21 Feb - Merit Assembly

25 Feb - Whole School Welcome Mass @ 6:00pm @OLM

26 Feb - Ash Wednesday Mass @ 2:00pm (Hall)

28 Feb - Icy Pole Day

2 Mar - Public Holiday

3 Mar - Year 5 Reconciliation @11:00am

6 Mar - Merit Assembly

Sat 7 & Sun 8 March - Sacramental Enrolment Masses @ OLM (all Masses)

2020 Pupil Free Days

Monday 16 March

Thursday 28 & Friday 29 May

Monday 24 August

Monday 31 August

* Please check the community calendar for future dates as the calendar is regularly updated.

https://www.padcath.wa.edu.au/community-calendar

Dear Parents

Next Tuesday 25 February we will be celebrating our whole school Welcome Mass at 6.00pm at Our Lady of the Mission Church, Craigie. It is a wonderful way in which to celebrate being together for the New Year and to ask God’s blessing for each and every one of our children, staff and parents throughout this year ahead. It is an expectation that all students attend this special mass and as it is an official school event, students from Yr 1-6 are to wear their summer school uniform and PK-PP are welcome to wear their PCPS shirts. All children will be seated with their families. We will remind the children and ask for your support in ensuring that this Eucharistic celebration is a reverent occasion.

Next Wednesday 26 February at 2.00pm we will gather together as a school community in our school hall to celebrate our Ash Wednesday liturgy, marking the beginning of Lent. Lent prepares us for Christ’s Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Taking place 40 days before Easter Sunday, Ash Wednesday is one of the most important holy days in the liturgical calendar and signals a season of prayer, reflection, penance and fasting. Coming from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting, Ash Wednesday involves applying ashes, made from blessed palm branches from the previous year's Palm Sunday Mass, to a person’s forehead. The ashes applied to the forehead symbolise the dust from which God made us. The priest speaks the words:

"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return"
or "Repent and believe in the Gospel."

The Ashes we receive are a symbol of penance made sacramental by the blessing of the Church and they help us develop a spirit of humility and sacrifice. The Lenten season is a good opportunity for us all to spend time in prayer, to give to others in need and to ‘fast’ or ‘give up’ something as a commitment to becoming a better person.

Our first Assembly will be held this week. Please join us on Friday afternoons at 2.30pm as we gather together in the Hall as a school community to pray, sing our school song and the national anthem and share school news. Merit Awards are also presented to children within each year level from Pre-Primary to Year Six. Classes are also rostered on during the year to lead the school in a Prayer assembly or a ‘special day’ assembly. Please check the calendar for our assembly dates.

Our first P&F Meeting for the year was held this week. It was wonderful to see so many people in attendance supporting the 2020 P&F Executive: Susan Kadak (President), Taryn Smith (Vice President), Sally Kelly (Treasurer) and Ella Pearce (Secretary). All parents are more than welcome to attend these meetings and a special invitation is extended to all our new families. P&F Meetings are a great opportunity to gather together with the Leadership Team, P&F Committee and parents and find out what we can do together to continue making PCPS such a great community. The P&F Committee also works hard to fundraise throughout the year to help purchase extra resources for the children and they also plan some fabulous ‘friend raising’ events for parents and exciting events for the children too.

The Family Fun Night on 3 April is one P&F event not to be missed. This is a special event in Term One where we can all catch up with everyone on a social level. The Family Fun Night is organised by the P&F and this year Catherine and Clinton Rudd are the co ordinators. I thank them both for all the planning that has already be done in preparation for this evening. It should be a wonderful family night so put the date in your diary and come along and enjoy the evening! and I look forward to catching up with you all. Please read the P&F section for further details.

The first P&F Icy Pole day was held last week and proved very popular in this very hot weather. Icy poles are sold to children from Years 1 to 6 in the hall during lunch time every second week on a Friday. Big thank you to Maggie Gallagher and Romina Cangelosi for organising this P&F initiative.

On Tuesday we had our first School Board meeting for the year.

Members of the Padbury Catholic Primary School Board 2020

Margaret Williamson (Principal) Brad Schrader(Chairperson) Sheree Merry (Treasurer)

Richard Haynes (Secretary) Father Cyprian (Parish Priest) Meg Horne (P&F Rep)

Emma Marpole (Parish Rep) Gianni Da Rui (Committee Member) Peter McKenzie (Committee Member)

Please find below a brief summary form the School Board's February meeting however please note that there may be much more discussed at Board Meetings that is not able to be published in the newsletter as it may be of a confidential nature or a work in progress.

· Welcome to new Board Members and Board Induction

· Bishops Mandate – Code of Ethical Conduct appropriate to Catholic schools.

· Discussion of the implementation of the School Improvement Plan 2020

· Strategic Plan due for review this year – involvement of Board, P&F, Staff and parents

· Principal Report outlining school programmes in relation to Learning, Engagement, Accountability and Discipleship with a focus on Religious Education, Pastoral Care and Curriculum.

· School Finance Report

· Thank you to P&F regarding all their hard work and effort thus far this year

· P&F Rep Report

· Parish Report – sacramental programme commencing this week

· Code of Conduct- refresher and Child Safety Framework

· Completion of the east wing of the Administration building and the children’s toilets – junior, middle and upper

· Completion of the new Science Room

· New Bike Shelter discussed

· Planting of trees in top carpark

· Marketing Plan discussed

Padbury Cares is a group of school group volunteers (parents and staff) who provide assistance to families in our school community during a time of need (either short or long term) 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 also look for volunteers to be part of this valuable and rewarding 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

· 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

Thank you for warmly welcoming Mrs Ali Fisher, our Social Worker to PCPS. Mrs Fisher will be at PCPS on Mondays. As she is here only one day a week at this point in time, referrals to meet with her will need to be made through the classroom teacher. She will be able to assist with such pastoral care concerns and issues such as - Dealing with separation and family conflict; Grief and loss; Child protection; Refusal to attend school; Behavioural concerns at school or at home; Bullying issues; Cybersafety; Building resiliency and self-esteem; Learning to express feelings and emotions; Managing anger; Peer issues at school; Establishing positive friendships; Conflict resolution; Respecting differences; Dealing with anxieties and fears; Organise welfare assistance and information for families in financial distress; Support the implementation of the Rainbows Grief and Loss programme; Assist with Protective Behaviour programme; Facilitate small group work, organise guest speakers/workshops for children/parents/staff; Make referrals to other professionals.

Enjoy the weekend with your family.

Kind regards

Mrs Margaret Williamson

Principal

As you know next Wednesday is ASH WEDNESDAY which marks the beginning of LENT.

Ash Wednesday is also the beginning of PROJECT COMPASSION which is Caritas Australia's annual Lenten fundraising and awareness-raising appeal. Your children will be completing some activities to help bring this year's Project Compassion to life.

Project Compassion boxes will be distributed next Wednesday. Thank you so much for your support of this important appeal. https://lent.caritas.org.au/

Mornings - Parents may park along these bays.

Afternoons - NO PARKING. These bays are for KISS & RIDE ONLY.

Have a great fortnight ahead!

Mr Ryan von Bergheim & Mrs Loretta Hutcheson

Assistant Principals

Choir for boys only in years 4, 5 and 6 will be on Wednesdays, 8:15am in the hall.

Both choirs begin in week 5.

- Mrs Sylvia Grigoroff Cusack

We are hoping to have 2020 School Fee Invoices emailed to the primary caregiver by Friday 21st February. Attached to the email will be the School Fee Annual Statement plus information regarding method of payment options. Every family is required to complete and submit a new Payment Option form each year. The Payment Option advice form needs to be returned to the school by 28th February 2020.

We ask that you notify the school if there are financial circumstances, which need to be taken into account with payment of School Fee Accounts, e.g. Split Billing between two Caregivers.

Health Care Card Fee Discount Scheme

If you are a holder of a means tested Health Care Card, or Pensioner Concession Card -Parenting Payment Single allowance, you are entitled to a school fee discount. It is important to note that the card must be in the name of the person responsible for the payment of the fees. If there is joint responsibility for payment of the fees, the discounted rate applies only to the eligible card holder. Families eligible for Health Care Card Discount Scheme need to present their card to the office and complete a form by 27 March 2020.

New Administration of Schools Financial System and Family / Student database
During Term 4 2019, our school transitioned to a new school administration and finance system. As a result, all families’ BPAY reference has changed. We ask that you use the new BPAY reference as shown on your 2020 School Fee Statement.

Some families may have provided the school with amended contact/address details over the past fortnight; however these details will not have been updated onto the system yet.

Reminder; if you are withdrawing your child from Padbury Catholic Primary School, the school requires one Term’s notice.

School Fee Policy, Terms and Conditions of Enrolment can be found on the school webpage.

https://www.padcath.wa.edu.au/policies

Student Care Insurance details can be found at:

https://ccinsurance.org.au/Insurance/Documents/CCI_Student%20Care_InfoFlyer_WEB.pdf

If you need to discuss your school fee account, please phone Mrs Denise Davis, 9404 4000, or email denise.davis@cewa.edu.au

We will be running the RAINBOWS PROGRAM again this year. It is a peer support program designed especially for children who are experiencing painful transitions, such as a separation , divorce, death or a parent working away (FIFO). This program is also beneficial for children who have moved from other countries, states or schools.

Please see the Information Sheet below (file), which includes an enrolment slip to be returned to the office, should you be interested in this program for your child.

Mrs Georgina Bertoldo (Rainbows Coordinator)

If you need to contact our Administration staff (Denise and Helen) would you please address all emails to admin@padcath.wa.edu.au rather than to their own email addresses. This helps to streamline our office processes. Thank you in anticipation.

Please place this date in your diary as it will be a fun evening!

Icy Pole Weeks are Fridays in Week 4, 6 & 8 for Term 1.

The Pre-Primary children order within their classroom with the Teachers which is delivered to them on the day. If parents/guardians could please bring in small change please to order. The icy poles are sold to children from Years 1 to 6 in the hall during lunch time. The children bring $1.20 in small change and can choose from a vanilla bucket, calippo, lemonade icy pole or paddle pop (streets). There is also a small number of gluten free vanilla cups (Everest) for the children with dietary requirements. Please contact Maggie Gallagher on 0424408622 or Romina Cangelosi 0417959347 if you have any questions.

Children’s liturgy runs during term time, Sundays, at the 9.30am masses. It is an opportunity for children to experience the gospel in a child friendly way. The children are engaged in singing, prayer, craft and other fun activities. The sessions usually go for approximately 20 minutes. We are looking for both teachers/leaders and general helpers. Materials are prepared for the teachers/leaders and training is offered for all parents/guardians wishing to get involved. The parish will also help adults obtain a working with children check.

Please consider getting involved with the parish in this way, we have a lovely team and the children are great fun to work with.

Mandy Schrader 0439 959 317 or Emma Marpole 0405 181 196