St. Simon The Apostle Primary School

From the Principal 

Dear Parents and Carers,

 

A big thank you to our parents’ association for hosting the pizza food service day as part of Friday Maths’ Day celebrations.  We appreciate and value the time our parent volunteers spend supporting the school and providing fun experiences for the students.

 

Our Term is busy with lots of events and activities for the students.  This week our Prep and Year 6s are gathering to have a teddy bears picnic lunch, our Grade 4 students are attending a secondary school taster day with St Joesph’s College and Mater Christi, our Yrs 3-6 have Athletics Day (weather permitting) and our Year 5 and 6 students have their first Day of Winter Sports competition on Friday.

 

Year 3 Sacrament Reconciliation

This week we keep our year three students in our thoughts and prayers as they prepare to make First Reconciliation (Sacrament of Penance) on Wednesday evening.  This is a reflective time for our students and families to be reminded of God's unconditional love for us through the forgiveness of sins and times when we have hurt others. 

Monday’s School Closure Day

This week’s school closure day allowed our staff to continue the planning and refining of our roll-out of the Positive Behaviour for Learning Framework.  As a school, we are seeing the impact of this approach through the way the students play and learn together.

The second half of the day was allocated to training and certification for First Aid, CPR and management of Anaphylaxis for our entire staff.  These are essential tasks that allow us to ensure that St Simon’s is a safe place to learn and work.

School Advisory Council - May Meeting

Last week the school advisory council met and discussed the following topics: 

  • How child safety is supported with Positive Behaviour for Learning for Framework,
  • The continuation of Uniform and Canteen as volunteer-based activities and the alternatives.
  • Parents' perspective on Family\Parent Partships activities such as CyberSafety Parent Night, Prep Transition, Sacramental Preparation and Formation etc,

The school advisory council is a valued way that the principal can seek insights and consultation about the activities within the school community.  

The members of the school advisory council are Jo Zaharopoulos (Secretary), Lara Eckfeld,

Rebecca O'Keeffe, Sarah Cahill, Suzy Denis (Chair), Steven Norman, Rocco Caia,

Monica Rayner, Hedy Carvalho, Tom Wurthston and Fr Mark Reynolds 

Our Lady Help of Christian Context piece

This week I want to acknowledge the feast for Our Lady (Mary) Help of Christians on Wednesday, 24th May.  Our Lady Help of Christians is the Catholic Church's patron saint in Australia.  The history associated with this connection to the Australian church speaks to the grassroots nature of what our early Church endured during settlement time.  For more details, the Australian Bishops’ Conference has prepared an overview.

Parish Renewal Program

Tom Wursthorn

Principal