Week 1 Term 1 2020

Welcome Back - Hope theme
It was lovely to see all of the children back at school and warmly welcome our three classes of Preps and our new families too.
Special thanks to Zoe B our resident Year 6 artist who produced the 2020 welcome drawing below. Zoe emailed the drawing to me in the holidays. Thanks Zoe for your enthusiasm and for sharing your artistic talent with us.

Just our luck to start back at school during the heatwave ! Fortunately we have a "hot day" programme that we follow when the temperature exceed 32 degrees and the children remain indoors where it is cool.

WET/HOT DAY PROGRAM

A Wet/Hot day is signalled by an announcement over the PA system and students will remain in learning spaces under teacher supervision.

A Hot day program will be called if the temperature exceeds 32 degrees. Children will remain in learning spaces under teacher supervision.

If it rains at 8:40am and before 8:50am children will be let into the school before the 8:50am morning bell. Teachers are requested to supervise the children on these rare occasions.
This year the Leadership Team have agreed to a school wide focus on Hope. The devastating bushfires have affected the lives of so many people and wildlife too. Our faith gives us hope and we pray for members of our own community who need hope for a positive and blessed future.

Image on a wall in Black Rock

We pray this prayer of hope:

Eternal God, You gave us the greatest gift: the gift of life.

In the coming year, help us use it wisely.

May we grow in generosity, kindness and forgiveness, hope, faith and love.

Amen.

CORE VALUES
This year we will continue to focus on our core values with the children at school. Our assembly awards will be linked to the values. Reference to the values will be made at every parent meeting and we ask that you model the values for your children. Last year the staff voted on adapting one of the values to ensure it was easier for the children to understand. "We value transparency in decisions made" has been reworded to "We are open and honest". The children will be revisiting "We respect and value one another" over the coming weeks.
Here are the values:

• We respect and value one another
• We are positive
• We support each other
• We treat each other fairly
• We are open and honest

Message from our Faith and Community Team
This year we have a team of staff, working together to action our school improvement goal: To embed a Catholic culture that invites all to prayer, enabling deep encounters between faith and contemporary life. Following on from the success of the Grandparents Day mass in 2019,  the team will focus on our masses and liturgies and continue to look at ways to involve our community.
Beginning of Year School Mass 9:10am Friday 7th February
Staff will be commissioned for the new school year and all children welcomed by Bishop Elliott. Parents, grandparents, family and friends are welcome to join us for our first school mass of the year.
First Family Mass Term 1 5pm Sunday 1st March 
This year we are trialling some 5pm Family Masses instead of the 9am masses. We invite all of our families to join us on Sunday 1st March. Look out for more news about the mass very soon.

Connection Evening 7pm - 8pm Wednesday 5th February
This Wednesday parents and carers are invited to attend our annual Connection Evening. It is an opportunity to come along and find out about our plans for 2020, meet the staff and visit the classrooms.
Prior to the Connection Evening there will be a Canberra Camp Information Session for Year 5/6 parents at 6:30pm in the 5J classroom.
After the Connection Evening there will be a Parents & Friends meeting at 8:15pm in the staffroom.

Security Fence Back Yard
A new fence has been erected behind the goal posts in the back playground. Sadly, we have experienced increasing incidents of vandalism to our playground over the past 12 months. This has included shattered glass from beer bottles, beer cans, grafitti on the art room windows and the building, damage to the adventure playground and dog droppings. For the safety of our children, the back playground will no longer be available for use outside of school hours.

Front Yard Drinking Fountains
Thanks to funds raised from the fair we were able to install new drinking fountains in the front yard. The children are very excited to have access to water around the front part of the school. We also have new scooter racks ready to install in the bicycle shed. The children's bathrooms were refurbished and we had new furniture delivered to four more classrooms during the holiday break.

School Fair
Unfortunately, as a direct outcome of the fair meeting on 17/12/19, the 2019 fair team are no longer able to coordinate this year's March 21st fair. The original remit was to run a fair in 2020 with a short turn around, along the lines of the success of the 2019 model, to enable the event to move to a 2 year cycle in even years thereafter.

Views from members of the community at a meeting on the 17th December in relation to redesigning the fair into a new look community event with an expectation for the fair team to undertake a number of changes in such a short time frame were not feasible. 

All members of the 2019 fair team have expressed their willingness to positively support anyone else wishing to coordinate future events.

Sadly, for our children, our families and the Parish, the fair is now indefinitely postponed until a new coordinating team comes forward.

If anyone else is willing to coordinate such an event in the future, then I look forward to hearing from you.

Coronavirus

The safety and care of your children is paramount.
We are writing to you following new advice from the Australian and Victorian governments regarding the novel coronavirus.
All children who have travelled to Hubei Province of China, are advised to stay at home and avoid public settings, including attendance at schools and early learning centres, until 14 days after last being in Hubei province, China. This applies to any and all students even if they do not show any symptoms of the virus.
Children who are well and have travelled to other provinces in China, or any other areas where there have been reported cases, are NOT recommended to be excluded from schools unless the following applies:

· The person is a confirmed case of novel coronavirus

· The person is a close contact with a confirmed case of novel coronavirus in the past 14 days

If you think your child is showing any relevant symptoms of the novel corona virus, please call the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to discuss further actions on 1300 651 160.
This advice is also being provided to teachers and other school staff to ensure we mitigate any risks associated with the spread of the virus.

You can also access further information and updates from the following websites:

· For Victorian updates to the current incident, go to: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/novelcoronavirus

· For national updates: https://www.health.gov.au/news/latest-information-about-novel-coronavirus

· For international updates: https://www.who.int/westernpacific/emergencies/novel-coronavirus

· WHO resources https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

In circumstances like these, there can understandably be a lot of concern and uncertainty about the safety of your child. We are available to discuss your concerns with you, and will provide any revised advice to you as soon as it becomes available.

Important dates for Term 1 2020

5th Feb  6:30 Camp Meeting, 7pm Parent Connection Evening, 8:15pm Parent & Friends Meeting

7th Feb   Beginning of the Year School Mass 9:10am

17th Feb School photos
19th Feb Parish Education Board Meeting 7pm
25th Feb Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)
26th Feb Early dismissal - Parent/Teacher meetings from 1.30pm
26th Feb Ash Wednesday
Mar 16th – 19th Canberra School Camp Years 5-6
17th Mar St Patrick’s Day
25th Mar Parish Education Board  End of Term 1

14th April School resumes for Term 2