Dear Parents and Guardians 

I hope you and your families enjoyed a wonderful break over the school holidays. The Victorian Government has announced some important changes to COVIDSafe measures for schools that will apply from the start of Term 2, 2022.

Face masks
Face masks, while recommended, are no longer required in any school setting. This means students in Grades 3 to 6, staff and visitors in primary schools are no longer required to wear face masks. Any student or staff member who wishes to wear a mask may do so, including those who are medically at-risk.

Rapid Antigen Testing Screening Program
Free Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) kits will continue to be available for all staff and students in Victorian schools for the first four weeks of Term 2, 2022. Participation in the surveillance program will continue to be voluntary but strongly encouraged for all primary and secondary students and staff twice-weekly on school days.

Students and staff who have recovered from COVID-19 do not need to participate in the RAT surveillance program for 12 weeks after their isolation period has ended. This was previously 8 weeks.

Household or Household-Like Contacts
Household and household-like contacts are no longer required to quarantine but are required to undertake the following additional safety measures in the seven days that would have been their quarantine period:

• notify the school if returning during their seven-day period;
• undertake daily rapid antigen testing five times within the seven days;
• wear a face mask indoors (if aged eight (8) and above) unless a lawful exemption applies;
• are not permitted to visit hospitals or care facilities unless an exemption applies.

Household and household-like contacts are recommended to avoid interaction with people at higher risk of severe disease from COVID-19.

If symptomatic, staff and students must stay/return home, take a rapid antigen test, or get a PCR test if a rapid antigen testing kit unavailable. 

If a staff member, student, parent, guardian or carer cannot comply with the additional safety measures outlined above at any time, they must:

• quarantine immediately for the remainder of their seven-day household contact period
• get tested on Day one (1) (or as soon as possible) and on Day six (6) of their household contact period
• not attend school until a negative Day six (6) test result is received.

Vaccination requirements for visitors to schools
Parents, guardians, carers and other adult visitors are no longer required to show evidence of two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine if not performing work or volunteering at the school.

I encourage all parents, guardians and carers to review the attached information in relation to the COVIDSafe measures that will be implemented across all schools in the Diocese of Sale from the commencement of Term 2, 2022 to ensure that we protect our school communities and minimise disruption to face-to-face student learning.

As we approach winter and flu season, the vaccination of children aged five (5) to 11 and booster shots for students 16+ remains the best way to ensure protection for students and staff.

If you have any concerns about getting your child vaccinated, please contact your GP or another health professional who can answer your questions.

Thank you for your ongoing support in keeping our school safe.

Regards

Justin Greenwood
Principal

Please be reminded that students are required to wear winter uniform for Terms 2 & 3. Please see the below uniform list for winter school uniform requirements.

School photo day will be held next Tuesday 3rd May, 2022.

Our provider, Foons photography will onsite during this day to take the student photos.

Students will need to be in full winter uniform for these photos.

All packages will be available including sibling photography.

Photo forms have be sent home with children today.

The St Angela of the Cross Cross Country will be held on Monday 9th May for all students.

We encourage all students to dress in their house colours for this event.

The Cross Country will be held onsite, please see the below timetable and map for further information.

Timetable:

9.10am: Grade 3, 4 & 5 Girls (2km)
9:25am: Grade 3 & 4 Boys/ 5 & 6 Boys (2km)
9.45am: Grade 1 & 2 Girls (1 km)
10.00am: Grade 1 & 2 Boys (1km)
10:15am: Foundation Girls (500m)
10.30am: Foundation Boys (500m)
11:00: Presentation (Individual Places from each race, 1^st – 3^rd. Overall House Aggregate Award).

Parents/Guardians/siblings are welcome to attend the event but must sign in via the office prior to entry. 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.

Parent Helpers
Please see the below web form to register your assistance if you are available to help on the day.

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

Each student will have the opportunity to purchase a gift for their Mum or special person.

The students will visit the stall in their class groups during the morning.

Gifts range from $2.00 to $6.00. 

Please note: Students will have a $10.00 limit, please ensure money is in a named envelope or zip lock bag, 

Parent Helpers

Please see the below web form to register your assistance if you are available to help on the day. Please note Parent helpers will be required from 9am.

Please see the below dates for school assemblies during Term 2. Please note these will be held in the undercover area and will commence at 3pm (with the exception of the performance on the 17th May). 

Tuesday 3rd May

Tuesday 17th May- Andrew Chin Performance, 2:30pm commencement.

Tuesday 31st May

Tuesday 14th June

NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit in May each year. NAPLAN assesses the literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through the school curriculum and allows parents to see how their child is progressing against National Standards.

NAPLAN assessments are now completed online with the exception of grade 3 writing. Our students will complete these assessments on Tuesday 10th, Wednesday 11th and Thursday 12th May.  Please see the attached flyer for further information.  

Congratulations to Frankie F, Jack A, Gurpanth B, Oliver F, Sahib L, Oscar & Billy P for competing at the district athletics last term.

We are proud of your persistence and hard work and would like to thankyou for representing our school.

Best wishes to Oliver who is competing at Divisions in Newborough next Tuesday. 

St Angela of the Cross is excited to be now offering a valuable resource called SchoolTV to parents.

Parenting our children is a complex, challenging and rewarding experience. However, the demands on parents to remain current with technology, drug and alcohol advice and safe practices in a virtual and social media world, as well as dealing with anxiety and wellbeing, add to our busy and diverse family lives.

SchoolTV is a new ongoing resource that is now available to all St Angela of the Cross parents. Each online edition will address a major topic with expert interviews, fact sheets, a parent quiz, recommended apps, books and more. SchoolTV combines information from a host of reliable resources, including BeyondBlue and ReachOut. It provides a single stream of independent factual information that saves parents time and the confusion of searching across multiple online sites for information.

You can access the SchoolTV archive here or at https://stangelawarragul.catholic.schooltv.me/

You can also find a link on our website. Just go to the STUDENT WELLBEING tab and you will find the link to SchoolTV. 

During the School year we will publish various topics for you to access. The first of which is on Managing Overwhelm You can also browse the site for topics of interest. The topics covered may be pertinent to your immediate situation, or the resource may be useful for you at a later date.

We are keen to hear which topics you find the most helpful so please reach out to Holly Peterson hpeterson@stangelawarragul.catholic.edu.au and let us know. 

We hope that you find SchoolTV to be informative and a useful source of current well-researched information.

Our School Captains did a wonderful job yesterday morning at the Service in Warragul showing respect and reverence whilst laying our school wreath.

Today our students participated in an ANZAC day liturgy and classroom activities to pay their respects to people past and present who served our country. A day where we remember the sacrifice of men and women who showed great character and resilience for the betterment of our country.

A Prayer for Anzac Day

O God, our ruler and guide,
in whose hands are the destinies of this and every nation,
we give you thanks for the freedoms we enjoy in this land
and for those who laid down their lives to defend them:
We pray that we and all the people of Australia,
gratefully remembering their courage and their sacrifice,
may have grace to live in a spirit of justice,
of generosity, and of peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them

Congratulations to all of our Easter Raffle prize winners, a special thankyou to our parent helpers and everyone for their donations. 

Drowning Worms

Fishing doesn’t “float my boat” but even so I’ve often heard the expression “gunna drown some worms”, or “drop a line in”. It is a favourite Australian stress buster.

Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are of course the primary images of the Easter season (and our Christian lives). But have a glance too at this third resurrection appearance in John’s gospel where the disciples seem to have found it all too hard, so they’ve gone fishing (John 21:1-19). No lines or worms here but we can imagine Peter saying to at least half his mates, “Wanna drop a net?”

Over a hundred kilometres north of Jerusalem, the fears, triumphs and intense spiritual experience of the resurrection are far behind them. They probably figure they need a stress buster! A safe, familiar circuit breaker from the disturbing challenges of the Jerusalem experience. How easy it is to slip back into comfortable, familiar ways of thinking and behaving!

But, to mangle a saying, disciples fishing on the Sea of Tiberias are safe, but that’s not what disciples are called to do. This is the juncture in John’s account when the fellowship finally takes off. Peter, it seems, takes charge as vicar and the apostles take his lead because the reading from Acts (Acts 5:27-32, 40-41) tells of the disciples back in Jerusalem obediently and courageously “stirring the possum”, “filling Jerusalem with (their) teaching” about Jesus. The authorities are not happy and the disciples know where that leads. They’d rather be fishing but “obedience to God comes before obedience to men” and “we and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him” are witnesses to Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. We are called to a share in that mission, in whatever way we witness, even when we’d rather be fishing.

Deacon Mark Kelly

The Parish Pastoral Council of Warragul and Drouin Catholic Parishes wishes to invite the families of our Grade 3 & 4 students to a Mass.

Further details provided in the attached flyer.