Around The Primary

Dear Parents,

To maintain a healthy and safe environment at school, it is important to keep your children at home if they are unwell.  A day or two at home, when suffering from a runny nose or a cough, or generally not feeling well, is usually enough to make sure that germs are not passed on to others.  In the best interest of your child and the wider College community, please follow this useful ‘stay at home’ guide from Nurse Jenny. 

As much as we love having our parents at school, perhaps parents with children in Years 1-3 could think about saying goodbye or be collected at the ‘loop’, two or three times a week. Giving children these opportunities to manage, without assistance from Mum, Dad, or another adult is doing them a favour in developing the valuable life skills of independence and resiliency. 

We are so fortunate that we can gather to pray and celebrate together as community. We hope all Dads or special father figures will be able to come along with their child/ren to our Mass dedicated to Fathers next Friday 3 September. The attendance list has grown over the past week, but it is important that all families RSVP by Tuesday 31 August. Just a reminder, please wear your parent badge!

It’s been a busy week with Book Week activities! Years 4-6 students have been on excursions to Nedlands and Cambridge Libraries to meet authors, Meg Caddy, Sally Murphy and Frané Lessac. While the junior primary students enjoyed an interactive story adventure hosted by Perform Education, titled ‘Bigger, Better, Brighter’.

Congratulations to the Primary Singers and Wanju Voices who represented the College at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival this morning. Mrs Haydon was very proud of the choirs’ performances. We will continue to provide opportunities for our students to ‘shine’, as well as, to encourage them to entertain and inspire others with their gifts and talents. 

Special thanks to all the parents that provided the delicious treats for morning tea this morning. It was a lovely way for staff to come together to end a busy week.

Kind regards,

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary 

Dates to Remember

Please check the College Website to note all the important Primary school events for your family calendar. http://www.johnxxiii.edu.au/view/for-parents/calendars

A Little Snapshot

Students in Year 5 have been learning that, as people grow and change physically and emotionally, they also mature spiritually.  As their relationships with peers and families change, so does their relationship with God.

Students have learnt that prayer is a relationship with God: a conversation that includes speaking and listening, which can take place at any time and about anything at all.  Some students chose to represent their conversation as though it were a SMS between themselves and God.

Following that, students learned to write their own prayers using a formula: a title for God, a description of God, a purpose for the prayer and a conclusion. The examples show myriad names for God and reasons for praying.

Ms Mary-Anne Lumley

College Liturgist 

Hidden Valley GATE Project

This semester the Year 5 GATE students planned a community for the homeless called, ‘Hidden Valley’. This project involved researching sectors of society that are affected by homelessness, what they wanted their community to look and feel like and also the values they wanted it to uphold.

The students decided after some research that ‘Tiny Homes” would be a great idea for the housing at Hidden Valley. The process required the students to use online house planners and with the assistance of Tom Anderson King and Mr Duncan who helped bring their plans to life using the 3D printers in the Engineering Lab.

Finally, the students constructed a model of their entire community and then presented their project to parents and Primary leadership. 

Tara Purcell

DT and GATE teacher

Homeless people are not just the people on the streets. From this project, I have learnt how fortunate we are to live such happy lives without having any problems or anything holding us back. It is so sad that 1 in 6 homeless people are elderly and that 1 in 6 people have some form of disability. We must look out for those that need our help. We should always provide homeless people with things they need to survive such as food, shelter, and a sense of belonging.

Charlie O’Toole 5G

The Hidden Valley project in GATE made me realise what technology could to do help to create affordable homes for those in need. I really enjoyed the constructing process, seeing our Tiny Homes being printed and the possibility that one day this could be a reality. This project allowed me to see that the homeless are value members of our society that need a little help to get back on their feet.

Alessio Torre 5B

The Hidden Valley Community project made me feel that I could help the homeless. That   in the future I could make a difference. I really loved every moment of the project from creating a name, a mission and vision statement, and also planning and printing our Tiny Homes to finally, building and presenting the final product.

Grace Czajko 5G

Music

Congratulations to Wanju Voices and Primary Singers who represented the College at the Catholic Performing Arts Festival this morning. The students demonstrated beautiful singing and excellent choral etiquette.

Please note the following important information regarding choir rehearsals for the rest of Term 3.

Week 7: 

No choir rehearsals for Wanju Voices or Primary Singers

Week 8: 

No choir rehearsal for Wanju Voices. 

Primary Singers will resume rehearsals on Thursday 9 September

If you have any queries regarding Primary music, please contact me via email catherine.haydon@cewa.edu.au

Mrs Catherine Haydon

Primary Music Teacher