The annual SFX P&F Welcome BBQ Friday the 17 th February 6-8pm

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1 The annual SFX P&F Welcome BBQ Friday the 17 th February 6-8pm 14 February 2012 BYO Everything, Meat, platters, pizza etc. whatever you and your family desire BYO Drinks We provide the BBQ only. Please keep in mind there will be no facilities to purchase food or drinks!!! A great place to meet and get to know everyone!!

2 MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL MESSAGE FROM AP - A I hope you can find the time to attend this Friday s WELCOME BBQ DISCO to be held in the quad from 6.00pm to 8.00pm. It will be a sensational night made even better if you are there. We had an enthusiastic group of parents turn up for our first Parents and Friends meeting last Tuesday. The following parents showed their class by volunteering to lead the P & F Association in 2012: President Todd Chapman (Cooper Prep Red) Vice President Libby Vertullo (Jonathan 1 Green) Secretary - Tina Kobler (Thomas Raines 3 Green) Treasurer Carmel Tijsen (Klaas 7 Red, Natalie 6 Red) Committee Members - Di Voss, Ania Forster, Janelle Dimock, Jodie Dovell, Danni Chapman, Tina Brewster, Kiri Nash, Sandra Cook, Felicity Lenehan, Jane Howard, Trudi Murray and Sarah Heddle. It would be good to have a few dads on board to join President Todd and me. It is not too late to volunteer. The school Leadership Team looks forward to working with this year s executive. This is not a Fete year but you can expect some exciting activities. Tina Brewster has already commenced the planning for another Casino night. The 2010 event was a classic. Class CONTACT PARENTS are being finalised this week. The following parents have volunteered for this important role during 2012: 1 Red Caitlin Bailey & Fiona Smith 1 Gold Michelle Staunton 1 Green Jodie Dovell 2 Red Kelly York 2 Gold Brighid Collins 2 Green Sandra Shervey, Felicity Lenehan & Sarah Heddle 4 Red Sharon Hood 5 Gold Angela Sattler 5 Green Debbie Graham 6 Red Kim Hill & Andrea Lockett 7 Red Sharon Hood 7 Gold Tina Brewster If you would like to help, please see your child s teacher asap. You do not need to be an old or a new parent just willing, supportive, friendly and enthusiastic. Our groundsman David Graham, sustained an injury towards the end of last year and unfortunately is still recovering after further surgery on Monday. Please keep him in your prayers. We are in need of a casual groundsman to commence work immediately. This is a full time (38hrs/wk) position fixed term position. At this stage the appointment is until Fri 11 May. The position is currently listed on the Catholic Jobs Online website under Position Vacant. To apply, please visit to make an online application. No other forms of application will be accepted. UPDATE OF SCHOOL RECORDS Today, Tuesday, your child should have handed to you a report showing all personal family details. Please make any changes needed on the report. An excursion and media form is also enclosed. This needs to be signed and returned together with the report to your classroom teacher by Friday 17 February. Even if there are NO changes to be made ALL reports & permission forms must be returned by every child. PARENT INFORMATION NIGHTS Many thanks to those of you who were able to attend our parent information nights over the past couple of weeks. They were exceptionally well attended which demonstrates to us the genuine care and concern you have for your child/ren and their education. INTERNET ACCESS CONTRACT Over the next few weeks your child will be exposed to our Internet Usage Guidelines at St Francis Xavier. They will be instructed to take these guidelines home to share with you. Accompanying these guidelines will be a contract your child and you (parent/guardian) will need to sign. There are separate contracts for children in Prep Yr 2, Years 3, Yrs 4 & 5 and Yrs 6 & 7. No child will be permitted to use the internet at school without this signed contract. We strongly insist on Digital Citizenship at St Francis Xavier School. Once you have received the contract we ask you to assist the school in promoting acceptable use of the internet by returning signed contracts as soon as you are able to after receiving them. Thank you! Have a good week! MESSAGE FROM AP - RE PURPLE DAY 17 FEBRUARY This Friday we will be asking every person in our community to wear something purple. It could be purple socks, ribbons, hat, or a shirt. It is not a free dress day. Why? We want to remember a past student Jarred Gortat who died on 17 Feb 2012, from a tumour. This spunky 8 year old with his cheeky smile and determined personality was a great role model for our children. We remember his special qualities by wearing an item of purple, his favourite colour, on Purple Day! Regards Peter

3 VIRTUE OF THE WEEK Welcoming Yesterday at General Assembly, Ms Heather Cummins s 4 Red presented the first Virtue of the Year - Welcoming. We at St Francis Xavier pride ourselves in creating a culture where caring and respect of others and ourselves is valued. As a W.E.S.T community, we welcome those who are new to our school; we encourage others to try their hardest in everything they do; we remember to say sorry if we make a mistake and we always give thanks for God, our family, teachers and friends. During the next two weeks, staff will be teaching what it means to be a welcoming person and nominating children who are practising this virtue. The names of the children will be published in the Newsletter and acknowledged on assembly with a certificate. YEAR 7 LEADERSHIP Last Friday 10 February, the Year 7 students participated in the first of a number of occasions to focus on what it means to be a Leader and to demonstrate their learnings. The rotational activities aimed to assist the student to recognise the special leadership qualities in each student. The obvious measure of a true leader is the ability to work in a team and to value each member of that team. Ronnie, Peter and I enjoyed working with the Yr 7 students during these activities. This Wednesday 15 at General Assembly, the Year 7 students will be presented with their Senior Leader badges from the Leadership Team. Then they will bus to the Sacred Heart Church to participate in the Annual Gold Coast Catholic Schools Yr 7 Leadership Liturgy. After the liturgy, the Yr 7 students will experience a conversation of panel members from various parts of life and ages about what it means to be a Christian leader in today s society. A donation will also be presented to Mr Des La Rance from the Surfers Sunrise Wheelchair Project. Monday 20 February has been cancelled. a special Leadership Assembly will occur on Tuesday afternoon at 2.30pm in the Ivey Activity Centre with the Student and Sports Leaders being presented with their badges. The Federal Member of Fadden, Hon Stuart Robert and State Member for Broadwater, Ms Peta-Kaye Croft will be present for this ceremony. Please keep the Yr 7 students, teachers and parents in your thoughts and prayers this year. As a school community, we will need to support these students along their journey of understanding of what it means to be a leader and help them to grow and develop into responsible adolescents. CLASS/PARISH MASS The Year 6 classes will lead the 9.30am mass this Thursday 16 February. This is their beginning of year mass with the theme Coming Together... Keeping Together... Working Together.... Come and join with the Year 6 students and their teachers. LENT The Liturgical Season of Lent begins next week with Ash Wednesday on 22 February. This is a time when Catholics prepare for Easter. This feast is central to the Christian calendar and commemorates the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. During Lent, the Catholic Church encourages its members to engage in a number of pious practices: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. The aim of these practices is to foster repentance and conversion among Catholics. Repentance means the rejection of sin. It implies conversion to, and reconciliation with God. Penance is the concrete expression of repentance. It takes the forms of prayer, self -denial, and works of charity. Each of these identifies us more closely with our Saviour. By penance we make satisfaction for our sins, and take real steps in the renewal of our lives. Penance is the proof of our repentance. Repentance and conversion are central, on-going features of Christian living. Penance has to be a constant, even daily, practice in our lives. In nominating special times of penance, the Church encourages and promotes in all of us the habit of penance. Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days for fast and abstinence. Abstinence refers to not eating meat. Catholics between the ages of 18 and 59 are obliged to fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. In addition, all Catholics 14 years old and older must abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. (cc. 1252) The law of the common practice of penance is fulfilled by performing any one of the following: (a) prayer for example, Mass attendance; family prayer; a visit to a church or chapel; reading the Bible; making the Stations of the Cross; praying the rosary. (b) self-denial for example, not eating meat; not eating sweets or dessert; giving up entertainment to spend time with the family; limiting food and drink so as to give to the poor of one s own country. (c) helping others for example, special attention to someone who is poor, sick, elderly, lonely or overburdened. Almsgiving follows from a notion of stewardship. The steward is one who shares their gifts with others. The word alms means a donation of money or food to the poor. SHROVE TUESDAY & ASH WEDNESDAY As many of you know, next Tuesday 21 February is Shrove or Pancake Tuesday. Shrove Tuesday the beginning of fasting in Lent. On this day we are told, there were feasts of pancakes to use up the supplies of fat, butter and eggs foods that were forbidden during austere Lent. To shrive someone, in old fashioned English, is to hear their acknowledgment of sins, to assure them of God s forgiveness and to give them appropriate spiritual advice. Therefore, the word shrove refers to the practice of the confession of sins, so that the fasting during Lent could be considered as a suitable penance for the faults committed. Many of the children will enjoy pancakes next Tuesday as a reminder of the significance of Shrove Tuesday and the Lenten Season. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of our season of Lent, a special time in our Church and school community where we think about the mystery of Jesus life and death and how we can grow to be more loving by following Jesus way. On this day, we are marked with the ashes, which remind us, that we believe Jesus is the source of all life; that just as the bush burns, ash falls to the ground and in time seeds of new life are sown, so too does our new life come from Jesus. A prayer service with distribution of ashes to teachers and parents will take place on Wednesday 22 February 8.40am assembly. We invite you to join with Miss Handford s 5 Red class as they lead us through prayer. Children will receive their ashes back in their classrooms. During this time of Lent join a Lenten program which is being offered by the parish. Contact the Parish Office on and Sister Rita will be happy to assist you. PARISH SACRAMENTAL PREPARATION PROGRAM Our parish conducts its own Sacramental Preparation Program which involves parents and children. Sr Rita Clancy (Parish Associate) co ordinates this parish based program. The school plays a supporting role in the Holy Family Parish Sacramental Program but does not teach the program as part of the Religious Education program. The School support comes in the form of knowing who are making the Sacrament of Reconciliation(Penance); teaching the concepts of right/ wrong, forgiveness and sorry as well as the prayer Act of Contrition.

4 We send a reminder to the parents of children who were Confirmed last year that there is a Parent Catechesis Meeting scheduled on Monday 27 February at 1.00pm and repeated at 7.30pm in the Marian Room adjacent to the church. Sr Rita will be sending a letter out this week giving further details regarding the completion of your child s Sacrament of Initiation Eucharist (First Holy Communion). Children who have not yet been Confirmed will be able to join the Parish Sacramental Preparation Program beginning in Term 3. Look out for notices in the Newsletter or the Parish Bulletin. SACRAMENTS OF INITIATION A number of parents who belong to other Christian Traditions ask about the Sacraments. One of the questions is what are the Sacraments of Initiation? There are three Sacraments of Initiation Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. Parents present their children to be baptised into a Christian Tradition. At our school, the majority of our students are baptised into the Catholic Church. The next step on their faith journey would be their parents working with the parish to prepare them for the Sacrament of Confirmation and the third step is the reception of First Holy Communion (Eucharist). Cheers Jackie Cameron PHYSICAL EDUCATION NEWS GOLD COAST NORTH NETBALL TRIALS If your daughter is turning 11 or 12 this year and plays in a weekly netball competition and is interested in trialling for the Gold Coast North Netball teams, please see me for information about the tryouts. There can only be 3 children per age group to attend the trials. The trials will be held at AB Paterson College on Thursday 23 February and 1 March, for pm. Make up Swimming Lesson wil be held on this Thursday 16. February This Friday 17 February time trials will be held as follows Years 6 & Years 4 & Year 3 and Yr 2 children turning 8 t this year INTER/SPORT TRAINING FRIDAY YEARS 5 7 Please ensure your child remembers to bring all necessary equipment for training. TERM ONE FEES RESOURCE CENTRE NEWS I trust that you have all received your statements. I would ask for your assistance by:- Using your customer number as your reference if paying via the internet This can be found just above your name and address on the Remittance Slip. It starts with 000 Ensuring your fees and camp monies are paid by the due date Your Term 1 fees are due by 21 st February 2012 as per your statement. Yr 5 Camp 21 st February 2012 Yr 7 Canberra deposit 30 th March 2012 You can pay your fees by cash, cheque or credit card. Alternatively you could elect to pay by Direct Debit. Forms are available on our website or at the Office. You can also use the internet and our details are on the statement. Please ensure that you use the correct reference. You can also use the internet to pay for camps, just use your customer number followed by Yr5 or Yr7 camp. Balances shown in brackets indicate a credit balance and therefore there is nothing to pay. If you have already set up your Direct Debit then this statement is for your information. If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact me. Stephen Clark In 2006, 46% of the adult population could not read a newspaper, follow a recipe, make sense of a timetable or understand instructions on a medicine bottle. So to focus everyone s attention on reading and to show the community what an important role libraries play in schools, the National Year of Reading was created. And here at St Francis Xavier we are very excited to highlight the importance of our Resource Centre as the hub of our school where all students can engage in literature and be a part of our reading community. So to celebrate National Year of Reading and Literature, this month we are having a competition for all members of the school community. We have created Our Book Wall in the Resource Centre and would love for you to submit your favourite book so we can add it to our book wall. There will be prizes for students, teachers and parents. So come on in and fill out an entry form or if you cannot make it to school, me (jsciasci@bne.catholic.edu.au) your favourite book and I will add it to our wall. Winners from the three categories will be drawn at the end of February. Book vouchers will then be distributed to all winning entries. Good Luck Jen Craig and Lisa Duncan

5 MUSIC/PERFORMING ARTS Recorders in Year 4 & 5 We have at least three children in each class who have come to classes without a Music book or recorder. Each student requires an A4 display folder to keep their music in (these are available from Coles, Big W or Woolies for about $1) and a recorder which can be purchased from our tuck shop for just $7.35. Please ensure that your child is properly prepared for their music lesson. Thank you Maureen Laidler Performing Arts teacher our Principal, Mr Peter Anderson, his leadership team and all of the teachers. This coming Friday will be the first P&F function for the year. It is the Welcome BBQ which will be held from 6pm to 8pm. This is a great opportunity to meet new and existing families within the school community. I encourage everyone to come down and get to know some other parents and your P&F members. Remember this is a BYO food and drinks event. We will supply the barbeques and cooking utensils. I look forward to meeting you all and working with you in Regards Todd Chapman DIARY DATES TUCKSHOP NEWS 15 Feb Assembly Jarred s Anniversary 15 Feb Gold Coat Year 7 Leadership Liturgy Please keep in mind when ordering your child s lunch which time of day they are swimming. If they are not here for lunch they need to be given their food at first break so if two orders are made please bare this in mind. This Friday is swimming time trials and classes will be at the pool at different times years 6 & 7 (not here first break can order for 2 nd break) years 4 & 5 ( not here first break can order for second break) year 3 older year 2 ( not here for lunch break can order for first break) If you are interested in a reusable lunch bag my stock is running out quickly. I have more on order so be in quick. They cost $7.00 each and are available in pink, blue or green edge. Helpers this week are Wednesday February 15 th Clare Cartwright, Nicole Bruce Thursday February 16 th Maree Cavill, Help Needed Friday February 17 th Kim Grobbelaar, Carmel Tijsen, Karen Smith, Help Needed Monday February 20 th Caroline Matheson Tuesday February 21 st Justine Lightfoot Wednesday February 22 nd Michelle Cooke, Mieke Thomas (11am) Kathryn Staite Tuckshop Convenor WELCOME MESSAGE FROM 2012 P & F PRESIDENT Hello everyone and welcome to a new school year. First let me introduce myself, my name is Todd Chapman and I am the new president of the P & F committee for My eldest son Cooper started in Prep Red with Mrs Berry this year and my family and I are very excited to be a part of the school community. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Terry Anning and the previous committee members for all their hard work in I would also like to introduce and welcome the other P&F executive members Libby Vertullo our Vice President, Tina Kobler secretary, Carmel Tijsen- treasurer and our committee members Di Voss, Ania Forster, Janelle Dimock, Jodie Dovell, Danni Chapman, Tina Brewster, Kiri Nash, Sandra Cook, Felicity Lenehan, Jane Howard, Trudi Murray and Sarah Heddle. I know I speak for everyone when I say we are all excited about the coming year and look forward to working alongside 16 Feb Year 6 Class Mass 16 Feb Swimming Lesson Make up 17 Feb Wear Purple Day Jarred 17 Feb Swimming Time Trials 8 yrs 13 yrs 50 metres only 17 Feb P & F welcome BBQ 6-8pm BYO everything 20 Feb NO GENERAL ASSEMBLY 21 Feb General Assembly Presentation of Sport & Leader 2.30pm 24 Feb Sport Training Yrs Feb Assembly Virtue of Encouragement - 7 Gold 27 Feb Parent Cathechesis Reconciliation 28 Feb SFX Swimming Carnival OUTSIDE SCHOOL HOURS CARE We have been very busy settling into the new year with a lot of new families coming to our before and after school care each week. Welcome, we hope you enjoy our facilities of which we are very proud. Also a big welcome back to our regulars and all the siblings coming for the first time this year. Please feel free to come over, meet us and have a look around if you haven t. already. We have a few vacancies on different days still available but we are filling up fast. Just a reminder that the playground out the back needs to be vacated at 3.15pm every day as we are licensed for this area and only covered for the children booked into our service. Hope you have a lovely week. Cheers Robyn Coordinator SFX OSHC COMMUNITY NEWS Broadwater Netball Club Runaway Bay broadwater Netball Club is looking for players for Saturday Competition in the following age groups: Under 9/8 s 4 players required Under 10 s 4 players required Under 11 s 4 players required If you are interested in playing please contact Danielle Reeves

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