Dear Parents,
This Sunday we are celebrating the Feast of Corpus Christi, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. We remember with gratitude the celebration of Jesus’ ultimate gift to us all of his Body and Blood through his suffering and death on the cross. Jesus’ giving of his body and blood for us all, encourages each of us as children of God to love others with ‘our heart, mind, soul and strength as St Mark’s identifies in his Gospel writing. This Sunday we focus on Jesus. He gave his body for us. He poured out his life for us. He gave himself, day in and day out, to teach and to heal, to comfort and to challenge, to forgive and to love. In many t practical ways, he gave himself to us, showing us what it means for God to hold us in existence. This Sunday “as we receive our Lord’s body and blood in communion, let our hearts fill with gratitude for this amazing gift from the heart of the risen Jesus” [Fr Michel Fallon].
This weekend, the children from our parish community will make their First Holy Communion. This is a very special occasion in the lives of our First Communicants and their families. For the first time these young children will receive our Lord through the Eucharist as they are further initiated into our Catholic community. Thank you to all those from the Parish community, Fr Ian and Mrs. Wynne our REC who assisted in the preparation of these children over the last six weeks. Please continue to pray for these children as they grow in the love and image of God.
Each student on Wednesday received their first semester report through the Compass parent portal. Your child’s report is a summary of your child’s learning acknowledging their achievements and highlighting their learning challenges for the second half of the year. It is encouraged that you sit down with your child over the weekend and celebrate their achievements and discuss the identified areas for improvement. These challenges for next semester can be best formulated into several short-term goals that can be jointly constructed by yourselves and your children. I would like to thank the teachers for the many hours spent over recent weeks marking assessments and writing student reports.
Over the next two weeks, teachers will be conducting parent teacher interviews. These interviews will be conducted either by phone or face-to-face at school. Thank you to those parents who booked an appointment online. It is important that parents are punctual for their designated interview time. Each interview is ten minutes in duration. If you require additional time to discuss your child’s studies, please make an appointment with your child’s teacher for a follow up meeting. Your co-operation in these matters will be greatly appreciated by staff and other parent.
Just a reminder that the last two days of this term- Thursday 30th June and Friday 1st July, have been designated as staff development pupil free days. Over the two days the staff will be engaged in working through the new mathematics curriculum as well as participating various spiritual formation experiences. Please note there will be no classes or supervision provided on both days.
Our onsite school uniform shop will cease trading as of Tuesday 21st June and will reopen online from the beginning of Term 3. Mrs Sarah Haber who has been managing the shop for many years is retiring at the end of the term. We thank her for the work and commitment she has shown over her time at CTK in “clothing” our students. CEDP for several years have been encouraging schools to move over to an online platform as the Diocese move over to select uniform suppliers. With this in mind and the pending retirement of our uniform shop manager, it is now the opportunity to move to an online platform a company called School-Locker. More details regarding the new online uniform shop will forwarded on to families in the final two weeks of the term.
Over the last few weeks, families were emailed details regarding the 2022 TTFM Parent and student surveys. It is important for both our Diocesan schools and the Catholic Education Office Parramatta that feedback from the surveys is completed by as many of our families as possible. I encourage all families to complete the survey over the next week. Our Years 4-6 students have already completed the survey at school. All the data / information collected by the survey is anonymous. Reports will be made available to the school over the next few months. The link to the survey was resent to all families on Wednesday via a skoolbag.
Thank you to families who are continuing the high standard of uniform compliance during Winter. There are however several children wearing sneakers and joggers with their winter school uniform. Children are to wear black leather shoes with their school uniform not runners or black sneakers. Several boys are failing to wear their school tie each day. This is an integral part of the boy’s winter uniform. Your cooperation in this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Our Athletics Carnival after a two year absence, was held last Friday at Barton Park Parramatta. A great community day was conducted with our four CTK sports houses competing in a variety of field and track events as well as series of activities facilitated by SISA who have been working each week with the children throughout semester one, for the CTK Athletics Shield. The carnival also served as a selection trial for the upcoming Hills Zone Athletics carnival in early term 3. Thank you to our parents who attended the carnival as spectators or who took on various official roles throughout the day. A special thanks to our teachers who worked closely with Mrs Kelly Hosking who organised and facilitated a great day where many PBs were achieved. Well done and thank you to all who contributed to the success of the carnival.
Have a great weekend
Tony Hughes
Principal
Have a great week
Tony Hughes
