2024 Week 5 Newsletter - Term 2
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WEEKLY FOCUS - Rumble's Quest
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From the Principal - The language of motherhood.
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Important School Fee Information
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Car Park Closure
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From Our APRE
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In Our Prayers
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From the APC
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School Photos Postponed
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Athletics Carnival and Jumps Day
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Sport Events Date Claimers
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Port Curtis Cross Country Team
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Prep Mother's Day Fun
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Swap It News for You
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1 2 3 Magic Parent Course
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2025 Prep Enrolments
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2024 School Priorities
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Student Absentee Line
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St Joseph's Cathedral Appeal
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Caulfield 2023 Sponsors
WEEKLY FOCUS - Rumble's Quest
This week's video is accessed via the following link: https://www.realwell.org.au/parents/
It provides information about a game we are wanting to make available to our Year 1 to Year 6 students as a method of collecting data about their wellbeing and personal and social skills. It is a one off fun game that the students will access to assist us in tailoring appropriate support across the school. It is being made possible through a Wellbeing Boost grant provided to our school and all data collected is kept anonymous.
We encourage you to watch the video and keep your eye out for more information being emailed home to you.
From the Principal - The language of motherhood.
Dear families
I hope all our mothers felt the love last weekend. It was a gift to me to be able to be with my own Mum. It is funny how our relationship changes along each chapter of our relationship. I am very grateful for the strong, hard working and generous woman I get to call my Mum - her love for me is a precious gift.
Just as our mothers care deeply for our wellbeing and relationships, our school is proactively looking for ways to support students in these areas. Rumbles Quest is a game style method of collection to help us collect data to plan our next steps but we need your permission Keep your eye out for an email that will give you a bit more information. Please watch his week's video message to find out a little more.
"A mother's love and encouragement can light the way in even the darkest of times."
My husband often complains about all the love songs on the radio. They all sound the same! Why does everybody write love songs? And don’t even get him started on the soppy love story movies that I like to watch!!
I believe we keep writing love songs and movies because love is our life force. It’s what we were created for and we just can’t live without it. Love is messy and involves incredible amounts of self-sacrifice. For Christians, love should be the uniform by which they are known.
Mark Twain once wrote, "Kindness is a language that the deaf can hear and the blind can read." He was right, of course. Everyone can understand the language of love. It can be spoken in any dialect and still be comprehended by a person of any nationality, by the rich and the poor, by the old and the young, by both male and female.
Kindness is a universal language for it does not speak to the intellect, but directly to the heart - Ron Newhouse
Heartprints - Ruth Harms Calkin
Whatever our hands touch- We leave fingerprints!
On walls, on furniture, on doorknobs, dishes, books.
Smudges, showing we were there!
Oh God, wherever I go today
Help me leave heartprints!
Heartprints of compassion, of understanding and love.
Heartprints of kindness and genuine concern.
May my heart touch a lonely neighbour
Or a runaway daughter
Or an anxious mother
Or perhaps an aged grandfather.
Lord, send me out today to leave heartprints
And if someone should say “I felt your touch,”
May that one feeling be YOUR loving touch Lord, through ME.
May love fill your week with its beauty…
Have a wonderful week everyone!
God bless you.
Jennett Mullane
Principal
jennett_omullane@rok.catholic.edu.au
Important School Fee Information
Below is the first of a series of Advice pieces, developed to inform our Catholic Education families of the new Federal Government Funding model (Gonski model) and the impact on funding for Catholic Schools. Over the coming months, further Advice pieces will be shared, with each piece building on the detail of the previous. Please take the time to read each of the Advice pieces, to understand the impact of the changes on the funding for our school and School fees.
Car Park Closure
Please note that our main car park will be closed tomorrow morning - Wednesday 15th May from the start of the day until 10:30am.
From Our APRE
Welcome to Week 5 – this term is flying by. I have just come back from a beautiful prayer celebration with our Year 1 students. We spent time together praying for all mothers and it was a really special way to start the day.
I have spoken before about how blessed I am to have the most amazing Mum and I had a fantastic weekend with my family feeling very spoilt indeed. Where would we be without our Mums?
Our P & F had some pretty awesome gifts for sale at the Mother’s Day stall last week, hopefully they made it home safely and you felt the love. Thank you to the volunteers who make the stall possible. There is a great deal of work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure it runs smoothly and it is much appreciated.
A Mother's Love
There are times when only a mother's love
Can understand our tears,
Can soothe our disappointments
And calm all of our fears.
There are times when only a mother's love
Can share the joy we feel
When something we've dreamed about
Quite suddenly is real.
There are times when only a mother's faith
Can help us on life's way
And inspire in us the confidence
We need from day to day.
For a mother's heart and a mother's faith
And a mother's steadfast love
Were fashioned by the angels
And sent from God above.
- Author Unknown
God’s blessings,
Kellie Richardson
Assistant Principal: Religious Education
Kellie_richardson@rok.catholic.edu.au
Laudato Si’ is an encyclical letter from Pope Francis on care for our common home. This was an urgent challenge for us to come together to protect each other and our Earth. It is our vocation to be protectors of God’s handiwork.
During Laudato Si’ Week we are called to action.
Pope Francis’ 7 Laudato Si’ Goals
- Response to the cry of the Earth – a call to protect our common home for the wellbeing of all.
- Response to the cry of the poor – a call to defend all human life and all forms of life on Earth.
- Ecological Economics – acknowledges that our economy relies on the biosphere and it should serve people and respect creation.
- Adoption of sustainable lifestyles – calls us to sobriety in our use of resources and energy.
- Ecological Education – calls us to re-think and re-design curricular to foster ecological awareness and transformative action.
- Ecological Spirituality – helps us discover God in all things, from the beauty of creation to the sighs of the sick
- Community resilience and empowerment – calls for inclusive and synodal decision making to care for creation at all levels.
We have a couple of initiatives at Star of the Sea in response to Laudato Si. One of them is recycling. We have a scrap bucket for students to place their leftover food scraps in – this gets fed to the chickens (at my house) and we collect all recyclable containers (mainly poppers).
The collection of food in the photo below was from Monday’s scrap bucket. It is not unusual for this sort of food to be found in our scrap bucket, even after numerous conversations. We are addressing this issue again at the moment. Please have a conversation with your child at home about the waste.
On a brighter note, so far this year we have collected a total of $135 through the containers for change program. All money collected in this area goes toward our Mission organisations for the year. This term we support St Vincent de Paul assist a student program. With funds from our recycling program we are already able to support one student for 12 months.
https://donate.vinnies.org.au/assist-a-student
In Our Prayers
Let us pray...
• We pray in thanksgiving for the love of our mothers: May we never forget to show our love and gratitude for all they do for us.
• We pray for all those children who are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation: May they be open to the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
• We pray for all who seek to ease the suffering of others, especially charities such as Caritas: May we do all we can to support their generous work.
• We pray for all who live with war, sickness and suffering, that we will all be moved by the Holy Spirit to look for opportunities to bring justice, compassion and peace.
• We pray that, through the Holy Trinity, those who have died will find their home with the Lord.
From the APC
National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country. This event is a vibrant and fun event that aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes, and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.
This year NSS will take place at Star of the Sea in our Pastoral care groups this week. The book chosen for this year is “BOWER BIRD BLUES” written by Aura Parker.
Aura Parker is an award-winning illustrator, writer and designer. Her picture books are joyful with a playful sense of humour, brimming with details to explore. Aura Parker’s storytelling through words and pictures inspires imagination, courage and confidence in young readers as well as a love, curiosity and passion for nature.
Have a great week everyone.
Anthony King
Assistant to the Principal Curriculum
Anthony_king@rok.catholic.edu.au
School Photos Postponed
Unfortunately our school photos have had to be postponed and will not take place next week.
More information will be emailed home this week.
Athletics Carnival and Jumps Day
Parents, in preparation for our upcoming Athletics Carnival and Jumps Day, please complete the following Google Forms, to allow us to organise the program for the day.
Senior Events (9-12 Year Olds) https://forms.gle/RsJmvugDyfHVJZsB6
forms.gle |
Junior Jumps (Prep - Year 3)
If you are a parent and available to help, could you please complete the form attached. Students do not need permission forms completed to participate in Junior Jumps.
https://forms.gle/b3ieN7ZJtdBEa5HP7
Our Junior Field Jumps Day will be held on Friday 24th May, commencing at 8:50am. This day gives our younger students an opportunity to compete in activities that develop the skills used in Upper School Athletics Events. We take part in Obstacle Throw, Shot Put, High Jump and Long Jump and this year we have added a Scooter Board Relay. To enable the Junior Jumps Day to run smoothly, we require parent helpers to help with scoring and other minor jobs on the day. If you have not completed your Volunteer Induction, this can be done by calling into the school office to read and sign the Induction document, noting in particular our WHS, Sun Safety and Student Protection requirements. These Volunteer Inductions must be completed every year please. forms.gle |
Sport Events Date Claimers
- Junior Jumps - Friday 24th May. Field Events Day for Prep - 8 Year olds and the Prep Sprint race.
- Senior Jumps - Tuesday 28th May. Field Events Day for 9 - 12 Year olds.
- Athletics Carnival - Friday 31st May, to be held at Chanel College. All running events for students in Year 1 to Year 6. Prep students do not attend this Carnival.
Please note the school Tuckshop will be closed on Friday 31st May.
Port Curtis Cross Country Team
Congratulations to Luke P, Kurt T, Amarni T and Nethuli P on being selected to attend the Capricornia Trials to be held in Rockhampton next month.
Prep Mother's Day Fun
Swap It News for You
We are now a SWAP IT school! Here is this week's SWAP IT messages to help you 'swap' for healthier lunchboxes! Find tips on the SWAP IT website: www.swapit.net.au/tips
1 2 3 Magic Parent Course
2025 Prep Enrolments
2024 School Priorities
Student Absentee Line
If your child is not attending school, you can call us, 24/7, to leave a message to report the absence. The phone number is 4994 8301.
This designated phone line gives you the opportunity to call the school at a time that is convenient to you.
As always, absences can be reported using Parent Lounge or by emailing your child’s classroom teacher and SOSG_Absentee@rok.catholic.edu.au).