St Andrew's Primary Marayong

Welcome back to another very busy but exciting term of learning and building our faith community here at St Andrew’s. As always we have started this term with a bang. Our first day ignited our community spirit with our annual Athletics Carnival. It was amazing to see the great school spirit and sportsmanship on the day.  Our day was made even better by the overwhelming support from our parents and friends who attended on the day to support our students. 

Special thanks to the teachers for their great work, enthusiasm and support. I wish to sincerely thank Mr Paynter for his excellent coordination of the day.  I also wish to thank the many parent helpers who made it possible to run the carnival. 

As always our students excelled on the field and a very strong squad will be representing St Andrews at the Diocesan Carnival later this term.  

Please come and join us for our Book Parade on Thursday 8th August at 9:15 in the hall.

The theme being “Reading is my Superpower”.

To add to the atmosphere of the day, the children are being encouraged to dress as their favourite book character. Children must wear a sign identifying their character. The staff are busy planning their costumes and are looking forward to sharing the excitement of the day with the children.

Parents and toddlers are encouraged to dress up as well.

Some Suggestions:

• A group of friends could come as a group of characters from books like the ‘Wizard of Oz’, ‘Charlotte's Web’, Star Wars etc…
• ‘Cool characters’ such as Harry Potter, Geronimo Stilton, Zac Powers, Boyz Rule or Girlz Rock, Tom Gates, WeirDo, Ella & Olivia 
• Other characters such as Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the Avengers, pirate, fisherman, painter, grandfather, grandmother, sports player, national costume, dance, fairy, chef, plumber, king, queen etc…

Please do not go to a lot of trouble or expense. Costumes should be as simple and comfortable as possible.

The children may remain in costume for the entire day or change into mufti if necessary. Children who do not dress up must wear their school uniform on the day. Please remember that the children’s shoes must be safe and comfortable for wear on the playground.

Hope you can come and join in the fun and see how creative the staff and children here at St Andrew’s can be.

When: Week 6 - Thursday 29th and Friday 30th August after 9.15am Father’s Day mass. 
If you can help and have completed the online child protection module, contact Maria  ( P&F) on 0413180787.

For more information on the Child Protection Modules CLICK HERE...

When: Week 8 at lunchtime

• September 10th – Stage 3
• September 11th – Stage 2
• September 12th – Infants

When: Week 9 - Friday 20th September on the oval located next to the school. The P & F will be organising a sausage sizzle. Notes will be sent home in August.

If you can help and have completed the online child protection module, contact Maria on 0413180787.

For more information on the Child Protection Modules CLICK HERE...

This year the children will be praying together to celebrate the Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop on Thursday the 8th of August.  The Prayer experience will be delivered in classrooms as a class liturgy, 

I wish to welcome to our community Healthy Canteens who will be providing a service to our community.  I ask parents for their support and patience as we work with the staff to develop processes and procedures in coming weeks.  Some of these changes have already occurred and certain menu items have been deleted from the online menu selection.  

If you have any concerns or issues can you please discuss this with Miss McDonald.  So far the children have been very excited by the large selection of yummy items on the menu and I can assure you that the canteen is very popular at recess and lunch.  

I wish to share with our families that there will be some changes to our school calendar and community this term. 

On the parent calendar, a Staff Development Day was organised  for Friday the 23rd of August. This date has been cancelled. I wanted to share this information as soon as possible to allow time for families to be able to change any arrangements that may already be organised.  A new date later in the term will be shared as soon as possible.

I ask parents to please lodge their enrolment forms for Kindergarten 2020 ASAP.   We have already processed over 100 applications and send out just as many invitations of acceptance.  

If you have friends or family members who still need to lodge a form, please remind them to do so quickly.  

This is a reminder that the service adjustments for Hillsbus will be implemented on 28th July 2019. The changes may impact how students travel, and we encourage students and parents to check Transportnsw.info for details on these changes. 

The Standard Collection Notice document outlines the sort of personal or sensitive information collected within Catholic Education Diocese of Parramatta and the school, how it is used and how your privacy is managed.We ask that you spend a moment to read through this and if you have any concerns please contact CEDP on (02) 9840 5600 or at privacy@parra.catholic.edu.au

PLEASE READ HERE.

Dear Parents,

School Fee Statements for Term 3, 2019 have been posted out from CEDP.

The due date for Term 3 school fees is 28th August 2019.

Please do not hesitate to contact Lesley (school office) for any assistance on (02) 88696700.

Important: If a student leaves the school during a term, no refund will be made in respect of the remaining portion of that term unless we receive ten weeks’ notice in writing (please refer to the conditions of enrolment.)

This week we trialled having our Monday assembly in the School Hall.  A suggestion was made by parents to provide mats for the children to sit on due to the cold weather.  Our school executive debated the pros and cons of this and decided to utilise the resources we already have at school and a decision was made to move the morning  assembly to the hall during the colder months. All parents are invited to join us as usual for this event.

What a very special morning! On Friday, as part of the Feast Day of St Anne and St Joachim, we invited our very special members of our school community, our grandparents, to firstly, celebrate the Eucharist as a faith community and secondly to witness the great leaning of their grandchildren. 

I was overwhelmed with the number of family members who attended Mass and stayed on for morning tea and class visits. I am sure your grandchildren were very proud to show the special people in their lives what they can do. 

READ MORE...

This week our students are visiting our Capital to continue their learning unit of study on Democracy so they can experience first hand our democratic government system. Our students are visiting many attractions including Parliament House and Questacon, which is always a real highlight!

I sincerely thank our parents for entrusting your children in our care for this overnight excursion.  

These overnight excursions could only happen with the total dedication of our great teachers.

Teachers are on duty for 48 hours without a break.This would never happen in any other industry.  This is a selfless gift that our teachers give to your child I also wish to thank the family of every staff member attending the excursion. Our staff are busy parents as well or they are committed to looking after other family members so I offer an enormous and sincere thank you to them. 

Mrs Herbert, Mrs Burke, Mr Paynter, Mrs Whitiker, Mr Haynes, Mrs Ross will be attending.  

This year the P&F is conducting this fundraiser again for those who wish to obtain or renew their membership for 2019-2020. The digital membership will be available to be purchased, downloaded and be used on 4 devices. The Sydney Greater West Book and the Sydney and Surrounds Book are now combined to make the Sydney Book, giving you even greater value for money. Cost is $70 and can be purchased now. Details are in the flyer included in this newsletter.

The book or digital version can be ordered and purchased online. When ordering online, it can either be available for pickup or be sent home with your child, otherwise you can have it delivered at a cost of $12.

You can go the The Entertainment Book website www.entertainmentbook.com.au for a sneek peek and more details. 

A sample of the Sydney Book is available at the school office if you wish to view it. If you have any questions, please contact Maria on 0413180787 or Nicole on 0420996008.

If you wish to purchase a book for digital version, go to https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/9444k66

We will be selling The Entertainment Book until the end of Term 3 so don’t miss out.

On Monday our Term 3 P&F meeting was held.  A big thank you to the parents who attended the meeting.  Great discussion was held and many activities discussed that will be shared with you by our great President Mrs Maria Webb.   

I sincerely request parents to discuss issues with me at point of need.  Parents do not need to wait for P&F meetings to share ideas or concerns. My door is always open to you and I wish to thank the many parents who have already voiced their ideas to me personally or to relevant staff members.  We are one St Andrew’s community and working together will make a difference to our students and their experience at our school.  

Communication is a very important part of our working relationship . Our main forms of communication are our newsletter, skool bag alerts, facebook page, letter to the community  and electronic sign at the front of the school. I encourage parents to please read our communications so you are in the know with what is happening. If you are unsure, our friendly office staff will be able to assist you with current information, just call our school number between 8.30am - 3.30pm.