St Alipius Parish School Newsletter

15th February, 2019

"St Alipius - an authentically Catholic Learning Community committed to Excellence, Equity & Empowerment"

We acknowledge the Wathaurong people who are the traditional owners of this land and pay our respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

Upcoming Events


February 
March
Thursday 14thWelcome Picnic - 5:00pmTuesday 5thFoundation 2020 Open Morning
Tuesday 26thFoundation 2020 Open MorningWednesday 6thAsh Wednesday Mass - 12:00 noon


Monday 11thLabour Day Public Holiday


Tuesday 12thSchool Photos

From the Principal

Jesus you love us

Guide our lips

Our Minds

Our Hands

And our Hearts

Open our eyes to see your face in each other

As we live and learn together

At St Alipius

Amen

Dear Families,

Above is our school prayer. The prayer we say each day. It inspires us to recognise God in every moment of our lives and in every person we meet. It is a reminder of the reason we exist as a Catholic Community and the focus that we take in our living, our learning and our leading.

I’ve always believed that the things that we celebrate help us identify what we hold as important. In this two weeks, there has been many moments to celebrate.

Eileen

Opening of the School Year Mass

Caitee Carter prepared a beautiful liturgy to launch our school year.

We were inspired by the Gospel message which invited us to ‘Listen with the ear of our hearts’.

Father Peter helped us reflect on what it means to be an authentically Catholic community; a place of welcome and invitation to all and a place where the Gospel message of love is evident.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this special event on our calendar.

Our Foundation students being welcomed to our community by their buddies

Leadership across our Year 6 group is evident in the way that they embrace their responsibility to be supportive buddies to students new to our community. The photos outside the Foundation room speak volumes; and it warms my heart to hear parents and staff relaying anecdotes of Year 6's acknowledging the younger children and supporting them as they become familiar with our place.

National Apology Day

February 13th is the anniversary of the National Apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. It is an important day to recognise the desire for Reconciliation, the steps taken and the journey ahead in all relationships with our First Australians.

I share some of the ways that this landmark day was acknowledged at St Alipius. We make a deep commitment to continuous conversation, recognition and reconciliation.

Extract from the Apology motion, 13 February 2008 

“We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation."

Changes to Communication

In an attempt to streamline our communication processes and procedures we have decided to move to an online Parent Access Module (PAM). Parents of students attending any of our Catholic secondary colleges will be familiar with this program. Please read the information contained later in this newsletter which explains a little about the program and the reasons behind our decision to make this important change.

Welcome Picnic - TODAY

We look forward to seeing everyone this evening as we gather at Eureka Park for our annual Welcome Picnic. The weather is looking much more promising than Tuesday so grab a blanket, a chair, a picnic or your favourite take-away and join us as we meet up with old friends and make new ones.

St Alipius Welcome Picnic - TODAY

When

February 14, 2019 5:00 PM to February 14, 2019 6:30 PM

Where

Eureka Gardens, Eureka VIC, Australia

More information

Developing a strong sense of community has always been a priority at St Alipius. When we know each other and spend time together we experience community and feel that we belong.

We invite every family to join us for a Welcome Picnic on the evening of Thursday February 14th from 5.00pm. We will gather at Eureka Park under the shade of the trees and spend some time making connections and building community.

This is a very informal but important event on our calendar, so grab your esky, your picnic basket or your favourite take-away, a blanket or chair and joins us at Eureka Park.

General News

Changes to Communication

At St Alipius we are committed to keeping the lines of communication open between school and families. In recent years we have introduced a number of digital forms of communication to (a) reduce paper waste, (b) enable accessibility for families and (c) provide timely information.

  • CareMonkey - permission forms, student medical forms/information.
  • Skoolbag - alerts, reminders, newsletters, absences
  • SeeSaw - communication about student learning
  • Website - general school information
  • Email - personal communication

We continue to use paper for student reports. We also use telephone calls and text messages for student absences.

Effective communication appears to be a balance between getting information to our community in a timely manner and not overloading families with multiple apps and constant updates.

To streamline our communication processes we have decided to introduce PAM (Parent Access Module)


QUICK FACTS & INFORMATION

  • CareMonkey has become redundant as it does not sync with ICON, the new Catholic Education Administration package.


  • PAM is the Parent Access Module of the SIMON program. We currently use SIMON for:

- Attendance

- Student reports

- Behaviour tracking


  • PAM provide access to:

- School calendars

- Student timetables

- Excursion permission forms

- Student medical information

- Booking learning conferences

- Digital copies of school reports

- Access to newsletter

- Access to school policies


  • PAM is a web-based program


  • Alerts are sent by email


  • PAM is not an app at this stage, although the SIMON company is moving to develop an app


  • All Catholic secondary schools use PAM

Lunch Orders

In order to be able to provide a lunch order service to our students, we require parent support. If you would be interested in assisting with lunch orders, please contact the office to discuss options for 2019.

2020 Foundation Enrolments

Expressions of Interest are now being taken for Foundation Enrolments for 2020.

Our school Open Mornings will commence next week and sessions will run as follows:

Tuesday 26th February 2019 @ 9:30am

Tuesday 5th March 2019 @ 9:30am

Tuesday 19th March 2019 @ 9:30am

Tuesday 26th March 2019 @ 9:30am

Please pass this information on to any families you know of, who may be interested. They can register to attend an Open Morning via the following link: https://goo.gl/KqTmhD 

In order for us to be able to identify how many places we have available for new families, we ask current families within our school community to kindly let us know as soon as possible if you have a sibling intending to join our Foundation class in 2020.

Religious Education News

Parish News

Parish Mass Times


Saturday 16th February6:00 pmSt Alipius - Ballarat East
Sunday 17th February9:00 amSt Alipius - Ballarat East
Sunday 17th February10:30 amSt Peter & Paul's - Buninyong



Saturday 23rd February6:00 pmSt Alipius - Ballarat East
Sunday 24th February10:30 amSt Alipius - Ballarat East
Sunday 24th February9:00 amSt Peter & Paul's - Buninyong


Parish Stewardship Program

St Alipius Parish Primary has engaged in the Parish Stewardship Program. Below you will find documents on this program, which has just begun in our Parish of St Alipius & Ss Peter and Paul.  We are a parish that believes in Christian Stewardship as a way of life. Stewardship recognises that everything we are and everything we have is the result of the gifts and blessings given to us by God.  It also recognises we have a responsibility to use these gifts wisely and for the benefit of others. Now for some of you Stewardship may be a new word but you may remember “Sacrificial Giving” or “Planned Giving” or maybe “Thanksgiving Envelopes”.                    

Put plainly it means that our church, our Parish Land (on which our school is built) have all been passed on to us by our parents, grandparents, great grandparents etc…, to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude.  If we want to continue to keep our Parish / Church / School going and to pay for parish operational expenses such as Liturgy and Sacramental programs, including First Reconciliation, First Eucharist, Confirmation, School and Class Masses, Pastoral Resources and programs, including home visits to the sick and aged and bereavement support, repairs, maintenance and insurance for our church other parish facilities, it is now our turn to look after them, so we can pass them on to the next generation.  That means supporting the Parish both financially and by taking part in the different ministries that are in place.

I invite all our community member to attend our “Future Forum” on Tuesday February 26, in the Parish Hall (at either 2.00pm or 7.00pm), where all will be discussed and where there will be time for asking questions.

So please read all the information you will receive in the next few weeks, visit the Ministry Expo in the Back or the Foyer of our Churches, attend our Meeting and support our Parish.

Link to Video Messages by Fr Kevin Maloney VG : https://youtu.be/yha5oO_z7Ss

Parish Groups and Ministries Form

Download

Other Notices