Last week we started our journey in Lent with Ash Wednesday. Students in K-4 attended Whole School Mass while the Year 5/6 students took part in an Ash Wednesday Prayer at Camp Cooba. With Lent, it is time for Project Compassion again to support Caritas. An important cause for us in a Catholic school. Lent is a time for us to take an honest look at ourselves, reach outwards and receive the grace of Jesus’ healing love. 

Swimming Carnival

On Tuesday, we held our annual Swimming Carnival. This year, based on feedback from the school community last year, we held our Swimming Carnival only for students in Years 3-6 (and those competitive 8 year old swimmers in Year 2). We held a Water Fun Day for students in K-2 at school with a special recess. We found this day was a much more engaging day for all students, particularly our infant students. Thank you to all the parents and family members who volunteered during the day. A huge thank you to Erin Hardwicke for organising and preparing both events. 

Catholic Education Leader's Retreat

At the moment, I am attending the annual Catholic Education Leader's Retreat in Bowral. Although timing not ideal, I am here until Friday. Ms Peta Goldburg, ACU Professor is leading our retreat, a time to reflect on Scripture and deepen our faith to be the best Catholic leaders we can be. Damien Webb is also on leave today and tomorrow. He will be back on deck on Friday. In my absence, please contact Jo Krippner, Classroom Support Teacher at school on Wednesday or Thursday and Damien on Friday. I am still contactable via email over the three days. 

Autumn Fete 

The countdown is well and truly on. Thank you for everything that everyone has done behind the scene. Anna Lutz is leading the Fete Team perfectly, organised and on top of everything. Thank you! Please encourage all friends and family to come and support. If you haven't yet volunteered a timeslot, it would be greatly appreciated if you could via the link below. If you could do a second timeslot, that would be amazing and take the pressure off. Thanks!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OwudBffkTMb_hHJCyUvlkZYtNJcKUKwU4GW9-b8oyt0/edit?usp=sharing

Harmony Week Celebrations

Next week we will celebrate Harmony Day on Thursday 21 March. We are asking students to come to school dressed inspired by a country of the world. Further information will come home via the class teacher, SZapp and Facebook. Students will participate in various activities throughout the day. On Tuesday, classes will attend the performance 'Wala: The Spirit of Ghana'. A dynamic fusion of drumming, dance, percussion and soaring harmonies. Three passionate and talented performers will present an exciting display of Ghanaian culture. 

Staffing

3/4YM parents have been notified, but just so our wider community are aware, Meaghan Younger has taken leave until the end of Term 1. Jane McKeough will be taking the lead in 3/4YM over the next 5 weeks. Meaghan's role as Religious Education Coordinator will be undertaken by myself during her absence. 

School Fees

A reminder that Term 1 School Fees are now due. Further communication will be sent home over the next week to those outstanding accounts. This does not include direct debit arrangements. Please ensure that fees are paid up to date to ensure we can continue to purchase items, equipment and resources for our students when and where required. 

Parent/Teacher/Student Check In Chats

Information will come home at the start of Week 7, offering parents a timeslot to come in with their child to meet their classroom teacher to discuss goals for the year and how things are going in class. A little 'check in' chat between parents, teacher and student. These sessions will be offered on Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 March. Booking information will come home on Monday 18 March. 

Enjoy the week ahead.

Be Kind.

Regards,

Pat Ellis

Principal

Whole School Prayer Time

Congratulations to 5/6B for your prayerful leadership and reading during our Whole School Prayer Time last Friday.

Project Compassion

How are you going with your money boxes? One student told me the other day they are putting in the money they were spending on soft-drink as they’ve given it up for Lent. Win-win! Less sugar consume, the dentist will be happy and money available for Project Compassion.

Check out this week’s story on Tati from Indonesia. https://lent.caritas.org.au/page/week-2

Whole School Prayer Time

3/4AK are excitedly preparing for the Whole School Prayer Time on Friday 22nd March. Families are all invited to share as we reflect together on Harmony Day and what it means at St Michael’s. Whole School Prayer Times start at 2:20pm this year, in the St Michael’s Church.

Saturday 16 March 10-2pm 

Only three more sleeps to go until our Autumn Fete. Many people have been busy behind the scene organising and preparing to make this day a huge success. Like any fundraising, there is a certain risk involved regarding how much work has gone into the event vs the amount of people who will turn up to support and the amount of money we will raise. Please support by attending and purchasing as much as you can and please invite friends and families to do the same. We are a small Catholic primary school who rely heavily on funds raised at events such as this to purchase bigger ticket items like playground equipment, furniture and tech equipment to name a few items. Please support and please give generously. 

Thank you for sending in your order forms for the Leaf and the Wrist Bands, these will come home to your children tomorrow.  Please see Lisa in the Front Office if you do not receive them.

Cake plates have come home this week, please leave donations of baked goods at the school on Friday or Saturday morning.  We appreciate your assistance with this.

Each class has been allocated a stall, and we would ask parents/carers from that class to volunteer to help run the stall on the actual day. 

Please follow the link below to the google doc to put your name against a time slot, all help is greatly appreciated. 

All volunteers will need to have a WWVP card and will need to have it on them on the day, however if you do not have a card you are required to sign a statutory declaration which will be available on the day.  

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OwudBffkTMb_hHJCyUvlkZYtNJcKUKwU4GW9-b8oyt0/edit?ts=5c732a8d#gid=2097185166

The app of the week is SnapType. This free app is fabulous for helping children complete sheet work or labelling. Simply take a photo of what you would like to work on and type all over the screen. Easily move your text by tapping and dragging to the desired location. You can only have one document saved on the app, so simply make sure you save your work in a Google Doc or Seesaw account.

School Swimming Carnival

Yesterday we had a fabulous day as the students competed in their events and enjoyed fun with their friends on the Splash Park. It was wonderful to see such great house spirit on display and students encouraging and supporting each other.  Days like these cannot run without the assistance of our terrific parent volunteers. A big thank you to all of you who so generously gave of your time. 

Presentation of ribbons will occur next Tuesday at morning assembly.  Parents are welcome to attend.  

Congratulations to Ada 3/4YM, Jillian 3/4AK, Beth 3/4AK, Sarah 5/6B, Samara 5/6FW, Alisa 5/6B, Amelie 5/6FW, Alexander 5/6B and Jacob 5/6B who have qualified to represent our school at the Belconnen Region Carnival on Thursday 28th March.  We wish them well.

K-2 Water Fun Day

A fun day was had by all our K-2 students and their teachers!  Thank you to Christine, Pamela, Catalina and Jared for cutting up the fruit for the special recess.

Catholic Schools' Soccer Carnival

'Catholic Schools Soccer Carnival 2019' facebook page is now live, it will be the main source of updates on all things soccer related including the draw and results.  Team notes will come home in the next week.

NAB AFL AUSKICK

The after school AFL program will now be commencing on 13th March and will take place on our school oval. The program is being offered by Auskick ACT so please refer to their website for the most up to date information. For more information on this 4-week program or to register go to Play.afl/auskick.

Cross Country Carnival

Save the date: 4th April, 2019 (Thursday Week 9)

Notes will be coming home in the next week.

If you are willing to assist on the day as a course marshal, your time would be much appreciated. 

Trials for 12&U Track and Field ACT Team

The School Sport Australia 12&U Track and Field Championships will be taking place in Darwin, NT this year and due to their weather conditions, the event has moved to 18-23 September, from its traditional dates in December. This means a much earlier selection process is required.

The ACT Team Selection Trial dates are Wednesday 20 March - 4.30pm - 6.45pm AND Tuesday 26 March - 4.30pm - 6.45pm. The venue for both dates is Woden Park Athletics Track, Phillip ACT

Students must meet selection criteria requirements, including minimum standard times. The selection criteria process can be found on the "Track & Field" page of the School Sport ACT website.

https://schoolsportsact.blob.core.windows.net/schoolsportsact-container-eas/SportAttachment-258.pdf

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

Congratulations to the following children who have achieved a Harmony Award in Week 6 and will receive their award this Friday at morning gathering.

All lunch orders need to be placed by MIDNIGHT 12am on Wednesday nights. 

If your child is missing something from their lunch order, it is important that they go to the canteen, let them know and it will be sorted out for them straight away. Your help with this is greatly appreciated. It is too late once they come home from school. 

The canteen still require assistance on Friday's from approximately 12.30-1.45 to help pack lunch orders, if you can assist in anyway, please contact Lisa in the Front Office.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

Please feel free to contact Empire Catering on 0408200481 for any queries with lunch orders or any constructive feedback you have regarding menu items. As we outsource to Empire to cater for our canteen each week, we would appreciate you communicating directly with them regarding any issues, problems or concerns you may have regarding the canteen. 

I have a few items of lost property handed in to the Front Office, please see Lisa if you are looking for any of the following items:

• reading glasses in a soft case with a picture of a lady on it
• key (could be a house key) on a Ford keyring
• pink felt purse with flowers sewn on it
• gold rings x 2

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

Zanna KL, Lucas 3/4AK, Delilah 3/4YM, Wangchuk 5/6FW, Olivia 1/2M, Eamon 3/4YM, Tamika 5/6B, Lachlan 1/2F and Elise 3/4AK

We hope you have a great day!!

Please support businesses that support our school.

Performances at Fete

Sienna (5/6B) is excited to be performing at our school Fete! The 10&Under Youth Ballet and the 10&Under Performance Group from Sienna’s dance school, Dance Development Centre in Spence, will be performing at 12.30pm.

Lenten Program

Each year during Lent, we have groups who meet throughout the parish to reflect on the Sunday Lenten Gospels. Sheets are available in the church foyers to enrol or if a Friday morning at 9:00 am suits you better, Sr Kate holds a group at her place, which you are more than welcome attend. Sessions last for about an hour over a cup of coffee. Everyone is welcome, so if you are able to join in, let Sr. Kate know on k.mcmahon3@bigpond.com (Home address will be supplied.) Groups begin on Friday 15th March.

Changes to School Sport ACT

From the commencement of this year there will no longer be Belconnen Region level trials for specific sports. To replace the regional level completion, many sports are holding gala days for schools to attend. We will enter teams in these gala days where there is student interest. The pathway for selection to an ACT sporting team is through trials offered in the same way as they have been previously. Please see the information below in relation to the process of registering your child for ACT trials on the School Sport ACT website.

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 – 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?
8. Make the $5 credit card payment then click to register.
9. An automated email will then be sent to your Principal/School Approver for their approval to trial (no need to take anything to school for the Principal to sign).
10. You will be able to see the process has been complete back in My Profile – once your Principal/School Approver has completed the approval process your child’s information will be collated onto a list for the Team Manager and Coach prior to trial.
11. Note the registration process closes two days before the first trial date to allow sufficient time for approval and sharing of collated information.

Looking forward to another big year of sporting participation,

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