School News

SCHOOL CALENDAR

Please click here to access our school calendar to view all important upcoming dates.

R.E. NEWS

Confirmation 

The new dates for Confirmation are Saturday 13th November (3.00pm) and Sunday 14th November (11.00am). Families will receive a note to nominate which Mass they would like to attend. We will still adhere to 5 people per candidate (including the candidate) to ensure we follow the COVID-19 guidelines. Please send in any outstanding information forms and payment as soon as possible.

Praying the Rosary

October is the month of the Rosary. The Rosary is a traditional Catholic prayer reflecting on the lives of Jesus and Mary. Students will be praying the Rosary in class each day during the month of October

World Mission Month - October

World Mission Month is celebrated every year in every country, wherever there are Catholics committed to building a better world for all of God's people. We strive to support a world where everyone has all they need to live a dignified and fulfilling life. 

During October each school in the Diocese raises funds for World Mission. We will be having a "CrAzY SoCk" day on Wednesday 27th October. Students are asked to bring a gold coin donation to support the work of Catholic Mission.

Parish News

St Edward's Parish are about to commence a program for those interested in learning more about the Catholic faith tradition.

Some are joining the group with a view to joining the Catholic Church, others may join simply to learn more about the faith.

If you are interested in joining the program, please feel welcome to call Deacon Paul on 0418 667 329 or the Parish Office  southtamworthparish@armidale.catholic.org.au

LIBRARY NEWS

The '1000 Before School' Project and beyond!

This new library initiative is proving to be a runaway success! I can hardly keep up demand for bags of books for our families with a child starting Kindergarten in 2022. This is a wonderful thing as every book read helps to prepare your child for a more confident start to their school years. 

Even if your child has already started school, it is never too late to develop a love of reading and some sound reading skills. 

Below are a few tips to help you to interact with your child when reading picture books with them. But, even with older children, sharing a short chapter book is a wonderful way to improve reading skills with regular reading habits. Read a page each, or a paragraph, use voices for the spoken words, predict what you think will come next...these are all ways to engage your child with the reading process and helps to improve reading and comprehension skills.

Tips when reading with your child

1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud.

2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read. 

3. Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot. 

4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.

 5. Read the stories that the kids love, over and over and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations on each page, each time. 

6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games. 

7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short. 

8. Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game. 

9. Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books. 

10. Please read aloud every day because you just love being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.

Overdue Books

Thank you to parents and teachers who have ensured overdue books are being returned. I have as many gentle conversations as I can with students to help them to remember to look for books, but I really appreciate parents and teachers helping the cause along.

All books belong to all members of our school community and, as such, are an asset that needs to enjoyed by everyone.

Thanks so much and keep returning them in a timely manner. Every library loves to see overdue books returned.

See you in the Library,

Annie Madden