Dear Parents

On Monday 24 May we celebrate the feast of Mary Help of Christians. Perhaps we can take some time to pray to Mary our Mother in heaven and ask her to look after our families and whatever may be troubling us at the moment.

Mary, Help of Christians, watch over us with love.

Intercede for us with your Son, to bless us,

so that we can be people of peace – people who love and respect each other.

We make this prayer through Jesus, your Son.

Further developing stronger links between the school, parish and home is an important part of our ongoing growth as a school. Last Sunday a large number of our students and families celebrated a special PCPS Family Mass at Our Lady of the Mission. It was terrific to see families involved with altar serving, reading, lighting candles, singing with the choir, guitar playing, serving morning tea etc. Big thanks to Nat Bullen, Emma Marpole, and Liz de Haas for all their hard work in planning for this liturgical celebration for our school community.

The Sacramental Programme with our parish is well underway. Please keep the Year Six children in your prayers as they are in the final stages of preparation to receive the sacrament of Confirmation. The children celebrated Reconciliation this week and next week they will take part in their Confirmation Retreat Day where they will spend time reflecting the sacrament they are about to receive, forming a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit who is nurturing their hearts. On 29 and 30 May, the children will receive the sacrament at Our Lady of the Mission Church.

Father Cyp and Father Francis continue to visit the school for class liturgies and prayers. Even our little Kindy children had special prayers last week.

Our Social Justice, mission fundraising this term will focus on Lifelink and our Year 6 Spirituality Council will be organising a special day for the children. LifeLink was established by the Archdiocese of Perth in 1994 to provide for the ongoing financial and promotional support of agencies established or assisted by the Church. LifeLink’s agencies deliver professional services and caring support to people in need throughout Western Australia each year. The work of LifeLink is a positive demonstration of Faith in Action.

On Monday Jed McQuane and Elizabeth Young, Year Six students, will be accompanying Mrs Hutcheson and myself to St Mary’s Cathedral to celebrate a national mass for Catholic Education. This special mass will celebrate not only 50 years together as a CEWA system but also commemorate the rich 200 year history of catholic education in Australia.

The Leadership Team continues to network with regional schools and parishes on a termly basis. This year we have had Dr John Topliss from Notre Dame University working with us on Borromeo’s Way. This is a unique spiritual and Christian formation program for Catholic school leaders and their leadership teams. The program is designed to promote the spirituality of the Heart, Head, Hands and Feet with a Christ-centred focus. The program has three modules which integrates Christian faith formation with pastoral leadership and responds to the call for New Evangelisation of Catholic school communities. A particular focus of Borromeo’s Way in 2021 is to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the arrivals of Mother Ursula Frayne and the Sisters of Mercy, as well as the Benedictine monks led by Fr Joseph Benedict Serra (later Bishop of Perth) and Fr Rosendo Salvado (later Bishop of Perth). The program offers the opportunities to hear about the early history of the Catholic Church in Western Australia and the initial beginnings of Catholic education by the Mercy sisters at Mercedes College, Perth.

National Reconciliation Week is next week and is an opportunity for us all to recognise the positive contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have on our past and present lives in Australia. It is also a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements and to explore how each of us can join the national reconciliation effort. In 2020, our school held Djooroobidiny, an exhibition of learning by all the students of our school, about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures. The staff collaborated this term and have worked to formalise our commitment to reconciliation by writing a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) for PCPS with Narragunnawali (Reconciliation in Education Programme). We were delighted to find out that our RAP has been approved and will be published on the Narragunnawali website.

One of the actions required as part of our commitment is: We commit to building relationships with our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community that are built on mutual respect, trust and inclusiveness. We value these relationships and their role in helping to create opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous staff, students, children and community members. We are asking PCPS families and friends, if they have a family member, friend or community member with Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander heritage and would like to share their knowledge and perspective with the staff and students at PCPS, through informal or formal learning opportunities, to please contact the school as we would value their input.

Also, as part of the RAP, we wish to celebrate National Reconciliation Week and Sorry Day and also launch our RAP on Thursday 3 June. We will gather as a school in the hall for a mini assembly, to announce our Reconciliation Action Plan and then the children will do a walk-through of each class to view the displays of the work completed.

Our next pupil free day on 28 May the staff will be spending time, in collaboration, reviewing the school’s Behaviour Management Policy. CEWA psychologist and behaviour consultant will be working with staff on this professional development day. Part of this process will involve ensuring that the policy reflects the social teachings of the Church and CECWA.

This term as part of our professional development the Leadership Team will be working with staff to refine the school’s Mission and Vison statement as well as reviewing progress to date on the school Strategic and Annual School Improvement Plans, which includes the educational goals for this year.

Pre Kindy and Kindy 2022, 2023 and future years enrolment interviews are currently taking place. If you have a child who is due for Pre Kindy or Kindy, please ensure that your application has been received by the office so that you have a place secured. If you have friends and neighbours with children in these age brackets, please encourage them to view our school website and submit an application.

Tuesday Pre Kindy 2022 is full. Due to the huge popularity of the programme, if we have enough numbers, we will commence a second Pre Kindy class on Thursdays from the beginning of the year. If you are interested in doing one or both days, please let Mrs Ellen know in the office. If you have relatives, friends, neighbours who have a 3 yr old, please chat to them about coming on a school tour or direct them to our school website to find out more about our Pre Kindy programme.

NAPLAN Online was held during Week Three of this term, with catch-up tests being held during Week Four. Testing is now complete. There was a lot of attention in the media about the technical issues some schools experienced, however, as communicated directly to Year Three and Five parents, NAPLAN Online testing at Padbury ran smoothly. Overall, the students enjoyed completing the testing on their iPads.

Our P&F are as busy as ever. The children are enjoying nice warm sausage sizzles for lunch. Thank you so much to Sheree Merry and Ann Sargeant for co ordinating and to their team of helpers. PCPS dads, book 19 June into your calendar as the P&F Extraordinary Fathers League have organised a Poker Night! It will run similar to the previous years with a few prizes, giveaways and lots of opportunities for dads to either play/watch some sport and get to know one another, especially new dads to our school. See the flyer in the newsletter for further information.

Towards the end of last year, the Leadership Team commenced exploring opportunities to redevelop our playgrounds. A Playground Committee was formed with parent, Advisory Council and staff representation and the Leadership Team. All students throughout the school have also been provided with an opportunity in class to share their ideas for their new playground.

Also, as part of the process, the Leadership Team took a selection of students (as representatives for all PCPS students) to explore and experience three interesting play spaces across Perth and they provided feedback on what they would like to see in their new playground areas.

Already many of the children’s ideas are being incorporated into the playground designs.

The Playground development is exciting for the entire school community but especially so for our children. We hope to be able to share some playground designs with you soon.

Have a beautiful weekend with your family and enjoy this glorious sunshine!

Kind regards

Mrs Margaret Williamson

Principal