As Term 1 draws to a close, we would like to acknowledge the incredible resilience our community has demonstrated in recent months. Despite the challenges of Covid, our students are thriving. They have settled well into their new classes and it has been wonderful to observe new friendships blossoming and our next group of student leaders nurturing their unique gifts and talents. We are very proud of the great teaching and learning taking place in classrooms, characterised by deep rigour and student agency.  

Catherine McAuley School is a very special community and this is reflected in the strong relationships shared between staff, students and families. School celebrations such as our recent Be-Active-A-Thon are a great example of this. 

Please note that Term 1 concludes on Wednesday 13th April at 2.50pm and Term 2 will commence on Tuesday 3rd May. If you require supervision for your child/ren during the pupil free days taking place on Thursday 14th April and Monday 2nd May, please ensure that you have registered your child/ren for care using the following link: https://catherinems.schoolzineplus.com/survey/40 and that your child/ren are booked into before or after school care as required. 

We would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a safe and blessed Easter and to thank you for working in partnership with us. We hope the Easter break gives you time to rest and recharge and we look forward to working with you in Term 2.  

Yours in Faith, Growth and Unity 

Angela Morrison, Michelle Thomas, Linda Caldinez and Courtney Starr. 

Week 11 (next week) marks one of the most important weeks in our Catholic liturgical calendar. Holy Week will see every Catholic school remembering the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. This commemoration looks different from school to school. At Catherine McAuley school, we will gather as a class community each morning to present, and celebrate, the Holy Week stories.  

We will begin with 4/5KT presenting Palm Sunday on Monday in a jubilant fashion via MS Teams to the whole school. This will be a joyous occasion. On Tuesday we will move into a more sombre mood celebrating Maundy Thursday as we re-enact Jesus’ last supper in our classes. Maundy simply means wash hence Jesus engaging in a ceremony of washing the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday before His Last Supper. This mood continues into Wednesday morning through the Stations of the Cross. Years 1 to 6 have recreated an allocated station which will be displayed in the JHPAC. Each class will visit the stations and when doing so are invited to take a quiet moment at each and reflect on what is being honoured and how each station’s message may relate to us as individuals on a more personal / community scale. 

The celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection will take place during the first week of Term 2. In commemorating the Resurrection of Jesus, we also celebrate the defeat of death and the hope of salvation. Our Catholic tradition holds that the sins of humanity were paid for by the death of Jesus and that His Resurrection represents the anticipation believers can have in their own resurrection. This celebration will be delivered in a child friendly manner appropriate to their understanding. 

As we celebrate this remarkable week each year, the story is never tiresome and absolutely never gets old and the message is timeless and is as relevant today as it was back then. God loves us all – more than we can know. Jesus is alive, living in and through each of us. 

Pray together “Jesus, please remember me when you come into Your kingdom”. Amen 

Teaching and Celebrating the Liturgical Year – Pentecost 

As we approach Term 2, in the first instance we will celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection, engaging in stories about Jesus. Soon after Pentecost will be upon us, another wonderful celebration of the Lord. So what happens from Resurrection to Pentecost? Jesus promised the apostles, as He ascended into heaven, that He would send the Holy Spirit to empower them. The Catholic Church celebrates this with the feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. The colour for Pentecost is red. Red is also the colour of the feasts of all apostles except John and for the feasts of the martyrs of the church. 

Do you know the difference between an ‘apostle’ and a ‘disciple’? 

Our students will learn / remember that the Holy Spirit continues to be present within each of us enabling each of us to fully belong in the Catholic Church / our school Catholic family and to share God’s love with each other. 

And Finally 

Thank you for a wonderful Term, full of poise, patience and hope. May this Easter break give you all the time needed to recuperate, regather and reconnect by the way of quality family time and cherished time with loved ones. 

You can celebrate Easter with yummy baskets of treats and hearts filled with love of God (I will be!!). And whilst Easter doesn’t require elaborate prayers you are invited to pray one of these simple prayers with your children to keep Jesus at the center of the Easter: 

Jellybean Prayer: Red is for the blood you gave, and black is for the empty grave. Yellow is for the shining sun; white is for the new life begun. Green is for the grass and trees and purple is for your majesty. Orange is for the edge of night, and pink is for the morning light. Amen. 

Mary Prayer: Blessed are you, O Mary, silent witness of Easter! You, O Mother of the Crucified One now risen, who at the hour of pain and death kept the flame of hope burning, teach us also to be, amongst the incongruities of passing time, convinced and joyful witnesses of the eternal message of life and love brought to the world by the Risen Redeemer. Amen (Pope John Paul II, 2004). 

God Bless. 

Mrs. Caldinez 

APRIM 

Be Active-a-Thon 

Today we all enjoyed our annual Be-Active-a-Thon. Blessed with fantastic weather students participated in a day full of activities and fun. It was fabulous to see families join us throughout the morning and cheer on our Cup Runners. The ‘Sports Expo” was a wonderful display of students’ physical abilities and talents. Students also enjoyed a 1-hour activity session lead by their class teacher with a focus on striving for excellence in performance, maximum participation and fun. 

The much-anticipated Catherine McAuley Cup Run was again a highlight with the Reception to Year 4 students cheering on our Year 5 to 6 runners as they finished the race. Congratulations to Jaxx Shelley-Cotton (Year 5) and Ruby Smart (Year 6) who were the first boy and girl runner to cross the finish line. 

Below are the place winners for each House. 

Our overall Team placings for the day were: 

1st – Harley House, 2nd – John Smith House, 3rd – John Coolock House, 4th - Mercy House 

Thank you to all the staff who coordinated and worked together to provide a fun day focussed on health, wellbeing and being active. I would especially like to thank Mrs Caldinez and the Year 6 Sports Captains for leading the whole school movement and Miss Timmins for creating the ‘Sports Expo’ play list. 

 

Great Work Everyone!! 

Fabian Chevalier 

PE Teacher/Coordinator 

This term has been super crazy, our students have been very resilient by persevering every day in their work. With a delayed start to the term and many students facing isolation, it sure has been a challenging start! We have introduced a reward system called ‘school bucks’. You can earn money, and money can be deducted. Money can be earned by keeping organized, being kind, helping others and doing good quality work. This has also been teaching students about the value of items by paying rent/ bills for items such as electricity and equipment. Students have learnt about the benefits of saving as they put money aside each week to reach a larger amount for an end of term reward. As all 4/5 students achieved this saving goal, we enjoyed watching the movie Encanto together with some movie style snacks of course! Encanto teaches us that all families are different and are perfect in their own way. 

This term we have been looking at affective statements with Mrs Vandenberg. We have been following the 4-step guide on how to deliver an affective statement. Affective statements are a way to communicate to another person how they have affected you by their behaviour. We have been proud to hear how the affective statements are encouraging students to solve a minor problem before asking an adult.  

In Mathematics, we have been learning about place value and the four operations. We have been learning problem solving skills and what strategies work well for our learning. We have been doing lots of hands-on activities, open ended tasks and partner and group work.  

This term for art Miss Ricci and Miss Kosonen have been exploring ideas and practices used by artists to represent different beliefs, views and opinions. We looked at ‘Starry Night’ by Vincent Van Gogh a Dutch artist and ‘Japingka country/waterhole’ by Jimmy Pike an Aboriginal artist. Our students are very proud of their artwork, and they have loved being artists this term! 
 
Miss Timmins’ class have really enjoyed playing with and exploring our Digital Technogy resources including Makey Makey and Microbits. We have created our games and shared them with our peers.  

Miss Bayly’s class have really enjoyed being writers this term and creating narratives about topics that they are most passionate about. The students are very proud and are looking forward to putting them on display! 

Finally, we would all like to congratulate our student leaders in 4/5LK - Evangeline and Casey, Bethany and Ziva in 4/5SR, Harper and Abiel in 4/5KT and Jaxx and Amelia in 4/5TB.  

On Tuesday afternoon Senior Constable David Garner conducted School Crossing Monitor Training for all our year 4, 5 and 6 students and staff. The session was aimed at school students 10 years of age and over who are interested in operating a school crossing. The training is valid for 12 months and is a position of student leadership at Catherine McAuley. If your child was part of the training and they are interested in being a monitor, please return their consent form as soon as possible. Certificates of training will be distributed early next term.

Student Information Checklist!

Please return your Student Information Checklist ASAP if you haven't already done so, it is important that the school has the most up to date information in case of an emergency.

One of our campus defence parents is about to head to The Netherlands to compete in this year’s Invictus Games. The Invictus Games are an international sporting event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women, both serving and veterans. The Games use the power of sport to inspire recovery, support rehabilitation and generate a wider understanding and respect of all those who serve their country.

Invictus Australia fund all costs associated with training camps, travel and accommodation for our Aussie athletes. To continue supporting veterans across Australia, Invictus Australia are running a fundraiser and have asked us to share this information with our community.