St Canice's Primary School Newsletter

Dear Parents, Carers and members of the St Canice’s Community,

Our Lenten season commenced on Ash Wednesday with a beautiful liturgy at St Canice’s school. The children participated with great respect and learned about the three key elements associated with this season of preparation for Easter:

Prayer: Regular prayer offers us all a very special opportunity to grow in our relationship with God and to find a time in our busy lives to be calm and to reflect.

Fasting / Sacrifice: We encourage the children to find a way of putting themselves second during Lent through helping others or depriving themselves of something enjoyable. This helps the children to appreciate the good people and things in their lives and it encourages them to feel proud of themselves for achieving something difficult. They learn that Jesus struggled to get it right when tempted in the desert and that Jesus is proud of us for our attempts at being the best people we can be.

Almsgiving: At the heart of our faith is the call to help those in need. This can be through actions as well as fund-raising. We got our almsgiving off to a great start at St Canice’s on Tuesday last, when children donated a gold coin in exchange for yummy pancakes made by our wonderful parent helpers. The money was collected for Mini Vinnies. 

Meet and Greet last week gave parents and many students the opportunity to provide their insights about their learning to our teachers. The process is very helpful for the teachers in catering to the individual needs of our students and we appreciate the feedback we receive from you about our teaching to date. Some Stage 3 parents discussed the complexity of Stage 4 for students and the need to prepare for this milestone in the final years of Primary. Some parents felt that homework is necessary in developing regular study patterns. We appreciate your feedback and will be taking it very seriously as we continue to plan learning. 

One of our teachers shared an excellent ABC resource with the staff, related to developing a love of reading in your child. Reading is the key to all learning and there is nothing more important than developing in your child the capacity to read and to enjoy reading. This is something we work on daily in St Canice’s but we cannot do it alone. Read the article for some great tips on reading with your child.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-02/five-tips-to-help-you-make-the-most-of-reading-to-your-children/9609582

As I write, we are preparing for Open Day, tomorrow Wednesday 4th March at 8:20am. We are hoping for a good turnout of interested people. We have all worked very hard in preparing for the day and encourage you and other people beyond our school community you may know to visit us to see our great school at work. Many thanks in advance for spreading the word: your commendations are the best form of publicity we can hope for.

Kind regards,

Miriam Meaney, Principal

Cross Country

Bushfire Crisis Appeal

Open Day BBQ 

Pre School Visits

Canberra Excursion

You are invited to join the students and staff at St Canice's on Wednesday 4th March to celebrate Catholic Schools Week.

8:20am -  BBQ Breakfast

9:00am -  Open Classrooms

10:00am -  Liturgy in Hall to include musical performance

10:30am - Coffee & Tea and a Q&A forum with Ms Meaney and the student leaders in the Library

Ther School Locker will have the winter uniform pop up shop open all morning, where uniform will be available to purchase and take home.

The School Locker will hold the Winter Uniform Pop Up Shop

This Wednesday the 4th March

In the St Canice’s Conservatorium

8:20am—11am

On Wednesday the 4th of March, St Canice's are raising money to help look after the Koalas and their home!

Please bring in a coin and go on a coin hunt.

Let’s see how much St Canice’s can give to help look after our injured wildlife.

On 2nd March 2020, we went to Darling Harbour in Sydney for the National Young Leaders Day. We left Katoomba station at 6:30am and got back at around 5:30pm. It was a long day but it was well worth it. On this day, all of the young leaders from primary schools all over NSW join together to learn more about leadership and how to make a difference in their world. Over 5000 students attended! The speakers who inspired us were Erin Molan, Rove McManus, Bianca Chatfield and John Courtis. Read our comments below about this amazing day out! 

Airlie:

It was a great learning opportunity. I learned that to be a leader, you need to have a lot of resilience.

Lucas: 

We got the opportunity to interact with people from other schools and got to do activities that were fun and engaging. I learned that you never let anybody else put you down. 

Meenatchi:

It was a very interesting, hands on experience. I learned that when you have a goal in life, you may not achieve it straight away but with persistence and commitment, you will get there. 

Owen:

All of the speakers were very inspirational. I learned that if we have a dream, we can make it happen. 

Many thanks to Mrs Van Der Walle and Mrs Laznik for bringing us there and to our parents for supporting us in our leadership.

Airlie, Meenatchi, Lucas and Owen

2020 Student Leaders

Stage Three has started the year with great enthusiasm and a desire for learning. The present Year 6 students have been excited welcoming their Year 5 peers into the stage and sharing with them all their wisdom and experience from 2019.

In the space of only 6 weeks of learning, Stage 3 has already achieved so much. Here are a few of our learning experiences so far this year:

Students in Stage 3 have been attending local Early Childhood Centres in recent week’s with Ms Meaney. Whilst there, they have been reading books with students and have been telling them how wonderful our St Canice’s school community is. Maybe one day they might choose to attend St Canice’s.

Congratulations to three of our Stage 3 students; Perren Lynch, Patrick Maish & Cooper Darrington who were recently Baptised into the Catholic Faith. The Liturgy was a wonderful celebration of faith. 

Working in groups to complete inquiry projects continues to be an important part of the learning in Stage Three. The students' current inquiry question is; “How can we as future leaders of our country, learn from key figures and events in the development of Australian democracy; ensuring the future of democracy in this country thrives?” Students are currently working on learning skills such as note taking, summarising, researching and presenting in order to effectively answer this question. 

To commence the school year Stage 3 have been working and supporting their Year 1 & Kindergarten Buddies. The purpose of Buddies is to support the building of trusting relationships within and across our school community. Congratulations to Stage 3 for being excellent role models to our younger students.

In commencing Catholic Schools Week on 2nd March, Stage 3 had a fabulous time with Mr Andrew Chinn; an amazing faith filled musician. In joining with the whole school, Stage 3 celebrated through song their love and joy of God. 

Monday March 2nd, Australian religious songwriter and singer, Andrew Chinn, visited our school to share his songs with our children.  Andrew’s songs, such as “These Hands”, “Rainbow”, “An African Blessing” and “Rise Up!” are used in classrooms and liturgies around Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. 

We were baptised in our parish church on Friday, 21st February 2020. You can read our answers to some important questions about baptism below:

Why did you want to be baptised?

Patrick:

“My grandad said before he died that he wanted me to be baptised so I felt an obligation to carry out his wishes.”

Kamran:

“I wanted to get baptised to get closer to God and to get closer to the Catholic faith.”

Cooper:

“Before my Dad died, he said I could choose the religion I would like to follow. I chose to be a Catholic. I wanted to be part of the Catholic family.”

Why is baptism important these days?

It is important because it brings you closer to God. It means that you are a child of God. You become part of a Catholic community. You learn from others and you teach others about being a child of God.

How did you celebrate:

Perran, Kamran, Ayla

We had a party. One of Mum’s friends volunteered to have it at her house. She made a cake and friends gave us presents such as crosses and rosaries.

Patrick:

I went to the party too. I got a Star Trek present that I am still painting. 

Harry:

I had sushi for dinner that night and I had dinner at Silvio’s the next night.

Cooper:

I had dinner in the RSL and I had chicken and chips with Mum, my grandparents and my godmother.

Perran, Kamran, Ayla, Cooper and Harry

Congratulations to Graham & Nive on the safe and healthy arrival of your daughter Eliana.

Congratulations to Joshua is Stage Two on becoming a big brother.

Morning Fun On The Playground

Coming to school on time not only helps students learn the value of punctuality and routine, but helps children build and maintain friendships with other students.This is also a great time for parents/ carers to meet and catch up with other parents in the school community and forge friendships as well.

To make coming to school fun and to help students who may find the mornings challenging I set up the bubble machine  on the playground, hand out chalk for the students to decorate the upper playground with, along with other random acts of fun activities. The secret is you need to be at school before the bell goes, as you never know when these random acts may appear!

I look forward to seeing you at school, and on time.

Miss Elizabeth

Attendance Family Liaison Officer

Happy Birthday to All who celebrate in March

Keitah Altavilla

Vicky Ho

Jude Diaz

Zaman Rana

Eva Garraway

Josh Tuiletufuga

Airlie Riddle

Jerome Muehlbacher

Sofia Rana

Ethan Luxford

Arrabella pink

Benny Goulding

Hamish McCloghry-Laing

Miss Emma!

Students participating in School Banking will get weekly hands-on saving practice, when they bring their deposit to school in their Dollarmites deposit wallet on School Banking day.

When a deposit is received, a silver Dollarmites token will be given, which can then be redeemed for a Treetop savers reward (maximum one reward per item). 

Preschooler’s and parents are welcome to join Mrs Friend's Preschool Reading Group in the library every Tuesday morning for a fun story reading session from 8:40-9:15

Log in to https://www.parra.catholic.edu.au/About-Us/Building-Child-Safe-Communities

Scroll to Volunteer Training        

Step 1 – Complete either Volunteer

Step 2 – Complete Training Module

You will receive a confirmation email once the forms have been submitted.

Parents and close relatives of a child who volunteer do not require a WWCC.

A WWCC is required if

• A volunteer is part of a formal mentoring program.

• Where volunteering involves intimate personal care of children with a disability.

• Volunteers are not parents or close relatives.

• Volunteers – Mamre Creche - CatholicCare
• Office Manager – Tribunal of the Catholic Church (NSW and ACT), Diocese of Parramatta – Applications close 3 February.
• General Manager, Early Years Education & Care – Catholic Diocese of Parramatta Services Limited (CDPSL) – Applications close 4 February.

More details at: parracatholic.org/employment

Blacktown Neighbour Aid, a program with CatholicCare, is looking for volunteers to support our senior clients in the Blacktown area to remain living independently in their own home. If you feel you would like to make a positive difference to other’s lives in this way, please contact the Manager, Deb Woolacott on 0418 114 055 or email deb.woolacott@ccss.org.au.

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Parish in the Upper Blue Mountains has opened an Adoration Chapel at St Canice’s Church, Katoomba. If you would like further information or would like to sign up for a weekly hour of adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, please call the parish office on (02) 4782 2804.