Dear Families,

Welcome back to Term Two. I hope all families had an enjoyable time over the Easter and holidays break. This term is relatively a shorter one being nine weeks in length. Having said that, there is a lot happening across the school in this time. As you know, David is on Enrichment Leave this term and I am acting as Principal. We wish David all the best with this time of learning about and investigating initiatives to develop our school community as a whole.

Our prayers and sympathies are extended to Fr Jackson on the recent death of his grandmother, Anne Saunders, in Sunbury. Her funeral was on held on Wednesday. We keep Fr Jackson, and all other members of our school community in our thoughts and prayers who have recently lost a family member.

This week is Catholic Education Week in the Sandhurst Diocese. This is an opportunity for all Catholic schools across the diocese to acknowledge and celebrate their Catholic Identity. As a school community, we have the opportunity to reflect upon some of the traditions of our faith that make up part of our daily school life as well as continue to use Jesus as a model of faith, compassion and love in our relationships with one another. Catholic Education Week runs from Monday 1st May to Friday 5th May.

ANZAC Day

On Tuesday 25th April, Hannah Thomas, Isla Liddell and Salvatore Rigano represented our school as a part of the ANZAC Service at the Shepparton Cenotaph. As representatives of our school, they were able to lay a wreath in memory of all those who had lost their lives in times of war and conflict. I thank the children for the respectful way they took part in the ceremony and for being great representatives as Student Leaders.

As a school community, we were able to come together and commemorate ANZAC Day with our own service at school on Tuesday morning. We are very fortunate to have onsite an Aleppo Pine Tree, presented to us by Legacy. This tree is a descendant of the original Lone Pine of Gallipoli. It helps to provide a special place for us to gather and commemorate ANZAC Day each year. A big thank you to Miss Levesque for organising and leading this.

School Uniform:

As mentioned on SIMON, with the weather being a bit warmer at the moment, the children can choose to wear either Summer or Winter uniform at the moment. The date for Winter uniform only is Monday 15th May. This year it has been decided that if boys wish to wear shorts during Winter they can – but they have to be the correct school shorts. Please ensure children are in correct uniform for school – we have a few instances of children wearing different coloured socks or runners on non-sports days. If your child is out of uniform for a specific reason, please provide a note or email their teacher to clarify this. Thank you for support with this.

Appreciation Day

As a part of the Grade Six Leadership program, The Stewards of the Earth Leadership Group have organised an 'Appreciation Day' for Wednesday the 10th of May.

The purpose of this day is to raise money for an important environmental cause.

As a part of this, Wednesday will be a casual clothes/out of uniform day with a gold coin donation.

This group will also be selling lemonade at lunchtime for 50 cents a cup to celebrate 'Appreciation Day'.

Thank you for your support with this.

Easter Raffle:

Our end of term Easter Raffle was a huge success with many prizes being won by families in our school. A huge thank you to the team of parent volunteers who organised this event and spent quite a bit of time wrapping prizes. It is greatly appreciated and definitely added to the surprise and enjoyment of the children when receiving them. A huge thank you to all families for selling tickets and your generous donation of Easter treats for this – up to eighty prizes of different sizes were available to be won.

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and is an important occasion to show our love and appreciation for all our mothers, grandmothers, and caregivers. As a school, our Mother’s Day Stall will take place on Friday 12th May. All classes will have the opportunity to visit the stall and purchase a gift for someone special. To make it easier for transporting home (and maintaining the surprise element) could a plastic shopping bag be sent to school on this day. For younger children, money in a named envelope or sandwich bag helps to avoid any being lost. A huge thank you to our parent volunteers helping to organise this.

A tradition in the past has been for the Grade Six students to organise a special morning tea for their mothers/caregivers at school. This is a part of their Leadership Role and also an opportunity to ‘spoil their mums’ in their final year of primary school. COVID put a hold on this however we are going to re-establish this tradition. A morning tea for Grade Six Mums/Carers will be taking place on Monday 15th May from 10:00am – 11:00am.

Special Visitors – Catholic Education Week.

In recognition of Catholic Education Week, we are going to hold a special visitors morning on Monday 29th May from 9:15am – 10:50am (the date is later because of the busy nature of the next few weeks). This is a chance for parents/grandparents/visitors to come and spend some time in the classrooms and join in some activities with the children. The format for the morning is as follows:

9:15am – 9:50am: Liturgy in the stadium – all welcome.

10:00am – 10:50am: Classroom visits.

10:50am – 11:20am: Coffee Van onsite to purchase a cuppa and biscuits supplied by the

Community Group.

We look forward to welcoming visitors on this day.

A Reminder of Important Dates Coming up this Term:

Tuesday 9th May - Advisory Board Meeting

Wednesday 10th May - Appreciation Day - Casual Clothes Day / Gold Coin Donation.

Friday 12th May - Mother’s Day Stall.

Monday 15th May - Grade Six Mother’s Day Morning Tea.

Thursday 25th and Friday 26th May - Grade 3/4 Camp.

Monday 29th May - Catholic Education Week Liturgy and Visitors Morning.

Tuesday 6th June - Community Group Meeting - 7pm All Welcome!

Friday 9th June - Pupil Free Day

Monday 12th June: King’s Birthday Public Holiday.

Friday 16th June -

Feast of the Sacred Heart.

P-2 Liturgy at school.

3-6 attend combined mass with St Brendan’s at Parish Church.

Tuesday 20th June -

End of semester reports issued.

Community Group Coffee Catch Up - time TBA.

Friday 23rd June - Last day of Term Two. School finishes at 2:15pm.

I hope everyone has a great fortnight ahead and to all our loved mothers, grandmothers and caregivers, may Mother’s Day next weekend be a very special day for you all.

May God bless you with joy and love on Mother’s Day and always!

Kind regards,

Tony Mc.

(Acting Principal)

Library News

BOOK CLUB REMINDER - LAST CHANCE TO ORDER FROM ISSUE #3 IS FRIDAY 12TH MAY. Books are available to purchase from as low as $3. For every Book club order that you place, Scholastic gives back 15% of the total order to our school to purchase new resources for our Library and classrooms. Orders are to be placed online or through the LOOP App only.

Foundation Levesque	Amelia Thomas
Foundation Small	Frankie Costello & Japji Saini
1/2 Bekirofski	Vishavpreet Dhaliwal
1/2 Moodie	Alice Mintern
1/2 Jondahl	Ibukun Dare
1/2 Wooden	Lucas Philip
3/4 Kelly	Natasha Schroeders
3/4 Sait	Priya Delmon
3/4 JF	Mason Ivory & Anna Sam
3/4 Maher	Lorenzo Rigano
5/6 Austen	Joel Shelly
5/6 Monk	Zara Monk
5/6 Liddell	Addi Zak

Awards & Acknowledgements

Week 1 Awards