Dear Families,

“Never allow waiting to become a habit. Life is happening now.

P Coelho (adapted)

Welcome back to school for Term 4 of the school year. We all hope you have enjoyed spending time with your children during the school holidays. We have an exciting Term planned with wonderful opportunities for student learning and development. It gives us such pleasure to see the growth in our students and watch them strive toward their goals.

Please continue to encourage your children to focus on their learning and get the most out of each school day. As the quote above says, ‘Life is happening now’ and we must make use of every opportunity life presents us with. We are encouraged to have 'High Hopes'. Having high hopes is about having the ambition and courage to set goals beyond what we think we are capable of achieving. It is not limiting ourselves and allowing self doubt to creep in. If we have the courage to strive for something great in our lives we push ourselves further to try to reach it.

During Term 4 all students are required to wear a school hat for outside activities. Please support us in ensuring your child has their hat each day. Removeable clothing such as hats and school jumpers must be clearly labelled. At this time of the year it is very easy to become relaxed about wearing the correct uniform. It is timely to remind parents and students that wearing a school uniform creates an identity for a school and it is an important part of being a school student. How a school uniform is worn shows how students value being part of our school and the respect they have towards each other and members of our school community. Please ensure your child has the correct uniform and that they wear it with a sense of unity and school spirit.

Gospel Reflection

A man asks Jesus what he has to do to enter the

kingdom. Mark 10:17-30

In the Gospel for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time a man with many possessions asks Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life. In Jesus’ encounter with the rich man, we see an example of how Jesus invites each of us to be his disciple. As Jesus was setting out on a journey a man came up to him, knelt before him and put this question to him: ‘Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life.’ Jesus told the man he must obey God’s Commandments. Then Jesus said, ‘Go sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ The man faithfully follows the commandment but Jesus asks him to go beyond this. When the man learns that he is to leave everything behind, help the poor and follow Jesus, he walks away in sadness. His possessions mean more to him than Jesus’ message. Jesus looked around and said to the disciples. ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God.’ Jesus then said to them, ‘It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.’

Our challenge:

Jesus wants us to understand that it is more important to have riches in heaven than riches on earth. This challenge can be overwhelming. When we look at our lives sometimes we only see the difficulties before us. Jesus wants us to focus on God who can change all things because everything is possible for God. Jesus is asking us to get our priorities right, to identify what is truly valuable to us and let go of the things that are pulling us away from God and separating us from him. Are we prepared to meet the challenge of living with different priorities so we don't walk away sad?

NAPLAN

We congratulate our students, staff and parents on our excellent NAPLAN results. When viewing the results keep in mind that both the Year 3 and 5 cohorts of students have spent a considerable amount of their last few years away from school engaging in home learning. We are very proud of our students' efforts and thank the students, and parents for aspiring to excellence.

The table below shows our school mean compared to the state and national means. As you can see, St Leonard's students are performing above the mean in all areas with particular strengths in Year 3 Reading and Year 5 Spelling and Numeracy.

Hay Fever Season

Spring heralds the start of the Hay Fever season for many and it is important that children who are at risk of allergy attacks are prepared. Ways parents can assist their child in these circumstances are:

Follow the pollen count and weather forecasts during spring and early summer so you know what the conditions are and if a thunderstorm is coming.
Make sure your written Asthma Action Plan is up to date and includes thunderstorm advice – talk to your GP and give a copy to the school.
If your child is medicated, please ensure this is given at the appropriate time.
Visit the National Asthma Council Australia website for information: https://www.nationalasthma.org.au
Visit the Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy website: www.allergy.org.au

Prep Excursion to Chesterfield Farm

On Tuesday the Preps went on an excursion to Chesterfield Farm. They had a great day and were able to experience farm life. They even got to milk a cow!

Enjoy some photos from the day below.

Wellington District Division Athletics

On Wednesday Lucy S, Michaela D, Milana F, Natalie R, Connor B, Dallas F, Oliver P and Sebastian M represented our school at the Wellington District Division Athletics Carnival.

They all trained very hard for their events and achieved some amazing results. Congratulations!

Team Events

Girls Relay Team: Lucy, Michaela D, Milana and Natalie - 4th position

Boys Relay Team: Connor, Dallas, Oliver P and Sebastian - 6th position

Individual Events

Natalie:

1500m - 5th position

Discus - 1st position and moving onto Regionals

Dallas:

Hurdles - 1st position and moving onto Regionals

Discus - 1st position and moving onto Regionals

Briefly

MACSSIS Survey 2024: Thank you to all the parents who completed the MACSSIS survey. We will use this data to inform our directions as a school and aim for improvement.
ICAS Results: A reminder that results are continuing to become available. Parents and students can access their own results using their TAP-ID and PIN: Students that have sat ICAS at St Leonard's before can find their TAP-ID and PIN on the back of a previous year's certificate. Students that have sat ICAS at St Leonard's for the first time this year, can request their TAP-ID and PIN via this form.
Swimming: Our 8 day swimming program begins on November 11th and runs until November 22nd. There will be no swimming on Wednesday 13th and Friday 15th November. This means that the first week of swimming will be for 3 days only and the second week will be for 5 days. The permission form for the swimming program has been sent out via Operoo. Please respond and accept the form as soon as possible so we can confirm numbers with the pool.

Aimee Gale

Acting Principal

Spartan School World Uniform Shop