ST PETER S CATHOLIC PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOL Thursday 7th September 2017 Week 8

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1 ST PETER S CATHOLIC PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOL Thursday 7th September 2017 Week 8 To the St Peter s community, Catholicism sees in Jesus Christ the full personification of God. Since God became human, then God is seen, touched, and heard in the context of human living; this is the principle of sacramentality. Sacramentality is recognizing God in our everyday lives. The Church celebrates certain rituals that make the presence of God real to us in different ways. They are wonderful moments of encounter with God that can deeply affect our lives. In the Catholic tradition, there are seven such rituals that we call the Sacraments, with the Eucharist as our core Sacrament. The celebration of these Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, plays an important role in the life of our community. We are given many opportunities for celebration of the Eucharist, other Sacraments, prayer, spiritual reflection, and other forms of authentic devotion. However, the sacramentality of Catholic belief embraces more than our sacred rituals. As a Catholic community, we believe that we live in a sacred world created by God. For this reason, every physical element of creation from the natural environment to human persons provides an opportunity to encounter something of God s presence. Hence, every noticeable element of creation can be a sacrament of God. Understood in this way, the principle of sacramentality affirms that as we discover the human condition and the natural environment, we are in reality discovering more and more about the presence of God. Furthermore, our day-to-day activities, our service to others, our interaction with other people and ideas, our special celebrations, and our opportunities for celebrating other forms of authentic spirituality can all be sacraments of God in our midst. This Sunday our celebration of first Eucharist marks the beginning of our week of special Sacrament experience in our sacramental season, it continues with two celebrations of first Reconciliation on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and concludes the Sunday after with Confirmation. I encourage all in our community to pray for the children receiving these Sacraments and for their families who will support them. May our prayers also include the rest of us who everyday try to live moments of sacramentality and grace. Jesus understood this so well that he made sure we could understand God through our humanness with many physical elements such as water, oil and wine as well as voice, sights, and more than anything else touch. As the Gospel reveals Jesus laid his hands on the outcasts, marginalized and the ill. He healed them of not just their physical infirmities but also brought comfort to their struggles and forgave their sins. Jesus was sent to reconcile us to God. He shows us through his words and actions the sacramentality of the world around us. We need only to look at nature, people, and explore our relationships, to feel love and recognize God s presence in our lives. At our Family Faith Evening at the beginning of our Sacrament Season we heard Fr Michael Himes tell us in a short video clip, That which is always and everywhere true, must be noticed, accepted and celebrated somewhere, sometime. God s grace is ever-present and we need opportunities to realise and notice this, to be able to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. This Sacrament week is one of these opportunities for our community. Have a wonderful weekend, Kerry Miller Principal DATES TO REMEMBER Senior Assembly - Friday 8th September Student Led Learning Conversation - Wednesday 20th September Footy Colours Day - Thursday 21st September Whole School Green Day - Friday 22nd September End of Term 3 - Friday 22nd September 3.25pm Sacrament of First Eucharist - Sunday 10th September Sacrament of Reconciliation - Tuesday 12th & Thursday 14th September Sacrament of Confirmation - Sunday 17th September Term 4 Begins - Monday 9th October School Production- November 15th & 16th

2 EDUCATION IN FAITH Sacraments at St Monica s Parking A reminder that parking can be challenging around St Monica s junior campus on Dalton Rd. The carpark at St Monica s is strictly for those with disabled permits, the choir, St Peter s and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop staff and Priests. We have an arrangement with Melbourne Polytechnic Epping for you and your guests to have access to the carpark from 10 am and the gates will be locked at 5 pm. Please note: Owner onus applies to all vehicles left parked at any Melbourne Polytechnic site. Melbourne Polytechnic accepts no responsibility for damage and or theft of any vehicle left parked within its boundaries. REMINDER: The Church Space will be used for St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Sacraments and Parish Mass beginning at 11 am, prior to our Confirmation Mass at 2:30 pm. Official photos will be held in the Theatre of All Nations, please ensure you follow the appropriate signs as we (staff, students, families and guests) will not be able to enter the Church space until the previous Mass has concluded. First Eucharist Practicing at St Monica s The students and staff will be walking to St Monica s on Friday 8th September (tomorrow) between 9-11 am to familiarise themselves with the space and to have a quick run through so that they know what to expect. The 2 km walking permission will cover this. Parking A reminder that parking can be challenging around St Monica s junior campus on Dalton Rd. The carpark at St Monica s is strictly for those with disabled permits, the choir, St Peter s and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop staff and Priests. We have an arrangement with Melbourne Polytechnic Epping for you and your guests to have access to the carpark from 10 am and the gates will be locked at 5 pm. Please note: Owner onus applies to all vehicles left parked at any Melbourne Polytechnic site. Melbourne Polytechnic accepts no responsibility for damage and or theft of any vehicle left parked within its boundaries. Confirmation Senior Update In preparation for Confirmation, the Senior students have been exploring the presence of the Holy Spirit in their daily lives and surroundings. Through the use of visual images, students collaborated and discussed how the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit are present in objects, actions and environments. Students then reflected on the gifts and fruits they possess and which they will ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen through Confirmation. Following this, students created a scroll containing the fruits and gifts they see in a peer. These scrolls were shared together during a prayerful reflection. Feedback from students about this experience was that they enjoyed the opportunity to make connections to the presence of the Holy Spirit and their own lives, as well as the positive feelings they received from their peers. Bishop Terry s visit Bishop Terry will be visiting the Confirmation candidates on Monday to talk all things Confirmation! They will discuss the ritual of the Sacrament as well as how they can live their Sacrament of Confirmation on a daily basis. Practicing at St Monica s The students and staff will be walking to St Monica s on Friday 15th September between 9-11 am to familiarise themselves with the space and to have a quick run through so that they know what to expect. The 2 km walking permission will cover this. Reconciliation Our Sacrament of Reconciliation Liturgies are taking place on Tuesday 12th September and Thursday 14th September, both Liturgies will begin at 6:30 pm and the Church will be opened from 6:15 pm. What does the Sacrament of Reconciliation look life for our students? After you have made your introductions your child will sit with the Priest, he will lead your child through a conversation by asking questions and then praying together. Emily de Kort. Director of Faith and Mission edekort@stprepp.catholic.edu.au

3 LEARNING & TEACHING Sprints at St Peter s- a Focused Learning Strategy During the last 2 terms all levels have introduced Sprints as a targeted teaching strategy to improve student learning. Level teachers analyse student assessment data and develop learning intentions (a specific focus) for a small group of students with similar learning needs. This might be developing recognition of sight words for reading, using correct punctuation in writing, using arrays (area grids) to solve multiplication, alphabet recognition etc. Sprints are 10 minute focused learning sessions that are taken each day with the same group of students for a period of 1-4 weeks or until the child has mastered the skill. Every teacher in the learning space is involved in taking Sprint groups throughout each day and are responsible for tracking and assessing learning for improvement. A number of schools in our Northern network have participated in professional learning around Sprints as developed by Agile Schools. The Junior teachers are covering sprint groups a day and are delighted to report significant improvement in learning. Please ask your child what they have been learning in their Sprint groups. If schools are to lift the learning outcomes of diverse students we must invest in developing the individual and collective expertise of your teachers. Learning Sprints provides a simple, effective and field-tested approach to supporting your teachers to continually enhance their practice. Learning Sprints is an organisational routine that can support the adoption of evidence-informed practices and develop the collective efficacy of teacher teams. The approach is aligned with the existing research evidence into the features of effective teacher professional learning and the science of behaviour change. It has been designed to be simple, relevant and manageable for teachers and their leaders. Agile Schools website NAPLAN RESULTS Families of Year 3 and 5 students will receive results of NAPLAN literacy and numeracy testing that was conducted in May. NAPLAN results provide parents and teachers with additional assessment data on how students are performing against national and state standards that compare them with other Australian students at the same level. A national assessment scale maps each student s achievement onto a ten band continuum. The literacy assessment tasks measure student achievement in reading, writing (persuasive writing) and grammar and punctuation and spelling. The numeracy assessment tasks measure student achievement in number; algebra, function and pattern; measurement, statistics and probability; and space. It is important to remember that the results reflect each student s performance on a single test back in May. Your child s contact teacher has continued to assess and collect data on his/her progress throughout the year with the midyear written report and Storypark learning stories reflecting achievement for the year so far. Teachers have met with you if required, to discuss your child s progress. Student led learning conversations provide further information on your child s achievements. NAPLAN testing complements but does not replace the ongoing information that teachers collect about the learning of your child. At St Peter s school we have a well established process where teachers meet together to review the NAPLAN data, identify successes and anomalies for individual students and present evidence of learning growth from May until September (a four month period of significant learning for students). The school identifies and analyses school trend data, reflecting on strengths and opportunities for growth. STEAM NEWS An important part of our STEAM program is to develop problem solving and teamwork skills. To promote this, we run STEAM Challenges that students have to solve in a short period of time. We have now created a web page where the students become the teacher and present the STEAM challenge to you at home. Your challenge is to complete the task at home with your children at home. Please try out the challenges with your children and, if you can, take a photo and post it up on our sharing wall on the page so that everyone can see your results. We look forward to hearing from you. Thanks also for the parents who have contributed photos of their workplace showing how STEAM affects their everyday work. We need more please! Our students love making connections to their learning to the real world. Please use the following link to contribute. Information is on this website. Julie Percy - Director of Learning & Teaching juliep@stprepp.catholic.edu.au

4 SCHOOL COMMUNITY Loose Change Challenge We are excited to be launching the Loose Change Challenge. The Loose Change Challenge is an initiative that asks students to bring in as much loose change as they wish to raise funds for the school. Each contact group will have a container to keep their coins in. There will be a reward for the group that collects the most money in this period. The challenge will commence next Monday (Week 9) and conclude on Friday 13th October (the end of Week 1). TIPS FOR FINDING EXTRA COINS: Clean the car Clean your room Look behind/under the lounge Ask family and friends to save their coins too. In isolation a coin is not much, but collectively they can raise a lot of money! Father s Day Event On Friday night, the Father s Day event took place at Epping Leisure Centre. It was attended by over 100 students and their Dads, Uncles, Grandpas and other special people in their lives. It provided a great opportunity for members of our school community to build connections. Many thanks to Liz Iglesias for her support in planning the night. Footy Day Footy Day will take place on Thursday 21st September order forms have gone home today. Free television and computer recycling Take your unwanted TV, computer, printer and computer equipment to: The Wollert Landfill Transfer Station, 45 Bridge Inn Road, Wollert, Surplus Recycling Solutions Pty Ltd, Mahoneys Road, Thomastown, Items that can be recycled through the free television and computer recycling scheme include TV, desktop PC, laptop, printer, scanner, computer monitor, hard drive, keyboard, computer mouse, computer power supply, memory card and floppy disk. Many Thanks to St Peter s School Community From Legacy Legacy would like to thank St Peter s school for raising $57 towards its recent appeal. Thanks to our Active Citizens leadership group for running this appeal. Emma Canning - Director of School Community ecanning@stprepp.catholic.edu.au STUDENT WELLBEING Revised Sunsmart Policy for St Peter s School As a Sunsmart school we are mandated to follow the updates from Sunsmart Council. The most recent update is now reflected in our school policy. The Rationale now states... Rationale: It is the responsibility of St Peter s School to ensure the safety and well being of children in our care. The Policy has been developed to ensure that all students and staff attending the school are protected from damage caused by the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. This policy is to be implemented from mid August until the end of April or at the discretion of the Principal. Our policy states sun protection is used whenever UV levels are 3 or higher. Sun protection is required from mid-august to the end of April (when Victoria s UV levels are typically above three). The UV daily rating is checked via the Catholic Education website. Changes to existing policy are highlighted. Please make sure your child has their sunhat at school. Child Safety Standards In line with Standard 7 of the child safe standards, schools are required to deliver appropriate education about child abuse awareness and prevention. Research shows us that: equipping students with the skills to build positive relationships and communicate respectfully is essential preparation to assist with : productive and healthy adult lives building resilience (the ability to cope and thrive in the face of negative events, challenges or adversity) : having a positive impact on both social and academic outcomes, The content that is taught to the students is in line with the Victorian Curriculum and all strands of the Personal and Social Capability curriculum the Personal, Social and Community Health Strand of the Health and Physical Education curriculum. In term 4 levels will be looking at different ways of supporting children to be empowered and be in control of their own bodies and to develop respectful relationships. Jackie Fleischmann - Director of Student Wellbeing jfleischmann@stprepp.catholic.edu.au

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