School News

SCHOOL CALENDAR

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

2021 Presentation Day

Congratulations to our Class Award Recipients for 2021.   

Well done everyone!!

Semester Two School Reports

Please note your child/ren's Semester Two School Report was added to the Parent Compass Portal on Monday afternoon, 6th December 2021. Parents/Carers can access and print the electronic copy of their child's report. We hope you enjoy reading your child’s report and celebrating their learning successes with them.

Please make contact with the Primary or Infants Office if you require assistance to log in to Compass or require support accessing your child's report.

Moving Up Day

Tomorrow, Friday 10th December, from 9.30 - 11.00am we will be having our "Moving Up Day" where students from our current Kinder to Year 5 will spend time in their new classroom with their new teacher for 2022.

R.E. NEWS

The Third Sunday of Advent

This Sunday 12th December is the third Sunday of Advent.  We light the “Shepherd's Candle” (pink). 

This reminds us of the Joy the world experienced at the coming birth of Jesus. 

Confirmation 

Confirmation will take place this Sunday 12th December at 11.15am at Mary Help of Christians Church.We will still need to adhere to the 5 person per family (including the candidate) to comply with social distancing. Please arrive at the church between 10.45am and 11.00am. Please sign in using the QR Code.  Please wear a mask if you are 12 years or older.

Year 6 Graduation Mass

The Year 6 Graduation Mass will be held in our School Hall on Monday 13th December at 10.00am. Students are able to invite 2 guests. Guests must wear masks, sign in with the QR code and be double vaccinated (please show your vaccination proof at the door). Please be mindful of the social distancing rules. We hope you can join us to celebrate this important occasion. 

Parish Food Hamper Appeal

Please give generously to our Christmas Hamper Appeal. We invite all students and families to donate non-perishable food items that can be put into a Christmas hamper to help those families in our local community who are struggling. Donations can be made to the class teachers or at either school office by no later than tomorrow, Friday 10th December.

Please be aware that food items need to be sealed and packaged. We cannot accept toys or unpackaged goods due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Rutete Parish (Tanzania) Fundraising

During the period of Advent, we are working with our Parish to support families in Tanzania. The Livelihood Project assists families by giving them a goat to raise.  The family then gives a kid back to the Parish to distribute to and help out another family. Our aim is to help purchase 25 goats (approx. $30 per goat) for the people of the Rutete Parish.

Each class has been given a jar to fill with donations. This collection finishes tomorrow. Please dig deep for this worthy cause as we help a community in need.

Parish - Christmas Pageant 

Father Paul has invited students to participate in the Christmas pageant he is planning for the 6.00pm Christmas Eve Mass. If you would like your child to be a part of the pageant, please RSVP to the parish email so Father Paul can organise a rehearsal schedule. In the RSVP email, please include the names and ages of your students that would like to be in the pageant. Thank you.

Christmas - Mass Times

Friday - 24/12 - Christmas Eve

4.00pm  Holy Mass  (English)

6.00pm  Children's Mass  (English)

8.00pm  Holy Mass (Filipino)

10.00pm Mass of Christmas Night (English)

Saturday - 25/12 Christmas Day

9.00am  Mass of Christmas Day (English)

LIBRARY NEWS

All St. Edward's books need to be returned to school as soon as possible 

The closing date on Oliver (our school library operating system) was Wednesday 1st December. Every book is now considered overdue. Please return all readers and library books to school by Friday 10 December.

Thank you very much for your cooperation in this matter as we finalise arrangements for books to be readily available at the start of next year. 

Great SORA news for e-book access over summer

One of the things that can happen over a summer holiday is that many children stop reading. This fact means that many students decline in their reading skills through lack of practise and immersion in text. This is always disappointing for them when they come to a new year behind where they left off. We have a very exciting platform to help address this issue.

Through the Armidale Catholic Schools Office, every student at St Edward's has access to the online platform SORA that offers a vast array of reading material, suitably selected and age appropriate for our students. Recently, 90 titles of magazines were added to the selection where students will find something for everyone's interest, including many back issues of the titles. Some examples are: National Geographic Kids, National Geographic Little Kids, All About Space, Explorers, Easy Cook...the list goes on! Back issues included!

Over the past 2 weeks the children have been re-introduced to SORA during library lessons and shown how they can get onto the platform on the internet. Every student has their own account and search tools are available to help find books or magazines by genre, topic, author or style of book, and it is all free of charge for every student at our school. There is also an app available in your usual app store so students can read read anywhere anytime! 

To access this portal I have included the instructions here. You will need your child's school login details at one point in the process, but once you have done this on a device, it will remember you for next time. If you or your child are not sure of the login, please contact your class teacher for login details.

1. Google ’SORA’.
2. Open SORA
3. Choose ‘I have a set up code’ which is right at the bottom of the page.
4. Type in cenetau
5. Drop down box ‘Select your school’.  Choose 'ACEN Member Collection'. There is NO St Edward's selection.
6. Sign in with the green button.
7. You will need to use your usual diocesan logins the first time you do this on a device.
8. Explore away!!!

See you in the Library,

Annie Madden