Dear Parents,
Sunday’s Gospel is the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. John the Baptist has continued to call for us to prepare for the coming of our Saviour. “Prepare a way for the Lord!” The saviour as Fr Michael Fallon so eloquently puts it “the one who is to lead the people across the desert, and from the slavery of sin which causes us to be exiles from our own heart and from communion with God.” St Mark is encouraging us all in his Gospel to “open our hearts to welcome the coming of Jesus, and also to listen to him as he inspires us to walk with him, and to take the good news out to others”. John the Baptist is pointing in the direction of Jesus, for it is in the listening to Jesus we are listening to God’s word, and in looking on Jesus we are seeing the face of God. The Church is inviting us to relive this experience, knowing that God wants to visit us again this Christmas with the perfect gift – the gift of his Son coming into our hearts and into our homes to share with us the Spirit of love, the love that is his personal communion with the God.
As the school year draws near we farewell several of our teachers who will be moving on to new schools in 2021. We farewell Mrs Joelynne Roberts who first joined our community in 2001. In that time she has been a fulltime classroom teacher at CTK, executive relief teacher as well as being a member of several job share combinations. We thank Mrs Roberts for her commitment, passion and professionalism over the last two decades and wish her every success and happiness in the next stage of her career. Thank you also to Mrs Natalie Matthews who is moving on to St Joseph’s Schofields. Natalie has been a member of our staff both as a teacher aide during her preservice training and as a classroom teacher in the last three years. We wish Mrs Matthews every happiness and success in her new venture in 2021. Finally we say goodbye to Mr Adam Barbaro and Miss Hayley Anschau who will commence at new schools in 2021 at St Mary’s Concord and St Monicas North Parramatta respectively. We thank them for their contribution to our community over the last two years and we wish them every happiness for their future endeavours.
Reports for each student will be distributed next Wednesday 9th December. It is imperative you take the time to sit down with your child and discuss their report before the end of the term. This discussion would revolve around highlighting and acknowledging their achievements for the semester as well as planning how they are going to achieve success with the areas for development for next year put forward by their teachers. Celebrating achievement and planning on how to improve your child’s learning for the next scholastic year are the two major focuses as we conclude school for 2020. Congratulations to all our students on the achievements they have made with their learning throughout a most challenging year.
Next Thursday our Year six children will celebrate their Graduation mass at 10:30am. Fr Ian will celebrate the liturgy with our graduating class of 2020. Due to the COVID -19 restrictions only 2 guests [ie parents] will be able to attend the mass with their child- no siblings. Adults attending are encouraged to wear masks. Details of the mass and booking details were distributed yesterday.
On Friday 11th December the children will meet their teachers for 2020 as part of our changeover session commencing at 2pm. New Yr1-Yr6 students enrolled for CTK next year have been invited to attend to meet their classmates and teachers for the new year. Students in each grade will receive a pre-requisite list for 2020 during the afternoon session.
Teachers and their grades for 2021 will be published in our final newsletter for the year next Friday 11th December.
Our final day [Wednesday 16th December] of the year will look different this year to previous years due to the pandemic restrictions currently in place. The usual whole school thanksgiving mass and awards ceremony in the church will be replaced by three separate presentations which will take place in the hall. These presentations will follow a whole school liturgy, which will be held under the top COLA. There will be no official Year 6 farewell. Due to the COVID restrictions, parents are unable to attend the liturgy or presentations. It is anticipated that these ceremonies will be streamed live via zoom. Further details regarding this will be communicated next week. Children will be able to be picked up from school when the final awards presentation concludes at 12noon. Supervision will be provided for students whose parents are unable to pick up their children at midday. Please note that all children being picked up at 12 noon will need to be picked up through the drive through pick up on the top playground or via the back gate in Burradoo Close.
Our school swimming carnival will be held on Tuesday 15th December at Blacktown Aquatic Centre. Years 3-6 students and eligible swimmer from year 2 will be attending. The carnival will be used as a trial for the selection of our Hills Zone Swimming team for 2021. Unfortunately due to COVID-19 restrictions parents are unable to attend. All students will travel to and from the carnival by bus. Students in Kindergarten, year 1 and our remaining year 2 students will participate in an activities day back at school facilitated by SISA [Sport In Schools Australia]
At this time of year, we have parents making inquiries regarding enrolment for next year. To assist in finalising classes and enrolment numbers for next year we need to know of any children who are not returning to CTK in 2021. Please advise the school via email or written letter by Wednesday 9th December if your child / children will not be returning to CTK in 2021. Thank you to those families who have already informed us of their intentions for 2021
Our final Newsletter for the year will be published on Friday 11th December.
Have a great weekend!
Tony Hughes
Principal
