ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL

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1 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL Strength in Gentleness A J U S T F U T U R E... F O R A L L Week 9 Term Dear St Patrick s Community The internet is no longer a new toy and social media is not a gimmick that is going to disappear. They are permanently embedded into our lives for good or otherwise. I almost can t remember a pre-screen life! I feel a little like my grandmother, who hooned around in her car, telling me that she had almost forgotten how to ride a horse. Given the insidious nature of some aspects of the world wide web, it is even more critical that we are clear about the rules and expectations. On-line grooming and cyber-bullying were not phrases that I grew up with, but they are the reality of many young adults today. It is our job to build the safety net. One of the tools to help with this is a website called ThinkUKnow and I strongly urge you to have a look, especially at the Parents Portal ( There is valuable information about legalities, reputation management, cyber safety, ways to report cyberbullying, age appropriate content and maintaining parental control. Whether your child is in Kindergarten or Year 10, it pays to be well informed. Last week, I attended the 20th Anniversary Mass for St Mary MacKillop College. What a joy that was! There were 2000 people there, all present to celebrate this achievement. We congratulate our sister school and Michael Lee s leadership for the last eleven years. As we walk the last part of the Lenten journey and prepare for the Resurrection, I wish all of our community the blessings of Easter. Yours in peace Frances Robertson Principal Coming Events Secondary Parent/Tchr/ Conferences Wednesday 28 March at 4pm K-10 Easter Liturgy Thursday 29 March at 10am Lake Light exhibition at Jindabyne Friday 30 March Sunday 1 April 7-10 Athletics Carnival Tuesday 3 April K-6 Basketball Clinics Tuesday 3 April K-6 Athletics Carnival Thursday 5 April 1 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

2 From the AP s Desk Why do we have Easter Eggs at Easter? Every year, I have students ask me why do we have Easter Eggs? Well The history of why we have Easter Eggs for Easter is interesting. The main belief is based on the religious symbolism being the resurrection of Jesus. One tradition regarding Easter Eggs could be traced back to Mary Magdalene. It is said that she was holding a plain egg (as a symbol of life) in the presence of an emperor and was proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The emperor said that Jesus rising from the dead was as likely as that egg turning red and the egg turned bright red while he was still speaking. Some historians believe that this may also be linked to the blood of Christ (mentioned by Jesus at the Last Supper). Some historians also believe that eventually, over time, children began to add colour to eggs with paint. Another possible explanation for this custom is that eggs were formerly a forbidden food during the Lenten season. Some people would paint and decorate them to mark the end of the period of penance and fasting, then eat them on Easter as a celebration. This is a slight variation for Lent, when many Christians began preparing for the holiday by praying, meditating, and making personal sacrifices. They prepared themselves by forgoing ordinary luxury dietary items, such as meat, eggs and milk. For many years, Easter was known in Western Europe as Egg Sunday (for eating eggs on that day was one of its joys). Those eggs were often presented in baskets lined with coloured straw to resemble a bird s nest (another reason why Easter Eggs are so colourful). We remember that we anticipated the Lenten period with Shrove Tuesday when we used all of our eggs to make pancakes. Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, mark the opposite end of Lent. Some Christians even symbolically link the cracking open of Easter eggs with the empty tomb of Jesus. Today, our children wake up on Easter morning, looking forward to getting an Easter egg. I still remember those days my favourite was the Easter Egg Dragon, where you pulled the tail and the dragons mouth would open. Inside the dragon were several Easter eggs. Another was the Easter egg train. This was a cardboard train with Easter Eggs as the passengers. It was such an exciting time! All in all I believe that (as parents), we need to remind our children why we have Easter eggs. It is about resurrection-new life-and that Jesus loves us! Encourage your child to remember that every time they eat an Easter Egg, Jesus loves THEM! Steve Joyce Assistant Principal 2 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

3 Numeracy on the go! Take-Home Maths Bags have commenced in K-2. The bags include games, activities and a reflection sheet where students can record any discoveries they have made or write a sentence about an activity they have enjoyed. This is a great chance for families to have some fun together, as well as supporting numeracy development. If you have any suggestions for simple games, please feel free to contact Kellie Summerville. The Cooma Tigers Junior Soccer Saturday morning competition WILL go ahead for There is a new group that will share the role of competition coordinator. However, this does mean that I ask people to have patience as they get their head around the different tasks that are required. As a general plan the competition will start second week back in Term 2 Saturday 12 May. Information will come out regarding registrations ASAP. There is also a Facebook page (Cooma Tigers Junior Soccer) which everyone can join to find out more about the competition. Easter Hat Parade As Easter quickly approaches the students at St Patrick s will be involved in a variety of Easter celebrations. Included in our celebrations is the annual K-6 Easter Hat Parade, which will be held on Wednesday 28 March at on the Primary Campus. The Easter Hat parade is a chance for all students to wear a wacky, crazy or fancy Easter themed bonnet. All students are encouraged to participate and parents, grandparents or other special family friends are welcome to attend. We look forward to watching what creative ideas our students (and parents) come up with in ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

4 Cross Country Kindergarten to Year ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

5 School Cross Country Carnival Last week we held our annual Cross Country Carnival at Lions Park, Cooma. The weather played nice this year and it was great to see so many students out running and walking in their events. A very big thank you goes to all parents, carers, grandparents and friends who came out to watch the students compete, and to parents Joumana Nassar and Ann-Marie Madden for their help recording laps. Congratulations to the following students who were crowned aged champions. The Primary House Champions were 1 st Caelum, 2 nd Terra, 3 rd Ignis and 4 th Aqua. The Secondary House Champions were 1 st Caelum, 2 nd Aqua, 3 rd Terra and 4 th Ignis. The first 6 competitors in each age group (combined 8/9) have qualified for the next carnival. For primary that will be early in Term 2 at Wolumla and for Secondary that will be on Tuesday 22 May in Canberra. Mr Lawley Organising Teacher Primary 8yrs Grace Dawson William Bryan 9yrs Ava Lawley Jack Sparsis 10yrs Tia Quodling Marcus Thomson 11yrs Alana Henderson Tom Whyman 12yrs Suki Blyth Gus Brabham Secondary 12yrs Charlize Gammon Mitchell Reid 13yrs Safia Nassar Eric Henderson 14yrs Charlee Bromfield Lachlan Hemphill 15yrs Anna Brayshaw Dan French 16yrs Rylie Marks Sports Tops We have a range of sizes in sports tops that were originally purchased to be representative tops. The Secondary students (both boys and girls) would like these to be their tops every week and have asked if they could purchase them. With the permission of the Community Council, we have decided to make these an optional sports shirt for any Secondary student. They are only to be worn on Sports uniform days. They can be purchased from Mrs Robertson for $15. Most of them are brand new. 5 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

6 Congratulations to Ethan Stacey Over the weekend, Ethan swam in the Brophy Memorial Inter-District Sprint Meet at the AIS for SESA (South Eastern Swimming Association) against six other teams from around NSW and the ACT. He swam 50m sprints in Breast, Back, Fly and Free and 4x50 Free Relay 4x50 IM Relay where he swam the backstroke leg. He posted PBs in Breast, Back and Free and the team finished in 2nd place behind the ACT team. Ethan was the only Cooma Swimming Club swimmer in this competition. Pope Francis Speaks to World Youth on Palm Sunday Pope Francis, starting Holy Week services leading to Easter, has urged young people to keep shouting and not allow the older generations to silence their voices or anesthetise their idealism. Francis spoke a day after hundreds of thousands of young Americans and their supporters answered a call to action from survivors of last month's Florida high school massacre and rallied across the United States to demand tighter gun laws. He did not mention the demonstrations. The 81-year-old Roman Catholic leader led a long and solemn Palm Sunday service before tens of thousands in St Peter's Square, many of them young people there for the Catholic Church's World Day of Youth. Carrying a woven palm branch known as a "palmurello," Francis led a procession in front of the largest church in Christendom to commemorate the day the Bible says Jesus rode into Jerusalem and was hailed as a saviour, only to be crucified five days later. Drawing on biblical parallels, Francis urged the young people in the crowd not to let themselves be manipulated. "The temptation to silence young people has always existed," Francis said in the homily as a Mass. "There are many ways to silence young people and make them invisible, many ways to anesthetize them, to make them keep quiet, ask nothing, question nothing. There are many ways to sedate them, to keep them from getting involved, to make their dreams flat and dreary, petty and plaintive," he said. "Dear young people, you have it in you to shout," he told young people, urging them to be like the people who welcomed Jesus with palms rather than those who shouted for his crucifixion only days later. "It is up to you not to keep quiet. Even if others keep quiet, if we older people and leaders, some corrupt, keep quiet, if the whole world keeps quiet and loses its joy, I ask you: Will you cry out?" The young people in the crowd shouted, "Yes!" 6 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

7 Kindergarten News Kindergarten has been very busy so far this year. Here is a sample of what we have been up to. In Mathematics we have been sorting, patterning and describing our directions when we went on an adventure around the school. Father Mick showed us the statues and the stained glass windows in the church. Also on our walk we caught up with Mrs Mackay s Year Eight Religion class busy at work. After that, we peeked into Mr Joyce s office to do some work for him. Don t tell him though! We painted portraits of ourselves and also created some interesting portraits using Photo Booth on our ipads. We had a great St Patrick s Day celebrating with our Year Six buddies and going to the church for our very first school liturgy! 7 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

8 Snowy Mountains Interschools Equestrian Competition (SMIEC) For families entered to compete at Snowy Mountains Interschools Equestrian Competition (SMIEC) at the Station Resort, Jindabyne in late April, can you get in contact with me please (with your child/children's names and your name and mobile contact), so I can compile a list of competitors. If you are in need of uniforms, saddle clothes, brow banks etc. please let me know asap. Please note (for the ODE) you will not be permitted to jump Cross Country without a protective jumping vest and a back number. Full Interschools' uniform is to be worn at all times whilst competing (unless it's sporting day and we will supply Polo shirts). Fancy Dress TBA ASAP. Please feel free to contact me with any questions and I'll do my best to help. Jen Stockl. jen@stockl.com.au A Connection to Japan Thank you Mrs Suzanne Stacey for representing St Patrick's at the Snowy Monaro Regional Council's hosting of a courtesy visit from the Japanese Consul-General, Mr Keizo Takewaka. Mrs Stacey teaches Japanese in Secondary school. She spent some time discussing with Mr Takewaka her experiences whilst living in Japan as a younger teacher. 8 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

9 Caritas Experience Thank you to the Year 10 Leaders for their inspiration and support for our Lenten program in the Secondary school. They helped us to understand the work of Caritas and undertook some serious fund-raising to help build a Just Future for All (our school s theme for 2018), especially for the poorest of the poor. 9 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

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12 Consider this Contact Mel 12 ST PATRICK S PARISH SCHOOL A SCHOOL WITH ALTITUDE

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