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Community Council AGM
On Tuesday night approximately twenty five parents attended the Community Council AGM. Nominations for vacancies were presented and I am pleased to announce the election of:
- Chair, Jessica Adelan-Langford (Phoebe – KC, Elliot – 1H)
- Vice Chair, Carolyn Keily (Elliot – 3M, Amelia – 1H)
- Secretary, Sara Cooper (Henry – 3M, Eleanor – 1T)
- Treasurer, Victoria Withington (Luke – 6G, Violet – 2H)
- ELC Representative, Sarah McGrath (Willow – 1T, Jack – Stingrays)
I would like to thank outgoing executive Charlotte Dalton, Max Rafferty, Skye Maguire and Lauren Orders for their tireless commitment in what were often challenging times, out of our control. We look forward to their continued support as parents.
Catalyst 2021
Catalyst is a Catholic Education led initiative, which involves all schools within the system. The project has been very well researched and has drawn from projects in both Victoria and Western Australia. There are four components to Catalyst, which will be rolled out over a 3 year period:
- High Impact Teaching
- InitialLit – Kindergarten to Year 2 Literacy development
- Mathematics – Kindergarten to Year 6
- Instructional Leadership
In 2021, all St Jude’s staff will be involved in the High Impact Teaching section, the executive will begin working through Instructional Leadership and K to 2 as well as Learning support will be involved in InitialLit. At St Jude’s we acknowledge that our educational outcomes are already very good, however, as lifelong learners, we need to be open to continually improving what we do and as a direct result, improving the outcomes that students achieve. Each of our K to 2 teachers, Kerri Kerr and I have participated in two days of training for InitialLit and we will begin rolling it out soon. There will be some visible changes, which we will communicate, however, most of the magic will continue to happen in the classroom. One of the benefits of InitialLit is being able to track growth, not just school based, but also system based. This data enables us to tweak as required. I will continue to share key information via the newsletter as the project evolves. As a school, this is a really exciting initiative, funded by CE, with great possibilities of adding value to student learning.
Commissioning Mass
Staff of St Jude’s and St John Vianney’s gathered on Sunday at the 9.00am parish Mass to be blessed and affirmed by the parish. Teachers were invited to continue in their mission as educators of sharing the Good News with their students.
Ash Wednesday
As a community, we started our Lenten journey yesterday. Students in Years 4 to 6 gathered for a Mass at 12.15pm, whilst the younger students experienced a liturgy later in the day in St Jude’s Church. Unfortunately, updated COVID 19 guidelines meant that we couldn’t gather together. Student’s will be involved in Prayer and Almsgiving opportunities throughout the Lenten period.
School Fete
It was with a heavy heart that we made the decision to postpone our school fete. Strict COVID 19 guidelines meant that we would need to have significantly reduced numbers of people able to access the fete. There were other restrictions on timings/durations, what we could offer and entry and exit arrangements that also made it logistically challenging. However, we have not been deterred and are looking at dates towards the end of term 3. We are also looking at moving the school walkathon into term 2, to ensure that our fundraising efforts are spread across the year. I would like to acknowledge and thank the ongoing work by all members of the fete committee. The mufti days which were scheduled for this term have also been postponed.
Car Park
At every school around the world car parking, drop off and pick up are always creating challenges. If we include our Kinder students, we have many new students to St Jude’s school. Please remember to take care when entering and exiting the car park area. Small children are often not visible from cars and although we have reminded the students to walk along the front of the oval, we all need to remain vigilant. Please also remember that the drop off zone is purely a prop and drop area. If your child needs your assistance with getting to lines, then parking your car away from the drop off zone is always the best option. If you are unsure where the drop off zone is, please refer to the attached photo.
Cameron Reed
Principal
H a p p y B i r t h d a y t o
Charlie C, Brayden L, Patrick A, Owen W, Audrey S, Laura T, Amelia K, Phoebe R, Jasmine M.
Family Fee Statements
Fee statements have been emailed to families. If you have not received your fee statement, please contact the front office. If you have any queries concerning your statement, please contact the front office: office.stjudes@cg.catholic.edu.au or 6288 7688.
Birthday Celebrations
While we love celebrating birthdays in the classroom, we need to be COVID 19 aware. If you wish to supply your class with something to celebrate your child’s birthday, please provide a commercially packaged item ie Super Doopers, freddo frogs, fruit bar etc. Home made cupcakes present a few challenges. As always we ask that you aim for nut free products. Apologies, but the health and safety of our community is always important.
School Communication
—SZApp
The school uses the SZApp app on mobile phones as one way of communicating with parents and carers. For those new to the school please download the app from your app store. See our website (https://stjudesps.act.edu.au/stjuszapp) or visit the school website, then the ‘For Parents’ tab, SZApp.
Occasionally we send information which targets a specific grade. Please open the SZApp and select Manage, and select the grade for each of your children. Make sure that you unselect the grades that you do not want to receive specific information. With each grade unselected results in you receiving messages relating to all grades.
If you no longer want to receive messages via the SZApp, please open the SZApp on your device, select Manage, scroll to the bottom of that page and select Unsubscribe.
—Qkr! App
The Qkr! app is a convenient and quick way for parents to pay for canteen lunch orders, uniform clothing items and special event purchases. Instructions for downloading Qkr! are here: https://stjudesps.act.edu.au/qkr
Scholastic Book Club Issue 1 2021
Scholastic Book Club catalogues have been distributed to students. If you did not receive a catalogue, please visit the following link to view the catalogue and submit your online orders:
https://www.scholastic.com.au/book-club/book-club-parents/
NO CASH will be accepted. All orders are processed online only. Please refer to instructions below for ordering online. All orders are due by 21 February.
Be honest, authentic and genuine in your actions. This is what Lent asks of us.
This Ash Wednesday, we heard from the Gospel of Matthew, ‘Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them...whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you’. It is not necessarily that our work is done in secret but that we place more importance on internal knowledge rather than confirmation from others.
We can easily lose our place with busy lives and Lent causes us to stop and consider how we live our lives in order to be seen by others. The risk is that life turns into an activity, ticking boxes to be seen, judged and even admired by others. When we move to an internal motivation, a place with God, we no longer depend on others to give us identity, but find our true identity in our faith.
Project Compassion
Please take home a Project Compassion box and support Caritas Australia this Lenten season which inspires us to ‘Be More’.
This week our students have reflected on what it means to ‘Be More’ in our community and their responses are displayed in the hallway. Come and have a look!
Parent Information Night
Tonight, we hold our Parent Information Night for ALL SACRAMENTS.
This means, if you wish for your child to make their Reconciliation, First Eucharist or Confirmation this year, one parent (no children) will need to attend to receive all the information regarding dates and the commitment process.
- Reconciliation - Year 3
- Eucharist - Year 4
- Confirmation - Year 6
Or if your child is year 4 or above and you wish for them to make their sacrament outside of these grades, please contact me for further details.
Changes to Sacrament Dates
Due to COVID 19 restrictions tightening and most probably not changing for much of the year, there have been several changes to the dates of Reconciliation. Instead of one session, Reconciliation will now be split into two sessions: Thursday 27 May and Thursday 3 June.
Raising Boys
An informative night focused on the integral relationship between fathers and sons and how to raise confident, compassionate men will be held on Tuesday 2 March at the Haydon Hall, Manuka. 5.30pm-7.30pm.
Brigitta van Deas - RE Coordinator
Email: brigitta.vanreesch@cg.catholic.edu.au
H a p p y B i r t h d a y t o
Eva F and Henry M
Thank you to Sarah McGrath for taking on the role of ELC representative at the St Jude’s Community Council for 2021. A reminder that Community Council meetings are open to all. At the meeting this week, a question was raised about attendance days for part time classes in terms 2, 3 and 4 (due to Term 1 only having 9 weeks). Please refer to our ELC Family Information book on the school website to confirm which classes will attend on which Wednesdays. We will also email ELC families in week 10 to confirm your Wednesdays for the following term.
For those of you who have already met with your child’s teacher for our family/ teacher sharing meetings, we thank you for taking the time to help us ensure your child’s preschool journey is as beneficial and enjoyable as possible. If you are yet to book a time, please contact your child’s teacher as soon as possible.
SZApp
St Jude’s uses SZApp as one form of communication with families. You can download SZApp for free from iTunes or the Google Play Store. For further instructions go to the ‘For Parents’ tab on the school website.
ELC Accounts
ELC account statements for weeks 5 and 6 were emailed today. If you did not receive your account, please contact the ELC as soon as possible.
Entertainment Book
If you are looking for a gift that will keep giving for a whole year, have a look at the Entertainment Book. It is a great gift for Mother’s Day, birthdays or for everyday savings for your family. To purchase a digital book, scan the QR code and follow the prompts. Twenty percent of sales will go towards the ELC. We thank you for your support and hope that you enjoy the many offers and discounts the Entertainment Book provides.
Gabrielle Adams - St Jude's ELC
Email: Gabrielle.Stitt@cg.catholic.edu.au
Fitness Run
On Wednesday and Friday mornings we will be continuing our fitness run in our local community. If your child is unable to participate in this physical activity, could you please provide a written note to their classroom teacher.
Swimming Carnival
Congratulations to our winning house – Dixon, what a mighty effort!!
We had a fabulous day last Wednesday at Stromlo Leisure Centre. It was great to see students 7 to 12 years, racing in our morning session. Students enjoyed the rotation activities in cohorts and class groups including playing on the aqua playground and sponge racing.
Students who qualify for the South Weston Carnival will be notified later this week. Unfortunately, due to COVID 19 restrictions, ACT sports have decided that students under 10 years will not compete in the ACT or South Weston. A note will go home to our qualifying students, 10 years and above, about the upcoming South Weston meet and a training session with Les Barclay. Thank you Les for generously offering us your time.
Clinics
We have started a number of clinics this week:
- Lacrosse for Year 6
- Cricket for Year 4 and 5
- Netball for Year 2
- Yoga for Year 5 and Year 1
We hope students are enjoying these new sports. Thank you to our visiting sports coaches.
Lunch Time Sports
On a Friday during lunch, our sports captains will be running a new sport each week. If you would like to be involved, please go and ask them on Friday, to include you in play. This week, our wonderful Hindmarsh team will be guiding us in a soccer game.
Saints Netball Club
Registrations are now open to join Saints Netball Club. The links to register can be found on their website http://anasaintsnc.act.netball.com.au/
Players from Year 2 are welcome. If players are in Year 1 and would like to play they should contact us at anasaintsnetball@gmail.com
Orienteering SC-ORE
On Thursday 11 March at 8am, Orienteering ACT will be holding a schools orienteering competition at St Jude’s and Montessori Schools. Teams are made up of four students (2 girls and 2 boys) from Year 3, 4, 5, and 6. If you think your child would be interested could you please either email leanne.thomas@cg.catholic.edu.au or check out the invitation on our website.
Leanne Thomas - Sports Coordinator
Email: leanne.thomas@cg.catholic.edu.au
We have had a busy week this week in the music lessons. Students have been learning Sea Shantys from New Zealand, The Haka from New Zealand, creating electronic compositions, researching African music and creating music instruments from recyclable material.
Our Year 3 were privileged to hear Ken play the bagpipes. Thank you Ken for sharing your skills and explaining the bagpipes to our students here at St Jude’s. He will be visiting our Year 2 students on the 1 March.
Both our Choirs have been enjoying learning new repertoires and are looking forward to performing soon.
Leanne Thomas - Specialist Music Teacher
Email: leanne.thomas@cg.catholic.edu.au
In the Library we promote the I PICK strategy with classes for selecting books.
We also encourage weekly borrowing for younger classes while older children have their books checked out for two weeks at a time. If a child is taking longer than this to complete a book, it might be timely to review the I PICK strategy….is this a good fit book for me?
A Book Club for children in Years 5 and 6 has started up at lunchtime on Friday. All going well, I hope to be able to start another Book Club for Years 3 and 4 in term 2.
Happy reading!
Verna Comley - Librarian
Phone: 6288 7688
The uniform shop has a new email:
Please direct all enquiries to this email.
To all families who have ordered green school jumpers, the jumpers have now arrived. All back orders are being processed and will be delivered to students this week.
Please note that the maroon and green jumpers in sizes 6, 8 and 10 are currently not available on Qkr! but will be reinstated once the new stock arrives.
We thank you for your continued patience with the slow arrival of school uniform stock, due to the current COVID-19 situation.
Uniform orders can be paid for via Qkr! or with cash. All uniform orders, enquires, etc, should be directed to the uniform shop at uniform.stjudes@gmail.com
Download the Qkr! app to order online.
St Jude's would like to thank our wonderful volunteers for giving us their time to run the Mulleyduds Uniform Shop. We would be lost without you!
Tanya Jackson and Alison Egan - Mulleyduds Uniform Shop
Email: uniform.stjudes@gmail.com
Community Council AGM
On Tuesday 16 February, the Community Council held its AGM and regular meeting. At the AGM, the positions of Chair, Vice Chair and Secretary were elected.
The new position holders are:
- Chair – Jessica Adelan-Langford
- Vice Chair – Carolyn Keily
- Secretary – Sara Cooper
Victoria Withington will continue in the role of Treasurer and we thank her for her continued contributions to the school community.
The new Executive would like to thank Charlotte Dalton (outgoing Chair), Max Rafferty (outgoing Deputy Chair) and Skye McGuire (outgoing Secretary) for all their hard work over the past few years. We wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
Postponed Fete 2021
After taking into consideration Catholic Education’s advice and restrictions on community events, the decision was made by the previous Executive, to postpone our 2021 ‘Spirit’ fete, which was scheduled to occur on 13 March 2021.
Unfortunately, the current guidelines are quite restrictive and the Fete Committee, Community Council and Mr Reed felt that the effort would outweigh the benefit of holding a fete at this time.
In our next meeting, the Community Council will be discussing the fete and the potential to find alternative fundraising events if we cannot have the fete at all this year. Please come along to our next meeting if you have any suggestions as to what we can do in lieu of the fete.
Fundraising Activities
The Great Fete Veggie Grow Off will go ahead as planned. Please check the newsletter next week for more details on this.
Due to the postponement of the fete, the Trash and Treasure Shed will not be open to accept donations (until further notice).
One Last Thing
As your new Community Council Chair, I am looking forward to assisting the school community as much as I can. Charlotte Dalton, you have left me with big boots to fill and I would like to thank you personally for everything you have done for the school. We love the new shade sails.
Jessica Adelan-Langford - Community Council Chair - Incoming
Email: stjudes.scc@gmail.com
~ Awards Week 2, Term 1 ~
KF – Penelope W, Patrick C
KH – Dash D, Annabel S
1S – Delilah P
1T – Eric J
1H – Mehtaab B
2D – Hunter K, Ashley T, Winstyn B
2LS – Isaac L, Charlie D
3M – Euan A, Lucy N
3S – Oliver V, Laksmi S
4LR – Harrison B, Beatrice C
4R – Olivia W, Maddison K
5S – Connah R, Monica F
5L – James E, Finn M
6G – Abbey S
6V – Jasper S
School Banking is every Friday morning, unless advised otherwise.
If your child is interested in participating in our school banking program, please pick up an information brochure from the front office.