School News

SCHOOL CALENDAR

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

Presentation Day

Due to the current Level 3 Covid restrictions that are in place until the end of the year, we are not able to have our normal presentation evening at the TREC to celebrate all of our amazing student achievements throughout 2021.

This year, we will instead be presenting the amazing work of our students and teachers via virtual presentations. These will be sent to parents via Compass in Week 10. The Infants presentations will be released on Compass on Wednesday 8th December and the Primary presentations on Thursday 9th December. 

We don't want to give too much away, as teachers and students have been working really hard to put these together, but the presentations will included an address from Dr. Jake, the class teachers, the end of year class awards and more. 

We are devastated that we cannot celebrate 2021 as a whole St Edward's community at the TREC, but we will be back in 2022 bigger and better than ever. 

School Leaders 2022

Student Leadership is important and valued at St Edward's School. Leadership allows students to experience opportunities during their schooling, to build relationships within teams, define their own identity and to work collaboratively to achieve tasks effectively. It also provides an opportunity to learn to identify and display effective communication and interpersonal skills.  

We are pleased to announce our School Captains for 2022 (pictured below):

School Captains:  Isabella Brydon and Lucas McIntyre 

Vice Captains:       Phuc Ho and Wallace Robinson

Congratulations also to our 2022 Sports Captains (pictured below) 

Kennedy Green:  Keyondre Smith & Brodie Burrows

MacKillop Gold:  Sarah Martin & Henry Rumsby

Chisholm Red:     Ruby Swan & Corey Lay

Therry Blue:          Maye Hatton & Angus Hansen

Semester Two School Reports

Please be advised that parents/carers will receive their child's Semester Two School Report at 2:30pm on Monday 6th December 2021. Parents/Carers will have access to an electronic copy of their child's report via the Compass Portal. As per the NSW Education Standards Authority guidelines, our Semester Two reports will continue to use a five point scale in which to attribute grades to students:

• Working at the expected level of achievement.
• Working beyond the expected level of achievement (this is split into two sections, working beyond and working well beyond the expected level).
• Working towards the expected level of achievement (this is split into two sections, working towards and working well below the expected level).

Students will also receive an engagement grade reflecting their efforts within each Key Learning Area.

Parents are also reminded that all absences from school must  be explained within 7 days, otherwise they will automatically move into 'unexplained' and cannot be retrieved. These days will be reflected in the students school reports. It is easy to do via Compass and is best done on the day so the task is not forgotten.

Please make contact with the Primary or Infants Office if you require assistance to log in to Compass or require support to access your child's report once they have been sent out via the portal.

Moving Up Day

On 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 Second Sunday of Advent

This Sunday is the second Sunday of Advent. We light the second purple candle, typically called the "Bethlehem Candle." This candle symbolises faith; reminding us of Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem. 

Confirmation 

Confirmation will take place on 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 11am. 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 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. In Week 10, Mini Vinnies will collect and count the donations. Please dig deep for this worthy cause as we help a community in need.

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

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 yesterday, 1st December. Every book is now considered overdue. Please return all readers and library books to school on Monday.

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!!!

'1000 Before School' Project is wrapping up for 2021!

The '1000 Before School' Project went very well and we thank you immensely for participating in this project. Nearly 40 families with Kinder students next year have participated in our inaugural running of the Project. Congratulations on supporting your child's readiness for Kinder 2022.

We would really appreciate it if ALL bags of books could be returned to the Infants Campus by Friday 3rd December. 

The return of the bags enables us to carry out repairs, check our collection and get it all ready to go again next year.

Many thanks in advance for returning your books by the 3rd December.

See you in the Library,

Annie Madden