast Week this week. We acknowledge and celebrate 25 year of excellence in education in the Lanyon Valley.

St Mary MacKillop was born in Melbourne in 1842. She died in Sydney on this day in 1909. Mary took the religious name Mary of the Cross. Responding to the isolation of colonial families, she pioneered a new form of religious life to provide education for their children. She and her sisters shared the life of the poor and the itinerant, offering special care to women and children. Remembered for her eagerness to discover God’s will in all things, for her charity and for her abiding trust in God’s providence.

Mary MacKillop was a truly inspirational Australian who lived her life for the poor and needy – for those whom society rejected. Mary made a tremendous contribution to education in Australia by setting up many schools in the towns and in the outback of this land. She chose a life of poverty and simplicity.

“Never see a need without doing something about it. (1871)

St Clare is special to us all. She was a woman of deep faith and a strong prayer life. She would spend many hours of the night in prayer to open her heart to the Lord and gather in silence the words of love from the Lord. Many times, during her prayer time, one could find her covered with tears upon experiencing the great joy of adoration and presence of the Lord in the Eucharist. Her life is a model for us to follow. Her ultimate faith in the Lord helps us to grow and shine our light of faith on the world.

  Be the Light

ST CLARE OF ASSISI FEAST WEEK

We will be celebrating throughout the week with classroom activities and a special Feast Day Lunch, culminating on Friday with a whole school Feast Day Mass at Holy Family Church in Gowrie. All parents are invited to attend. Please get on to schoolszine to acknowledge your child’s permission for bus travel.  On Friday night we dine and dance the night away at the 25^th Anniversary Dinner.

GRANDPARENTS DAY

Thank you to the many grandparents who joined us last Friday for our annual event.

Many grandparents and special friends spent the middle session visiting classrooms, reading books, completing activities, going on tours and sharing a morning tea. Special thanks to Mrs Karen Snowball and Mrs Karen Haines and all the staff for the work and preparation that went into ensuring the success of the day. It was lovely having a chat with many of our guests, enjoying their company and listening to the many positive comments they had about the school, their teachers and the great work being done by their grandchildren.

WALKATHON

This week we will launch our fundraiser, the Walkathon.  It is the only fundraiser we will have this year as we hosted the Catholic Schools Soccer Carnival and the Fete will happen again in 2020.  Please save the date for this year’s walkathon as Friday 27^th September in Week 10 Term 3.  The Walkathon gives all families a great opportunity to support the school by raising money to improve school facilities.  Relations, friends, neighbours or businesses are all great sources of sponsorship!  Proceeds of past walkathons have seen major improvements to our school and all of these have been of direct benefit to your children. 

More information is going home today with your child/ren.  This year we will have an added option of sponsorship payments made via Qkr although cash sponsorship payment can still be made.  Please get on board to support our only fundraiser for 2019.

ANNUAL SATISFACTION SURVEY

An annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff will be conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese this term. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. Responses are confidential and individuals can not be identified. 

The surveys close on 9 August 2019, there is still time to complete the survey:

https://www.research.net/r/stclareofassisiparent2019

Hats On

Though it’s still cold, the UV is on the increase so we remind you of the School policy regarding exposure to the sun: Simply stated, from August until May, there is a ‘No Hat – No Play’ policy. Therefore, from next Monday (5^th August) all children must wear their school uniform hats while outside during recess and lunch.

Learning Journey

We are looking forward to opening our school on Tuesday 20 August and the children would love to show you their classroom. We will welcome any and all visitors from 3.30 until 6.00pm.

It was once said…

“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God's compassionate love for others.” ~ Clare of Assisi

Enjoy the week ahead. 

Regards,

Transport Canberra and Access Canberra have provided schools with the following information to remind families of the need to park safely around schools.

Safe parking behaviours

Unsafe driving and parking behaviours increase the potential road safety risk for children around schools. Road safety is a shared responsibility, it is important the road rules are followed near our school to ensure the entire school community feels safe. Please remember children are more at risk than adults around schools because they are smaller and less visible to drivers. They are also less predictable and less experienced, which makes them more likely to make errors of judgement. Failing to follow simple road rules like parking on the verge, in no stopping zones, in bus stops, near children’s crossings, on footpaths or across driveways increases the risk to children around schools.

Please do the right thing to create a safe environment around our school.

Parking Operations use a Licence Plate Recognition vehicle (or electronic chalking), which regularly patrols school environments to increase safety for children. Motorists that commit an offence will receive their infringement notice in the mail (rather than on their windscreen) 5-7 days after the offence. While the school can become congested during the peak times, illegal parking should be avoided at all times as it creates an unsafe environment for children and local residents. Parents are welcome to park on side streets around the school, but please remember to park legally. Infringements for parking on nature strips, footpaths, verges, street corners and near children’s crossings start from $114.

More information is available on the Transport Canberra website to promote safe behaviours around schools. Please help to make our school community safe.

Be the Light of… Leadership

Leaders we Know, Jesus as Leader, Qualities of Leaders, We are Leaders

Saint Clare of Assisi Feast Day
Whole School Mass this Friday 9th August
10am @ Holy Family Church Gowrie
ALL WELCOME!

Congratulations to the children who will be awarded white cards at this Friday's assembly.

On 20 June, Mr E and 180 business, community and government leaders participated in Canberra's 10th Vinnies CEO Sleepout at Hangar 47, Canberra Airport.

CEOs braved a chilly night with just three sheets of cardboard to sleep on and a cup of soup to warm their bellies. CEOs had the option of sleeping inside the hangar or on the apron of the tarmac. The majority of participants, including Mr E, opted to sleep on the tarmac where temperatures got down to -4!

Thanks to your donation we've been able to raise an incredible $812,506 - a record breaking result!! This will help us make a real impact to the lives of people experiencing homelessness and living below the poverty line here in Canberra.

Your contribution will help us to continue supporting programs like Night Patrol, Clemente and St Nick’s Young Carers programs which don’t receive any government funding. 

Thank you for your valuable support of the Vinnies CEO Sleepout - with your donation we can help to break the cycle of homelessness for many Canberrans and continue our services that are on the ground helping people every day.

Kind regards,

Vinnies CEO Sleepout Team
St Vincent de Paul Society Canberra/Goulburn

The Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book Week theme for 2019 is:

This theme creates a fantastic platform to explore how reading empowers each of us, no matter what age. As teachers and parents, we greatly influence a child’s attitude towards reading and part of our role is to ignite that flame within the child to become curious and connected to texts and to be able to express their ideas creatively.

Reading can be a powerful secret in improving the quality of everyone’s life.

Book Week is a time to celebrate outstanding Australian books for children. Each year, the Children’s Book Council chooses the best books in six different categories. To help the children celebrate books and read for enjoyment we would love for you to come along to Book Fair.

PERFORM MUSICAL

This will be held on Tuesday 20 August in the school hall at the following times:

11:35am – 12:35pm       Kinder, Year One and Year Two

1:50pm – 2:50pm           Year 3, 4, 5 and 6

BOOK FAIR

This will be held during Week 5 in Term 3. A large number of books will be available for purchase. This replaces the second Book Club order for the term. The children will be previewing the Book Fair and will bring home a wish list which they have compiled. There is absolutely NO obligation to buy any of the books which the children have selected. We would encourage you to come in with your child/ren and see what they have chosen. We do, however, receive a commission on all books sold and are able to buy new books for our Library and classrooms. 

With every book purchased your child will go into a raffle to win an age appropriate book pack.

We are once again running Book Fair during the day to allow the children to purchase books.  We will open on two days this year:

Tuesday 20 August & Wednesday 21 August

8:30am – 5.30pm 

Please note the Book Fair will not be open at any other times during this week.

BOOK WEEK ASSEMBLY 

Will beheld on Friday of Week 5 and will be led by the Year 5 classes.  Students may receive a prize for their homework efforts at this assembly.

DRESS UP DAY

There will be a Dress Up Day on Friday 23 August.  The children will be asked to organise their dress ups as part of their Week 4 and 5 homework.  A homework sheet will be sent home with all of the relevant information.

Joshua Prstec and Chloe Prstec competed in the South Canberra Tuggeranong Fadden Pines Schools Cross Country Winter series, which ran every Sunday afternoon from May through to August 2019.

They both won the trophy for the school in the under 11 boys category and under 9 girls category. Chloe was the only runner who didn’t miss a single race and set a new club record time of 5 min, 16 seconds for the under 9 girls 1,250 metre run.

What a fabulous achievement by Joshua and Chloe!

Friday 30th August

All information regarding the breakfast was sent out on SZapp this morning.

Netball 3 August

Player of the Week and Match Reports

Speckles – Lilly Tunningley and Ashlee Young

Little Skittles – Maddy Walker

Smarties – Mayia Joyes

Squiggles – the whole team

Smiggles – Mia Olive, Susannah Felstead, Navya Weerasinghe and Jessica Emerson

Stars – Zara Pearce

Swifts – Chelsea Moore

Sunshines – the whole team

Skittles – Lily Richards

Sparkles – the whole team

Smurfs – the whole team

Swifts Match Report

Saturday morning was cold and warming up was a high priority. With only seven players this week, the girls had to be on fire. And they were. With red hot attack and tight defence, the Swifts played an excellent game, defeating Trinity Christian School 26-6. It was great to see the girls running into space, making clear breaks and defending well. Our defence has improved immensely this season, with the other team being called for held ball a number of times. Well done girls. I look forward to our next game

Smurfs Match Report

Another game down as we head towards the end of the season.  The girls skills and team play is really coming along.  This week was very cold out on the court and we struggled to keep fingers warm, but the girls stayed strong and made it through with some great plays down the court.  While we didn’t come away with a win on the scoreboard the girls worked well and supported each other.  We had a great show of sportsman-ship with a couple of  the girls filling in positions on the court for the other team who were down 2 players at one stage.

Great work, Smurfs! Keep it up.