St Monica's Primary North Parramatta Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

On Tuesday, our St Monica’s Leadership Team commenced the Growing Great Leaders program with Linda Bendickson from The University of Auckland Centre for Educational Leadership. This course is usually delivered face to face, however, with current restrictions on gatherings, we engaged in Module 1 virtually while using one of the boardrooms at Marist College, Westmead.

We learnt about the importance of ensuring our school goals are communicated clearly with all stakeholders, including parents, to ensure better learning outcomes for our students.  In 2020, our school goal at St Monica’s is that all students will articulate where they are going with their learning, where they are now and where to next.  This term, our Professional Learning for staff is focused on supporting students to use multiplicative strategies in Numeracy and think strategically when reading.  We are working on identifying individual goals in these areas to support our whole school learning goal.

Thank you to Mark Pauschmann, the principal of Marist, for having us on Tuesday and to the ex-students of St Monica’s in Year 7 who so eloquently and confidently showed us around their school.  They gave us some great feedback about their time at St Monica’s, including that we didn’t give them enough homework!  

Our awards assembly on Monday afternoon was led beautifully by our Year 6 Leaders and again streamed live on YouTube.  If you haven’t already done so, subscribe to the St Monica’s YouTube channel so you don’t miss a thing.

In this week’s Gospel of Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand, Jesus asked the disciples to give generously to the crowd, even though they had very little.  During these uncertain and challenging times, it sometimes feels as though we are empty and cannot give anything more.  But Jesus says we have to take responsibility to share what we have, to be generous with what we have, even if it is very little.  So this weekend, be generous with your time, be generous with conversation, be generous with a smile.  It is truly these things that satisfy hunger.

Kind regards,

Lisa Howell
Principal

Term 3       Staff Development Day to be advised

Term 4       Staff Development Day -  Thursday 17 December 2020
                    Staff Development Day - Friday 18 December 2020

School start time is 8:50 am.  Gates will be closed after the morning bell. Students arriving after 8:50 am will need to be signed in at the office via Daking Street.  

In order to support student attendance we would ask you to:

• Always encourage prompt daily arrival in time for the morning bell.
  Every minute counts.  A number of students arrive late for school or leave early in the afternoon.  
•  Always encourage your child to come to school. One of the major causes of absenteeism is illness. However, it is alarming when students take the whole day off to attend a non-urgent medical/dental appointment.  When the appointment is not urgent please request for your GP/dental appointments to be made outside of school hours.
•  Always encourage discussions with your child concerning any problems he/she may be having and inform classroom teachers. Teachers will always support and work with you and your child.
• If  TRAFFIC is the reason given for the lateness, please allow more travel time so that your child  arrives at school before 8:50am.   
  
  

Parents are advised that the School Census will take place on Friday 7 August 2020 (Week 3). 

Please see the Privacy Notice for more information regarding the Census.

Congratulations to the following students who received Merit Awards at our recent assembly.

Term 3 Book Club brochures were sent home with your child yesterday.

Please note that the school no longer accepts cash payments. Our school is in the LOOP. You can visit www.scholastic.com.au/LOOP or download the LOOP app to order your books and make payment.

Orders must by placed by Monday 3 August.

Mrs Kimberly Graham, Book Club Co-ordinator

Important dates for the Sacraments of First Holy Communion and First Reconciliation are available. 

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Children who have received the Sacrament of Baptism, and are in Year 3 or above, are eligible to register for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Registration form available here.

Please contact stmonicasacraments@gmail.com if you have any further questions.

“We are SAFE, RESPECTFUL LEARNERS”

 Students receive "bees" from teachers to promote and reward appropriate behaviour in the classroom and on the playground. 

 The bees are collected into a class jar or into the new class boxes in the playground.

Bees can also be earned in the library when borrowing & returning books and even when students visit the office and display respectful behaviour!

The grade/stage is rewarded as soon as they fill the jar or box - with bees given out freely and frequently, students can contribute to and enjoy a whole class reward often.

Last week & this week all classes have used their reward time to award an extra 5-10 minutes of extra outdoor play.

Here are some of Stage 3's thoughts on the PBS4L reward system………..

 "I believe that the new reward system encourages students to work hard to achieve their goal of being safe, respectful and a learner." - Sanoy

"The PBS4L reward system is helping students collaborate better with their peers due to having to make a decision about what reward the class will have and it helps us learn to make compromises because we don't always get our way." - Alicia

"The PBS4L reward system encourages us to be more respectful." - Tiara

"PBS4L is good because it encourages us to work harder to get our class rewards which are a lot of fun." - Noah

Mrs Rita Davino on behalf of the PBS4L Committee

To Stage 3 - our 1st winner of the PBS4L playground award..they celebrated by playing Kahoot (a game-based learning, educational platform)

and 

To Year 1 - our next winners….....they celebrated with a crazy sock day on Monday which they loved!

Due to Parramatta Light Rail construction, Route 600, 601, 603, 604, 606, 609, 625, 706 will operate through O’Connell Street. This may affect the travel of students from Term 3, 2020.

We remind students they must have a valid Opal card to travel on school buses, and must tap on and off morning and afternoon.

Dear Parents/Carers 

In Catholic Education Diocese Parramatta (CEDP), we see parents and carers as partners in your child's learning journey. Parents and carers are encouraged to become involved in our schools in many important ways such as supporting classroom learning, being part of advisory groups, mentoring programs, coaching sporting teams and supporting other extra-curricular activities, canteen support and other kinds of help.

 A range of checks and undertakings are required for people who work for or provide services to CEDP. These checks reduce potential risk and form part of our strategy to build child safe communities.

CEDP has launched a new Building Child Safe Communities form and online training module that all volunteers are required to complete. 

The purpose of this training is to inform you of the standards of behaviour and other requirements that must be adhered to when volunteering for CEDP.

The undertaking should take no more than 5 minutes to complete and the training module approximately 10 minutes. Once the form and training modules are submitted, an automated email will be sent to you within two business days to confirm the status of your submission.

The undertaking form will expire within two years or when your Working With Children Check expires (if applicable), whichever is sooner.  At that time you will need to complete the undertaking form and training module again. You will receive an automatic reminder email when this occurs. 

Further information on the new online form and training module can be found at www.parra.catholic.edu.au and clicking on About Us/Building Child Safe Communities.  Within the form you will also find help sheets and a video tutorial to assist you. 

Thank you in advance for your support.

Lisa Howell
Principal

Thank you to our Lifesavers for Week 1 & 2.

For Week 1, we would like to thank: Ashleigh, Riana, Tiara, Charlize, Noah, Max, Lola, Maureen, Charli, Theo, Nathan, Siria, Aimee Akiko , Alicia, Liam, Abbi, Gabi, Samuel, John, ZiHan and Evan.

For Week 2, we would like to thank:  Tiara, Madeline, Simon, Kobe, Max, William, Andrew, Charbel, Ruby K, Parmida, Kristian, Nika, Ashleigh, Monica, Ruby G, L’Lysse, Theresa, Manson, Yiannis, Ryan and Kenzh.

Therese Coutinho, Ivana Algeri and Kellee Bagnall

Stage 3 team

School banking has now resumed. 

Students are reminded to bring their Deposit Books to school on Wednesday.  Banking is processed on Wednesday mornings. 

Foreign Currency cannot be accepted.   Any Foreign Currency received will be returned in your child's Deposit Book. 

Each year the Catholic Tribunal Office in the Western Sydney Diocese and CatholicCare WSBM Solo Parent Services present an Information Session to help people understand the process of Annulments in the Catholic Church. Questions are answered in detail on all aspects of the Annulment process.  This year this event will be held as an online Webinar via Zoom.  

Date: Tues 04th August Time: 6pm -8pm Registration is Essential: To register for this Webinar, please call the Tribunal Office PH: 8838 3480 or Email Rita at soloparentservices@ccss.org.au 

Welcomeasy's new Winter Menu is now available. 

Parents can order student lunches online.  Lunches are delivered to school each  day.