Dear Parents,

Welcome back to Term 3. How good is it for all of us, but most especially our children, that schools in our region are operating as normal?  We are so grateful that the children’s learning and social needs are able to continue to be developed by being at school each day with their teachers and friends.  Our hearts go out to those families in regions where this is currently not possible, and we pray that in the near future their children will once again be running around school playgrounds and interacting in person with one another in their classrooms.

Term 3 Plans

There are a number of major events planned for this term and we are hoping that these will still be able to go ahead.  It is our feeling that some events may be cancelled and others may need to be modified.  As it stands at the moment:

• NAIDOC Week celebrations which were scheduled for this week have been cancelled. When we are able undertake the planned tasks without compromising the COVID regulations we will rebook for our day of whole school indigenous themed activities.

• School Photos, planned for next Tuesday 27th July, have been cancelled and are now rescheduled for Term 4 Week 1, Friday 8th October

• The ASPIRE production, originally to be performed this week, will now take place in November.

• Several excursions have been planned, though we are waiting to hear whether these will still be able to occur. This includes the Year 5 Great Aussie Bushcamp in Week 10.

• Book Week, with the theme of “Old World, New Worlds, Other Worlds” is planned for Week 7.  We have a range of activities planned for each day that week, including our Scholastic Book Sale, and our Character Parade, which will take place on Friday 27th. We will live stream the parade if parents are unable to come on site, which is looking highly likely. Book Week will definitely be going ahead!

• A whole school Read-a-thon, organised by our Year 4 parents will take place throughout August. Details will be coming your way soon.

• Our School musical, “An Unexpected night at the Zoo” is scheduled for Week 9, Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th September in the theatre at St Pius.  We may not be able to perform this in the way that we are planning on, however, if not, we believe we will still be able to perform it, though not necessarily to a live audience.

• The staff Faith Formation Day, which is a pupil free day, has been rescheduled to Sunday 12th -Monday 13th September, in Week 10.  Please make a note of this pupil free day in your diary.

Library

We are vey happy to welcome Mrs Jodie Drabble to our staff.  Mrs Judy Collins has reduced her hours and Jodie will share the School Support – Library Assistant role with Judy. Together Dee Milgate, Judy and Jodie will continue to provide great experiences and resources in the Library for our children.

Afternoon pick-up arrangements 

Congratulations and a huge thank you to the staff and parents for doing a terrific job each afternoon. The Kiss and Ride zones seem to be taking no extra time and a number of parents are phasing their arrival time and are coming along a little later than normal which is resulting in a better flow of traffic. Parents who are walking to collect their children are being very patient and obliging of an afternoon at the Parish car park pick-up spot and this is making the process run smooth and seamlessly each afternoon.

Lost Property

Two weeks into the term and there is an obscene amount of hats and jackets in the lost property bins.  Please encourage your children to be more responsible with their belongings and expect them to thoroughly check the bins if they are missing anything.  Perhaps a consequence for each time they have misplaced a uniform item may help them to develop this sense of responsibility - washing or wiping up after a meal, cleaning up after the dog, wiping out the bath, taking out the rubbish etc  or a donation to a worthy charity of some pocket money or a toy. We are happy to share with families any ideas that you may have found to be particularly effective in helping to ensure your children take greater care of their belongings. Feel free to email them in to admin@merewether.catholic.edu.au 

Update of Details

Over this coming week you will be receiving a document for each child that has your details regarding names, addresses, emergency contact details, email addresses, contact numbers etc.  These details are what we currently have on the system for you.  Over time these details may change, and parents often forget or do not realise that they need to update this information with us. It is important that we have the most current information for you and your children, particularly if we need to contact someone in an emergency.  We also have noticed that in some instances the parent identified as the bill payer does not regularly check their email account for the address we have been given and parents wish to change who the statement gets sent to.  Please adjust any details you wish to make and return the form to school.  If there are no changes needed please still send it to school with a big tick on the right hand side of the page to indicate that you have reviewed it.  All forms need to be returned to school by Friday 6th August.

HOW CAN WE HELP?

I recently came across a story that I felt has a valuable message for all of us.

“When Justin was 24 years of age, fairly cash poor, newly married and, with his wife expecting their first child he felt overwhelmed, and the quality of his work was suffering. He was summoned to the office of Paul, his boss. ‘Justin, we’ve noticed that things aren’t good. Your performance is well below what we are used to, and what we expect. You’re struggling.’

Justin braced himself as Paul paused. His eyes were downcast. He was listening intently, waiting for the criticism, the explanation of the written warning, the ‘performance management system’ that would be introduced. Paul remained silent. Justin waited a few seconds before slowly lifting his eyes to meet Paul’s. Then he realised this was not going to be a lecture. He was telling Justin what he had seen. Now he was waiting to see if he was right or not. ‘Yes. I am,’ Justin agreed with Paul and waited. He didn’t quite know how to respond.

After a few moments, Paul asked Justin a question that has stayed with him for nearly 20 years.

‘Justin, what can we do to help?’

When we encounter people who are struggling, we really have three choices.

• We can turn against them and make them our enemy.
• We can turn away, insisting that the problem is theirs and they need to deal with it, or
• We can turn towards them – recognising them as a fellow human who simply needs some support and understanding until they get back on track.

The Gospels are littered with such stories about Jesus, and Jesus unfailingly puts the person and how his relationship with them above all other considerations – even his own personal well-being. Once people understood and experienced how much he personally cared for them, they were open to his influence. The same is true for all of us. If we are to have any influence in our relationships, those we encounter must know we accept, respect and genuinely care for them as people.” 

Why not use this term to take the time to explicitly focus on caring for others in this way and model this for our children in order for them to apply such behaviours in their own encounters with others? Just think, if this were to happen, in the words of Louis Armstrong - ‘What a Wonderful World it Would be!’

Upcoming Dates