Term 1 Week 9 3SM Assembly - Signing to Love in Any Language Faith Focus The Resurrection - A Call for Peace & Joy Holy Week is one of the most important seasons of the Christian faith. Amongst the sadness of Good Friday and imaginings of agony and suffering on the cross there is also the anticipation of great joy - the death and resurrection of Christ that brings us forgiveness for all of our wrongs. His death also teaches us the depth and breadth that there should be in our own forgiveness of one another. His death is a call for peace. Unfortunately there are millions of people around the world and sadly even within their very own families who do not know peace. Some for whatever reason have never found the secret of peace. So how do we share this peace with others? How do we share the knowledge of this God of marvellous love who sent His Son Jesus Christ to this world - the Prince of Peace? In Matthew 5:14-16 we read You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Here lies perhaps the best use of the word light and therefore peace in scripture. We are called to be a light for Christ and share the peace of Christ in a sometimes dark and broken world. Any source of light has no real use if it s not visible. It cannot shine into the darkness if it s not put on display for others to see. Therefore, just as a lamp gives light to everyone in the house (Matthew 5:15), I pray that each of us shines the light of peace and joy this Easter. On behalf of St Mark s I wish you all a blessed Easter. Loredana Saracini Deputy Principal
Important Bits... Thoughts From the Principal Forgiveness This week as we prepare for Easter I have chosen to reflect on our school value of forgiveness. At St Mark s we describe it this way Forgiveness - we forgive others as God forgives us and in doing so, we recognise the wrong, seek reconciliation and begin anew. I think one of the hardest aspects of this value is the reality that to be in a position when you are asked to forgive, you have been wronged. To forgive someone they must have first said something inappropriate, acted towards you in a harmful manner or caused you to experience something negative. To be asked to forgive you have experienced some degree of hurt or loss. That s never a good place to be in and it could be understandable to want to say bad luck to those that hurt us. That would be alright if we never made mistakes ourselves, if we never needed to ask others for forgiveness. If you met someone who said to you I ve never done anything wrong I think you would be surprised. I know I ve needed to ask for forgiveness from others for things I ve said and done. The key to our value is in the opening phrase we forgive others as God forgives us. That s what makes Easter so significant. Jesus died and rose so we can be forgiven and then forgive others. With this belief and approach we shape St Mark s to be a place where we seek reconciliation and begin anew. We don t need to accept bad behaviour as okay but when there is remorse we don t need to let our hurt and disappointment become baggage that weighs us down and robs us of joy. It s hard to forgive at times but doing so frees us from living in past hurts and restores our relationships with those around us. Coming Up April Wednesday 4th Year 6 Challenge Hill Excursion Thursday 5th SAPSASA District Athletics Parent Teacher Interviews Friday 6th Chapel - led by Pastor Ben Casual Day!!! Gold Coin Donation Saturday 7th St Mark s Community Games Fete Monday 9th Parent Teacher Interviews Wednesday 11th Parent Teacher Interviews Assembly - led by 6S Thursday 12th German Day Friday 13th Chapel - Led by 5H Red Cross Next week (Tuesday 3rd April to Friday the 6th) the Red Cross will be using the church facilities as a collection station. It is important that school families do not use the church s front car park during this time as it is reserved for the use of the Red Cross and their patrons. Your cooperation is appreciated. As we celebrate Easter I encourage us all to embrace God s love and forgiveness freely given to us and share that with those around us. Quality Schools Survey Thank you to families who completed the survey. I apologise for the misinformation relating to the closing date of the parent survey. It is open until Sunday 1st April.
School Life Mount Barker Show Congratulations to the following students who were awarded prizes for artwork at the Mount Barker Show on Saturday March 24th. First Place Mitchell Kohlhagen Second Place Matilda N Jensen I Chiara B Tayla A Lewis F Third Place Maddy H Charlotte S Thomas B Camille K Tristan M Kayla W Kayla S Leah H Isaac M William G Merit Holly B Isabelle E Lincoln P Jayla S Nate H Alexander S Hamish B Jaxon D Charlotte M Jasmine H Sierra B Noah B What a talented group of artists! The accolades don t stop there! Well done to members of the Lunch Club who submitted their Quilling craft and received the following awards. First Place Paige C Second Place Marella D Third Place Ruby G Merit Georgia Sanders
Music and Drama News SENIOR CHOIR For our first performance this year, the School Choir has been invited to perform at the St Mark s Fete Saturday, 7th April. The Choir will perform 3 or 4 songs at 12.30pm as part of the entertainment. I encourage you to support your child by bringing them to the music room half an hour before the performance time, at 12noon. Students may wear casual clothes. Senior Choir students, please bring the following props / costumes if you have them at home! Pirate accessories eg. Hat, parrot, waistcoat, boots, sash, etc. Artificial flowers of any kind or colour. Choir folders will be ready to collect and a short warmup will precede the performance. We are looking forward to seeing as many students as possible at this fantastic community event. INSTRUMENTAL LESSONS These are available for a number of instruments including piano, guitar, drums & violin for enrolment at any time for Year 2 students and above, by our qualified and enthusiastic music tutors. Please see Leanne in the front office if you are interested, for an enrolment form. Fees are $30 per half hour lesson for 2018. See you at the fete! Narelle Steffan Music Teacher Casual The 2018 SRC are off to a wonderful start! We are excited to share some ways we are going to raise money to help children and families in Cambodia through the wonderful work of the Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS). On Friday 6th April, we are having a casual day. Students can wear casual clothes of their choice, but please remember to wear closed in shoes,your school hat, and no singlet tops. Please bring a gold coin donation. The SRC are also continuing to offer Zooper Dooper s for sale on Fridays at lunchtime until the end of this term. Just bring $1 to your teacher. All proceeds go to the ALWS. Swimming News Day!! Congratulations to the following students who participated in the State Swimming Championship at the SA Aquatic and Leisure Centre, Marion on Friday the 23rd of March. It was a fantastic effort to have 9 St Mark s students make the team. We wish them all the best with their future swimming endeavours. SAPSASA Netball Experienced netball players are invited to attend the SAPSASA District selection trials at Cornerstone College on Thursday the 5th of April- 4pm- 5.30pm. Students who have shown interest have received a form and need to take this with them to the first training. Sienna L Sebastian S Ruby G Elisha J Jesse F James V Ella N Domenic S Kayla M
Parent and Teacher Meetings Parent and teacher meetings will be held on Thursday 5th (3:30-6:00pm), Monday 9th (3:30-5:30pm) and Wednesday 11th April (3:30 to 5:00pm). Children will be dismissed at 3pm on ALL of these days. Remaining children will be supervised as normal. The meetings provide an opportunity to speak directly with your child s teacher and gain an understanding of their strengths and areas to develop. Meetings are for a 10 minute duration. If a longer meeting time is required this can be arranged for a later date. This is an option available to parents throughout the year. A letter has been provided to each family summarising our online booking process (Parent Teacher Online PTO) and providing you with your login details and password required for the process. The online booking can be accessed via our website www.stmarks.sa.edu.au (News and Events/Parent Teacher Meetings) The Coles Sports for Schools promotion concludes April 3rd. Year 5 Camp If you are shopping at Coles, please collect the stickers and place them in the St Mark s box instore or at the front office. The last day to earn vouchers will be April 3rd 2018. All vouchers need to be returned to St Mark s prior to Wednesday 13th of June. St Mark s and Cornerstone Rebate We are pleased to again offer a tuition fee rebate to families who have children enrolled at both St Mark s and Cornerstone College in 2018. St Mark s provides a $100 per child rebate for students enrolled at St Mark s and Cornerstone will provide a $250 per child rebate for siblings enrolled at Cornerstone. To apply, please request the application form from the office and return to us. The rebate will be applied to Term Two tuition fee accounts. Please note a new application is required each year. And a good time was had by all! We got to do lots of water sports, the food was really good, the best camp by far! Jake D
We still need help from our school community. If you are able to volunteer just one hour of your time, we would really appreciate it. Volunteer jobs include helping with serving at some of our stalls, or at our Extreme Fun Run slide. Perhaps you can help cook a BBQ or help with serving coffee. Maybe you d love to help with our Crazy Hair stall or Face Painting? Or perhaps you re a budding stylist who can help in our Photobooth, or have an hour to spare to set up and pack up. All offers of help are greatly appreciated! Please let our office staff know if you can help or pass on a message to Liz Kamminga or Louise Borgo. Thank you! TIME TO CLEAN UP! The Easter weekend is a wonderful time to clean out those cupboards at home. We have a preloved stall and are accepting donations for sale books, clothes, gift ware or goods in saleable condition will be gladly accepted at our Front Office. Please bring in anything that you think will sell well at our Pre-Loved / New to Me Stall. It s an excellent fundraiser for our school and there are always fabulous bargains to be had! Raffle Prizes: Thank you to all the wonderful people and businesses who have donated prizes for our raffle. If you have any prizes that you d like to bring in for our raffles, please ensure that they are in the front office no later than Wednesday morning next week. We appreciate all your support! On Fete day, please bring in all your small notes and coins. There are many stalls that would appreciate your small change. Large notes are often difficult to give change. Collect all your gold coins and small change now and help us raise money at our fete to support the P & F and our School. This is our school s biggest fundraiser this year. All your help and support, whether it s financial or in kind is greatly appreciated
BAKERS! The cakes at our Sports Day were absolutely delicious! Thank you to all the people in our school community who were able to bring in donations of cakes to go with our coffee stall. We d love donations of cakes once again! If you are able to bake some cakes to go with our coffee stall, then please fill in the attached slip or let Jenny Venus know. Thank you! Sports Donations for Photo Booth! Our Photo Booth this year will be sports themed! And we are looking for donations of sporting goods that could be used as photo booth props. Do you have anything we could borrow for the day? Something that s fun for children and adults to dress into or hold? There will also be prizes awarded for the best and craziest community games sports photos taken in the photo booth. Please bring in any donations to our front office. They will be well taken care of and returned at the end of the day. Thank you. Would you like your own gold medal? Then be one of the first to bring a gold coin and enter our gold medal trail. Apart from seeing and experiencing everything that our fete has to offer, you ll also be able to put your completed entries into a box to win a great prize. You ll also receive a gold medal. Medals are limited, so make sure you put this on your list of things to do early at our Fete! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I can help at the fete! Please contact me: Please Details (name/phone/email) return to front office I can bake cakes for the fete! Contact details and goods I ll bake are:
Dear Families St Mark s Lutheran School ( Community Games Fete ) Saturday 7 th April 2018 WINE FUNDRAISER Last Chance An excellent fundraising opportunity at our Fete is our wine fundraiser. We have been presented with the opportunity to purchase sensational Langhorne Creek wine at a great price. This year, wine is provided by Brothers in Arms Wines. Both red and white wine is available to purchase as part of the St Mark s Lutheran School Fete Fundraiser. Red or White - $10/bottle or $100/dozen Brothers in Arms Wines are offering a 2015 Chardonnay, a 2013 Cabernet and a 2013 Shiraz Why not order for yourself and family and friends and support our school. Wine orders will be available for collection at our fete with payment due on pick up. WINE ORDER FORM Name... Child/Class... Contact Number... Email Address... Number of bottles Chardonnay... Shiraz... Cabernet... Please return this form to the front office or email to contact@stmarks.sa.edu.au
St Marks 2018 Community Games Fete Last Chance Scarecrow Competition Entry Form Name/Family: Class: Contact Number: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please complete this form and return to the front office of St Mark s Lutheran Primary School before Thursday 5th April with your $5 entry fee. Your scarecrow can be made out of any anything and must be part of our Community games. Use your imagination. Bring your scarecrow to our Community Games themed Fete on Saturday 7 th April, 2018 at St Mark s Lutheran Primary School. All entries will need to be in place by 11am on the day to be judged. 1 st, 2 nd & 3 rd place ribbons & prizes for most original scarecrows will be awarded. A People s choice prize will be awarded for the most popular scarecrow. Ask your friends and family to pop a coin into your scarecrows tin.
St Marks Lutheran Church warmly invite you to celebrate Easter with us Maundy Thursday (29th Mar) 7.30pm Good Friday (30th Mar) 8.30am and 10.30am Easter Sunday (1st Apr)Dawn Sevice - 6.30am Held at the cross at the school Easter Sunday Service (1st Apr) 9am Held in the church Get That Diary Out! April Wednesday 4th Year 6 Excursion - Challenge Hill Thursday 5th, Monday 9th and Wednesday 11th Parent Teacher Interviews Friday 6th Casual Day - Gold coin donation Saturday 7th April St Mark s Fete May Wednesday 9th - Friday 11th Year 4 Camp - Victor Harbor Tuesday 15th to Thursday 17th May NAPLAN - Years 3 and 5 Friday 25th House Sports Wedneday 30th - Friday 1st June Year 3 Camp - Aldinga September Wednesday 26th and Thursday 27th September Senior Primary Concerts Traffic Alert Water Main Upgrade Works have commenced along Alexandrina Rd (between Wellington Rd and Albert Rd) from 7am-5pm. Traffic management will be in place during those times. An evening with Mark Le Messurier SRC STUDENTS Reminder SRC Photos will be taken April 9th. Wednesday, 4 April - 7.00pm Atelier Theatre, Cornerstone College, 68 Adelaide Road, Mt Barker In this very special presentation, Mark will address the massive changes that students go through between the ages of 11 to 19 years of age. Please ensure you have summer uniform on this day. Thank you! BOOK AT WWW.TRYBOOKING.COM/UOZR ALL WELCOME FREE EVENT