Dear SCA Families, 

Friday is the Feast of Mary Help of Christians. You may be aware that Mary Help of Christians is the patron saint of Australia. We pray this week to Mary to help and guide us in our quest for healing and a new beginning.

Mary is a powerful symbol of Jesus’ call to unity. Jesus calls us to acknowledge our wrongs and to seek forgiveness. Jesus is also very clear in his call for us to forgive others who hurt us. Reconciliation is precisely about this – acknowledging wrong, seeking and accepting forgiveness from those who have been wronged. This is the challenge for Australians as we continue the journey of healing that will lead to National Reconciliation. The presence of God within and among us makes this journey possible. We are, as Saint Paul says, ‘one body’ in Christ.          

In the ACT, Reconciliation day is next week (Monday Public Holiday). During this time we pray for the grace to be people with generous and forgiving hearts who will be instruments for reconciliation in our families and our communities.

Athletics Carnival

It was a fantastic day last Friday. We were blessed with the beautiful weather, the children participated enthusiastically, the parents support was encouraging and the facilities were great. Congratulations to all the children for their participation and cooperation. Thanks to all the parents who came along to help, along with the students from St Clare’s College and St Mary MacKillop College. Thanks also to all the staff for the work in preparing for and managing the carnival. Special thanks to the coordinating team, led my Mrs Belinda Breen who coordinated the carnival. Well done one and all.

Democracy Sausage

Sincere thanks to Emma Phelan for organising our BBQ to coincide with the election on Saturday. It helped to raise a few dollars, while also making all our visitors feel welcome at SCA. Thanks also to each person who helped with the BBQ on the day.

2020 Fete

Believe it or not, but preparations for next year’s Fete will commence shortly. We have a band of willing volunteers who already make the core of our organising committee. If you would like to get involved please let us know by emailing sca@cg.catholic.edu.au.

1994 – 2019

Later this year we will celebrate our specials school’s 25^th anniversary. If you would like to be involved in planning the celebrations, please let Val Ciuffetelli know.

Save the Date - Community Council Open Meeting

All parents and guardians are invited to the SCA Community Council Meeting on Tuesday 18^th June and 6.00pm.

The meeting will be an opportunity to hear about school developments and goals, while also providing a forum for parental feedback and questions. More details will be provided in coming newsletters.

APPA and ACPPA Meetings

For much of next week I will be in Melbourne meeting with primary school principals from all over Australia. I represent the ACT as a Board representative for the Australian Catholic Primary Principals’ Association (ACPPA) and the Australian Primary Principals’ Association (APPA). During this time Val Ciuffetelli will be in charge.

NAPLAN Update

The Australian Primary Principals Association (APPA) has been inundated by comments from principals across Australia questioning the validity and reliability of this year’s NAPLAN testing. Across Australia, principals reported connectivity issues, and many teachers had to adjust arrangements quickly while Year Three and Year Five primary students felt the pressure of delays and interruptions.

Here at SCA we had some drop-outs and delays with connections. Our staff and students managed them well, and it appears that we were not as adversely affected as some schools across Australia. I thank and congratulate our staff for working so well to ensure the tests were administered as well as they could be. It will be interesting to see, when the results are published, what possible impact such problems had.

If you would like to provide some feedback about your child’s NAPLAN experience this year, please send me an email on matthewer@cg.catholic.edu.au.

Facebook and School Staff

Catholic Education, the employer of our school staff, has a Social Media Policy that staff are required to follow. The policy states that for staff:

• Inappropriate use of social media includes, (but not limited to):  Inviting or accepting students into personal social media platforms, including ex-students or the parents of current students on these platforms

Essentially this means that staff cannot be Facebook friends with students, parents and ex-students. While it is common practice for staff to not have parents as Facebook ‘friends’, I am aware that some staff may inadvertently have. I also realise that this may be a tricky issue for staff who have children at the school, and are friends with parents. However, their professional responsibility takes precedent and I have asked staff to abide by the policy. If you have any questions or queries regarding the Catholic Education policy, please do not hesitate to contact me.

2020 Enrolments Closing Soon

A reminder to parents that the Catholic schools’ enrolment period closes soon. If you have a younger child who is commencing school in 2020, or have friends at preschool and childcare who are interested in enrolling at St Clare of Assisi, please let them know.

Reconciliation Day Public Holiday

On Monday 27 May (next Monday), the ACT will celebrate its 2^nd Reconciliation Day public holiday. As it is a public holiday, all schools in the ACT will be closed on that day.

2019 Key Improvement Goals

In last week’s newsletter we reminded you of our four Key Goals for school improvement for 2019. Elsewhere in this week’s newsletter is a short update on the first of these; communication.

It was once said…

"Moses had the first tablet that could connect to the cloud.” – Unknown

Blessings to you and your family.

Matt Egan-Richards

Principal

Be the Light of… Leadership

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

We are Leaders

Year 5 & 6 Social Justice Day

Tomorrow our Year 5 & 6 students will participate in a Social Justice Day.

Wez Raymond, our Canberra & Goulburn youth liaison officer from St Vincent de Paul is co-ordinating the day for us. He will have a team of SVdP volunteers who

 will guide the students through a series of workshops. The students will learn how SVdP supports others and also how the students themselves can support those in need in practical ways. We look forward to the day and ask for your prayerful support.

Mary Help of Christians

The feast day to Mary Help of Christians has been celebrated in Australia since 1844 but the history to this day dates back to the start of the 1800's.

Napoleon Bonaparte had jailed Pius VI who died in jail. When Pope Pius VII was elected he too was jailed by Bonaparte, who kept him prisoner at Fontainbleau.

The Holy Father vowed to God that if he were restored to the Roman See, he would institute a special feast in honour of Mary.

The military eventually forced Bonaparte to release the Pope and on 24 May 1814, Pius VII returned in triumph to Rome.

Twelve months later the Pope decreed that the feast of Mary Help of Christians be kept on 24 May.

The infant church in Australia had a special reason for turning to Mary. No priests were sent to the colony in its early days and Mass was not allowed except for one brief year until 1820. It was largely the Rosary in those early days that kept the faith alive.

Catholic Australia remained faithful to Mary and was the first nation to choose her under the title Help of Christians, as principal Patroness.

NO CLASS MASS THIS FRIDAY 24^th MAY

Anointing Mass at Sacred Heart Church Calwell Fr Praveen will celebrate the Mass at 10.30am   

2019 Improvement Plan Update

One of our improvement goals for 2019 is to Ensure the School has a Culture that Promotes Learning. In trying to do so, we identified five target areas:

1. Providing timely, ongoing and meaningful feedback to staff.
2. To engage in relevant PL to build staff skills.
3. Engage parents in the learning process.
4. Make effective use of data.
5. Further develop our COGS process to build the capacity of all staff members.

With more than half the year to go, we still have plans for further improvements. However, so far this year:

• The Leadership Team have been conducting learning walks through the school to observe a variety of teaching practices and learning environments. These observations then will be fed back to the staff.
• Stage teams met with their Leadership Team member every three weeks to discuss a range of topics.
• Grades and teams have created goals to work towards throughout the year to improve teaching practice and student learning (COGS).
• Staff members have participated in a variety of PL, such as: Sounds Write, SMART Spelling, Maths Cluster, Understanding and Supporting Behaviour.
• Staff members feed back learning from PL during staff meetings.
• Teachers conference with students about their reading and writing to gain information about their progress.
• Students create goals to improve their learning.
• SeeSaw has been used in classrooms to show parents the work students have completed.
• We continue to have our ‘open door policy’ where parents are welcomed in to our classrooms.
• Teachers regularly collect data in a variety of learning areas to follow student progress and adapt teaching programs as required.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of our improvement plan, please don’t hesitate to email, call, or arrange a time for a meeting.

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

A very big thank you to Alma, Amy, Nina, Carissa and Rowena for all your help at the athletics carnival last Friday, it was very much appreciated.

Today the staff and students participated in the National Simultaneous Storytime. National Simultaneous Storytime is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association. Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. Now in its 19th successful year, it is a colourful, vibrant, fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy using an Australian children's book.

By facilitating NSS we aim to: promote the value of reading and literacy, promote the value and fun of books, and promote an Australian writer and publisher.

Today we listened to the story Alpacas with Maracas by Matt Cosgrove being read by a number of staff members, we tried to guess who those voices belonged to and made maracas. There is a colouring-in competition running throughout the school that students can participate in as well. Don’t forget the colouring competition closes on Friday, 24^th May. Entries can be collected and returned to the library.

Belinda Breen                                                                                                              

Literacy Coordinator

Player of the Week and Match Reports

Speckles – Grace Weir and Ashlee Young

Little Skittles – Emma Felstead

Smarties – Ella Johnson and Mayia Joyes

Squiggles – Isla Thomas

Smiggles – Navya Weerasinghe

Stars – Kasey Ryan

Swifts – Zoe Keen

Sunshines – Kayla Blue and Madison Antoniak

Skittles – Maddi Warren

Sparkles – Emily Mikulandra

Smurfs – Ella Rouse

Skittles Match Report

On Saturday the Skittles played Maddies Mickey Stars. It was a very tight and evenly matched start. There were some great intercepts and brilliant feeds into the circle. The Skittles kept up their intensity and team work. In the third quarter the Maddies got a bit of a lead. We played hard in the fourth quarter, getting some beautiful shots and improving our leads to the ball. We played goal for goal and ended up a bit behind the Maddies.

This is the last year for the Skittles after starting in year 1. We are focussing on spending our last year having lots of fun and enjoying our time on the court together. It has been amazing to watch these beautiful girls grow into such amazing players. Go Skitttles

Squiggles Match Report

The Squiggles were in their element on Saturday with a fantastic effort and game against the SA Twisters. Every Squiggles player got a turn at trying new positions and gave it their very best. The game was closely contested until the last quarter when the Twisters dominated their goal. The Squiggles team with each game they play continue to improve bu what is most pleasing to see is that they are having fun and enjoying themselves.

Just a reminder our SCA Winter Wonderland theme disco is on Friday 31st May.

Payment is only available through Qkr! and will close on Friday 24th May at 5.30pm. Permission slips are also due then.

At the Community Council meeting last week concerns were raised regarding families arriving late on excursion days during OSHC vacation care program. It was agreed that there needs to be accountability by the parents/guardian and that it is important for all children to be briefed prior to leaving for an excursion for their safety and the safety of the staff.

All Community Council members agreed that a graduated approach would be a good way moving forward:

• OSHC will now impose an Excursion Late Arrival Fee of $10, to families who sign their child/ren in on excursion days after the requested arrival time.
• If a parent/guardian is so late that their child/ren miss the safety briefing and group allocation, the child/ren will be unable to participate in the excursion and will be sent home with their parent/guardian. 

Can you help me please? I’m looking for someone to assist me with school banking each week. Currently I volunteer on a Friday but days are flexible.

A parent with young children or grandparents are more than welcome. If you are interested or have any questions feel free to message me or come down on a Friday morning to chat.
Renee  0449 554 493