Dear Parents and Carers,

As our term progresses, we have been busy both in class and participating in representative activities.

Last Friday we hosted our local member of Federal Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister the Hon. Michael McCormack.

This visit was the culmination of the writing competition held by Mr McCormack in the lead up to ANZAC Day.  During his visit, Mr McCormack spoke with the children about different aspects of his role in parliament. 

Perhaps the most important message related to taking time to work on developing writing skills, as this skill is used on numerous occasions in and will be invaluable in life.

He then presented certificates to those children who entered the competition, before making a presentation to Yetu Akhiwu in recognition of her poem, which was awarded first prize in this year’s competition.

During the past few weeks, we have been focusing on these words - Aspire, Believe, Connect.

We all know that it can be difficult to make right choices when our friends may not.  However, making those difficult choices can prove to ourselves that we are able and willing to do what is right.

These words form the basis of a short phrase/slogan that is an easily remembered way of identifying what we are working towards.

Aspire – to be our best

Believe – that Jesus is with us

Connect – with each other, the world and God

Already the children have been discussing these words and phrases in their classrooms to embed a consistent understanding across our school.

We have also been talking about our understanding that whilst we all have rights, this also means that we all have a responsibility to ensure that we don’t take those same rights away from others.  Again, this is a challenging topic to have a clear understanding of, however, it has provided for some excellent conversations around how the actions of others can have a negative effect on myself. 

Our public speaking went up a level at St Mary’s      on Tuesday morning.  All of our speakers did a terrific job of working to present a particular image to those listening.  Our audience included the Yr. 3 - 6 children from St Mary’s, parents and school staff.  There were more than 150 people in the audience.

All of our speakers carried off presenting to an audience of this size beautifully. Congratulations to Ruby and Genevieve, Henry and Hamish, Charlie and Skye, Sophie and Kate – each of you did a terrific job.

Special congratulations to Genevieve, who was the overall winner of the Yr. 3 competition and will represent us at the Western Region Public Speaking in West Wyalong.

Well done to both Hamish (Yr. 4) and Kate (Yr. 6) who were the runners up in their respective divisions.

With our weather continuing to be very changeable, we have been encouraging the children to put jumpers and coats on outside of the classrooms.  We have also been reminding the children to ensure that they have their jumpers in their schoolbags at the end of each day, in preparation for the continuing cold mornings.

Please continue to ensure that your child’s clothing is clearly labelled for ease of identification.

Book Week – Book week is coming…

The theme for 2018 is Find your treasure…

Now is the time to start thinking about the Book Character parade and what characters we might be seeing on the day.  Remember to bring a copy of the book that your character appears in to the parade.

Our 2018 Book Character Parade will be held at 12:30pm on next Friday, August 24.

Archdiocesan Athletics – Good luck to Addison, Phoebe, Yetu, Alexander and Hamish at the Athletics Carnival in Canberra on Tuesday.

Annual Satisfaction Survey - An annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff will be conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese this term. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. Responses are confidential and individuals can not be identified. 

The surveys will be launched via email on August 20 and close on August 31, 2018 using the email addresses supplied to the school. If you do not receive an email with a link to the survey on 20th August, you can access and complete the survey at the following link.

 https://www.research.net/r/stjosephsgrenfellparent2018

Changes to routines – thank you to those families who are keeping us informed when there is a change to the routine at the end of the day.  This helps to make departures flow smoothly.

If there has been a change to the regular routine, please let us know.

As this is my last newsletter for this term, before commencing Leave, I take is opportunity to wish you all a successful second half of the term and look forward to hearing about the children’s successes.

I know that Mrs King and the team will be looking after everyone and creating a variety of different opportunities over the coming weeks.

Sincerely,