Dear Parents,

It is amazing how quickly the year has gone! As a staff we are sincerely grateful for your support and for allowing us to work with you for the education of your children.

Tomorrow morning at 10am we would like to welcome you back through our doors for our end of year Mass and Nativity play to be held outside in our undercover area. Parents are welcome to stay for morning tea afterwards, please bring your own morning tea to share with your children. Tea and coffee will be provided.

Due to COVID restrictions, only parents who are fully vaccinated will be able to attend this event. Parents will be required to QR code upon arrival and show admin staff evidence of vaccination before entering. Masks are still required whilst indoors and can be removed once outside. Please dress warm as it can get it a little cold ousite in the undercover area.

School reports will be sent to all parents Via your Parent Access Module (PAM) account on Wednesday afternoon.

I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all of the staff for the effort they have put in over the course of the year. They continually go over and above what is required of them for the benefit of the students.

I hope everyone has a safe, holy and happy Christmas and New Year and I look forward to working with you again next year.

Regards,
Justin Greenwood
Principal

A reminder that School Fees Payment Arrangement Forms are now overdue.

Please ensure that they are returned to the Office asap, alternatively you may email them to admin@stangelawarragul.catholic.edu.au

For further information, new forms or assistance please contact the office on (03) 5622 9800.

Christmas These Days!

Preparations for Christmas these days are typically less focussed on Luke and Matthew’s nativity stories and some folk have only a jumbled notion of the feast we celebrate. And certainly much is written about the commercialisation of Christmas. But still much can be learnt about preparation, consideration of others and reflection on values and circumstances beyond ourselves.

St Francis of Assisi might be said to have invented Christmas in the thirteenth century. His special devotion to Jesus, in what he considered the “feast of feasts”, highlights the incarnate Creator born to Mary in poor, simple, awkward, humble circumstances. Francis celebrated this earthy humanity, encouraging anticipation of the feast and introducing some of the symbolism remaining today. The world is a better place for Christmas preparations.

All three of our readings for this second Sunday of Advent are about preparedness, yearning and eager anticipation. That’s what Advent is about – preparation.

Baruch, a lesser known Old Testament prophet, expresses the yearning of his people during times of sorrow and distress for a joyful future with God’s glorious coming (Bar 5:1-9), while the gospel (Lk 3:1-6) outlines John the Baptist foretelling the imminent coming of the Lord, his cousin Jesus, Son of God. St Paul in his letter to the Philippians (Phil 1:3-6, 8-11), a few decades after Jesus life, death and resurrection is about preparation for the anticipated second coming of Jesus at some unknown time in the future. 

All in all, the message is clear. Prepare with joy for Jesus’ first coming as a child in Bethlehem. We are familiar with the story, but that doesn’t make it any less exquisite. And whilst we anticipate the secular pleasures of Christmas, let us eagerly celebrate the Good News as well as prayerfully preparing ourselves too for the second coming of Christ.

Deacon Mark Kelly  

On Thursday December 9^th, the students of St Angela’s boarded a bus and travelled into a working community and children’s farm called ‘Myuna Farm’. We had a wonderful day full of laughter, smiles and adventures. Students in Homegroups 1 and 2 visited the animal nursery, walked the feed trail, watched a farm show and had a train ride down to the wetlands. Students in Homegroup 3 learnt about energy and climate change, produce gardening, waste management, wetlands biodiversity and also visited the animal nursery.

What a great day out to celebrate the end of Term 4 and an amazing first year spent here together at St Angela’s!

BIG Summer Read is an interactive and fun program that encourages kids to keep reading during summer.

Have you heard of the ‘summer slide’? Research has identified this phenomenon as the loss of literacy skills over the summer holidays when children do not read—estimated on average as the equivalent of two to three months of reading proficiency. This summer, we’re encouraging school kids across Gippsland to keep reading with an exciting reading program – BIG Summer Read.

The program runs from 1 December – 31 January 2022 and pre-registration is open now.

How to register – 

The process is simple! Register online as an individual or a family. 

Then prepare to track your reading by downloading the Beanstack Tracker app from the app store for iOS devices or Google Play for Android devices. You can also call into your local branch to pick up a paper form.

From the 1st December until 31st January 2022, record your reading sessions, unlock badges and be in the running to win some great prizes. The program is aimed at primary-aged children, but all children under 18 are welcome to participate. Children under the age of 13 will need their parent’s permission in order to register with Beanstack. 

How does it work?

Kids are encouraged to keep reading over the summer holidays with an incentivised program that uses Beanstack, a mobile app that rewards you for reading. When reading milestones are reached, kids earn ‘badges’ for their Beanstack profile and increase their chances of winning a prize!

Participants need to log a minimum of 10 books and collect 5 activity badges to complete the challenge. All badges will be released at the start of the program and can be completed at any time. Children can read books, e-books, magazines, comics, graphic novels or listen to an e-audiobook. Take a look at our digital resources here.

Prizes

Participants will go into the draw to win some exciting prizes. We’ll announce more details about this soon!

Terms and Conditions – Please click here to read the Terms and Conditions.

Big Summer Read is a state-wide program delivered in partnership with Public Libraries Victoria, Bolinda Borrowbox and West Gippsland Libraries. For more information, please visit BIG Summer Read – Public Libraries Victoria or phone your local library branch. 

myli.org.au is where you find out all about BIG Summer Read and click on the links for more information. Warragul Library 5622 2848

We are pleased to enclose the information in relation to Extend, our After School Care Program to commence at St Angela of the Cross in 2022.

Please see the attached Welcome Letter which includes the following information:

• Hours of Operation
• Fees
• Booking/Enrolment

Career Opportunity
Extend is seeking enthusiastic and dedicated Educators to join their brand new service at St Angela of the Cross. If you would like further information please see the attached flyer.