Dear Parents and Staff

Tomorrow, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation when the Angel Gabriel visited Mary to announce to her the special mission God had chosen for her in being the mother of his only son. Though frightened, Mary’s response of “yes” facilitated Jesus’ presence in the world and, ultimately, restored our relationship with God. In our troubled world we are called upon to say “yes” to being advocates for peace. Pope Francis has invited all Catholics throughout the world to join with him in his prayer, on 25 March, for the consecration of Ukraine and Russia. Please visit the link below for the full transcript of the prayer.

https://bit.ly/352myM6

COVID UPDATE

There have been five new positive Covid cases for students during the past week. The families of the children in each particular year level have been informed via SEQTA email as to the need to isolate or not. Essentially, if your child is in Years 3 – 6 or has been wearing a mask in any of the lower grades, they will not need to isolate when they are not at school. A number of the younger children have been wearing masks whilst in class, but they often pull these down below their nose or onto their chin, thus eliminating the protection and purpose for wearing the mask. Whilst we acknowledge that it is not mandated that children from Year 2 down are to wear masks, it is important that they wear them properly if you provide one for them to use. We will continue to try to monitor this, and I would appreciate your support in stressing the need for your children to wear the mask properly if you have provided one.

We have also had Five members of staff who have either tested positive to the virus or who have been identified as close contacts. They are all currently isolating with some due to return at the start of next week and others later in the week. This has impacted our ability to provide staff and there may be occasions when it is necessary for us to employ a few different teachers and education assistants to work with classes or individual students due to the difficulty in securing relief staff. Please bear with us as we continue to do all that we can to provide continuity for your children.

Local Member of Parliament and parent at our school, Cassie Rowe has generously donated five packs of Five Rapid Antigen Tests for distribution to families in need within our community. Please see the ladies in the school office if you are having difficulty in accessing tests. Thank you Cassie for your ongoing support of all of the schools within your electorate.

SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

Congratulations to the Year 3P children and Archer Brown from Year 4M who received this Sacrament yesterday. Bro Stephen attended the Liturgy along with Miss Horne and a number of parents and has told me how impressed he was with the reverence that the students showed throughout the entire service. Again, congratulations to all of these students and their families. Please remember to keep them in your prayers.

NAPLAN

The Practice Test for this year’s NAPLAN was held this morning. There are two purposes for the Practice. Firstly, to familiarise the children with the format of the assessment and secondly, to ensure that both our school and the ACARA (Test governing body) have sufficient capacity to cope with all children accessing the Assessment at the same time.

INTERSCHOOL SWIMMING

There was a time when I didn’t think we would be able to proceed with this Carnival but the Sport Teachers from the schools involved have spent significant time to ensure the safety of all on the day. Our school squad has been completing final trial sessions over the last week to ensure they are all ready to go and that we are putting our best team forward. We will be very proud no matter what the result but I have a feeling that they are going to be great ambassadors for our school and will perform very well. Congratulations to all selected to represent our school; you are already winners!

P&F PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT

Throughout last year our P&F, with the support of our families, raised money for us to have new playground equipment installed outside Pre-Primary in the Nature Playground. We have been negotiating with a few companies to come up with some great options that will both challenge the children and be fun to play on and are getting close to having designs available to share with the community. Once we have these I will publish pictures and designs in the newsletter and around the school.

FIRE DRILL

As part of our ongoing commitment to ensure safety for all, a fire drill will be held next Wednesday.

ADVANCED NOTICE

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the end of Term is only two weeks away. The 3 Year Old Kindy children finish on Thursday 7 April and the rest of the school finish on Friday 8 April. Friday 8 April will be a free dress day and we request a gold coin donation, to support the missions, for this privilege.

Bible Studies

Each Tuesday evening commencing at 6.00 pm in the Parish Centre.

Stations of the Cross

Every Friday evening commencing at 6.00 pm in the Church during Lent.

Caritas Australia – Appeal for Ukraine

In a matter of weeks, millions of people have fled the conflict in Ukraine. Our long-standing partner, Caritas Ukraine, is on the ground, supporting people in need during this unfolding humanitarian crisis. Help provide urgent assistance including shelter, food, clean water, medicine and psychological support to people affected by this crisis. Please donate www.caritas.org.au/ukraine or call toll free 1800 024 413.

Synod of Bishops 2021 – 2023

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to take part in a global conversation about the Catholic Church. How are we called to walk together as Christians? How can we listen to one another in making important decisions about our faith and our mission? Find out more and share your contribution at https://catholic.org.au/synodalchurch

Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord

Pope Francis has announced that on the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord on Friday 25 March 2022, he will formally consecrate Ukraine and Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

Parish Busy Bee

A Busy Bee has been organised for Saturday 2 April 2022, 9.00 – 11.00 am. Dusting inside the Church, wiping down of the pews and cleaning the Parish Centre windows are just a few of the tasks at hand. A list of small jobs will be available on the day. Please bring your own bucket, rags or window squeegee. Light refreshments will be served in the Parish Centre at the end of the Busy Bee. Your efforts and support are sincerely appreciated.

Dr George Sekulla JP

Chairman

Notre Dame Parish Council

Wow! What a busy start to the year. We have been preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is also known as Penance and it is where we say sorry to God for our sins. 3M had their Reconciliation celebration last Wednesday and 3P had theirs this Wednesday. After Reconciliation we may experience feelings of peace, happiness and calm. Here is what some Year 3’s have to say about their First Reconciliation experience:

I felt a little bit nervous at first and after I felt really happy - Indy

We had to tell Father Quynh about our sins. He had a chat to us about how we can improve our choices. I was feeling very happy after Reconciliation. - Oliver

In health we have been learning about our personal identity and how our families, friends and life experiences make us unique and different. We started by creating abstract portraits of ourselves. Check out some of our art below! We are also making Book Creators that are all about us and have been researching the origin and meaning behind our names.

In HASS we have been learning about celebrations from around the world. Currently we are researching on a celebration of choice and creating a presentation to display our knowledge. This Monday was Harmony Day and we have completed some activities to share our culture with our classmates.

Last Monday, we were lucky enough to run our School Swimming Carnival at Bayswater Waves. We were blessed with beautiful weather and fantastic support from our Parents and Staff. Well done to all students on their efforts throughout the day. We had some close races throughout the day and many thanks to our Staff helpers who made sure every race ran smoothly. McAuley started and ended the day on top with a commanding win to take out back-to-back swimming titles. Well done to all factions and congratulations to McAuley! Please find Champion Boy and Girl results as well as the final points.

The library has some new and exciting books to share with parents and students.

Easter Raffle

The P&F will be running the Easter raffle this year. The flyer and raffle tickets will be sent home in the week beginning 21 March and will need to be returned with the tickets (name, year level on each ticket) and money by Monday 4 April.

Footy Tipping

Danielle Lawrie has kindly offered to run the footy tipping competition again. Please see the flyer included in the newsletter today.

ySafe Cyber Safety Hub and Parent TV

Don’t forget that the P&F has funded memberships for the whole school community to the ySafe Cyber Safety Hub and Parent TV.

To access the hub, please use this link: https://nds.cybersafetyhub.com.au. You will get access to cyber safety guidelines, tips on how to set up parental controls, reviews of all the latest games and apps, plus much more.

To access Parent TV, go to www.parenttv.com/membership and enter our school's code “notredame.” You can set up a profile for yourself and your children and you will get emails with content relevant to their ages. Parent TV have pulled together a team of trusted parenting experts in the areas of health, technology, behaviour and everything in between and created a range of easy to access 2-5 minute videos answering just about every parenting question under the sun.

Packed with Goodness

In 2020, the P&F organised a Healthy Lunchbox information session for parents which included tips for packing healthy lunchboxes that actually get eaten, encouraging adventurous eating, as well as quick and easy ways to read food labels.

With the current restrictions in place, face to face workshops are on hold but the team is offering 45-60 minute webinars. Upcoming dates are:

• March: Thursday 24 March @ 1.00pm

• April: Thursday 7 April @ 7:30pm
• May: Thursday 5 May @ 10.00 am

To register, please enter this link: https://www.crunchandsip.com.au/event/5/packed-with-goodness and to check out the website for other healthy tips and recipes, please visit: www.crunchandsip.com.au.

Nicole Beresford