Dear Parents,

Welcome back to term 3! I hope you had an enjoyable holiday period with your families. This term, we have four new students starting with us, Jaiden, Isabella and Oscar into Home Group 3 and Aria into Home Group 2. We welcome you and your families to the St Angela of the Cross School Community.

As previously advised and due to increased enrolments, our grade structures have changed to the following.

• Homegroup 1: Foundation (Ms Leah Missen)
• Homegroup 2: Grade 1/2 (Mrs Rachael Williams Mon, Tues, Fri and Mrs Holly Peterson Wed Thur)
• Homegroup 3: Grade 3-5 (Ms Rachel Braun)

Next Wednesday 21^st and Thursday 22^nd July are parent/teacher interviews, a vital time where you can talk further about your child’s report and support the teacher in their work. We ask that all students attend with their parent(s) and envisage that each interview will begin with students sharing reflections on their learning and their goals for Mathematics and English.  These interviews will be scheduled for a more extended period of 15 mins each. See Booking information included as below.

At the end of last term, the staff of St Angela of the Cross participated in a professional development day where we agreed upon our Whole School Approach to Positive Behaviour Expectations. These were decided upon using feedback gained from parents and students within our community.  These expectations portray how we would like all members of our St Angela of the Cross Community to behave at all times.

As these will be our expectations it is now important for us to unpack each of these with our students to give them a greater knowledge of their meaning. More information will be shared with parents as we continue our Whole School approach to Positive Behaviour journey.

Staff and students are no longer required to wear a face mask when at school (but can choose to do so). Staff who work in areas of the school that are open to the general public, such as school reception, must wear a face mask when interacting with visitors.

Visitors to schools, including parents, guardians, carers, contractors, parish clergy etc, must observe the following face mask requirements when attending the school:

• must carry a face mask at all times
• wear a face mask indoors unless an exception applies
• wear a face mask outdoors where 1.5 metres physical distancing cannot be maintained unless an exception applies.

Parents are now welcome onsite in the mornings before school (in the undercover area) and assemblies will resume next week.  Every time you come on site either into reception or through the school gates all visitors must check in using the QR codes available.   

Parents utilising the car pickup line at the start and end of the day must remain with their car at all times. You must not walk with your students or wait at the gate. This is to ensure the safety of our community and to keep the traffic flowing as smoothly as possible.

Next week we will be having a school Book Fair in our multi-purpose room. There will be many fiction and non-fiction books displayed and available for purchase; please come and have a look at the great resources available. Our school receives a percentage of all sales to spend on books so we can continue updating our school library. The book fair will be open every morning next week from 8:30am-9:00am as well as during parent/teacher interview times. Card payments only.

Pie Order forms will be sent home with your students today.

The Pies will be supplied by Albert's Kitchen in Drouin, and made using local produce.

Order forms and money are due back at school by FRIDAY 23rd July.

Pies will be available and must be collected from Administration on WEDNESDAY 4th August between 2.30pm and 3.30pm.

Payments to be made using cash, direct deposit or eftpos in Administration.

Thank you to the Parents and Friends Committee for organising this fantastic fundraiser for our school. 

Late last term all students were sent home with a permission form for the 2021 Catholic Education photography project.

If you would like your student to partipate please ensure the permission form is returned to the office, photography will take place on Friday 6th August.

Copies of the permission form can be collected from the office. 

Our students have been invited to attend Marist-Sion College's production of Charlie and the Chocolate factory.

The students will attend a special matinee viewing on Wednesday 28th July, permission forms will be sent via PAM shortly.

Not doing – resting!
Parents empathise with Jesus’ predicament in this gospel from Mark (Mark 6:30-34). Murphy’s law applies that when parents are exhausted and all they want is rest, their children make demands on them. Parents rise to the occasion, as Jesus does when the people want more. Nevertheless, he and we need rest.
Rest is a good thing! It is not laziness. Hopefully we all have purpose in our lives and spend much time and effort pursuing that: studying, exploring, parenting, making a living and compassionately outreaching to the world.
Our value though is inherent in us, not a function of what or how much we do. We “do” in response to the needs we prayerfully discern when we spend quiet, reflective time with God. Recharging our batteries.
God already knows us intimately and isn’t impressed by our crushing workload, our imposing titles, or our remarkable achievements in work and play. What he (she?) does want is quality time with us.
Quality time in 2021 might mean no iPhone, no wifi, no 4G, no email, no voicemail, no Facebook or Twitter, no TV – even for a whole day (horror of horrors!), alone with none but our God. If this sounds difficult (as it does for me) then you probably really need it!
Deep within we crave this time of stepping aside from all our tasks and activities, into a quiet place, quietening our minds, allowing Jesus to nourish us with his life-giving word. Perhaps (and parents know this well) a total rest day is an unattainable luxury at present. Then we need to find other ways and strategies. To build in an early morning and/or a late evening of time in prayer and quiet reflection on the day to come [or the day past] and our place in it with God.

Deacon Mark Kelly

Congratulations to Isaac who was recently baptised. We thank Isaac and his family for their commitment in preparing for this special time in their faith journey. 

An Information evening will be held on Wednesday 28^th July 7.30pm Marian Room (attached to St. Joseph’s Church Warragul; enter car park from Bowen Street) for those:

• Who want to find out more about the Catholic faith!
• What Catholics believe and why?
• Considering possibly becoming a Catholic!
• An Adult Catholic who has not received First Communion or Confirmation.

If you know of someone that may be interested please bring them along to this session.

For more information you can contact:

Fr. Peter Slater: 56231642

Joan Robertson at St. Joseph’s Parish Office, Warragul: 56231642             

Deacon Mark Kelly at Marist Sion College: 56235944 or 0427748646.

Join St Angela of the Cross Primary School in fundraising for the MS Readathon.
The MS Readathon inspires kids to read as much as they can, all for one incredible cause. The rules are simple. Read whatever you like, as much as you can, throughout the month of August. Children can register with our school page by clicking on this link: https://www.msreadathon.org.au/fundraisers/StAngelaoftheCrossPrimarySchool.
Best of all, by joining our quest, not only will you awaken a love of reading, you will also be helping kids who have a parent with multiple sclerosis.

On the last day of Term 2, we celebrated the end of our Inquiry Unit with a special visit from Ruth and her border collie Azhura. The Responsible Pet Ownership program educates children on living safely with dogs and promotes vital safety messages through animated presentations, songs and role play. Our students enjoyed participating in this council run program consolidating what they had learnt about the needs of living things. They particularly enjoyed meeting and greeting Azhura!

Wonder Recycling Rewards collections close THIS WEEK! All those wonderful bread bags and tags you have collected will be posted on Friday 16th of July. 
Thank you again for your support and participation in this great recycling program.