Our Vision ‘As partners in Catholic Education and open to God’s presence, we pursue fullness of life for all.’

Last Week, in recognition of 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia, the children celebrated with a range of activities across the years levels. A highlight was our giant 200 made of cupcakes! The children decorated cupcakes and mad fruit sticks to enjoy on Thursday, luckily the timing was right to allow the children this fun celebration together ahead of our latest stint of Home Learning.

A big thank you to Belinda Cooper, as a Kitchen Garden coordinator, Belinda made around 250 cupcakes for the children as well as fresh fruit sticks. Yum!

The theme for Catholic Education Week is ‘Faith in the Future’, which speaks of the essence of hope in faith, so needed against the backdrop of this year. In exploring this theme, we celebrate the history of our St Aloysius School community. Please enjoy some of the wonderful images of yesteryear, and how lovely to know that some of these children’s families are still part of school community today.

If any families have any old photos of St Aloysius, we would love to see them, please bring them into to school and we can scan them to share our history.

Dear Families of St Aloysius’ School,

Thank you to all families for your response to this latest lockdown period. Staff appreciated being able to plan and prepare for this week’s learning last Friday. Staff attended an initial meeting and then spent the remainder of the day planning and uploading tasks onto the school’s Home Learning Hub. As this is not our first experience, we have had a smooth transition to home learning. Devices were handed out last Thursday. If your child was absent or missed out on bringing home a device for their home learning, please contact the school office and one can be arranged for pick up.

The good news we have received this afternoon is that school will resume as planned on Friday. We will continue home learning tomorrow with children of essential workers attending on site as planned. We look forward to welcoming everyone back on Friday. A parent note has been sent home this afternoon reinforcing the new guidelines for regional areas.

Today is Wellbeing Wednesday and this allows families to have a little circuit breaker in the middle of the week. Activities are organised for Junior, Middle and Senior groups in most of our specialist areas. However, if it helps families, you may like to have all siblings do the same activities. This allows them to have some fun whilst learning and playing together.

Last night our School Advisory Council met for our June meeting. We had a productive meeting reviewing the school’s finances, the building program and Child Safety policies. We also discussed the introduction of ‘Essential Assessments’ which is an online assessment tool we are introducing across the school to determine student knowledge in Numeracy and Literacy. It can be used as a pre-test, mid-test or post-test. We believe it helps to target more accurately individual student needs and allows us to ‘Maximise engagement and growth for all students’ (St Aloysius’ Priority #3). The School Advisory Council (SAC) provides advice to the principal on ‘Big Picture’ items and provides a lens to ensure we continue to meet the goals set in or Annual Action Plan and School Improvement Plan.

We have included in this newsletter a Happiness Calendar for June that came across the desk from the Greater Good Science Centre which is developed at Berkeley University in California. It might provide some inspiration for you and the family this month and help you to remain positive in these challenging times. I share also the prayer that was presented at our SAC meeting last night. It speaks of us slowing down and being in God’s presence. Again it is a wonderful reminder that we need to slow down sometimes to see what is good around us.

Take care and keep safe. Michael and Narelle.

Let your God love you Edwina Gately (b.1943)

Be silent. Be still. Alone.

Empty before your God. Say nothing. Ask nothing.

Be silent. Be still.

Let your God look upon you. That is all.

God knows. God understands.

God loves you with an enormous love and only wants to look upon you

with that generous love. Quiet. Be still.

Let your God love you.

Amen

St Aloysius whole school enrolment, 1921

St Aloysius School Sports Day, 1960s

This little cutie is a current staff member. Can you guess who?

St Aloysius’ School’s Girls Marching Team, 1960s

St Aloysius’ School 1945, when St Aloysius was a Girls’ school only.

St Aloysius’ original Parish Hall building. Parish gathering?

St Aloysius School Sports Day, 1960s

St Aloysius senior students, 1950s

St Aloysius School Canteen – update! Please note, there will be no Canteen this week. Once we are back, we hope that canteen will re-commence as follows - With the flexischools system in place, orders can be placed by 9am on Thursday for Friday lunches. We are outsourcing our lunch orders to a local bakery.

If you are new to Flexischools simply download the Flexischools App from the App Store or Google Play (note for iPhones and ipads you will need to select ‘Allow’ notification), and follow the steps to set up your account https://wwww.flexischools.com.au/mobile-app

Once registered, you can start placing your orders. If you have any questions please visit Flexischools FAQs https://community.flexischools.com.au/s/ PAM (Parent Access Module) – Important Information for parents and care givers. Thank you to all families who have now activated their PAM accounts, and for supporting our first excursion activity using PAM. By now, it is anticipated that all families have activated their PAM (Parent Access Module). If you have not as yet, activated your account, we are asking that you do so as soon as possible as PAM will be a primary method in relaying important information between home and school. Please contact the school office if you require assistance with your PAM account.

Please be mindful that it is parent/carer responsibility to ensure that school is provided with up to date information regarding medical and emergency contact information. Families are asked to please check that their child’s student information is up to date on their PAM profile. If you require assistance with this, please let us know in the school office and we will help you with this.

In the coming weeks, we will be looking to consolidate our PAM platform with SIMON Everywhere, with the aim that this communication app will eventually replace Skoolbag. A benefit for families is that SIMON Everywhere can be set up as a mobile shortcut to your PAM account.

School Drop off, pick-ups and parking safely around school A reminder to families, when dropping off or picking up children that we must all adhere to the parking rules and please only park in the specified parking zones, please do not park in the school entrance gateway or neighbours driveways at any time.

The City of Ballarat has asked us to remind parents and carers to be mindful of the road rules and the danger of parking illegally around school. The City of Ballarat Traffic Officers will be enforcing parking regulations around schools in the coming weeks.

We thank all of our families as we work together to keep us all safe.

Foundation 2022 – School tours and expressions of Interest The first round process for Foundation allocations starting in 2022 has concluded. Principals of Central Zone Ballarat Catholic schools have now sent out communication to parents. If you or someone you know has not registered their interest in joining St Aloysius’ School for Foundation 2022, please call us or ask them to contact the school office.

Wellbeing It is of the utmost importance that we remain vigilant of the actions we take to maintain a healthy school community and minimise the risk of transmission of illness. If your child is unwell, even with mild symptoms please keep them at home and seek medical advice if needed. It is also a timely reminder to ensure that school is aware of any medical conditional, asthmas, allergies etc. that your child may have. Please ensure that school is up to date with your child’s medical and emergency contact information so we can best support their wellbeing.

School Activities

These amazing projects were the work of the children during their LOTE learning, where they had the opportunity to design their own Olympic mascot. They look fantastic! We have some very creative children.

St Aloysius Parish 2021 Sacramental Program We are hopeful that the celebration of First Eucharist will be celebrated this term for those children in Grade 5 or older who have been Baptised, Confirmed and celebrated Reconciliation. For more information please contact Bernadette on 0455 212 123

Parents and Friends Meeting, next meeting, 15 June, all welcome! Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, 15 June from 7.30 pm. It will take place in the new staffroom at St Aloysius' School or you may join us online. We will share an online link closer to the meeting date. Either way, we would love to have as many parents as possible attend as we value your input.

St Aloysius School Pie Drive Dear St Aloysius Families, our P&F are excited to offer our Pie Drive fundraiser … just in time for winter! Please feel free to ask family and friends if they would like to support our school fundraiser.

Pie Drive orders are due by Tuesday 8 June

Please place your order in the P&F Box, in the school foyer. Orders will be delivered to school On Tuesday, 22 June. Thank you!

St Aloysius Play Group Playgroup runs each Friday morning from 9am until around 10.30 am at St Aloysius School subject to current COVID safe guidelines and/or restrictions. Families are most welcome to come along for a cuppa and enjoy each other’s company once. Please sign in via the school office on arrival.

Concession card holders, Camp Sports and Excursion Fund (CSEF) If you hold a concession card you may be eligible for the CSEF. The CSEF is a Victorian Government initiative for eligible families, who hold a valid Health Care card or Pension Concession card. CSEF Eligibility will be subject to the parent/legal guardian’s concession card being successfully validated with Centrelink on the first day of term one. Eligible families will receive $125 paid directly to school. If you are unsure if school has your concession card details please contact the school office. More information is available via - www.education.vic.gov.au/csef.

School Uniform All children should be wearing their full winter uniform by now. Please name all your child’s belongings to assist us with returning any misplaced items. Our second hand uniform cupboard has a supply of second hand uniform items.. If you are in need of a particular school uniform item please message Bron on 0409 162 353 any school day between 2:30-3:20pm or call into the office if you would like to browse the second-hand uniform cupboard. If you have uniform items that you would like to sell, you can leave clean (washed) items at the school office, with attached envelope listing the item , size, sale price, your name and number. Beleza school uniform suppliers in Doveton Street (opposite Target) are our official uniform supplier for new school wear. The Beleza team can assist with sizing.

Music Tuition at St Aloysius School Instrument and Singing We have a number of children enjoying our music tuition and weekly choir gathering.

If your child would like to have keyboard, guitar or singing lessons at school, please contact Tim or Myrawin on 0450 904 464.

If your child would like to learn drums at school please contact Will Stephens on 0475 415 063.

School Activities

School Calendar – Term 2

TERM 2 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sat/Sun

Week 7 31 May – 6 June

31 1

Assembly

2 3

Kelly Sports

Mass

4

Playgroup

5/6

Week 8 7-13 June

7 8

Assembly

9 10

Kelly Sports

Mass

11

Playgroup

12/13

Week 9 14-21 June

14

Queen’s Birthday

Public Holiday

15

Assembly

16 17

Kelly Sports

Mass

18

Playgroup

19/20

Week 10

21-27 June 21 22

Assembly

23

SCHOOL PHOTO

DAY

24

Kelly Sports

Mass

25

Playgroup Final Day of Term 2 2:30pm dismissal for students

26/27

Rory creating 3D shapes Sophie building a fort for her Daily Challenge.

Rory and Trent making the ‘fastest cars’ for their Daily Challenge.

Ruby and Alice making 3D shapes

Leroy’s weekend recount

Some pictures of our children completing their Home Learning.

Parent Support

Hello Families,

As some of you are aware, I am the school counsellor here at St Aloysius. I am a mum of four kids aged 11-4, and since Covid, I found that our household has been a little more tense, we all seem to be more on edge. I came across Dr Justin’s happy families on Facebook and started following him. He has a few free webinars from time to time and I was able to watch the last one on how to stop the cycle of yelling (which has been very helpful in our stressed household!) Luckily, he is holding a new free webinar coming up soon and I thought I’d share it with you. I hope you all find it as helpful as I have.

Amy Powell

The Do’s and Don’ts of Discipline

https://happyfamiliesfamilyeducation.ac-page.com/the-dos-donts-of-discipline

Our learning