Dear Parents,

Welcome back to the start of term 2, I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday and Easter period with your families.

Term 2 and 3 normally see us implement out Winter School Uniform; as previously communicated due to the Global pandemic and our uniforms being made overseas not all of our stock is available at this time. We will continue to be flexible with the students uniform and will update you as soon as new items become available.

This coming Sunday 25^th April is Anzac Day, a day where we remember the sacrifice of men and women who showed great character and resilience for the betterment of our country. There is no public holiday in Victoria for Anzac Day this year, students will be expected at school as usual on the Monday.

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

School Assembly

This term we will have School Assemblies every second Friday at 3:00pm, alternate weeks to the newsletter. Due to mass gathering restrictions these assemblies will be held outside in the under-cover area (weather permitting).

Easter Raffle

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

Open Classrooms

Thankyou to all of our Parents for attending the Open classroom afternoon.

It was so wonderful to see you all!

District Athletics

Congratulations to Frankie & Oliver who recently represented our school in the District Athletics.

Image of God

John’s second reading (1 John 3:1-2) has tantalised us for many centuries, reminding us that, “what we
are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is that, when it is revealed, we shall be
like him because we shall see him as he really is.”

Our Catholic Catechism affirms that “man was destined to be fully human and fully divinised by God
in glory’ (Cat 398), “The word became flesh to make us partakers of the divine nature …. for the Son of
God became human that we might become God” (Cat 4601).

Astonishingly, as Pope Francis teaches us, “God carefully fashioned us, loves us unconditionally,
delights in us at every moment and is now flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone.” “When you learn
to really look at what’s before you, the delight and pain that’s around you; when you feel something
of the hidden joy and despair of others, their desire for life and their cold despair”…. “Once we
commit to identifying God’s intimate presence in our evolving sensual perception of the world’s
most beautiful artistry, creativity and imagination, in our every breath and heartbeat, in our daily
darkness and invincible light, then we are (already) living the incarnation of God in Jesus.” (O’Leary, An
Astonishing Secret p13). That’s at least a part of “how he really is.”

And is this future, bonded with our Creator, just for an exclusive club? Well, no! Jesus tells us, “there
are other sheep I have that are not of this fold, and these I have to lead as well. They too will listen
to my voice, and there will be only one flock, and one shepherd.” (John 10:11-18). Maybe God’s
unconditional love is waiting to embrace the whole world. Now that’s something to look forward to!

Deacon Mark Kelly

We are seeking Expressions of Interests for a Parents and Friends Committee.

The Parents and Friends Committee will work on providing a positive and friendly community beyond the classroom. This will include the coordination of fundraising and fun events for our students and families to engage in.

If you are interested in supporting this group please complete the below form.

Last term we asked for nominations from our students in grades 3-5 to become Social Justice Leaders for the 2021 school year. We had a significant number of students who wrote letters outlining the qualities and attributes they would bring to this position.  I want to commend them all for their willingness to perform this role and for the efforts they put towards writing their letters. Our staff will meet this week to decide on our four candidates and they will be announced at our Assembly next Friday.

Arts specialist classes will now be on a Wednesday.

A reminder that Lunch orders will be available for purchase every Friday beginning this week. 

Our local provider is Almentios, who focus on lots of healthy “green and amber foods” (most of which is homemade), as well as a few “red” processed items on the menu that are not offered as regularly.
Almentios uses an online ordering system called Flexischools, which is an easy app or website, where each family set up an account and order.

Please see the below flyer for further information on account setup, a flyer can also be collected from administration.

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

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

Gifts range from $1.00 to $5.00. 

Please note: Students will have a $10.00 limit, please ensure money is in a named envelope.

CSPV presents a free webinar for parents of children in primary and secondary school

Saturday 24th April, 10:30am-12pm

Are you struggling to support your young child or teenager with anxiety?

CSPV provides this opportunity for you to learn from leading anxiety speaker and educator Dr Jodi Richardson.
Jodi is the best-selling co-author of Anxious Kids and a regular media commentator
on issues related to anxiety, wellbeing and parenting.

This free 90 minute Webinar will provide you with strategies to know how to respond,
how you can help, when to seek professional help and much more. 

Click here to register now

Dear Parents and Families,    

We warmly welcome our students and families back to Term 2! We have another busy term ahead with a number of exciting activities and events planned. Our students will continue on their learning journey and we look forward to sharing many wonderful learning experiences with you, throughout the term. Thank you for your ongoing support. If you have any questions or concerns in regards to your child’s education, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s classroom teacher either in person or via email.

Below is an overview of the learning that will take place at St Angela of the Cross this term. We are so looking forward to an exciting and engaging term of learning!

Kind Regards,

Leah Missen and Rachel Braun

LITERACY – READING                                                  

Home Group 1                                

Students will continue to build on their knowledge of identifying and recording letter names and sounds. When reading, our beginning readers are being introduced to the strategies of pointing to each word, looking at the words, using picture clues and recognising common words such as ‘I’, ‘a’, ‘to’ and ‘the’. Our independent readers will focus on strategies to comprehend and answer questions about the texts that they read. During Shared Reading, we will be listening to Fairy Tales to introduce the Narrative text type. We will focus on the structure, characters and features of narrative texts.

Home Group 2

Students will be focusing on their understanding of Narrative texts, incorporating the skills of making connections, making predictions, asking questions, inferring and understanding and building vocabuarly. They will continue to develop their knowledge of phonics and will begin to explore some flexible and efficient spelling strategies. Students will be involved in Guided Reading sessions with their teacher to improve accuracy, build fluency, expand vocabulary and develop comprehension skills. A reminder that all students are required to read for a minimum of fifteen minutes each night, record their reading in their reading diary and bring their reading diaries to school daily (RAZ-kids is an acceptable nightly reading resource).

LITERACY - WRITING

Home Group 1

At the beginning of all writing sessions, students are encouraged to plan their writing through drawing and verbalise their ideas in full sentences to their teacher or learning partner. They are learning to hear and count the sounds in words and to record the sounds they can hear. Students will continue to write Recounts about past events and will experiment writing different parts of a Narrative. We will begin to recognise some elements in familiar narratives, for example, characters, setting, problem and solution and will learn to write a simple sentence to tell an imaginative story.

Home Group 2

Students will be learning to plan, compose, edit and publish writing that focuses on the structure of Narrative texts. They will use the correct structure of writing a narrative that includes an orientation, complication, series of events and resolution. Students will reread and edit their writing, checking for spelling, punctuation and text structure, before publishing their writing pieces. They will investigate the use of vocabulary and how a range of interesting words and phrases enhance the meaning, mood and theme of a narrative.

NUMERACY   

Home Group 1

Students will use drawings, numerals and words to record addition and subtraction sums. They will learn vocabulary related to addition and subtraction and explore the ‘Count All, Count On and Count Back’ strategies. Students will develop fluency with forwards and backwards counting. They will understand that numbers are said in a particular order and there are patterns in the way we say them. Students will collect, sort and display data gathered through a picture graph and will answer yes / no questions about data that we have gathered.

Home Group 2

Students will be focusing on using various strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems and will continue to extend their knowledge of place value. They will explore the connection between addition and subtraction using partitioning or writing equivalent number sentences. Students will recall addition facts from single to multi-digit numbers and related subtraction facts to develop increasingly efficient mental strategies. They will compare the effectiveness of different methods of collecting data. Students will explore different ways of presenting data such as, using lists, tables, picture graphs, column graphs, line graphs and pie charts to show the results of their investigations.

RELIGION    

In the Unit, ‘Celebrations’ students will explore the Church as a believing, welcoming, serving, caring and celebrating community that shares God’s love. Students will name and describe family celebrations and events and will explore some of the ways that people celebrate religious traditions. They will recognise that Sacraments are special celebrations in the life of the Church and will name some symbols and actions that are part of the Sacrament of Baptism, the first sacrament of Initiation.

INQUIRY  

Home Group 1

‘Changes in our Sky and Landscape’

Students are learning about the difference between night and day and what makes the night sky dark and the day sky light. They will investigate the four seasons, how they change our environment, how they affect us and what changes in our everyday lives we make, when the seasons change.

‘Living Things and Their Needs’

Students will identify the difference between living and nonliving things and explore what living things need to survive. They will understand the difference between what plants and animals need to survive and will investigate different habitats of living things.

Home Group 2

‘Turn and Tilt’

Students are learning about different types of Scientists and their focus areas. They will investigate how the Earth rotates on its axis, how day and night happens and will identify the different features of Earth.

‘Lifecycles’

Students will identify that different living things have different life cycles and depend on each other and the environment to survive. They will explore the difference between living, once living and products of living things and will investigate how the growth and survival of living things are affected by the physical conditions of their environment.

WELLBEING  

At St Angela of the Cross we have a strong focus on student wellbeing. We will be running a variety of lessons that will enable students to monitor and improve their own wellbeing. Students will be involved in regular circle time sessions, class meetings and RRRR (Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships) lessons. This will help students listen with understanding, tune into feelings, share opinions and begin to see the world from another’s viewpoint. These are the very skills our students will need to function successfully in any social setting.

On Friday 7^th May we will hold a whole school Cross Country event.

Cross Country Distances

THANK YOU!  

Thank you for supporting Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion Campaign. Your generosity will work for the freedom of those living in poverty, challenge unjust structures, and empower people to work for a sustainable way of life. 

Please return all Project Compassion boxes to the school office by Friday 23rd April or donate online via the Caritas website at lent.caritas.org.au