Orana Catholic Primary School
Term 1, Week 7, 2021.
TO GIVE IS TO RECEIVE
Generosity is an attitude of freely sharing our ideas and talents and giving our time generously. We show generosity by being welcoming, inclusive and promoting a sense of belonging.
Harmony Day Prayer
O’ God,
You create all people in your image. We thank you for the astonishing variety of cultures in this world. Enrich our lives by ever widening circles of friendship and show us your presence in those who differ most from us.
Through your son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Dear Parents and Carers,
This Sunday is Harmony Day. Harmony Day is a celebration of our cultural diversity and reminds us that as a country, many cultures call Australia home. Australia is the most successful multicultural country on Earth and we should celebrate this and work to maintain it. Thank you to the Year 6 leaders for presenting information about Harmony Week and to the staff for organising engaging activities to demonstrate support for cultural diversity and an inclusive Australia. Please take a moment to view this beautiful presentation on Harmony Day displayed above that was prepared by the Pre-primary White students.
Many thanks to Father Thai and Father Anthony and the parishioners of St John and St Paul’s Parish for hosting enrolment masses for students making a sacrament this year. Please keep the sacramental students and their families in your prayers. If you have a child in Year 3, 4 or 6 and you did not attend one of last weekend’s Masses, please ensure you attend the 5pm Mass on Saturday 20th March and collect the enrolment form from the parish hall after Mass.
Last Friday night, the P and F hosted a very successful Sundowner. The community spirit was clearly evident as children and families shared in the great food, fun activities and company. Many thanks to the P and F volunteers who made this great night possible.
You should have now received a link to access the online booking system to make an appointment for a parent teacher interview. Parents are required to make an appointment if you have not yet had a formal parent teacher meeting this term. The booking platform will close at 6pm on Sunday 21st March. If you need to make or change an appointment after this date, please contact your class teacher via Seesaw.
These meetings are an important part of the assessment and reporting procedure and enables parents/carers and teachers to discuss student progress and emphasise the partnership between home and school in developing each child to their full potential. Celebrating areas of success and setting some goals for future learning should be the focus of these meetings. A key factor in student learning is their own disposition to learning and for this reason, it is important to include students in these meetings when possible. Pre-primary to Year 3 will conduct Parent Teacher interviews. Year 4 to Year 6 will conduct Parent | Student | Teacher Interviews (three-way interviews) so please bring your child with you. Three way interviews are designed to help students develop responsibility for their learning and also to reinforce the partnership between home and school for the benefit of each child.
The Year 4 students are invited to lead the Stations of the Cross at the Parish next Friday evening at 7pm which they will then repeat on the last day of school as part of our Easter Liturgy.
When using the drive through drop off area in the mornings, please ensure that as you enter the carpark, that you stop behind the 8 on the crest and allow cars to enter from the stream of cars heading west in the carpark to exit. Courteous merging allows traffic to flow safely and efficiently.
Kindy interviews for 2022 will commence early next term. If you have a child who is due to begin Kindy in 2022, please ensure your application has been received by the school office.
Please join us for our Senior Assembly next Friday, the 26th March. Parents and carers are also invited to join us for the assembly. Please sign in using the SafeWA app and maintain physical distance.
Best wishes and God bless.
Dee Johnston
Principal
Dates To Remember
WEEK 7
- Saturday 20th March - P and F Star Gazing Night
- Sunday 21st March - 6pm Cut off for booking online parent teacher meetings.
WEEK 8
- Monday 22nd March - Parent Teacher Interviews Commence
- Tuesday 23rd March - Year 5 Excursion
- Tuesday 23rd March - P and F Meeting 6pm
- Thursday 25th March - Confirmation Parent/Carer Meeting (Year 6), 7pm (St John and Paul Parish)
- Thursday 25th March - 'Make A Move' lessons (Blue classes)
- Friday 26th March - Senior Assembly
- Friday 26th March - Year 1 Priest visit
- Friday 26th March - 'Make A Move' lessons (White classes)
- Friday 26th March - Stations of the Cross led by Year 4 at 7pm (St John and Paul Parish)
- Saturday 26th March - Senior Community Mass 6.30pm (St John and Paul Parish)
2021 Professional Development Days Reminder
The following dates are pupil free days for 2021. For your future planning OSHC will offer a full day program on these dates.
Thursday 1st April – Future Focussed Learning Professional Development
Monday 19th April – Restorative Practices Professional Development
Monday 19th July - Future Focussed Learning Professional Development
Friday 24th September – Catholic Day
Monday 11th October – Data Analysis Professional Development and Wellbeing Session
Faith In Action
Project Compassion - Halima's Story From Bangladesh
Halima is raising two children under seven in a refugee camp in Bangladesh, while caring for her mother who has a disability. Widowed at just 21, Halima fled violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in 2017, arriving at the camp with nothing.
Caritas Australia, through its partner, Caritas Bangladesh, helped Halima out with a shelter and cooking equipment so that she could feed her family. She participated in hygiene and sanitation training and took on the role of community trainer herself, organising the cleaning of washrooms, wells and toilets.
Halima’s training became all the more invaluable as the COVID-19 pandemic struck - when safe hygiene and preventative measures suddenly became lifesaving.
Halima is proud that she is able to earn a small income, while maintaining the health of her family and the cleanliness of the camp community. Her children are adapting to life in the camp and are now at school.
Halima aspired to ‘Be More’ for her family and for the community around her.
“My hope is that our children will be able to do a job, to live with pleasure, they will find their happiness - that will bring wellbeing for them,” Halima says.
The children of Orana are doing a wonderful job through our Lenten Project.
Keep going!
Sacramental Program
Confirmation Parent/Carer Meeting
Parents/carers of students in Year 6 who will be enrolling in the Sacrament of Confirmation Program are invited to attend the meeting at our Sts John and Paul Parish Hall on Thursday 25th March at 7:00pm. We are looking forward to meeting you there.
From our Parish of Sts John & Paul
Altar Serving Training
Altar Serving Training will be taking place at the Parish on Monday, 22nd and Wednesday, 24th March from 3.30-4.30pm. If your son/daughter has made their First Holy Communion, we welcome them learning how to take part in this very important role in the celebration of the Eucharist. Contact Kathryn Alp at Orana - kathryn.alp@cewa.edu.au if your child is interested in this training.
Stations of the Cross - Led by Orana CPS
On Friday, 26th March at 7pm, Year 4 students will lead our Parish community in prayer with the Stations of the Cross. This is a perfect way to help your child to understand this important part of our Lenten preparation. We would love to see many families sharing this time together.
Term 1 Community Mass
It is wonderful to hear that the senior students are getting excited for our upcoming Community Mass on Saturday 27th March at 6:30pm and the Choir has already begun rehearsing songs for the Palm Sunday Vigil Mass. We hope you will be able to join us. Ms Draper has asked our senior students to be present to lift the Mass with song via an electronic commitment form.
Please arrive early for Mass to sign in and get a seat as Palm Sunday Masses are well-attended.
Please visit the Parish website for the latest information on weekend Masses.
NEWS FROM THE P&F
To all who joined us for an afternoon of fun last Friday night at the Sundowner, I hope you and your families had an enjoyable evening and managed to get to know a few more members of our community. I would like to give a giant-sized thank you to the people who volunteered to help and the Year 6 Graduation Committee for organising food for all. There was no shortage of help during the evening with everyone helping out. To me, this was a true embodiment of our values and motto – To Give is To Receive. Thank you for your generosity!
Our upcoming event is the Stargazing Night tomorrow evening (20th March 2021) on the school’s oval. The local Stargazing Club will provide a presentation and have a number of telescopes set up looking at various points in the sky. We will start with a Sausage Sizzle from 5pm, with the presentation and StarGazing to commence at 6pm. Tickets are on sale now. Sausage Sizzle pre-order closed last night. There will be a limited number of additional hot dogs and drinks available for purchase during the night.
Please come and join us for our upcoming P&F meeting on Tuesday 23rd March 2021, starting at 6pm in the school’s library. Come and get involved with all the activities we are planning for this year and share us some of your ideas. We look forward to seeing you there!
Colour Run is coming back this year and the committee is hard at work preparing – stay tuned.
The P&F Executive team is recruiting to fill the Secretary position. This is a great opportunity for someone to get involved with the Executive team. Michael Holmes, who was in the role last year, will provide guidance for the incoming person. Please get involved. For queries and further information, please contact us via oranapandf@gmail.com
If you would like to get in touch with us, please reach out at oranapandf@gmail.com.
Kind regards,
P&F Executive Team
Social Worker News
The Importance of Play
Your child will love playing with you, but sometimes they might prefer to play by themselves. They might just want you to give them ideas and let them know how their play and games are going. And sometimes they might want to play with other children – no grownups allowed!
Kath Warburton
Social Worker
Grounds / Maintenance News
OSHC News
School Banking
School Banking day is Wednesday. Please bring bank books to the office each Wednesday morning. We are not able to securely store personal bank books, so they must be brought in every Wednesday and will be returned on Wednesday afternoon.