School News

SCHOOL CALENDAR

Please click here to access our school calendar to view all important upcoming dates.

R.E. NEWS

Confirmation 

The new dates for Confirmation are Saturday 13th November (3.00pm) and Sunday 14th November (11.00am).  Families will receive a note to nominate which Mass they would like to attend. We will still adhere to 5 people per candidate (including the candidate) to ensure we follow the COVID-19 guidelines. Please send in any outstanding information forms and payment as soon as possible.

Praying the Rosary

October is the month of the Rosary. The Rosary is a traditional Catholic prayer reflecting on the lives of Jesus and Mary. Students will be praying the Rosary in class each day during the month of October.

One Million Children Praying the Rosary

On Monday 18th October at 9.00am all students at St Edward's School will join in with children from around the world to pray the Rosary. The students will be praying for peace and unity around the world.

World Mission Month - October

World Mission Month is celebrated every year in every country, wherever there are Catholics committed to building a better world for all of God's people. We strive to support a world where everyone has all they need to live a dignified and fulfilling life. 

During October each school in the Diocese raises funds for World Mission. We will be having a "CrAzY SoCk" day on Wednesday 27th October.

Parish News

St Edward's Parish are about to commence a program for those interested in learning more about the Catholic faith tradition.

Some are joining the group with a view to joining the Catholic Church, others may join simply to learn more about the faith.

If you are interested in joining the program, please feel welcome to call Deacon Paul on 0418 667 329 or the Parish Office  southtamworthparish@armidale.catholic.org.au

LIBRARY NEWS

We are off and running with the '1000 Before School' Project

A few families have already taken advantage of the opportunity to immerse their child in reading opportunies to prepare for the beginning of school. If your child is enrolled to start school next year, you are welcome to pop into the Infant's Office 

Recent research shows that to ensure a successful start to school, children need to be immersed in at least 1000 stories before they start. At St Edward's we agree with this and have established the '1000 Before School' Project to support our families to begin to achieve this invaluable experience.

The positives of sharing 1000 books before school are:

1. An introduction to a wide set of vocabulary for children to become familiar with, through both seeing and hearing the words.
2. Seeing the mechanics of how a book 'works', turning pages, left to right sequencing, front to back....
3. Informal discussion of the story and talking about the illustrations, what might happen next, how does it make you feel....
4. Connecting reading with another person as a 'feel good' thing that will encourage reading as a nurturing and positive experience that enhances a love of books and reading (this really is most effective in creating a reader!)
5. Making reading a priority that highlights its importance as a leisure activity.

How our Project will work:

1. Come to the Infant's front office to register your child for the program.
2. Grab a bag of books. The bag will include 6 books and a card (with some discussion starters for one of the books, some tips on how to engage your child with reading and a list of the books included in that bag).
3. Take the bag home and read, read, read with your child using the tips on the included card.
4. After reading the books, return the bag to the office with all the listed items on the card and swap for a new bag, as often as you like.
5. The same expectations as any library service will be in place: the books remain the property of St Edward's Primary School, the books need to be returned in the same condition they were loaned, everything in the bag needs to be included when returned.

This is a really exciting program for St Edward's in our mission to support our students and families for as much success at school as they can possibly get from Day 1, so please take advantage of as much, or as little, as your hectic family schedules can allow. 

A bonus is, if you have younger siblings, they can join in as well and then you have already begun their journey to starting school in a positive and successful way.

A double bonus is older children can also join in and will still invaluably benefit their reading success at school.

Overdue Books

I have given each teacher a list of students who have outsanding books from the library. Many of these were borrowed before lockdown, which is a very long time ago for our students, so the list is to help teachers help our students remember to have a look at home or in the classroom to find the books.

If your child comes home to look for books, please give them a hand to search for them, they often turn up in the most unexpected places. One of my favourite stories over the years is the book that turned up under the backseat of the car, 6 months after declaring it gone forever! 

No library will ever be annoyed about a long lost book being returned. In fact, it is cause for celebration! The record this year has been 642 overdue!  I was very happy! 

See you in the Library,

Annie Madden