Hello to all.

As a P & F group we wanted to take the time to say hello to everyone and send out a group greeting as we hope everyone is keeping safe and well. It is a strange time for us all, as we deal with fighting this Coronavirus together. It’s comforting to witness the declining numbers within the community, state and country. We all miss seeing the kids and families amongst the school grounds, and also on our social occasions, so we look forward to things getting back to normal and being able to interact with one another again. St Fidelis has such a beautiful school community and we should foster this spirit even more when we return to normal.

Although we haven't met as a P&F group or embarked on any Zoom or online meetings as yet, we are planning to in the coming weeks. Please let us know or email danielle.sportelli@hotmail.com if you would like to join in on one of these meetings online.

Events for Term 2 and 3

Before we left for our term break, we had planned some great events for Term 2 and 3. Like many organisations and committees, we have had to cancel some of these dates or push them to the end of the year. This includes the Mother's Day raffle in which we had already gathered some prizes. We hope to link this in with the Art Show or an event when we return. Once things are back to normal we will share some more details of what the back half of the year might look like, specifically in relation to some social and fundraising events. Behind the scenes, we are also looking at ways of how we can continue fundraising whilst in isolation (if possible), so we can continue to support the development of the STEM learning space. Thank you to Manuela for sharing the video of this space last week with the school community. You can view this on the school's Facebook page - St Fidelis Catholic Primary School. It is great to know that the money raised from 2019 has gone to such a great learning environment.

Thank you for the Easter Raffle donations

Although it feels like some time ago now, we would like to thank all the wonderful families for the donations that were sent in for the Easter Raffle. Once we collated all the items, we were able to make up over 24 prizes including 10 hampers. It was a great success and from memory, we raised over $1600 from sales of the raffle tickets. As it was brought forward and drawn on that last day of the term (March 27th) we hope everyone that was a winner has been able to collect their prizes. Please contact the office if there are any issues with this.

Thank you to all our great teachers and support staff.

As the P&F is a representation of parents and carers, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the teachers for the wonderful work they have done to get us up and running and for their continual support for both the children and parents, with our home schooling journey. As we know, many of our teachers have families and kids of their own, and that they are home schooling at the same time. This would be a huge undertaking with so many challenges. A MASSIVE THANK-YOU MUST GO OUT TO ALL THE TEACHERS! Your extra work, dedication and enthusiasm has not gone unnoticed.

Also, thanks to the office and support staff for continuing to support families and the school community through their ongoing duties. It has been a learning journey for all of us, but something that we will all be thankful for in the long term, as we keep our community safe. We know our kids are still engaged, learning and being challenged to think and complete their schoolwork in different ways. So, that in itself, is a life experience that they will remember and grow from.

Congratulations to all the kids

We also want to congratulate the kids on their efforts so far for taking on this new way of learning. Having spoken with many friends, it's been great to hear how they are just getting on with it the best way they can, exploring new processes and their creativity. They are facing major changes and challenges, but are doing so well overall. We should remind them that it's OK to have a bad day or a bad hour amongst it all, as I'm sure many of us parents are also having. We miss seeing all the kids in their natural school environment, but we look forward to seeing them reconnect and sharing their stories of this time apart.

To all Parents and Carers

Through this time of restrictions and distancing we are all faced with different emotions and some of us are faced with harder living situations than others. Please know however, that if anyone needs any assistance and support, they should seek help or just have a chat with another parent. Having a simple conversation can change the mood of the day. On a personal note, I have had some flat days through this time, but we all need to keep connecting, communicating and know we are there for one another. Like Saint Fidelis, who helped anyone in need in his time, we too are there for the community. If there is anything, big or small that we can do to help, please contact me /us via the following email - danielle.sportelli@hotmail.com

We would also like to wish all our fantastic mums in the school a very Happy Mother's Day for this coming Sunday May 10th. We hope the kids spoil you in their own very special way.

Vinnies Winter Appeal - collation of donations on hold

As many of you have supported the Vinnies Winter appeal in the past years, we have had to put this year’s collection on hold for the immediate future. Generally, in the month of May or June, we collate donations of winter clothing, blankets and toiletries for those less fortunate than us. However, due to all the changes that we have faced over the last 2 months, we are awaiting advice from our contact as to the actual needs of what the organisation requires this year. Can we ask that if you have cleaned out any clothing and blankets over the course of this down period, and you have space to hold onto them, please do so as we may be able to simply pick this process up in term 3. More info will follow once things are back to normal.

Thanks for your time on keeping up to date with our news. As mentioned, we look forward to reconnecting with everyone once we get to the end of this. So please "Stay warm and Stay Safe" and let’s pray for all those near and far affected by this terrible pandemic.

If you need to contact the P&F group through the month of May, please do so by emailing me, Danielle Sportelli - danielle.sportelli@hotmail.com or contacting any P&F committee members reps you know.

Learning & TeachingDi Manthos

Learning & Teaching
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