Around The Primary

Dear Parents

Welcome back everyone and I hope you and your children are feeling happy, recharged and ready for the term ahead! 

I wish to acknowledge and thank all parents once again for your support last term during the COVID period. While we will try to maintain as ‘normal’ a term as possible this term and beyond, it is important to appreciate that we all still need to continue to be vigilant and understanding. 

Social distancing is to be maintained while you are on the school grounds (particularly when you are dropping off and picking up your Pre-Kindy, Kindy or Pre-Primary child/ren). Once again, using the drive through is strongly encouraged for Years 1-6 students.

We will continue to do our very best to ensure that you are able to engage with our school, while supporting the safety and wellbeing of all. This is also a timely reminder for all parents to please keep your child/ren at home if they are unwell. 

Next Friday 31 July is going to be a very busy day around the Primary school. Our Assembly is ​scheduled for 9am and the Years 3-6 Cross Country Carnival will begin at 11am. Parents are welcome to attend these events; however, it is important that everyone observes social distancing expectations. 

Over the next couple of weeks our students are going to be learning more about our three College Founders.  This week the focus has been all about Mary Ward.  I hope you enjoy reading the students’ lovely prayers and reflections.

Kind regards,

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary

Prayers

Mary Ward was a selfless and kind person. She stayed true to being Catholic even in a time when it was dangerous to do so. She dedicated her life to God and helping others, especially girls. When times became hard she persevered and was resourceful, even in prison. She showed faith, strength and integrity. Mary Ward started many schools and inspired countless young women to get an education. Mary Ward inspires me to show perseverance in hard situations, be selfless, help others and share my beliefs.

Georgette Watson 6G

Dear God,

Please help me to do the work that Mary Ward did so I can grow up to be a thoughtful, kind and loving lady who can make a difference in the world and change someone’s life forever. Thank you Lord for bringing such a wonderful person called Mary Ward into my life, she has made a massive impact on my school, and a massive impact on me, because she has made me think about my decisions and make choices that are right for me both now and for my future. 

Amen

Ayva Baker 6G

Dear God,

Give me strength to get through tough things like Mary Ward. 

Give me the bravery of Mary when she faced challenges because of being a Catholic. 

Give me the inspiration to help the world one child at a time.

Give me the courage to always say what I believe.

Amen

Jonathon Rintoul 6G

Mary Ward is an inspiring lady who created some of the first girl schools around the world. Despite this, she faced many challenges, such as when she was young, being Catholic was not allowed in England where she grew up, and the Pope destroyed her life’s work and put her in jail. However, Mary Ward overcame these challenges, she crossed the alps just to talk to the Pope, and while in prison she wrote secret letters in lemon juice to her companions so that they could only read them under heat. This is what inspires me most about her because she never gave up and she worked hard to achieve her goals and find solutions, even when in prison. Mary Ward’s last words to her friends where "Cherish God's vocation in you; let it be constant, efficacious and loving". Mary Ward is inspiring and kind and she influenced many people to follow in her footsteps.

Tate Hewitt 6B

Mary Ward,

You guide us throughout our lives

To never give up hope, even when times may seem hopeless. 

Your actions throughout your life inspire us to persevere 

And always stay true to our beliefs even if they will have dire consequences. 

Actions throughout your life teach us to not entrust all of our ambitions within others,

Even if they seem more trustworthy than all others.

I pray that you will continue to inspire me, and other children

To pursue their dreams and always persevere. 

Amen.

Matthew Mignacca 6B

Dear God, 

Please guide me to be more like Mary Ward. May you help me to seek justice and freedom for all just like she did. Even though she had a tough life and was imprisoned, she remained faithful and spread God’s love and kindness to everyone. She created schools for girls so that they could get an education. Thankyou God for sending Mary Ward to us and I will try to be like her. 

Amen

Leon Raykos 3G

Mary Ward was a lovely, kind, caring and religious woman who I look up to. She believed in God and did many amazing things. She followed the virtues of freedom, justice and sincerity. Mary Ward was a wonderful woman and I am glad that she is a founding saint at our school. I admire the way she established many schools and even though she was imprisoned, she still believed in God and kept on spreading God’s words and love.

Georgina Gleghorn 3G

I am glad Mary Ward is one of our school’s founding Saints because she had a very difficult life but still kept her faith in God and helped many people. She walked across alps to open schools so that girls could get a better education. Even though she was imprisoned for her beliefs, she still wrote secret messages using lemon juice to her friends telling them to continue to spread God’s word. She believed in freedom, justice and sincerity.

Matilda Davini 3G

Many thanks to our wonderful community for the generous donations made to LifeLink for ‘Comfy Day’ on the last day of Term 2. 

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

Box Creations

At the end of last term the Pre-Primary students had a wonderful time planning, designing and creating amazing box constructions. Each student created a plan and worked out what they wanted to create and what materials they were going to use. It was a hive of creativity watching the students paint, glue, build, explore, discuss and have fun! A highlight of this experience was being part of the ‘Box Construction Parade’ where the students proudly showed off their masterpieces in Main Administration to Miss De Pinto!

Mrs Claire Peirce and Miss Hannah Kolbusz

Pre-Primary Teachers 

The Sound of Music 

The Primary school was filled with the sounds of music last term.  Students in lower primary were treated to a demonstration of instruments from the woodwind family – the flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, saxophone, different recorders and even a cor anglais. 

The Pre-Primary, Year 1 and Year 2 students proudly stood next to the bassoon and enjoyed being so close to an instrument that was bigger than they were! The Year 3 students were able to hold the instruments and feel the different weights and shapes, discovering bigger instruments can make lower sounds while smaller instruments make higher sounds. They also looked at the different mouthpieces/reeds and how some instruments were similar to others. 

Students in Year 5 have been composing their own music, writing out their compositions using proper music notation and performing them on various instruments including xylophones, pianos and even clarinets! 

The Year 6 students have created and performed their own ‘Rondo Form’ compositions using percussion instruments and ukuleles. One group added a trumpet! The students have worked on conducting skills and ‘effective practice’ with some excellent results.

A big thank you to Ms Jennings from the Music department for sharing so many of these precious instruments with us.

Catherine Haydon

Primary Music Specialist

Scientific Specimens

Last term, the Year 3 students visited the Secondary Science labs to investigate some very interesting specimens. They used their own Dichotomous Keys to help them classify a variety of creatures and had fun applying their knowledge as real life scientists. Thank you to the Secondary Science team for supplying us with these amazing resources and, of course, the lab coats!

Sports Update

Cross Country

We have just one week to go until the Year 3 – Year 6 Interhouse Cross Country Carnival!  Classes will be walking the course during sport lessons next week so everyone is familiar with it.  Parents are very welcome to come and cheer the runners on and there will be a coffee van on site.  

Please see the times below and use them as an approximate start time.  The girls will be running first and at the end of each year group there will be a presentation to the top 4 runners completing the long course events.

Athletics

Athletics training begins in Week 2 and will take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30pm to  4:30pm on the top oval.  We will be focusing on improving fitness and technique in the different track and field events and there will be expert coaching from some WAIS athletes to help with this.

Mr Steve Williams

Primary Sport Coordinator 

Counsellor's Corner

It has been wonderful to see such a positive start to Term 3. After all the uncertainty of last term the children seem genuinely excited to return to school. As they reconnect with friends and classmates it is inevitable things will get more complicated and friendship challenges may occur. This term I hope to continue empowering children with friendship skills on the playground and in the classroom using the URSTRONG program. In this program children learn what is normal in a friendship, the difference between healthy and unhealthy friendships, how to resolve conflict and how to stand up for themselves with kid-friendly concepts. As parents it can be hard to know how to respond to children’s distress about friendships. The URSTRONG founder offers some practical advice in this article https://urstrong.com/resource/think-of-yourself-as-a-friendship-coach/

If you have ongoing concerns about your child’s friendships or want further resources regarding friendship development in children, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I am available Monday to Thursday at school or anytime by email anne.murphy@cewa.edu.au

Anne Murphy

Primary Counsellor

Phone: 9383 0469