St Benedict's Catholic School Shaw eNewsletter

This morning our recorder ensemble performed for the very first time at our Assembly and made us all so very proud to see how far they have come in such a short time. Congratulations to all these students for their commitment and persistence to practice becoming the best performers they can be. Congratulations to Mr Roberts who takes a lot of pride in working with these students and building a love of music for all our students. Of course, it is also with great thanks to our parents who have persevered through countless practices at home, encouraging your children to continue that have allowed these children to be doing so well.

Next week, Catholic Education marks 200 years of Education in Australia, quite a significant milestone. Mr Christie and I will be attending a Diocesan Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral with a couple of students to mark the occasion and as a school, we will be creating our own memorabilia showcase. You will receive a letter about this but basically we would love for you to contribute to a showcase that will display items, photos that represent our communities involvement with Catholic Education. You may have photos of when you were in school, or when grandparents were in a catholic school or you may have special items that represent your time or connection to catholic schools that you would like to share. Please look for details in the letter coming home today. It would be great for our students to experience how catholic education has evolved over time, especially when it is so new for so many of our students.

Next week, we also have some visitors from Purple Orange coming to our school to learn more about our inclusive practices. They are a community of school leaders (Principals, Deputy Principals and Business Managers) from South Australia who are embarking on their own inclusive practices journey. We had 18 school leaders from this group visit us in 2019 and this time, they are bringing 32 so they are splitting into two groups and visiting across two different days. We are thoroughly looking forward to this visit as we also get to learn a lot by the questions asked and the ideas they may already be considering.

Best wishes to our Cross Country team who will be off to the inter-school competition on Wednesday afternoon and to our Year 6 students who will enjoy a matinee performance of ‘Footloose’, the Ryan Catholic College musical on Wednesday and I hope to see lots of families at our school disco on Thursday night. Friday morning is also bound to be a wonderful highlight with our Under 8’s Day event. All students from our Kindy to Year 2 will join together for some outdoor learning fun. Parents are welcome to join us as well- 9.15am- 10.30am.

Don’t forget Prep 2022 acceptance are due back to the office by Tuesday please.

Have a fabulous weekend. See you all next week.

Cheers

Penny Collins

Welcome to the end of another week! We started this morning with the Prep Koalas leading us on assembly celebrating Pentecost. Pentecost celebrates the day that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper and guide in our lives. We remember that the Holy Spirit is with us in all we do and we ask it to transform our hearts and minds to be people of compassion and justice. It was also wonderful to see the Koalas' wonderful dance moves and the rest of the school joining in with their song, ‘Let it Shine’.

During assembly, the Koalas also presented a brilliant video on our Way of Peace, focussing on ‘Empathy’. It’s wonderful to see our children engaging in this and developing an understanding of what it means to show empathy towards someone else. I’ve attached the link to the video for you to watch below!

LINK

200 Years of Catholic Education

As Penny has mentioned in her newsletter, we are starting to celebrate 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia next week. Please see the note below, which has also been sent through email, which outlines how you can contribute to our acknowledgment of the impact that Catholic Education has made in our community.

Pax

Nick

200_Years_Catholic_Education.pdf

Morning Hall and Food/Drink

As the cold weather is creeping in, we have seen an increase in the number of students arriving at school with hot food and drinks. Please note, that the hall is used as a multi-purpose area to gather, play sport and share as a community. As such there is to be no food or drink brought into the hall. We have had several instances of hot drinks being spilled in the hall. As I am sure you would all agree, hot foods/drinks in an area where 400 children will be gathering is not a good combination. Your assistance in not sending in these items is appreciated.

Events

This week the P&F were able to finalise the Mother’s Day Wine and Cheese night event. The event was a huge success with many reports of a wonderful evening by those who attended. As part of the event, money was raised for a Benny’s Mum in Need. This week, a gift of $1000 made up of donations from ticket sales, raffle ticket sales and a top-up donation from the P&F was provided to one such mum. She was overwhelmed with the generosity of the school community and very thankful.

Many thanks to those who gave a donation for the raffles: Melissa Thomson - Norwex Consultant; Tanika Sampson - Pure Romance Consultant; Pacific Islands International; Little Bee Marketing; Rose Lane Clothing & Milk Espresso Cafe.

In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Acts 20: 35

Week 6 will see several events on our calendar. We will celebrate our 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia with a celebratory Mass. Thursday evening is the greatly anticipated school disco event. A reminder that it is a parent supervised event only. No student drop offs thank you. There will be a seating area for parents to gather, leaving the Hall free as the dance floor area. We can’t wait to see kids and parents alike ‘bustin’ a move’ on the dance floor. Entry is $5 per family and the P&F will have some light snacks available for cash purchase. Please BYO dinner. See flyer below.

To top off the week, Friday morning will be our Under 8’s day celebration of early learning for our Prep - Year 2 students. Unfortunately this event is not for parents, just our kids who will have a blast celebrating outdoor learning. Our kindy friends will join us and we look forward to welcoming some students who will join us for Prep in 2022. See flyer below.