All loving God, we give you thanks and praise for mothers young and old.

We pray for young mothers, who give life, count toes and tend to their child’s every need.

May they be blessed with patience and tenderness to care for their families and themselves with great joy.

We pray for our own mothers who have nurtured and cared for us.

May they continue to guide us in strong and gentle ways.

We remember mothers who are separated from their children because of COVID19 restrictions.

May they feel the loving embrace of our God who wipes away every tear and fear.

We pray for women who are not mothers but still love and shape us with motherly care and compassion.

We remember mothers. grandmothers and great-grandmothers who are no longer with us but who live forever in our memory and nourish us with their LOVE.

Under the current circumstances, and to limit disruption and maintain the focus on the continuity of the learning program as much as possible without too much interruption, the Leadership Team have changed some of the pupil free days (Professional Development Days for staff) that were originally set for this year.

The upcoming Pupil Free Days on 28 May and 29 May (Term 2, Week 5) have been cancelled and have now been moved to:

19 June (Term 2, Week 8) and

7 August (Term 3, Week 3).

Therefore school will be open on Thurs 28 and Fri 29 May (Week 5 of this term).

Dear Parents

Welcome to Term 2!

We commence this term with our staff facilitating the teaching and learning programme with all of our students whether at school or at home and are fully supportive of parental choice and also equality for all learners. We find ourselves in unusual times and I thank all parents for your continued support of your children and also your encouragement and acknowledgement of our outstanding staff. Our class teachers are keeping in regular communication with children and families and have truly appreciated your affirmation of their efforts and also your feedback. We now look forward to the challenges of Term Two and ask God’s blessing on our combined efforts to help our children continue to grow and develop.

Our staff are certainly missing the smiling faces and vibrancy of having all our students back at school and we look forward to the time when we will see a full return to our physical school site. As previously mentioned in my communications with you in the last couple of weeks, Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) will be reviewing teaching and learning in catholic schools early next week. I will keep you updated once I have further direction from CEWA. In the meantime, we will continue to offer the very best teaching and learning opportunities for all of our students at PCPS.

Thank you once again for all your words of support and encouragement. I would also like to thank you, as parents, for the amazing work you are doing with your children. These are challenging times for you too so please know that the PCPS staff supports you fully. I would also like to thank you for the great job you are doing with the morning drop offs and afternoon pick-ups and staggering your times so that we do not have a bank up of traffic. The staff are on duty til 3.20pm in the afternoons so if you collected your children at 3.10pm or 3.15pm, please know that they are still supervised and there is also less traffic around.

I have great pleasure in announcing that Padbury Catholic Primary School is launching our official Facebook page and Instagram! We are very excited about implementing two of the most powerful means of communication via social media and enhancing the way we connect with our school community.

Facebook and Instagram provide an excellent opportunity for our school to further connect with families and share information. We will be able to promote what is happening around the school and include photos to share with the community. Our Facebook page will also be a fabulous way to showcase our school to prospective families. We are a gem nestled in the northern suburbs and we would love for the wider community to learn more about our school and encourage them to become part of our community.

We seek your support to make our Facebook page a positive experience for all our community. Management, administration and ownership of our Facebook will rest with the Leadership Team. The official Padbury Catholic Primary School Facebook page will be called Padbury Catholic Primary School. There is a direct link to this page further in the Newsletter.

You may have seen a Padbury CPS Facebook page on the internet before. This page was set up in the past by others unknown to us and is not the official page. Please do not place photos, submit information or add information to this other page as it is not in our control. We are currently working on having this page closed down. Please only use our official Facebook page (as linked below).

We will be implementing a number of controls typically used by other organisations. These controls mean the page will not be as open as a personal Facebook page. It will be a public Facebook page however to ensure safety and monitor control at this point in time, we will have certain processes in place. Postings will be made via the Leadership Team. Information and photographs posted will be monitored closely to ensure that those children who are not permitted to have their photo displayed, will be protected. However, parents will still have the ability to submit photographs to Mr von Bergheim who will in turn consider these for posting once checks have been made and if deemed appropriate. Children’s names, in general, will not be used. Even with controls, it does rely on all those using the page to do so in a tone and spirit that helps us to build a strong and connected school community. We all need to be good social media role models for our children.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr von Bergheim who has worked hard behind the scenes to set up our Facebook page and Instagram. Please see the Assistant Principal section of the newsletter for further information and the link to our official Facebook page and Instagram. We look forward to your positive contribution and feedback.

I would like to thank all families who have been able to support Padbury Cares throughout this year, even though this very unusual time we find ourselves. Your donations have been very much appreciated. For those families who are new to PCPS, Padbury Cares is a group of school group volunteers who provide assistance to families in our school community during a time of need due to illness, bereavement, family crisis, birth of a newborn or any type of change. ​If you are going through a time of need or if you know of a family that requires assistance please make contact. The information that is provided to Padbury Cares remains confidential.

​

We welcome new volunteers to be part of this valuable and rewarding pastoral care program so if you can offer assistance in any way we would love to hear from you. Some examples of help that we offer are:

· Providing a simple family meal that is delivered to the school office for collection. During this COVID period please phone the office and Helen will come to your car to collect meals.

· Transporting of children to and from school

· Ironing, cleaning, shopping, baking, gardening, dog walking

Generally, we would ask you to help once a semester. Please note once you register your name will stay on our database and you will not need to re-register with each new school year. ​ ​

Huge thanks to Padbury Cares coordinator’s Marnie Cooper (0410 678 473) and Ruth Tan (0412 358 746) who are so pastoral in their approach with our families. Please contact them, the front office (9404 4000), your class teacher or one of the Leadership Team, should you need some assistance or wish to volunteer. More details can be found on our school website -

https://www.padcath.wa.edu.au/padbury-cares

Wishing all the mums and grandmothers in the Padbury Catholic Primary School Community a lovely day on Sunday with your families.

Kind regards

Mrs Margaret Williamson

Principal

Kindy & Pre-Primary: Wait at the pedestrian gate at the front of the school (next to car entry gate - see picture) and a member of staff will meet you and collect your child for you.

Years 1-6 Students: Collect your child from the O'Leary Road Kiss and Ride shelter gate

These new social media pages will be a place for us to share all the wonderful things we are doing at Padbury Catholic with our parent community, as well as promote our wonderful school to the wider community as part of our marketing and advertising initiatives!

There are already some posts on these pages so go ahead and check them out - don't forget to like/follow us too! CLICK ON THE BUTTONS BELOW TO TAKE YOU STRAIGHT TO OUR PAGES!

Look after yourselves!

Mr Ryan von Bergheim & Mrs Loretta Hutcheson

Assistant Principals

PCPS Staff and students wish all Mother's a Happy Mother's Day!! Here is a lovely reflection for you.

I Wish You Mud Puddles & Dandelions

When I look at a patch of dandelions, I see a bunch of weeds that are going to take over my yard.

My kids see flowers for Mum and blowing white fluff you can wish on.

When I hear music I love, I know I can’t carry a tune and don’t have much rhythm, so I sit self- consciously and listen.
My kids feel the beat and move to it. They sing out the words. If they don’t know them, they make up their own.

When I feel the wind on my face, I brace myself against it. I feel it messing up my hair and pulling me back when I walk.
My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.

When I pray, I say thee and thou and grant me this, give me that.
My kids say “Hi, God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight.

When I see a mud puddle, I step around it. I see muddy shoes and dirty carpets.
My kids sit in it. They see dams to build, rivers to cross and worms to play with.

I wonder if we are given kids to teach or to learn from.
No wonder God loves the little children.

Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realise they were the big things.

I wish you MUD PUDDLES and DANDELIONS!

Author Unknown

Each week with Year 5 & 6 students, I share a piece of work from the WA State Art Collection. The student challenge is to recreate it at home or school using 3 items lying around the house or school (costume not included as an item).

Here are some of the great examples!

Ruby and Tyson's recreation of Frederick McCubbin’s 'Down on his luck'

1889 oil on canvas
145 x 183.3 x 14cm (framed) 114.5 x 152.5cm (painting)
State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia
Purchased 1896

Mrs Randazzo

Drama/Art Teacher

Stay home, stay safe!

Ali Fisher

Social Worker

Online Safety

The office of esafety has a number of useful resources to support families. The link below will provide assistance on how to keep children safe online, how to stay connected and how to manage information overload, possible scams and false information.

www.esafety.gov.au

Make the best of being stuck at home by ensuring you can find reliable information, stay connected with family and friends, and help your children stay safe online.

https://bit.ly/2JpvMUf

There are no weekday and weekend Masses during this time. We are certainly in difficult times but we shall together with the help of God get through. Keep an eye on our parish website, archdiocesan website and of course general news outlets.

With best wishes,

Rev Fr Cyprian M Shikokoti - PP

Our Lady of the Mission, Whitford Parish

Website : www.olm.myparish.net.au