ST PETER S CATHOLIC PARISH PRIMARY SCHOOL Thursday 18th May 2017 Week 5 To the St Peter s community, Suffering is part of our human story but in John s Gospel this week, he reassures us that Jesus hasn t left us alone. Jesus Spirit lives with us as a supporter, a protector who stands with us through tough times. That was important news for the early Christians who heard stories about Jesus but never knew him. John s passage this week reassured them that Jesus power would still help them work through their problems. This message is true for us today. If you ever feel alone, you ll find Jesus with you when you do what he did: pray, read the Scriptures, worship with others, and reach out to faith-filled people for help. You ll also find him close by and reassuring you when you serve and sacrifice for other people, as he did. The more you do that, the more you ll build self-confidence that will help you get through tough times. We can all take the love of Christ to the people around us. It is sometimes difficult to talk openly about our faith, to proclaim the Good News of Christ to others and be an authentic witness. The power of the Spirit helps us to do this if we are open to it. As Christians, we have received the Holy Spirit in baptism. It is the Spirit that enables us to find the words to use to describe why we are followers of Christ. We need to enable the spirit to work in our lives, to help us live as followers of Christ. We need to know about our faith to share it with others. Talking about it with our friends and family can help us put our thoughts into words. Reading or listening to the scriptures and spending time in prayer are also great ways of preparing for the times we want to explain our belief to others. We pray: Lord Jesus, you promised to be with your people always, and so we know that you are with us in good times and bad. Nothing that ever happens to us can separate us from your love. Help us always to be positive in our attitude that we may seek and find the best in people and in situations, and so draw good out of all that happens to us. Amen. Have a wonderful weekend, Kerry Miller Principal DATES TO REMEMBER Friday 26th May - Senior Assembly Thursday 8th June - School Closure Day Friday 9th June - Middle Assembly Friday 23rd June - Prep Spirit Assembly Thursday 29th June - St Peter s Feast Day Friday 30th June - End of Term 2 @ 3.25pm WORLDWIDE MARRIAGE ENCOUNTER WEEKEND Invest in your most precious asset...your Marriage! Forget life s tensions and interruptions and rekindle the closeness, intimacy, love and romance that brought you together. Recharge your relationship batteries and explore the precious nature of your marriage, allowing you both to share your feelings, hopes and dreams with each other in ways that normal, daily living tends to inhibit. There is no group sharing. Couples and a priest present the weekend. It is based around Catholic values but couples of all faiths are welcome. 2017 Melbourne weekend dates : 28-30 July, 17-19 November, 2017 Starts 7pm on Friday. Ends 5pm Sunday. Accommodation and all meals provided. Information/Bookings: PH: Marianne & Marcel (03) 9733 0997 Email: vicbookings@wwme.org.au Website:www.wwme.org.au
EDUCATION IN FAITH Catholic Social Teachings To continue from last week where we begun to unpack the Preferential Option for the Poor. The preferential option for the poor explores the concept of fair sharing of the world s resources as well as current understandings of justice; through investigating God s dream for a just world; leading to a reflection on ways they can follow Jesus example in caring for the poor. Emily de Kort. Director of Faith and Mission ebaker@stprepp.catholic.edu.au LEARNING & TEACHING Senior School News Sport results from round 4 against St John s. Soccer, St Peter s won 4 to 0. Netball A team won 24 to 9. Netball B won 9 goals to 8 and the AFL football team won 100 to 8. A fabulous effort by all teams. This week we are playing at home against Lalor North. Soccer is played at Meadowglen Reserve each week and the football team at Epping Reserve. A group of 20 senior students, representing St Peter s, will be out next Friday the 26th May with Ms O Neill celebrating Sorry Day at the Whittlesea Shire Offices. These students are reminded to return their permission notes. Senior School assembly is Friday 26 th May. Looking forward to seeing some of you in the audience. Maths Matters We have continued to be working on shapes and the properties of shapes in our Math lessons. The students can consolidate this learning using the following blog link, which has a post with links to shape activities. lmblog.global2.edu.au The students can post a comment about their learning under the blog post. Regards, Middle Team Prep News Last week the Preps celebrated being 50 days smarter. We started the day by sharing our collections of 50 things we had brought along. We then wrote about our 50 collections. We played maths games about 50, decorated biscuits with a 50 on it, and drew ourselves looking like we were 50 years old. It was a fantastic day had by all, celebrated in 50's fashion with 50's music and food to share to end day. our momentous Julie Percy - Deputy Principal & Director of Learning & Teaching juliep@stprepp.catholic.edu.au
SCHOOL COMMUNITY Teacher Feature: Name : Satoko Kuhlmann What is your role at St Peter s School? STEAM/Japanese Teacher How long have you been working at St Peter s? About 7 years What do you love most about working at St Peter s? Working with fun and dedicated teachers as well as awesome students! What are some of your interests or hobbies? Karaoke, zumba and yoga, playing piano and learning Chinese! Family Week in the Middle School On Monday May 15th the Middle School held an Afternoon Tea in honour of Mother s Day. Invitations for the important women in the students lives were sent home last week and there was a terrific response. Students from Middle Joy worked in the kitchen to prepare mini cupcakes and lemonade scones which were then shared with all our visitors. Everyone participated in a Liturgy about Mary and then students enjoyed the opportunity to show their learning to their special guests. Middle School Help Needed We are Making "Birds Scarers" - We need donations of old CDS As part of the "SAKG" program a group of students have designed "Bird Scarers," to keep birds away from our new seedlings growing in the garden.to make the "Bird Scarers," we are looking for donations of old and scratched up CDS that you may have laying around your house. Any donations would be appreciated. Regards, Middle School Teachers
Juniors Family Week To celebrate Family Week the Juniors invited parents to come and play with their children for Discovery sessions. Students were excited to have parents learning alongside them. Happy family Week. Friends of St Peter s Mothers Day Brunch A great morning was had by those who attended brunch last Friday at Groove Train. Congratulations to the winners of the door prizes. Thanks to JADH Hair for their donation of vouchers and samples. Many thanks to Liz Iglesias for organising this terrific event! Come in for a Cuppa! Tuesday 23 rd May, 9am Join us in the Staff Lounge for a morning cuppa and catch up. We d love to for you to come along, meet new friends and brainstorm ideas for future fundraising, social activities, fun food days and other services to the school community. All welcome. Emma Canning - Director of School Community ecanning@stprepp.catholic.edu.au STUDENT WELLBEING Congratulations to all our students who received awards last week at assembly, It was great hearing all your achievements. FIDGET SPINNERS/TOYS What are they? Fidget spinners are small ball-bearing devices that are rotated between fingers. The momentum of the toy provides a sensory experience. The original purpose of the fidget spinners was to act as a tool to assist and support children with attention challenges and helping focussing the brain, however with the craze taking off these toys have started to become more of a distraction than a support About a month ago we purchased some fidget tools and they were to be used at the teacher s discretion for children who were finding concentration a challenge at different times of the day. We have also purchased some fidget spinners to have in the school as well as the fidget dice and therefore there is no need for children to bring their own to school as the teachers will give out the tools at appropriate times and for the right reasons and purpose. We appreciate your support with this. Jackie Fleischmann - Director of Student Wellbeing jfleischmann@stprepp.catholic.edu.au