Catholic Primary School Continuing the journey through partnership

05 March 2018 Newsletter Number 05/2018

Dear Parents, Care-givers, Friends and Supporters of Catholic Education, Staff and Students, Sharing Compassion One of the greatest joys in life is sharing passions with another – think about it. Now when you thought about it, you thought about people very close to you – spouse, partner, children, very best friend – and you felt for them. But when you consider the words we use in English for sharing passion – ‘compassion’ (Latin background), ‘empathy’ (Greek background), we see that the relationships in which we show these feelings reach a far wider group of people – even people we have never met. Compassion and empathy stretch our minds and hearts and school us into making friends with many people in a variety of ways. During Lent, Australian Catholics support ‘Project Compassion’. This is the fundraising drive of Caritas, the international relief, development and social service agency. Throughout Lent your children will hear about the people helped by the projects of Caritas. As they hear they will be invited to help these people, not only through fundraising but also through prayer and interest. For you, as parents and carers, it is an opportunity to widen the horizons of their hearts and minds, to teach them to care for people beyond their own circle.

Loving God, we are each and all your children. Give us the wide deep love of your holy Spirit that we

may recognise all people as brothers and sisters in Jesus. May we share in his compassionate heart.

We ask this in his name confident that you will hear us. Sr Kym Harris osb

Mr John Ballinger-Oches Principal

Congratulations to the

Following

Week 6 term 1

Prep PC Award

For really trying hard to make good

choices in our room, following our

classroom rules and working hard in

rotations. Brendan Bannan

For being a letter and number wiz!

We are so impressed with your recall

of letters, sounds and numbers.

Keep up the great work! Iniyan Ramasamy

Year 1 / 2 V Award

For Being very helpful in the classroom.

Clare Borg

For co-operating and always being

willing to help others. Lilly Zaro

Year 2 O Award

For being a positive and enthusiastic

learner. Keep it up! Elita McDonald

For always being willing to lend a hand.

Thank you! Clancy Sammut

For being a helpful and responsible class

member. Good job! Lilliana Giddings

For taking the time to help others with

their mathematics. Well done! Neena Payne

Year 3 D Award

For the progress you are making in

reading. Keep up the great work.

Anthony Micallef, Shayli Wallis, Chase Higgs

Year 3 H Award

For learning from your mistakes and

making good choices. Keep up the big

effort! Nathan Borg

For the great attitude you have been

bringing to class this week. Keep it up!

Lotoya Withers

Year 4 D Award

For your diligence when writing your

twisted fairytale! I really appreciate the

effort you put into your writing this

week. Thank-you Jasmine Cotter, Charlise Whitaker, Tobias Baillie

Year 4 HP Award

For the way your group has been

working so well together. You are all so

organised and getting along beautifully!

You are being great friends to each other.

Keep it up. Seth Palmer, Axl Armstrong, Thomas Arthur, Toby Montgomery

Year 5 E Award

For working hard during Breakout EDU

and Steam. Shelby Campbell

For having a positive work ethic and

always putting in 100%. Kayla Hall

Year 5 G Award

For always putting in 100% effort into

Maths. Timothy Gaw

For your Journal entries – they are

always entertaining. Dylan Matthews

Year 6 A Award

For the amazing effort you are putting

in to get all of your classwork complete!

Joshua Mifsud, Matthew Galea

Year 6 W Award

For your amazing Earthquake Report.

Jason Grimmond, Chloe Montgomery

PE Award

For your amazing attitude and effort at

run club! Nick Grimmond, Ella Walz

BIRTHDAYS Congratulations to students who celebrate their Birthday this week: 26/02 Dustan Grech 28/02 Chase Higgs

01/03 Will Sammut 02/03 Wyatt Dobie

02/03 Jake Grundy 02/03 Allie Say

03/03 Jasmine cotter

Parent Lounge: https://313sas.rok.catholic.edu.au/parentlounge

Website: www.sasrok.catholic.edu.au

Facebook: St Anne’s Catholic Primary School Sarina

SCHOOL WIDE POLICY

NO HAT! NO PLAY!

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS Here at St Anne’s we value the achievements of our students

and love sharing the news with our School Community!!

Please send an email to: sas@rok.catholic.edu.au so we can

celebrate your fantastic news.

PRAYERS FOR THE SICK We remember all those in our

community who are unwell or

recovering from illness or surgery.

Dear Lord, Bless all who are sick, especially those in our School Community. May they experience, in a special way, the great love and concern Jesus has for them. Amen.

NOTES SENT HOME SINCE LAST

NEWSLETTER Date To Topic Author

26/02 All Parents Newsletter 4 Admin

27/02 All Parents Scholastic Book Club Librarian

02/03 Selected

Students Holy Thursday Mrs Peitzner

02/03 Selected

Students Holy Thursday Mrs Pietzner

02/03 All Parents Let Generosity Shine Mrs Patroni

FROM THE PRINCIPAL GRATITUDE JOURNAL Gratitude is one of the most important virtues we can have in our

lives and is an important part of building happiness. Gratitude

can be defined as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show

appreciation for and to return kindness”. It is easy in life at times

to focus on our problems rather than to be thankful for all the

wonderful blessings we have been given.

Our School is very grateful to …

…Woolworths Sarina for their lovely

donation to the school of a carton of

apples and a carton of bananas.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

STUDENT-LED INTERVIEWS It is that time of year again when we hold Student-Led

Interviews. The purpose of these interviews is to

inform parents of how their child has settled into the

new year and the progress they have made so far. It

is also a great time to discuss any questions you as

parents may have regarding homework, student

expectations in the classroom and general

achievement and behaviour.

Interviews for all students except Prep & Year 4HP

will be held in week nine, 19th – 23rd March. Parent

Lounge will be open from 9am Thursday 8th March

to 3pm Wednesday 14th March for parents to make

bookings with teachers.

Interviews for Prep & Year 4HP will be held Monday

– Wednesday Week 10, 26th – 28th March &

Thursday – Friday Term 2 Week 1, 19th & 20th April.

Parent Lounge will be open from 9am Thursday 8th

March to 3pm Wednesday 14th March for parents to

make bookings with teachers.

PUPIL FREE DAYS

Please make sure to note the following two pupil free

days on your calendars:

Monday 16th April 2018

Friday 22 June 2018

PRAYER AT ST ANNE’S All classes commence and finish the day in prayer and

also say a prayer before lunch. We commence

assembly each Monday and Friday in prayer. As most

of you would know, each Monday morning at 8.00am

the teachers gather together to pray as a school

community. This is an important and special time for

us. Each week I come away from these gatherings with

something to ponder and reflect on. I am grateful to

my parents who instilled in me the importance and

power of prayer and nurtured in me the strong faith

that I have today. I encourage you to take some time

each day, as a family if possible, to strengthen your

relationship with God through prayer.

SARINA LITTLE ATHLETICS

It has recently been brought to my attention that the

Sarina & District Athletics Club, which is a

longstanding club within Sarina and surrounds, is at

risk of folding due to lack of committee members.

They are holding a Final AGM at 4pm on Tuesday

13th March 2018 at the Sarina & District Athletics Club

at Brewer’s Park. If they cannot fill all of the

committee positions at this time the club will need to

be dissolved. If any St Anne’s families are part of, or

would like to be part of, the Sarina & District Athletics

club I ask you to please consider attending the AGM

and take on a committee position. I know many St

Anne’s families have benefitted over the years from

attending the Athletics Club’s “Little Athletics”

program and it would be wonderful to see this

continue into the future.

BOOKCLUB

Bookclub Issue 2 order forms were handed to

students last week. Lots of fun and exciting reading is

again available to all our students both old and new

from Scholastic Bookclub. Once again we are pleased

to offer you the benefits of purchasing resources from

Scholastic at a reasonable cost. Bookclub has the

latest books available and introduces us to new

authors throughout the year. The school is awarded

bonus points from the total sales and from this is

purchased new resources for the library. The closing

date for Issue 2 is Friday 9 March 2018.

PARENTING WORRIES

Don’t let parenting worries keep you up at night!

The results from Triple P’s annual parenting survey are

in! Encouraging kids to be healthy, managing screen

time and dealing with kids’ emotions are the three

biggest worries keeping Queensland parents up at night

right now. Triple P founder, Professor Matt Sanders

says the best thing parents can do to encourage positive

behaviour is to lead by example.

Kids who grow up with positive parenting do better at

school and in life. Parents who do Triple P are also less

stressed and depressed. Triple P is free in Queensland –

do it online, in seminars or groups, or one-on-one. Visit

www.triplep-parenting.net

ONLY ONE YOU A whole of school activity which was undertaken

towards the end of last year was the Only One You

Project. All classes were read the book of the same

name and then had to create a rock masterpiece that

spoke only of them. Students either did this with their

teachers or with Mrs Comin. These finished

masterpieces are now on display in our Only One You

garden. Please refrain from touching these rocks as

they are for display only.

WELL-BEING Recently an interesting article by Georgina from

wellbeingforkids.com.au (Jan 24, 2018)

entitled, Reasons Today’s Kids Are Bored at School, Feel Entitled, Have Little Patience & Few

Real Friends based on an article written by

Jacqueline Victoria Prooday, came across my desk. It

finishes with some useful tips on how we can assist

our children to train the brain.

TRAIN THE BRAIN You can make a difference in your child’s life by training your child’s brain so that your child will successfully function on social, emotional, and academic levels. How?

Limit technology, and re-connect with your kids emotionally Surprise them with flowers, share a smile, tickle them, put a love note in their backpack or under their pillow, surprise them by taking them out for lunch on a school day, dance together, crawl together, have pillow fights Have family dinners, board game nights, go biking, go to outdoor walks in the evening.

Train delayed gratification

Make them wait!!! It is okay to have “I am bored” time – this is the first step to creativity

Gradually increase the waiting time between “I want” and “I get”

Avoid technology use in cars and restaurants, and instead teach them waiting while talking and playing games

Limit constant snacking

Don’t be afraid to set the limits. Kids need

limits to grow happy and healthy!! Make a schedule for meal times, sleep times, technology time

Think of what is GOOD for them- not what they WANT/DON’T WANT. They are going to thank you for that later on in life. Parenting is a hard job. You need to be creative to make them do what is good for them because, most of the time, that is the exact opposite of what they want.

Kids need breakfast and nutritious food. They need to spend time outdoor and go to bed at a consistent time in order to come to school available for learning the next day!

Convert things that they don’t like doing/trying into fun, emotionally stimulating games

Teach your child to do monotonous work

from early years as it is the foundation for future “work-ability” Folding laundry, tidying up toys, hanging clothes, unpacking groceries, setting the table, making lunch, unpacking their lunch box, making their bed

Be creative. Initially make it stimulating and fun so that their brain associates it with something positive.

Teach social skills

Teach them turn taking, sharing, losing/winning, compromising, complimenting others, using “please and thank you”

From my experience as an occupational therapist, children change the moment parents change their perspective on parenting. Help your kids succeed in life by training and strengthening their brain sooner rather than later!

SICK STUDENTS With the high incidence of ill children at this time of

year, it’s important to be very clear about

responsibilities in regard to care of sick children.

Queensland Government Schools Policy stipulates that

any student who suffers from the effects of diarrhoea

or vomiting must be excluded from school for 24 hours

after the symptoms cease. In the case of the flu, students

MUST be excluded until well.

In the interest of individual students and our school

community, we do call parents to immediately come

and collect their children as soon as we reasonably

suspect they are unwell. This clearly ensures students

get the care they need and very importantly, the risk of

spreading illness to fellow students and staff is

immediately and significantly reduced. Parents who

both work must make arrangements with their

employer, or have made arrangements with another

care provider, to be able to collect their children when

needed. It is obviously not acceptable for individuals to

be sent to school when they are clearly unwell, or not

to have arrangements in place if they become ill while

at school. Please make sure you have these

arrangements in place, so that your children, and our

community, are protected.

APRE NEWS LENT

During Lent, you will hear and see many changes in

our church as we prepare for Easter.

Some of the obvious signs are the change of colours

and the removal of flowers form the altar. As Lent is

a penitential season you will no longer hear the

Gloria and Alleluia during mass. The ‘Gloria’ is a song

of joy and the word ‘Alleluia’ is a Hebrew word that

means ‘Praise to God’ therefore we withhold some of

this joy until we celebrate the Risen Christ at Easter.

PROJECT COMPASSION Bayan is a 12 year-old Syrian girl, living with her

family in Jordan. An ambitious student, Bayan has her

sights set on a career as an ophthalmologist. As a

quiet, young refugee she struggled to overcome the

trauma of growing up in a conflict zone and faced the

prospect of missing out on schooling. With Caritas

Australia’s support, Bayan is an academic high-

achiever who is flourishing in a stable school

environment.

Please donate to

Project Compassion

2018 and help bring

stability to vulnerable

youth, providing just

futures for others like

Bayan.

A Just Future starts with

your support! You can

donate through Project

Compassion

boxes/envelopes, visit

www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion or phone 1800

024 413.

PREPARATION AND CELEBRATION

SACRAMENTS OF CONFIRMATION

AND EUCHARIST AT ST MICHAEL’S

PARISH – 2018

Sacrament of Confirmation

Rite of

Enrolment Mass

Sunday 18th

March 9 am

St

Michael’s

Church

Preparation sessions for Confirmation

Session 1 (with

catechists)

Sunday 18th

March

Sessions 2 & 3 These are to be done with the

parents & child at home and to be completed by

Session 4 with the catechists

Session 4 (with

catechists)

Sunday 22nd

April

Sacrament of Eucharist

Rite of

Enrolment Mass

Sunday 29th

April 9 am

St

Michael’s

Church

Preparation sessions for Confirmation

Session 1 6th May

Session 2 13th May

Session 3 20th May

Celebration of

the Sacraments

of Confirmation

& Eucharist with

Bishop Michael

McCarthy

Sunday 9am 3rd

June Sunday

St

Michael’s

Church

Practice Friday 1st June

3:30 pm

HOLY WEEK LITURGY –

THE WAY OF THE CROSS On Holy Thursday March 29 we

will gather in the hall at 9am to

begin our Easter celebration. The

students will re-enact the Stations of the Cross. Some

children will play special parts and the entire school

will make up the crowd scene. We would like all the

children to be in costume, to sing, to respond and to

join in prayer together.

Please keep costumes as simple as possible and to

enable dressing to be done in the classrooms – school

shorts and singlet /T-shirt underneath.

A couple of suggestions:-

a rectangular piece of material (or a large scarf)

with a neck opening and a simple cord tie around

the waist

an oversize T-shirt with a cord tie around the

waist

an old pillowcase with cut-outs for neck and arms

with a cord waist tie is suitable for some Prep and

Year 1 children

sandals or bare feet

LET GENEROSITY SHINE There are many people living in our school

community who do not have enough food to eat.

Children go to school without breakfast, families

struggle to put enough on the table to go around, and

people can't always get what they need to stay

healthy.

Donating food items is a great way of helping out our

school community and can make a huge difference to

an individual or family.

Many families struggle to keep food on their tables

due to the escalating cost of basic items. There are

many individuals and families struggling with feeding

their families on a consistent basis. While maybe in

some months most people are fine, there can be other

periods of time due to an unexpected bill or reduction

in income that can make it more challenging. In an

emergency, a food donation may be able to help.

We have decided to set up a food pantry at St Anne’s.

This will be an area in our office where you can

donate food, that can be distributed to families when

they need help. In the past we have collected food

items at Christmas. We have decided to have an

ongoing collection point, where food can be donated

regularly for those families that need help.

When you are shopping, if you can afford an extra

item, you can buy something and put it in our

collection area in the office. We can ensure these

items are given to needy families or individuals as

they are required. With Easter almost upon us, it

could be a lovely way to help families out who need

our care and support.

Thank you in advance for your generosity and

kindness.

Helen Patroni

CURRICULUM NEWS

FROM THE APC At Saint Anne’s, one of our ways of assisting children

in growing a positive mindset and maintaining

positive health and wellbeing, is to teach the Program

Achieve/ You Can Do It program across all year levels.

You Can Do It (YCDI) is a school- to home- to

community approach to helping young people

achieve to the best of their ability. This program

teaches children the social and emotional attitudes

that they need to be successful and happy. This

program is taught all over Australia and even

overseas.

The areas this program focuses on are: (an excerpt

from the introductory pages of the YCDI program,

written by Professor Michael E. Bernard)

Persistence: this helps us to try hard and to not give

up when school work feels like it’s too difficult or

boring. Examples of persistent behaviour are

continuing to try even when work is hard, not being

distracted by others and checking work when it is

finished to make sure it is correct.

Organisation: means setting goals to help do our

best in school work, planning our time so that we are

not rushed, having all of your supplies ready and

keeping track of due dates and school commitments

such as library and homework due dates. Examples of

organised behaviour include making sure the teacher’s

instructions are understood before starting work and

having a neat desk.

Getting Along: This means working well with

teachers and classmates, solving problems without

getting too angry and following the rules of the

classroom. Examples of getting belong behaviour are

being helpful when working in a group, listening and

not interrupting when someone else is speaking and

talking rather than fighting when someone acts

unfairly.

Confidence: Confidence means knowing that we will

likely be successful at many things that we study. It

means not being afraid to make mistakes or to try

something new. Examples of confident behaviour are

raising our hands in class to answer a hard question,

trying hard work without asking for help first or

sharing a new idea with the teacher or class.

Resilience: Emotional resilience means knowing how

to stop ourselves from getting extremely angry, down

or worried when something “bad” happens. It means

being able to calm down and feel better when we get

very upset. It also means being able to control our

behaviour when we are very upset. Examples of

resilience include when we make a mistake, do not

understand something, get a bad school report or are

teased or ignored, we can stop ourselves from getting

down. Another example is if someone treats us

unfairly or disrespectfully, we can stop ourselves from

getting too angry and lashing out.

You will see these words on keys around the school.

One of the philosophies behind the YCDI program is

that all students are like treasure chests. They all have

something priceless inside them- “Success” and “Being

Happy.” By using these five keys of persistence,

organisation, getting along, confidence and resilience,

they can unlock their happiness and their ability to be

successful. By explicitly teaching our students these

five keys to success, we hope to bring out the very

best in our young people at Saint Anne’s.

Have a lovely week

Linda Holmes Acting APC

Finance News SCHOOL FEES OVER DUE School fees are now overdue. If you have not already

done so, please pay these as soon as possible. If you

have any queries, please see the finance officer on

Monday to Thursday.

P & F News

P & F MEETING 6:30PM MONDAY 12TH

MARCH The next P&F meeting is being held at 6:30pm on

Monday 12th March in the Meeting room at St Anne’s.

All welcome. Please note the earlier time. We are

trialling this over the next few months.

GENERAL NEWS SECOND HAND BOOKS WANTED

You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child. Dr Seuss Do you have any books in reasonable condition, that

you do not use?

Saint Anne’s would be able to make good use of these

books.

We have a plan to support children who may not

have a library of books at home.

All donations would be kindly accepted.

Please drop books into Karen in the library and she

will put them to good use.

Thanking you in advance. Sue Holmes

COMMUNITY NEWS

SARINA & DISTRICT ATHLETICS

CLUB. FINAL NOTICE OF AGM PRIOR

TO POSSIBLE DISSOLUTION This is the Final Notice for the AGM advertised

on Saturday 3rd March. A quorum was not

reached.

AGM has been re-scheduled.

DATE: Tuesday 13th March

TIME: 4 pm

VENUE: Sarina and District Athletics Club,

Brewer’s Park, Sarina.

All committee positions are vacant

and if not filled the Sarina and

District Athletics Club will

dissolve.