Dear Parents and Carers,

Harmony Week will take place from 18th March 2024 to 24th March 2024. 21st March is the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Harmony Week is always celebrated in the week that surrounds the 21st of March and is focused on Australian multiculturalism. The theme of Harmony Week is Everyone Belongs.

As per the COMPASS notification, we ask all the students to come to school tomorrow wearing something orange.

Let us Pray:

Dear Lord

Send us courage, we pray, O Lord,

that we may follow your ways closely.

May our decisions be thoughtful and our actions kind

that we might live in loving harmony with others.

We ask these prayers in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Congratulations

Congratulations to our sport stars - please see sport page for details

Parent and Community Engagement News

Thank you for the support shown for the first PACE initiative with the donations for the Easter raffle. Thank you to the Year 2 champions and their team for putting this together.

Further initiatives have been mapped out for the rest of the year. Please see the table below.

Vision	Promote the collaboration and co-operation of the Catherine McAuley community to support the interests of the school.

Objectives	Develop rewarding and great friendships between members who advocate and promote the interests of the School.
	To approach all issues with a positive attitude.
	To respect the wishes and beliefs of all parents and support teachers by volunteering time to School causes.
	To cooperate with the school administration and effectively use P&C resources to benefit the children of McAuley.

Activity	Year Group	Date	Description		Link to Purpose	Fundraiser?	Fundraising Type	Target Revenue (All amounts TBC)	Budget
Easter	2	27 March and then 3 Apr	Easter Raffle and Hat Parade	- Stalls- BBQ- Coffee van	Fundraise to acquire resources for school	Yes	Minor	$500	Revenue to exceed spend
Mother's Day	K	Wed 8th May	Mothers Gift Stall in Hall 9-1, Lunch followed by Liturgy	- Stalls- BBQ- Coffee van	Fundraise to acquire resources for school	Yes	Minor	$500	Revenue to exceed spend
Father's Day	1	Wed 4 Sep	Before school Breakfast Fathers Gift Stall in Hall, Meat Raffle Liturgy - Raffle drawn	Meat Raffle- BBQ- Coffee van	Fundraise to acquire resources for school	Yes	Minor	$500	Revenue to exceed spend
Grandfriends Day	5	Wed 23 Oct	Morning Tea/ lunch followed by liturgy	High Tea/ Morning Tea- Coffee Van Cake Stall Liturgy	Fundraise to acquire resources for school	Yes	Minor	$500	Revenue to exceed spend
Trivia Night	6	Jul/ Aug	Trivia	Raffles- Auctions- Donations of services/ products	- Fundraise to acquire resources for school- Communicate with parents- Build relationships	Yes	Major	$5,000	TBC
Disco	3	TBC Nov	Disco	Disco- sausage sizzle	Fundraise to acquire resources for school- Communicate with parents- Build relationships	Yes	Major	$2,000	TBC
Christmas Concert	4	TBC Dec	Concert and End of Year Celebration	- sausage sizzle- sweets/ lottiescraft store- venue/ location/ date TBC- Santa	Communicate with parents- Build relationships	No	Major	N/A	TBC

Thank you to the parents who attended the Mathematics session last night. I am sure you found it very informative. I know I did. I would like to thank Mr Scott Hudson for preparing this session to demonstrate to parents how we approach the teaching and assessment of Mathematics at Catherine McAuley.

Managing Communication Expectations

The transition to Primary School is often very difficult to manage for parents particularly around communications. Pre-schools and schools are very different in the ways they are able to communicate with parents and the community. Preschool staffing ratios are much higher than schools and there are much fewer students, so they have staff who are able to send many updates during the day of preschoolers doing all the things that preschoolers do. Primary schools are not able to sustain this volume of communication. Our main means of communication with the community is through this newsletter, through compass notifications and reminders, through our Facebook page, and now through our parent committee. The newsletter has a student focus every second week, on odd weeks, giving parents a snapshot of the learning the classes are engaged in. Even week newsletters, such as this one, provide parents with information around important issues and events, as well as upcoming events. If you need further information from your child's teacher, you are able to ring the office and request a meeting with your child's teacher. On occasion the class teacher may contact you to arrange a 1-1 meeting to discuss an issue pertaining to your child's progress and/or other issues. At the end of semester one, you will receive a report on your child's progress and will be ask to book a time for a parent/student/teacher interview. These interviews are held across two afternoon/evenings in Kenna Hall.

Attendance

Please watch this short video about school attendance.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/nsw-government-launches-school-attendance-ad-blitz/video/34c6136a574116af14a9f256e7549dd3

Have a safe and happy fortnight

God Bless,

Jo Flynn

Catherine McAuley Newsletter

Term 1, Week 8 · 20 Mar 2024

In this issue