Deputy Principal Report

Retirement

Dear parents, 

I have some significant news for you all!

After 15 years working at St Cecilia's school as a classroom teacher, Religious Education leader, Deputy Principal and Acting Principal.... I have decided to retire from teaching at the end of 2021.

 I  have particularly loved working at St Cecilia's. The students, families, principals, teachers, priests and members of the parish have all been a pleasure to work with.... but after teaching for approximately 43 years!!!! I am starting to find it harder to wake up in the mornings! 

I will be continuing in my role as Deputy Principal & RE Leader until the end of January and then using up my accrued Long Service Leave.

Marty has advertised the Position on the Catholic Education website and is currently seeking applicants to interview.

I will miss you all and look forward to hopefully seeing you to say goodbye before Christmas... if we are not still in Lockdown!

Kind regards, Karen Whiting.

Upcoming dates

Please see the Upcoming Dates page for the key dates for the rest of the year.  

NB These dates may need to be altered depending upon the COVID situation, therefore many events have "TBC" (To be confirmed) written beside them. 

Year 4 First Communion

Please see the RE page for details.

Lost Property

There are a number of school jumpers, track suit tops, drink bottles and tennis racquets in the Lost Property area. If your children have misplaced anything, please ask Lucy or Sharon at the office.

Music

Next term Mrs Stefania Miller (our previous Music teacher) is returning from Maternity Leave. In Term 4 , she will be taking Music lessons on Thursday and Fridays at St Cecilia's.

 We have loved having Mr Jon Bode as Stefania's replacement during the last 12 months- as he has brought a different style to his lessons, often incorporating Drama and improvisation, as well as singing and musical notation. 

As the students had begun preparing their Concert items and it had to be postponed, we would like to go ahead and present the Concert items in some modified form- even if it means filming each class act and sending all the families a link to view it at home.

Stay tuned for further details- and we will see what modifications we can make.

Specialist classes during Lockdowns

This term we have been thoroughly enjoying participating in the Specialist classes that have been offered online each afternoon. We hope that you have enjoyed them too!

*Mr Bode ran live Music classes during which the students sang and danced and learnt about  beat and listened to Vivaldi's Four Seasons.

*Mrs Goodear did live Drop in and Draw sessions where she demonstrated how to draw various items eg still life drawings of kitchen utensils and how to draw people.

*Mr Johnson shared clips of himself demonstrating basketball skills and lots of fun activities for the whole family. He also included links to Yoga etc

*Anna Clarkson suggested ideas for students to improve their wellbeing by spending time in the garden exploring the wonders of nature. 

*Madame Cecile shared clips of the city of Paris, songs which taught the students the names of animals and how to count in French and also the French movie entitled: The Little Prince.

We hope that everyone has had a chance to look at these activities which our wonderful Specialist teachers have placed in the Specialist section of the Student Portal.

The Specialist section is located directly under the Classes section. Simply scroll down each afternoon and find the Specialist that the class teachers have suggested for that day.

Eg Art with Mrs Goodear.

Then within the Art section....your children can find their class level eg Foundation, Year 1 & 2, Year 3, Year 4 or Year 5/ 6.

There are usually different tasks for the various grade levels throughout the school but sometimes there might just be one for F-2 and another for Years 3-6.

Students are invited to submit examples of their work to the Specialist teachers- just as they would with their class teachers.

Next term, if we are still in Lockdown, the Specialist classes can be done at any time of day (after the other student work and meetings are finished) unless the teachers decide to do a live session.  

If they run live lessons, the codes for the Google Meets are:

HG for Helen Goodear- Art

SM for Stefania Miller- Music

CJ for Clint Johnson- PE

CD for Cecile Dutrieux- French

and 

AC for Anna Clarkson- Sustainability/ Gardening

Holiday fun tasks!

Maybe check the Specialist section out on the school holidays?

There might be some interesting things to keep the students occupied!

Mrs Goodear has posted some extra tasks in her Art section which your family might like to do over the holidays. They can be found in Art, if you scroll down to the bottom below all the classes -in Extra Activities for Keen Beans!

Photos of submitted Art work from this term's Lockdown can be seen in the Art Gallery- just under Year 6.

Here are some examples of  Artwork which the onsite students have done this term and there are more in the Look What's Been Happening page of this Newsletter.

Year 2 Poems

The Year 2 students have been writing their own Poems and Cayetana asked if hers could be included in this week's Newsletter.

Flowers

By Cayetana

When the flowers bloom I love to see you. 

When the bees fly around they make no sound.

When I smell the flowers it is like I have mystical powers.

When I had a picnic, the food was great with no mistakes.

When I smell the daisies I go all crazy.

The flowers smell so nice it's like the sun going to rise.

When I pass through the maze it got me in glaze.

When I go through the path the fun days last.

I can see the flowers all around me- it is like someone found me.

When the sun goes down I can still smell the flowers around.

Planning for Term 4

This week, each teaching level had a day to plan for Term 4. The teachers have audited the work covered so far this year and planned for the rest of the year, keeping in  mind that we may or may not return to school immediately after the holidays. We will need to continue to be flexible and keep you all informed about changes as soon as possible.

NB School will commence for Term 4 on Monday, 4th October- whether it be at school or Remote Learning.

If you have any queries or concerns, please email at  kwhiting@scgleniris.catholic.edu.au

Kind regards,

Karen Whiting