Dear Parents, Guardians and Carers

One of the things that staff and many students lamented the absence of last year, was Lunchtime Club. For a long period of time (when we were at school) we were unable to offer this activity due to COVID restrictions. Lunchtime Club is open daily in the school library. It offers alternative activities: games, construction materials, drawing, reading, role play props etc. for those students who are seeking to do something different, engage with peers in a quieter setting or have a break from the school yard. It was certainly missed and we were fortunate to reinstate the club before the end of the year. 

This year Lunchtime Club in the library continues and we are thrilled to be able to offer some more specific types of clubs running on different days of the week. These will vary on a termly basis. 

Mrs Heim is conducting a Yoga/Meditation Club on Tuesdays this term. The students are practising breathing exercises, easy yoga poses and finishing with some quiet meditation to relax their minds and bodies. 

Mrs Gin is supervising a Gardening Club on Wednesdays. An eager group of students have already been hard at work weeding. This club has already improved our school playground!

Ms Paulson has organised a Music Club for Thursdays who will focus mainly on singing this term. There is already an enthusiastic group of aspiring artists attending who hope to perform the songs they are learning in front of an audience.    

Mrs Richards is running a Sports Club on Fridays. This term the focus will be on athletic sports. Mrs Richards reported that last week’s club was so much fun- she would like to run two Sports Clubs a week! (One for the Juniors and one for the Seniors). We will start this next term. 

Several grade 6 students have volunteered to be assistants at each of the clubs- giving them an opportunity to exercise leadership, learn new skills and develop relationships with the younger students.

Each term we hope to offer some different types of clubs. Some, the students will need to ‘sign up’ for, others will be open on a ‘walk in walk out’ basis. From next term we hope to invite parents to assist at some of the clubs if they are interested and able to. 

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the period of time the Catholic Church knows as Lent. This special time of preparation, of about 6 weeks / 40 days before Easter, we try to focus on prayer, almsgiving and fasting. Through almsgiving we strive to be aware of the needs of others and give generously to help those in need. Fasting can take the form of self- sacrifice, self-discipline or restraint.  On Ash Wednesday the Priest places ashes on our foreheads as a symbol of repentance- being sorry for our failings and ready to try harder to be true to the messages in the Gospel- to be loving, forgiving, wise and accepting like Jesus. The Grades 3-6s were to attend Mass at the parish church while the Prep and 1 / 2  students experienced a liturgy in their areas, with Father Darren visiting the classrooms to bestow the ashes on them later in the day (due to COVID density limits for the church). We will now need to mark this day a little differently, hopefully when we are back at school later this week.

A reminder that Parent -Teacher interviews will occur on Tuesday February 23 and Thursday February 25. Please make a booking to meet with your child/ren’s teacher/s. 

Joanne Coldebella

Acting Principal