Dear Parents and Guardians

The last two years have been a rollercoaster for many families. The COVID pandemic, quarantine, mask mandates and vaccinations just to name a few.  For many parents and families there were also many challenges to balance working at home and home schooling, isolation from loved ones and government restrictions.

Schools have seen the impact of this first hand with increased anxiety levels of students, their ability to socialise with one another and school refusal with concerns of catching COVID etc. Agencies such as psychologists and counsellors that schools utilise to support families through these times have also been inundated with little to no availability and long wait times.

As a school we want to support our students through these challenges as best we can in partnership with our parents. As a school we have engaged the services of www.letstalk-counselling.com.au to train one of our Learning Support Officers in different modules in order to run school based programs for students who may need this extra support. The first module is titled ‘Let’s talk about Anxiety and Worry’ for students who present with anxiety, worries, camp anxiety, separation anxiety, first signs of school refusal etc. The school-based program runs for 10 weeks with a maximum of four participants in each group. We hope to start offering group sessions for our students early next term. If you believe your child may benefit from this program please contact our school Learning Adjustment Leader, Mrs Holly Peterson, via email hpeterson@stangelawarragul.catholic.edu.au or phone 03 5622 9800.

Next week I will be attending Gippsland Catholic Primary Principals Meetings from Monday to Wednesday. Mrs Rachael Williams will be Acting Principal in my absence. 

A reminder that Term 1 ends for all students on Thursday 7th April. Our assembly next week will be on Thursday afternoon at 3pm for our Easter Raffle. Friday 8th April will be a professional practice day for staff. Term two commences on Tuesday 26th April.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that St Angela of the Cross will be having a school concert in 2022. The concert will be on Wednesday 14th September and showcase the work of our Performing Arts classes. Keep your eye out for more details in the near future.

Homegroup H

Pippa B and Deakin O

Homegroup M

Ned U and Levi G

Homegroup B

Mia H and Lincoln K

Homegroup TP

Billie D and Teddy A

Homegroup L

Tarquin W and Gurpanth B

Fourth Week of Lent 

This week through Project Compassion we learn about Rosalie, who lives with her husband and seven children in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Forced to join the army when she was just 15-years-old, Rosalie experienced significant trauma and hardship during her years in the military. After she was demobilised from the army, Rosalie, like other ex-combatants, was left to fend for herself in the community. 

With your generous support and through Caritas Australia's partners, the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) and Caritas Bukavu, Rosalie was able to connect with other members of her community and participate in business skills training to help her to reintegrate into society.

She joined a savings group which helped her with a loan to start her own small business selling second-hand shoes and natural remedies. 

“I can eat, dress, maintain my health and help others. My children study and manage to eat twice a day. I have learnt to work hand-in-hand with other members of the community. Really, there is more joy in sharing with others.” - Rosalie

Watch a short film about Rosalie’s story here 

Thank you to the generous donations from the students and families at St Angela of the Cross. So far, we have raised $127 towards Caritas Project Compassion

Photo: Arlette Bashizi /Caritas Australia

On Wednesday 16^th March we held our whole school Athletics Carnival. A big congratulations to all students who participated in the events, persisted when it became challenging and for providing support to their peers.

Thank you to all of the parent helpers who contributed their time and assistance at each event on the day.

This Friday we have 7 students representing St Angela of the Cross at the Warragul District Athletics Carnival.

Congratulations and good luck to Jack, Oliver, Billy, Gurpanth, Sahib, Oscar and Frankie!

Recently, a coach from Drouin Auskick visited our school. This was a great opportunity for our students to learn and improve their knowledge of handballing and kicking through small group games and activities.

Numeracy

Our Foundation students have been very busy expanding their number sense by learning how to represent numbers using concrete materials. They have been making numbers on bead strings, tens frames and have even learnt about numbers on a number line! Over the past week, we have explored the vocabulary ‘before’ and ‘after’ and have used our big maths brains to develop fluency when identifying these numbers. Well done superstars!

 In Grade 1, students have been reading, writing, making and ordering numbers up to 100. We are using materials and thinkboards to represent our thinking and are busy exploring different ways numbers can be represented. Our students are getting very good at breaking whole numbers into smaller parts in some very creative ways!

In our learning about number and place value, Homegroup TP have been exploring different ways of showing or representing numbers. We have used many different maths tools including MAB (Hundreds, Tens and Ones), bundles of lolly sticks, tens frames as well as number sentences and splitting up the number in different ways. 

The students made a place value robot showing their number using words, digits, diagrams and addition number sentences.

Homegroup TP have been learning about the properties of 2D and 3D shapes. They used this knowledge to create 3D models. 

In our learning about number and place value, Homegroup L have been exploring different ways of representing numbers. We have used many different maths tools including MAB (Hundreds, Tens and Ones), number lines, as well as number sentences including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to represent our numbers. Once a week, at the conclusion of our lesson we play a fun game called ‘Beat the Teacher’ where students try to make the biggest number possible from cards drawn out of a box.

We have also been learning about properties of 3D shapes and how we can connect three-dimensional objects with their nets and other two-dimensional representations. The students used their knowledge to construct a 3D model from a net. 

Easter can be a challenging time for parents. There's so many chocolate and sweets around, packed with unhealthy food dyes, additives and LOADS of sugar. Bright, cheerful and easily made with your kids using natural superfoods, these Easter eggs are a great, healthy alternative.

Superfood Easter eggs for kids

Muesli cookies