Dear Parents & Guardians

One of the joys of being Principal is doing morning duty where I get to wander around the front of the school and talk to the children and parents as they arrive at school. Mondays are usually the most special as it is the day the students have the most news; sharing the fun things they have done over the weekend and letting me know about their wins or losses on the sporting field.

One thing that I hear regularly from children (including my own!) is their attitude to not winning. Losing a game, not getting something they really wanted or the notion that something was not fair. The following extracts are from Positive Schools writer Michael Grose and it is a good reminder for us as parents to remind our children that winning isn’t everything. A timely reminder with our Athletics carnival tomorrow!

Winning is great! We love it when our kids win a game or a race. It’s great to see their faces light up when they win. Winning is a good feeling. Winning means they’re doing well. It’s equated with success. It’s a good habit to develop.…… or so the theory goes.

I beg to differ. Winning is just one story.

Not winning carries emotion, but it’s not necessarily positive. Kids usually experience disappointment, annoyance and frustration – all unpleasant emotions. But it’s good for children and young people to experience unpleasant feelings from time to time.

It’s good to learn that bad feelings happen, but they don’t last. That things don’t always go your way. This is a huge life lesson. Not winning also teaches kids to link success with effort. It teaches them that perseverance pays off eventually.

Helping kids accept setbacks and unpleasant emotions rather than block them out is the key to building their resilience.

The St Angela Athletics Carnival will be held on Wednesday 16th March for all students.

We encourage all students to dress in their house colours for this event.
All new students received their house notification on Tuesday, their house colour can also be found on your child's student profile on PAM.

The Carnival will be held onsite between the hours of 9am-1pm (approx. finish time). Parents/Guardians/siblings are welcome to attend the event but must sign in via the office prior to entry. All visitors to school grounds must comply with vaccination requirements, face mask requirements whilst indoors (primary schools only) and practise respiratory etiquette and good hand hygiene.
A reminder for all visitors to please BYO Chairs and/or Picnic Rugs.

Franklin and the Bean coffee van will be setup at our carnival, cash and card facilities available.

Athletics Day Bows
School bows are available to collect from the office for Athletics Day. Thankyou to Belinda Atkins for kindly making and donating these lovely bows to our students. 

Please see the below timetable and map for further information.

Athletics Carnival Site Map 2022

This Friday 18th March, the students at St Angela of the Cross will participate in an AFL school engagement clinic.

These clinics are inclusive, fun and engaging sessions that mimic Auskick activities and allow for everyone to get involved and stay active.

All students are required to wear their sports uniform on this day.

Friday 1st April is a casual clothes day for the students if they bring an Easter Egg along to go towards our Easter Raffle.

Easter Raffle booklets will be sent home tonight, if required extra booklets can be collected from Administration.

Please see the below flyer for further details.

Together with our Parents and Friends committee we are excited to announce our first fundraiser for the year, the Easter Hot Cross Bun Drive.

Order forms and money are due back at school by Friday 25^th March, 2022.

Hot Cross Buns will be available and must be collected from Administration on Tuesday 5th April between 2.30pm and 3.30pm

Details & order forms have been sent home with your child.

Important feedback on the rapid antigen testing (RAT) program is being sought from our school community through a short survey that has been developed by the Department of Health.

RATs are helping students and staff to safely return to school and ensure positive cases are identified as quickly as possible. All RATs ordered by the Victorian government for schools are effective in detecting coronavirus (COVID-19) variants, including Omicron.

To help evaluate and improve the roll-out of the program to schools and ensure that staff and students have the required support, a short survey is being sent to parents at a sample of Victorian schools. 

Our school has been selected to complete the survey from Tuesday 15 March 2022. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. Our school will have no access to your individual data or responses. The link to the survey is here:

You are asked to complete the survey by 5.00pm Sunday 20 March 2022.

Catholic schools in the Diocese of Sale aim for continuous school improvement. An essential element of this improvement is understanding how students, parents and staff perceive the Catholic identity of our school and what they might like Catholic identity at St Angela of the Cross Primary School to look like in the years ahead.

These surveys will assist us in better understanding how our Catholic Identity is expressed. The results will contribute to a reliable picture of our school’s Catholic Identity, which we will use to inform our School Improvement Plan for the next four years.

Whilst this survey is not compulsory we thank you for your consideration of this request and for your anticipated participation. Please see the attached letter for further information on how to complete this survey.

Lent and Forgiveness

Lent is a time to pray, fast and do good deeds. It is a time to change ways and to turn to God for forgiveness.

Reflection on forgiveness from Pope Francis

Pray a Three Minute Retreat: Celebrate Forgiveness and respond by praying an Act of Contrition 

Pray An Act of Contrition 

O my God, I am sorry that I have sinned against you, because you are so good, and by the help of Your grace, I will not sin again.
Amen

Second Week of Lent 

This week through Project Compassion we learn about Biru who lives in a rural village in India’s east. He lost mobility in one of his legs, after contracting polio as a child. Biru worked as a shepherd, looking after other people’s cattle, to support his wife and four daughters. Keeping up with the cattle was a challenge.

Biru taught himself how to repair bicycles by watching other people, but he never dreamed of using those skills to start his own business. With your generous support, Biru was able to access an entrepreneurship and livelihoods training program, run by Caritas Australia’s partner, Caritas India. He gained the support and skills he needed to start his own bicycle repair business. Now, Biru earns enough money to support his family.

Watch a short film about Biru’s story here.

Please support Project Compassion via the Project Compassion box.

Once completed please send your families box back to school.

So far, the students at St Angela of the Cross have raised $50 towards project compassion.

Thank you for your kind donations.

Photo: Sameer Bara/Caritas Australia

Son of God became Human - We become God.*

Peter’s, often blundering, steps strike a chord with me. I know Peter. And as a pretty ordinary photographer and painter and an average wordsmith, I understand Peter’s impulse to somehow capture the astounding event he and James and John are witnessing (Luke 9:28-36). Often, I try to capture sunsets, beach scenes, landscapes and even grandchildren. I want to record them at their peak moments, but I rarely succeed to my satisfaction. Peter probably thinks this is Jesus’ peak moment, but his somewhat silly suggestion to build dwellings or tents or memorials signifying the great prophets, Moses and Elijah and Jesus is quickly shut down. Moses and Elijah disappear and Peter’s creative moment is gone. Confirmation of Jesus greatness is the beginning not the end. Immediately, Jesus is identified as the Chosen One and they are instructed to listen to him so that they (and we) may learn to truly follow Christ on his continuing journey.

What Peter has failed to realize, as many of us often do, is that what is important is not so much that Jesus is transfigured, but that we be transfigured – that’s what Jesus came to do: to transform us more and more into his image and likeness, that we might become, as C.S. Lewis said, “Little Christs.” This glorious “Transfiguration” event might seem a little left field in the context of Luke’s narrative, sandwiched as it is between Jesus forecasts of his imminent death. But it points us forward to along this Lenten journey, emphasising the glory in prospect for each of us, but recognising too that we need to pass through harsh times before the glory. Peter, James and John (and we) need to come down from the mountain, joining Jesus in his journey of love and service and walking together towards whatever future God plans for us. 

*Catechism 4601

Deacon Mark Kelly

We warmly welcome teachers, support staff, parents and carers to attend our disability networking event, Ready-Set-Connect, being held for Traralgon and surrounding communities on Friday 8 April, from 10:00am – 12:30pm.  

Ready-Set-Connect is an informative (and fun!) event based on a speed dating format.  It connects teachers, support coordinators, parents and carers of people living with disability with NDIS disability service providers.

National and local service providers will be sharing information about their services and products. The event will help you keep in touch and up to date with services in your local community. In the space of two hours, you will build your connections and get to meet and know a variety of providers servicing your region.

It's FREE for Attendees! Come and join us.  Let us know you are coming by registering as an Attendee.

Here are the event details. Click on the link below to register as an Attendee for the event:

Hope to see you there.

Regards,
Julia Hunt
Community Engagement Manager
One Community

Please see the below dates for school assemblies.
Please note these will be held in the undercover area and will commence at 3pm.

Tuesday 22nd March

Thursday 7th April (Easter Raffle)

Homegroup H

Stella A and Lucy H

Homegroup M

Asher H and Harper F

Homegroup B

Seth L and Oudham K

Homegroup TP

Ava M and Gracie P

Homegroup L

Isabella M & Billy P

This week we celebrated St Angela of the Cross as part of her feast day. We participated in a Mass run by Father Confidence, had a special lunch and some fun activities in the afternoon which our parents helped us with. We created shoes with special St Angela themed laces to celebrate the time she worked in a shoe shop. These are some of the facts we know about St Angela:

• She was born in 1846.
• She helped the poor by washing their feet.
• She has 14 siblings.
• She got a job when she was only little. She worked at a shoe shop.
• She thought that she could help God when she saw the sign of the cross with Jesus on it.
• She became a Saint in 2003
• She is kind because she made shoes.
• Her Mum’s job was doing the laundry.

Last week we celebrated St. Angela of the Cross Feast Day. We celebrated this special day by attending a mass with Father Confidence, having a sausage sizzle lunch and inviting our families into our school. It was so lovely to welcome all of our families into the classroom at last! Thank you to all of those who came along to enjoy an activity with the children. 

The students learnt about who St. Angela was, the challenges she faced throughout her life, all the fantastic qualities she displayed and the mission she had to help all people. 

The students discussed how they could walk in the shoes of St. Angela by following our school expectations of Safe, Respectful, Persistent and Inclusive. They decorated a shoe and designed a shoe lace to attach. These are now displayed in our collaborative shared area for everyone to see.