Principal's

 

Panorama

Season's Greetings to our wonderful families and carers!

We have been working our cotton socks off here at St Mary of the Angels, finalising and celebrating our Achievement Data, preparing for Presentation Evening and ensuring that we finish our term and academic year strongly, full of learning and fun.

Mrs Hunt shared with me an article this week that demonstrates the wonderful achievement of our students in NAPLAN over the past 5 years. Fifth out of all schools in the New England Region.

HERE

 Our LWLW focus for this week has been "I am a Learner". 

Commencing on Monday, we have had multiple discussions with students about what it means to be a leaner, that is is not JUST about academics but also;

1) Learning how to be a quality friend

2) Learning to recognise when we have done wrong and how to make amends. 

3) Learning how we can be 'Stewards of the Earth' to ensure we protect all that is important to us; learning about our recycling project, learning how to help your parents make healthy food choices and lunchbox ideas for zero waste.

4) Learning how to play our sports games to a better standard by learning new skills or by  learning to be a good sportsperson.

We should all remember that we are learning everyday, we never ever stop and we should embrace the everyday small learnings.  

2023 Enrolments:

Last week I wrote to you detailing how quickly this year as gone and that I would be writing to you next after meeting up with our new Transition Parents.  2023 is going to be a good year,  a fantastic group of parents and children a number of younger siblings of our current students and a couple of new faces.  

We only have a small number of spaces left in our Transition Space and Years K-6 for 2023. If you have anybody querying enrolment for 2023, please direct them to Amber and Sheree in the front office as soon as possible.

Catholic Life:

Last Sunday, we celebrated the first Sunday in advent.  On this Sunday we undertake a change of our Liturgical Calendar to a new Year Cycle. 

We understand that each of the Gospels that our readings for our Liturgical Year are taken from are written by different authors with a different audience in mind. 

Year A Gospel readings are written by Matthew,  whose main audience were his fellow Jews who had become Christians. and he continually refers to the Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfills from his birth onwards. The Gospel is an account of Jesus' life and ministry.

In advent we have four candles which are blessed and a new candle is lit each week.

The first candle, purple in colour,  is known as the Prophets or Hope candle.  

On Sunday this week, we light another purple candle, called the Bethlehem or Peace Candle

During the Advent season as we prepare to receive the coming of our Lord at Christmas, we have the opportunity to show God’s love in giving to others who are in need during this season.   It was heartwarming to see the pride on our student's faces as they brought up  the non-perishable items of food donated by their families at Wednesday's Kindergarten and Year 1 Mass. Please note there is still time left to donate to the St Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal at school, items of non-perishable foods will be gratefully received and passed on to the St Vincent De Paul Society.

ADVENT: JESSE TREE

There is an Advent Custom that uses stories from the Bible to show Jesus' family tree story.  This is called a Jesse Tree.

Jesse is a figure described in the Old Testament. He was the father of King David and one of Jesus’ relatives. Jesse was a farmer and sheep breeder in Bethlehem. David was the youngest of Jesse's eight sons.

The prophet Isaiah’s words foretold of Jesus’ birth, “There shall come forth a shoot from the root of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1)

Each day of Advent, a Bible story is read about someone on Jesus's family tree and we hang an ornament symbolising the story on the Jesse Tree. If you would like to do this at home, you can find the symbols and stories HERE.

Blessings for a final two weeks to all of our families and I am looking forward to seeing you all on Monday evening at our Presentation Night!

Zoe Nugent  

Principal