Dear Families,

Last Saturday, 8th August we celebrated the Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Mary MacKillop was the founder of the inspirational group of women who continue her work both in our country and in neighbouring countries today. Mary MacKillop is an example of faith put into action and words as she followed her dream to ensure country children in small rural communities in Australia were able to receive a good education in their Catholic faith, and academic skills for their future. She always went out of her way to minister to the poor, the lonely, the sick and those who were outcasts.

In 1866 Mary MacKillop and Father Tenison Woods started the religious order of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Sacred Heart (the Josephites) and in 1867 Mary MacKillop became a nun – Sister Mary of the Cross. Mary and the Josephite nuns set up schools in Australia and New Zealand including many schools in our Diocese.

They also set up houses for elderly women, young girls and women without jobs. They gave their life to people in need often giving comfort to the sick and dying and even visiting people in jail to give them whatever help they could.

At times in her life, Mary MacKillop met people who made it hard for her to perform her good works but she never gave up. Many of her wise sayings resonate with us now such as “Never see a need without doing something about it.”

Mary loved Jesus and acknowledged him as the Son of God. She had a strong faith and trusted in the providence of God. She constantly advised others to have faith and hope in the goodness and providence of God.

Athletics Fun Day

We had hundreds of very excited children as they participated in the Athletics Fun Day in Week 2. What a beautiful day it was! It was a very different day to what we are used to but the usual fun, cheers, encouragement and laughter were there in abundance. We certainly missed our appreciative audience of parents and grandparents but we will share some photos with you! Congratulations to our Year Six Colour House Captains all of our Year 6 students; they worked with staff, looking after our little people and helping to make the events run smoothly. You are the best, Year 6!

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Thank you to the many parents who have made phone or zoom interviews to discuss student's progress to date. As reports this year are in a different format and contact between parents and families has been less regular these interviews provide an opportunity to discuss strengths and areas to work on. I have spoken to both parents and teachers who have already had their interviews and the feedback from both sides was overwhelmingly positive. If you have not booked an interview and would like to talk to your child's teacher please send a Class Dojo message direct to your  teacher to arrange a mutually convenient time.

Father’s Day Stall

Our Fathers’ Day Stall will be held on Thursday, 3rd September. Our gifts will again be supplied by the Carmelite Sisters. Gifts will be $3.00 per gift.

COVID Management Plan

The Catholic Schools Office, Lismore has asked that we put into place procedures that will be followed in the event of a confirmed COVID-19 case within our school. There are many steps that need to be followed and adhered to and it is important that our families are familiar and comfortable with the process should it occur. This is not meant to alarm anyone in any way, it is to ensure that we are all informed and on the same page. 

If you or anyone in the family receives a positive result please ALERT the school immediately. If the school receives a report of a positive case from within our community we will immediately put our Outbreak Plan into place.

When a case is confirmed DURING the school day we will alert parents by our Schoolworx SMS and Class Dojo.

• You will be asked NOT TO ATTEND THE SCHOOL AT THIS TIME. The school will be placed into an amber lockdown. The children will continue with classes while Catholic Schools Office contacts Health authorities and organises cleaning etc. No parents will be allowed on site until Catholic School Office or NSW Health authorities advise. 
• Families will then receive another message advising the plan, the possible closure of the school for cleaning (usually 3 days) and the process for picking up students.
• The NSW Public Health Unit will contact you if you or your child’/en require testing or self-isolation as part of the contact tracing process. 
• A final communication will be sent to families before the school is to reopen.
• If the advice of a confirmed COVID-19 case comes during out-of-school hours the same method of communication will be used.
• Please monitor your email, and SMS, as we will be communicating updates with you as we move through this process.  All decisions regarding processes moving forward will be under the guidance of Catholic Schools Office and NSW Health

COVID Safety Protocols

We continue to ask, that if your child has any cold or flu like symptoms to keep them at home until they are well.

Any of our staff who show any flu-like symptoms are staying home and, if required having the COVID test, and remaining at home until they are well until they are well.

• Parents and visitors must come to the school office if they wish to pick up or drop off a child during school hours. Children will come to the office to meet you. Similarly, if you need to drop something off for your child please leave it at the school office and your child will collect it from there. We are unfortunately, seeing parents who are not signing in and going straight to student's bags or classrooms. It is imperative that we know who is on site at all times, therefore signing in at the office is mandatory.
• No parent or visitor should be going to classrooms at anytime.
• Students should be encouraged to enter the school independently where possible.
• If you need to enter the grounds, please keep this time to a minimum. It is important that parents continue to support our efforts in maintaining social distancing during this time.
• We understand that for some students it is helpful for parents to walk their children into the school in the morning and collect them within the school grounds in the afternoon. Please do this as quickly as possible.

As directed by our Catholic Schools Office, at present there are to be no Parent Helpers in the classroom. To support social distancing during this time, we request that parents, younger siblings or other adults do not access classrooms or other school buildings.

School Improvement Survey

Thank you to the families who were randomly selected and responded to the recent 2020 DOLSIS survey.  The survey will provide us with very helpful data towards determining our future focus areas for school development and improvement. Our staff and students in Stage 2 and Stage 3 have also given their voice to the school improvement DOLSIS response.

I appreciate the time and effort you have put into completing this survey and look forward to receiving this important feedback for our school. 

Encouraging students to move from their Heads to their Hearts to their Hands...

Student Voice in Learning Religious Education - a meaningful and healthy choice

Students should have a say in their learning in Religious Education. Religious Education connot rely upon simply handing on information to students - we want the students to think about their learning and relate it to their own lives so that they can get meaning from their lives.

To assist with this the senior students are now starting their learning with two valuable questions: "What do we already know about a topic" and "What do we want or need to know?" This allows for a focus upon the core teaching while also allowing students to explore on a deeper level and then transfer their learning to other contexts. 

Students understand key facts and concepts and demonstrate key skills (Surface Level)

Students then relate facts and skills within a discipline

  (Deep Level)

Students then extend and apply these related ideas to other situations (Transfer Level)

Social Justice Sunday

The celebration of Social Justice Sunday is a long tradition in the Catholic Church in Australia and will be celebrated on 30th August. For almost every year since 1940, our bishops have joined together to issue a major social justice statement at this time. The 2020-2021 Statement, To Live Life to the Full: Mental health in Australia, encourages each one of us to make mental health a priority.

You can access the Social Justice Statement at

https://socialjustice.catholic.org.au/2020/07/03/social-justice-statement-2020-21/

You may wish to say this prayer for those who need support

Jesus, you invite us all into the fullness of life. May we support one another to flourish in body, mind and spirit. Strengthen our commitment to ensure that nobody falls through gaps in our systems of care. Help us to 

recognise you in those who suffer mental ill-health today.

You drew near to those who were suffering in body or mind. May we too feel your nearness when we struggle with mental health challenges. May we be one as members of Your Body. You invite us to share in your ministry of love and true compassion.

May we be empowered by your Spirit to reach out to all people in need to build communities of welcome and inclusion. Amen

Christian Meditation

We believe that Christian meditation as a prayer practice promotes many good qualities contributing to positive wellbeing. #lismmeditates 2020 is an initiative of St Mary's College Casino and encourages all schools to this practice on Thursday 10 September 2020. We join many schools in this initiative as each class meditates once per day. Thank you to St Mary's College Casino for producing this VIDEO, which acts as an entry event for #lismmeditates

JOLT – Jesus Over Lunch Time was held again last week with the help of Bianca McInnes who is Woodlawn’s Youth Ministry Office and who visits our school on a regular basis. An important part of the JOLT experience are games but at the end of the session the children then discuss the game and lessons it might teach them about life!

Thank you to the Year 5 teachers who recently shared their knowledge of the history of the Catholic Church in Lismore with the Year 5 students. The children were interested in the history of the Cathedral and the work of the first Bishop – Bishop Jeremiah Doyle who commissioned the Cathedral. The Cathedral was designed in 1892 by Herbert Wardell and modelled in gothic revival style.

 

Sound Waves

 Tips for Home Reading

Up and Coming Events with Leaders

Interviews and Reports-  We are very hopeful that all parents have booked a time to either call or zoom with their child’s teacher. As this week all teachers will be discussing with all children's carers about reports and students learning behaviours. All reports were sent home a few weeks ago, we hope you understand that last semesters reports are very different to previous but do be looking forward to this semester as they will return to the same.

Poetry and Prose Finals-   As soon as we get all children to complete their poems in front of their classmates we will have our Poetry and Prose finals. The teachers will have to make the very tough decision of who out of their class will go on to compete against their peers in the grade finals. Good luck to all who are competing!

Recent Athletics Carnival- Two weeks ago all students of all ages competed in our annual Athletic’s Carnival. This year it was a bit modified due to COVID-19 restrictions. We hope everyone had an awesome day as we certainly did.

Hopefully you’re all caught up on the recent and upcoming events happening in our school, have a great rest of the week and we can’t wait to jump back on here to have a chat again in Week 6.

Message from Commonwealth Bank 

The health, safety and wellbeing of our communities and our people remains our highest priority. Due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding corona virus, the School Banking program will remain on hold. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed with any updates including how we will be managing Dollarmite tokens for students. 

 In the meantime, here are some handy online resources for parents who wish to maintain momentum with their child’s financial education: 

Start Smart: these resources have been created to improve children’s money management skills, and is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and the National Consumer Financial Literacy Framework. 

The Beanstalk: offers videos and fun activities for children to learn about money.

St Carthage’s Cathedral Mass Times

Weekdays

Tuesday 8am

Wednesday 8am

Thursday 8am

Friday 12noon

Weekends

Saturday 5:30pm *

Sunday 9am *

Sunday 11am *

NO SUNDAY EVENING MASS

* Bookings for weekend Masses at the Cathedral should be made through the parish office on 66260200. Contact details will need to be recorded and on arrival at the church you will need to be checked in, sanitise your hands and observe social distancing.

The Bishop, realising that not all parishioners can be accommodated with the 50 person limit, has continued the dispensation from the Sunday obligation.

Cathedral - Confession Times  - No Face to Face

Saturday 4.45pm – 5.15pm

Sunday 10.15am – 10.45pm 

Carmelite Mass Times

Weekday Masses 7:00am **

Saturday Mass 8:00am **

NO SUNDAY MASS AT THE MONASTERY AS LIVE STREAMING WILL CONTINUE.

** As the Carmelite monastery can only have 20 Parishioners you must book for all Masses by ringing the Monastery on 66241240.

Upcoming Parent Assembly Webinars