Last Sunday’s Gospel…

“I am the way, the truth and the light,” said Jesus. These are three small words Jesus uses to describe Himself but they hold a very powerful and helpful message for us. As we journey through our lives Jesus shows us the way by His own example and that of those around us who continue His work. The words He spoke are truth as are all the things he taught us so we need only to look for them when we are making a decision. Finally, He lights our path by His presence with us and through the gifts He gave us to do what we need to do. He really makes it sound very easy when He says to just “Follow Me”.

From the Principal...

Our goals for the year are humming along very well. By goals I mean the School Improvement Goals we set ourselves each year. Put simply, these are the areas, according to our data, we need to ‘get better’ at. You have read about or heard me speaking about them before and I thought I’d give you an update. 

Firstly, we are getting to know who Jesus is. We are learning about the historical figure and significant events in his life. A picture timeline in every classroom is helping with this because whenever the teachers study a story with the students they are showing them where it fits into Jesus’ life. The new bibles and text books (thanks P&F!) are all just about ready to go and help with this too. Studying Christmas at the moment in Stage 3 with the Christmas Art competition has shown us we can’t take for granted that students know who visited Jesus when he was born, or that he also lived in Egypt or that John the Baptist was his cousin. It is this factual knowledge we are working on – the students are very good at the application of stories to carry out missionary work. Secondly we are looking at how we assess students to measure their learning growth but also to measure teacher impact on learning. The Localised Numeracy Assessment is a standard based assessment the students complete each term that helps with this. Teachers meet about the results because by it we can see individual, class and grade trends and adjust plans accordingly to cater for these needs. By comparing one class’ results to another, teachers also discuss teaching techniques so they can increase their impact by learning from each other. Mrs Smith and I coordinate these discussions fortnightly on various data including reading, EALD, writing and religion, as well as anything else the teachers ask for, and we get a very good overall picture of how we are going as a school. EALD has also been a focus with around 70% of our population coming from Non-English Speaking Backgrounds and 38% with English as an Additional Language or Dialect. Explicit teaching of vocabulary and field knowledge has been central to this journey too and just as essential for native speakers because we don’t all go to the beach, or a park, museums, on a picnic or even travel on public transport. We are seeing the benefits of this work in increased comprehension of reading texts and richer writing. Our Years 3-5 teachers have also been working with our Instructional Coach on maintaining our excellent Year 3 English NAPLAN results in writing through to Year 5. Data shows we drop down a lot so we have been working on that too. A study of results next year will show us how much difference we are making – there may be some this year already.

As you have been reading, we have done a great deal of work preparing for Book Week and Grandparent’s Day. We are looking forward to having so many people at school again. Planning has been in conjunction with Covid safe measures around having a large number of guests in place. I look forward to seeing you all!

God Bless,

Mrs Michelle Rolfe

Principal

Fr Peter Caruana Wednesday 3rd August 2022

Please join us for a special Memorial Mass and Blessing of the Memorial Garden to commemorate the first anniversary of Father Peter Caruana’s passing.  The service and blessing will take place  on Wednesday 3rd August 2022 at Holy Family, Ingleburn. Mass commences at 6.00pm followed by a blessing of the Memorial Garden in honour of Father Peter.

Please join us for tea and coffee after to reflect and share some memories of Fr Peter. Everyone is welcome.

RSL and Schools Remember ANZAC Art Competition

To mark the 70th Anniversary of this service RSL NSW, the Department of Education, Catholics Schools NSW and the Association of Independent Schools NSW are launching an art competition to NSW school students.  Two artworks will be selected for the cover of the 2023 service programme. If you wish to participate, please follow the link below:-

Greetings and many blessings to you all. Here are some updates and resources that I feel will be of benefit to you.

St Mary of the Cross Feast Day: 8th of August

I attended Mount Saint Joseph High School for four years. I have a deep affinity with Mary MacKillop (St Mary of the Cross). We celebrate this amazing woman of faith and courage on the 8th of August.

6th of August: Transfiguration

Both Roman and Eastern rite Catholics celebrate the Church's feast of the Transfiguration, August 6, on its traditional date for both calendars.

The feast commemorates one of the pinnacles of Jesus' earthly life, when he revealed his divinity to three of his closest disciples by means of a miraculous and supernatural light.

This week’s Gospel (from Liturgyhelp)

REFLECTION FOR YOUNG PEOPLE – The rich farmer had many possessions but when he died, suddenly those possessions meant nothing at all. His focus was always on earthly matters, not on God. I wonder if he had heard the message in the first reading would he have lived his life differently.

If he had shared his wealth with the poor he would have been storing up treasure in heaven rather than on earth.

Our society encourages us to be successful, to earn as much money as we can, and to have more goods and possessions than we could possibly need. There is nothing wrong with working hard and being successful, it is only when we selfishly hoard our good fortune and ignore those who are in need and who don't have the opportunities that we have.

Ask the children to think of some ways they can be less addicted to material possessions, less selfish, more sharing, more aware of the needs of others. Ask them to think about television advertising – do they really need all of the things that the ads tell them they should get? Do they even need half of those things?

Ask them to think of one thing they can do this week that is more focused on Jesus than on possessions. (The don't need to tell you what it is, unless they want to.)

Sacrament Update:

The Sacrament of Confirmation will take place next Friday the 5th of August at 6.00pm and 7.30pm.

Please pray for the children as they prepare for the sacrament.

Can you answer this question?

Podcast: Ripples Ripples is a PODCAST developed for staff and parents on-going spiritual formation. It seeks to offer a space where people can draw on the wisdom of a series of guest speakers and can experience some treasured stillness through meditation. See the link - you can either download the files as podcasts or listen to them directly from the website.

Do you yearn to have a moment of stillness or inspiration?

Have you listened to one of the CEO Ripples Podcasts?

Scan here to access the podcasts and download onto your phone.

You can download straight onto iTunes or PodBean.

Dear Parents and Carers,

 This term we will be celebrating G’Day and Book Week on Friday 2nd September 2022.

We would like to invite our parents and grandparents to join us for a Liturgy followed by open classrooms, morning tea, Book Week Parade and Choral Speaking Performance. These events may be subject to change depending on weather and COVID-19 cases.

This year the theme for Book Week is ‘Dreaming with eyes open…’. On Friday 2nd September students are encouraged to come to school dressed as their favourite character from a book. We do not expect parents to go out and purchase an expensive costume for this event.

Further information will come in the following weeks so please ensure you check Compass and read the school newsletter.

Kind Regards,

 Miss Natasha Ferderer and Miss Alana Stroligo      

Middle Leader/s        

2022

 *Friday 23 September, 2022 - Pupil free day*