Dear parents and caregivers,

This week has produced some lovely weather and the students and staff have thoroughly enjoyed the outside environment!

Today we held our first ‘Your Move Schools’ activity with a Walk Safely to School morning and it was amazing! A number of students and families either walked, scooted or rode their bikes to school and were treated with a lovely breakfast. National Walk Safely to School Day is a community initiative that aims to raise awareness of the health, road safety, transport and environmental benefits that regular walking, riding or scooting can provide for the long-term well-being of our children. Thank you to the Wanneroo Council and Pearsall IGA for donating our breakfast and to Cr Frank Cvitan for attending the breakfast. Also, a big thank you to Celeste Spencer and her Year Five helpers for organising this wonderful event for our students and school community.

This week an eager group of Year Five girls organised a great ‘Talent Show’ for our students from Year One to Six. The talent that we have here at St Elizabeth’s is awesome and I thoroughly enjoyed watching each performance from singing, dancing, calisthenics, drawing, keyboard playing and even a karate demonstration. Well done to all the students that participated in the ‘Talent Show’ and to my Year Five girls for organising such a wonderful event! Good luck to those who have moved onto the Grand Final on Tuesday!

Volunteers were honoured with National Volunteers Week from May 15 to May 21 with the theme ‘The Change Makers’. This is Australia's largest annual celebration of volunteering and a chance for all of us to celebrate and recognise the vital work of volunteers in our school community. Therefore, thank you to all our parents, grandparents, extended families and community members who volunteer their time for us throughout the year!

Next Wednesday, May 24 we will be hosting a number of Catholic Primary Principals who will be participating in a ‘Growing with Gratitude’ Workshop organised by the Catholic Primary Principals Association. Please note that the main driveway gate will be closed from lunchtime until 2:40pm to allow our guests time to leave the school grounds before school pick-up. The front walkway gate will be open as normal, and I encourage you to park in the front parking bays if you need to come to the school for an early collection.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather!

God bless

Rebecca Clarke

Principal

On Friday our Year Six students attended their Confirmation Retreat at the St Anthony's Church. Upon arriving at the church the students engaged in a prayer reflection run by 24:7 Ministry on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and discussed the messages and teachings in the Gospels they have been learning about in class. Following this, the students broke up into groups and completed fun, group activities and questions.

May we continue to keep our Year Six Confirmation candidates in our prayers as they prepare to receive the sacrament next weekend in front of their friends and family.

St Elizabeth's is presently training all teaching staff in the Talk for Writing program in our school. It is an exciting initiative that will have a major impact on our student’s writing. Talk for Writing, developed by Pie Corbet is a powerful writing program based on the principles of how children learn. The Talk for Writing approach enables children to read and write independently for a variety of audiences and purposes within different subjects. A key feature is that children internalise the language structures needed to write through ‘talking the text’. The approach moves from dependence towards independence with the teacher using shared and guided teaching to develop the ability in children to write creatively and powerfully.

By the end of this term all the teaching staff from Kindy to Year Six as well as the Leadership Team will have participated in the two-day workshop which offers an overview of the Talk for Writing approach and provides opportunities for hands-on participation in the steps of this exceptionally effective instructional approach. Following the workshop, teachers will begin planning imaginative units of work based on these principles to use in their classrooms.

At recent Professional Learning Community meetings, the teachers who have been involved in the workshops have shared what they have been teaching the students and the improved engagement of the students in their writing. We look forward to seeing the results of this through our students written work across the year levels.

Please complete the forms and return these as soon as possible! Thank you

https://cspwa.schoolzineplus.com/newsletter/article/397?skin=1

Term 1 Start Date Wednesday 1 February

Term 1 End Date Thursday 6 April

Term 2 Start Date Wednesday 26 April
Term 2 End Date Friday 30 June

Term 3 Start Date Monday 17 July
Term 3 End Date Friday 22 September

Term 4 Start Date Tuesday 10 October

Term 4 End Date Friday 8 December

Friday 3 March

Monday 24 April
Friday 18 August
Monday 21 August

Monday, 9 October

Please note, these dates are subject to change. If these dates for Professional Learning do require amending, parents will be notified well in advance.

Confirmation

Candidate Commitment Mass

Saturday 25th March 6.00pm

Sunday 26th March 7.30am

Sunday 26th March 9.00am

Parent/Child Workshop

Tuesday 16th May 5.00pm

Candidate Retreat

Friday 19th May

Sacrament

Saturday 27th May 6.00pm

Sunday 28th May 11.00am

Saturday 10th June 6.00pm

Certificate Weekend

Sunday 11th June

First Holy Communion

Candidate Commitment Mass

Saturday 24th June 6.00pm

Sunday 25th June 7.30am

Sunday 25th June 9.00am

Sunday 25th June 6.00pm

Parent/Child Workshop

Tuesday 8th August 5.00pm

Candidate Retreat

Friday 11th August

Sacrament

Saturday 19th August 6.00pm

Sunday 20th August 9.00am

Sunday 20th August 6.00pm

Saturday 26th August 6.00pm

Sunday 27th August 9.00am

Sunday 27th August 6.00pm

Certificate Weekend

Saturday 2nd and Sunday 3rd September

Reconciliation

Commitment Mass

Saturday 16th September 6.00pm

Sunday 17th September 7.30am

Sunday 17th September 9.00am

Sunday 17th September 6.00pm

Parent Workshop

Wednesday 25th October 5.00pm

Candidate Retreat

Friday 3rd November

Sacrament

Tuesday 7th November 5.00pm

Wednesday 8th November 5.00pm

Thursday 9th November 5.00pm

Certificate Weekend

Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th November