Dear Parents/Carers,

Today we began the Season of Lent by participating in Ash Wednesday Mass.

In the Catholic Tradition Lent is a time where we are asked to think about who we are and how we live. Lent can be a time where we give up our bad habits and commit to doing acts of kindness for others. It’s amazing how we feel better about ourselves when we help others.

Lent is about forgetting the ‘self’ and committing to the ‘other’.

Julia Baird, in her beautiful book, Phosphorescence, on awe, wonder & things that sustain you when the world goes dark (2020) reflects on the essential antidote for loneliness.

“If your heart is sore, and you cannot soothe it, turn to help or to open up to another, and in doing so you may happily forget yourself for a while…”

May you experience love and peace this Lenten Season,

Many Blessings

Judy Egan

Reminder:

A reminder that all absences need to be put through the Schoolzine app or emailed to the Front Office office.stmichaelsps@cg.catholic.edu.au, the teacher can be CC'd in if emailing the Front Office.

Hello everyone and welcome to Week 3! The term is once again flying!!!!

Keys for Learning

Throughout this term all classes will be re discovering St Michael’s Keys for Learning. These are learning tools that students and teachers can use to access the curriculum and unpack a range of learning tasks and will be very valuable life skills moving forward.

The Key’s for Learning were first introduced last year, and we are looking to strengthen our understanding of them and use them to their full potential. We are aiming to have the language of the Keys known to all students, teachers, and parents by the end of the year, so they will be a regular feature in newsletters, assemblies, and other school communications. 

Home Reading

Across the school, there is a large push to continue to get students reading at home. It is amazing to see the improvements that students can make, when they are reading frequently both at school and at home. All classes have very high expectations for student’s improvement in reading and we pride ourselves on continuing to push students to be confident at reading, comprehending and questioning. Through the strong partnership with home learning, we can achieve great things.

Have a lovely week!

Many thanks

Mr Webb

Religious Education Curriculum

Godly Play

To help children understand Scripture better we often use a variation of ‘Godly Play’

to tell Scripture stories. This involves using figures and basic props to retell Scripture. We pause at key points through the Scripture to consider who is speaking, how they might be feeling, who isn’t heard and where we would see ourselves if we could be present in the story. Children are then encouraged to use the figures at a later time to retell the story for themselves. This method of bringing Scripture to life could be done in the home very simply as well. Peg or plain wooden figures can be used to represent key characters in each piece of Scripture.

Some more elaborate retellings have been recorded and may be helpful if you are looking for a way to help your children understand the Bible stories better.

https://www.pinterest.com.au/ccombsbaker/godly-play-videos/

School Theme

The students at St Michael’s are continuing to unpack our theme this term ‘Be still and Live in Harmony’. The students have been reflecting on what Harmony means. These were some of their answers.

• Harmony means people are living peacefully together.
• It means they are not arguing or fighting.
• Harmony means if you see a lonely person on the playground you ask them to join in your games.
• Harmony is like a rainbow where each colour adds to the overall effect just like all the people at St Michael’s add to our community, contributing to make our school a happy and calm place of learning.

Religious Life of the School

Shrove Tuesday

As a school we celebrate the Feast of Shrove Tuesday with feasting on pancakes before the ritual fasting and penance associated with Lent. Thank you to Judy Egan for preparing the delicious warm pancakes for staff to share. We really enjoyed these tempting treats!

Ash Wednesday & Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday the first day of Lent. As a

school community we celebrated Mass and we received a sprinkling of Ash to the head to mark the remembrance of the dust in which God made us. ‘Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return’. The season of Lent is one of reflection, of fasting, of prayer. The ashes symbolise that we have sinned and must ask for forgiveness ‘Repent and believe in the Gospels’. We thank Miss Frogley and 5/6F for preparing this Mass for us.

Retreat Day

The Eucharist retreat day will be held on Friday 19^th February. Lunch will be provided and students are to wear a free choice of clothes. During the retreat the students will have the opportunity to participate in prayer, reflect on scripture and listen to Fr Loi and ask questions about the sacrament of Eucharist. They will creatively respond to what they have learnt through art and by making bread. The students will practise in the Church the rituals carried out when receiving Eucharist. We are really looking forward to this special preparation day.

Bridgette McCann Acting REC

Sacramental Program 2021 – First Eucharist for catch-up students Y4 from 2020

The Sacrament of First Eucharist for the students from Year 4 in 2020 will be celebrated in Term 1 of 2021 on the following dates:

• Tuesday 23 February at 6pm in St Michael’s Church
• Wednesday 24 February at 6pm in St Monica’s Church
• Thursday 25 February at 6pm in St Monica’s Church

Please keep the candidates for First Eucharist in your prayers.

Home Booklets
The completed and signed home booklets should now have been handed back to the school. If you have not handed the home booklet back, could you please do so by the end of the week so that Fr Loi can sign them prior to the celebration of the sacrament. The signed booklets will be returned to the candidates on the night of the Sacrament along with their certificates.

There will be a further celebration for First Eucharist in Term 2, 2021 for students in Year 4 in 2021. More information will be available in the school and church bulletins and also on the parish website at www.cg.org.au/belconnennorth

For further information please contact the Sacramental Program coordinator at sc.belconnennorth@cg.org.au

Swimming Carnival - Wednesday 10th March at Stromlo Leisure Centre

Thank you to everyone who has returned their permission notes.  We can now start planning our carnival and are looking forward to a great day of competition and house cheering.

We have been overwhelmed with offers of parent assistance for the day.  Letters will come home next week with your job allocation.  Thank you for your generosity as we could not run our carnival without your support.

Gymnastics Clinics

All students were exciting to participate in our first gymnastics clinic for the term.  Watch this space next week for some photos!

Erin Hardwicke
erin.hardwicke@cg.catholic.edu.au

Scholastic Book Fair  9th -12th March

The Scholastic Book Fair is coming! We are excited to be hosting another Book Fair early in the year. It is a great fundraising opportunity for the library and we look forward to seeing you there. The students will have the opportunity to visit the Book Fair during the day and make a ‘wish list’ of books they are interested in.         

Thank you in advance for your support of this event. 
Dates: Week 6 Tuesday – Friday (9^th March – 12^th March)
Times: 8:30-8:50am and 3-3:45pm.
Location: Library

Please be advised that during the Book Fair we will be adhering to COVID restrictions based on the capacity of our library. 

SORA Library App

If you haven’t already downloaded the SORA App, we encourage you to do so. It allows students to borrow ebooks and audiobooks from our school's digital library collection. When in the App, it will ask for the school name, please select 'ACEN Member Collection' (this is for various CE schools). If your child logs in from home, student login details are required. Your child's login details are as per the student login used at school. If your child has forgotten their login details please see their classroom teacher.

Looking forward to an exciting year in the library.

Erin Hardwicke

Erin.hardwicke@cg.catholic.edu.au

Congratulations to the following students who achieved a Harmony Award in Week 3.  Awards will be presented at Friday morning's assembly (weather permitting).

Well done!!   

Special wishes to those children who celebrate their birthday this week:

Logan 3/4Y, Peltsho 1/2B, Ada 5/6K, Lucas 1/2B and Ari 5/6K

We hope you have a great day!!

As several of the students at our school have a life threatening allergy to nuts and

related products we have adopted a NUT FREE policy.  Our school does not sell any nut products and we ask you to support our efforts by ensuring that your child does not bring peanuts, peanut butter, nutella or other nut related products to school in their lunch boxes.  This will require you to take note of the content of items such as muesli bars etc.

We appreciate your support in ensuring the health and safety of all our students.

Please see the School Sport ACT webpage http://www.schoolsportaustralia.edu.au/stateterritory-school-sport-offices/school-sport-act/ or Facebook page for the most up to date information.

SCHOOL SPORT ACT TRIALS – Please keep an eye on the School Sport ACT website www.schoolsportact.asn.au for upcoming ACT trials. The process for registering can be found below. If you need any assistance registering your child please feel free to ask for assistance.

How to register your child with School Sport ACT

School Sport ACT now collects all registration information online – this is to prevent the movement to and fro of a paper note and have all information readily available to officials prior to the trial. As this process incurs a fee for data storage, system maintenance and admin, a small $5 fee payment via credit card will be required.

1. Go to the School Sport ACT website – www.schoolsportact.asn.au
2. Click Register (top right corner of homepage) for an Account – enter parent details and password
3. A confirmation email will be sent to your chosen email that will contain a link that you must click on to verify the email account.
4. Click Log In (top right hand corner of home page) enter password then click on top tab My Profile
5. You will see a ‘dashboard’ of your information, click green box to Add Student – enter student and medical details and save.
6. Go to the Sports Tab – choose your specific sport, click on Trial Information box then click on the Register to Trial link.
7. Select your child’s name from the dropdown box and then enter the optional fields for Playing History, Preferred Position (if applicable) and Representative Experience. If you are already in the system, ensure your child’s school is up to date in your profile – have they moved onto High School?

Please contact me via email if you have any questions, feedback or are able to offer your assistance at any of our sporting events throughout the year.

Looking forward to another big year of sporting participation,

Erin Hardwicke
erin.hardwicke@cg.catholic.edu.au

DANCECORE -  Dance classes are on Friday's at recess in the school hall, forms are available at the Front Office. 
Contact Cassie 0417 442 750 

CHESS -  Chess classes are held in C Block on Tuesday’s at recess, forms are available at the Front Office.  Contact Sydney Academy of Chess 9745 1170

GUITAR - Guitar lessons with Sam on Thursday's, please contact
Sam on 0408 196 855

PIANO - Piano Lessons with Mary-Liz on Mondays & Tuesdays, please contact Mary-Liz on 0413 425 753

SCHOOL BANKING  -  Banking has been suspended for Term 1.

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB -  Scholastic Book club is back and runs twice a Term.  If you have any queries, contact Mrs Monro or Mrs Hardwicke.