Newsletter Number 13 11 th May 2017 Jesus, our shepherd, when we are lost, show us the way to you. When we are anxious and afraid, bring us comfort, and when we wander from you, call us back. Amen. St Benedict s Catholic Primary School Burwood 3 9 Central Avenue, Burwood 9808 8551 www.sbburwood.catholic.edu.au St Benedict's Primary School Burwood stbenedictsburwood Mother s Day I am looking forward to celebrating Mass and morning tea with all of the wonderful mums and women in our community tomorrow morning. Events such as these do not occur without the support and organisation by a number of parents and families. Thank you to our Year Three/Four parents for organising for all of their preparation, organisation and support of this event. A special thank you also to Vanessa and Vaughn T for donating food, flowers and their time for this event. Friday is also a wonderful opportunity for our children to purchase that something special for their mum or special female in their life at our Mother s Day stall. Thank you to Cara A and Maria F for organising the gifts for our stall. NAPLAN This week our Year Three and Five students completed NAPLAN assessments in the areas of Language Conventions, Writing, Reading and Numeracy. These standardised assessments are completed by all children in these year levels across the country. These results compare St Benedict s to the national standard, the state standard and like schools. We will receive the results of these assessments in September/October and look forward to publishing them in our newsletter when we receive them. School Improvement Update Throughout Term One and Term Two a number of improvements have been undertaken throughout different areas of our school. As a result of our assessments in English and Maths with each of our students, we have created data walls in our Maths room where each student s learning can be tracked. Teachers will continue to refer to these data sets during planning sessions and staff meetings to ensure optimal growth for all of our students. Our Semester One reports will also look different this year. Checklists for Personal and Social Learning and Mathematics will be introduced. These checklists will provide greater insight to all parents and carers into the exact areas of these learning areas where your child s strengths and challenges are. Our reports will be sent home in the last week of Term Two and we will be holding Parent/Teacher meetings in Term Three. More information about booking a meeting time will be shared towards the end of this term. Running Club Congratulations to our Sport Captains for organising a successful Running Club on Tuesday morning. It was wonderful to see children of all ages joining in and dropping a counter into the basket to match their Sport House. The counters will be counted and a running total of the number of counters
collected will be published in next week s newsletter. Our Running Club will be held each Tuesday and Friday from 8:30am. Uniform Pants Cross Country Last week, we congratulated all of our Year Three to Six students who have been selected to represent St Benedict s at the District Cross Country. An error was made for the Year Four boys and Patrick Hedley s name was incorrectly written. We congratulate Patrick on his selection and we look forward to sharing the achievements of our team in future newsletters. We are introducing long pants into our school uniform for Winter. These blue pants would be worn with our yellow shirt or polo shirt and jumper or bomber jacket. Before an order is placed for these pants from our supplier, we would like to ask for expressions of interest. If you would be interested in ordering a pair of these pants for your daughter for $36, please send an email to uniform@sbburwood.catholic.edu.au. The pants will be available in sizes 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16. We will only place an order if a minimum number of expressions of interest are received. Walk Safely to School Friday 19th May is Walk Safely to School Day. Walking is a wonderful way to get you where you want to be and it also gets your health on the right track. All children and families are encouraged to walk or ride to school on this day and our Sport Leaders will keep a tally of the number of children who walk to school the day before and on this day. Each class will also complete a range of activities to support this event. Year 7 Application Forms A reminder to parents/guardians of Year Six children that all Secondary School Applications for 2018 must be returned to the office by tomorrow, Friday 12 th May. New Phone System The installation of our new phone system has been delayed until Thursday, 25 th May. There may be a 30 minute period where there will be no phones operating while the installation process is completed. Newsletter Notices We ask that all notices to be included in our newsletter be received by the office no later than 10am Wednesday morning. Any notices received after this will be included in our newsletter the following week. Happy Mother s Day to all of our mums, grandmas, aunts and special women in our lives, we hope you all have a wonderful day. Meredith Bennett Principal
Education in Faith Fifth Sunday of Easter Year A Gospel: John 14: 1-12 Gospel Reflection The gospel readings for this week and next week shift the focus away from the resurrection and begin to set us up for the departure of Jesus from the earth the Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit the Pentecost event. Today s gospel passage comes from the very long Last Supper discourse in the gospel of John. When Jesus speaks about going away for a time it could be interpreted as the period of his death and rising that are about to occur in the chronology of the story. However, the gospel of John is written a very long time after the death of Jesus; perhaps as much as 70 years after Jesus. Given this period of time between the events and the writing, we know that the writer was also referring to this longer time of Jesus going away. By the time of the writing of this gospel the early Christians were starting to come to terms with the fact that Jesus probably wasn t going to return in their lifetime. They had seen the devastating destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans in 70CE which they thought had signalled the end of all time. However, here they were, still alive and still no sign of Jesus return. The theme of being present and being absent is very strong in this gospel. The discussion about Jesus and the Father being one is part of this theme. Jesus is God present in the world. God has come to dwell among the people. When Jesus speaks of preparing rooms in the Father s house, it is a reference to preparing the disciples to live in God; to dwell in God just as God has dwelt in the people. Historical Context It is for the best At the time of this gospel s writing, some 70 years after the events it describes, amazing things have taken place in the early Christian community. Rather than everything falling apart with the death of Jesus, the message of Jesus has spread further than he himself could ever have accomplished. It is the departure of Jesus from their midst and the sending of the Spirit that really prompts the disciples to act on what they had experienced while Jesus lived among them. The gospel writer has Jesus saying that he has to go away so that the disciples can reach their potential. Scriptural context The gospel of John The gospel of John is very different from the other three synoptic gospels. The other three have a very narrative style and can be seen together as different recounts of the same events. Whilst the gospel of John also has some beautifully narrated stories, it is better known as a more theologically reflective piece of writing. It assumes that the readers of this gospel are already familiar with one or more of the others, so it doesn t need to tell the story again. Rather, it presents a sweeping image of God, through Jesus, reaching out, in, through, and with love to the people. Living the Gospel The Way, the Truth and the Life When Thomas asks, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answers by saying, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. The reader of the gospel has known this truth all along from the opening line of the gospel, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Our aim, as Christian people, is to be one with God, not only by sharing in the resurrection but also in the way we live. Jesus makes clear that the way to be with God is by following his example. Greg Sunter Weekday Mass and Adoration Week Day & Date Mass Adoration School Events 4 Fri 12/05 Whole School Mother s Day Mass NAPLAN WEEK 5 Wed 17/05 5/6T 6 Wed 24/05 1/2O Friday 26/05 5/6 classes Ms Mary Brooks Religious Education Leader
Learning and Teaching Junior News It has been a very busy fortnight in the junior classrooms. We have been learning about time in Maths, including the days of the week, the seasons and the calendar. In Religion we have been exploring the notion of forgiveness and healing and in Literacy we have been learning to write an information report. We are looking forward to celebrating Mother s Day on Friday. We welcome everyone to our Mass at 9:00 followed by morning tea and remind you that our Mother s Day stall will also be held throughout the day on Friday. If you would like your child will to purchase a gift, please ensure they bring some money and a plastic bag for their gifts. We welcome Mr Dimos Sevastiadis to Ms Brooks Year One/Two B class. Mr Sevastiadis is completing his final teaching placement and will be in One/Two B until the end of May. We are well into Term Two now so please ensure that your child is wearing full school winter uniform on the days when they do not have a Physical Education lesson. Finally, we have been enjoying listening to the children present their news about fractions this week. There have been quite a few students who haven t have News, so please have a conversation with your child prior to his/her news day so he/she is organised. Have a great week and Mums we hope you have a wonderful relaxing day! Ro, Jess and Mary SWPBS Behaviour Expectations We would like to thank all our children and families for their enthusiasm and discussion around our five new School Wide Behaviour Expectations: respect, responsibility, resilience, safety and support. There have already been some fantastic conversations happening both in and out of classrooms using this language. Through the competition run in classes and at home, there have been posters developed to think of a catchy way for us to remember these behaviour expectations. We invite all parents and families to come and have a look at the great entries that we received which are all on display in the corridor leading to the Junior Classrooms, just past the stairs to Year Five/Six. We have five finalists, which are also on display, and would like all parents and families to come and vote for which poster they believe promotes an easy to remember slogan for our school community. Each finalist poster is mounted on a colour and there is a matching coloured box to place your vote into with the provided counters. These counters are only available before/after school for parents. Children will be voting during school time with their teachers. Congratulations to our five finalists Orange - Amina C, Madeline I, Sam D and Chiraag N Green - Patrick H Red - Zoe S Yellow - Sofia S Blue - Lucy H Thank you for your input and continued support of SWPBS. We look forward to tallying the results and implementing the program! Jess Fielding, Tanya Petersen, Grace Fuge, Lorraine Walker and Meredith Bennett SWPBS Team
Diary Dates TERM TWO May 12 th Mother s Day Mass/morn tea 9:00am May 12th Secondary school applications due back May 18th Opening Morning 9:00am 11:00am May 18 th School Nurse visit May 19 th Walk to School Day May 23 rd District Cross Country Year Three to Six May 25 th Soccer Clinic Year Three to Six May 26 th St. Benedict Poker Night 7:00pm in hall May 27th Instalment Four of Fees due June 1 st Soccer Clinic Year Three to Six June 2nd Year Five & Six Excursion to 8:45 3:15pm Immigration Museum June 7th School Wide Positive 9:00am 3:30pm, Catholic Leadership Centre Behaviour Support Professional Learning June 8 th Soccer Clinic Year Three to Six June 9 th Curriculum Day Students to not attend school June 12th Queen s Birthday Holiday June 13 th Footy Clinic Whole school June 14th Confirmation Faith Night 7:00pm 8:30pm, School Hall June 15 th Soccer Clinic Year Three to Six June 16th Confirmation Reflection Day 8:45am 3:15pm June 20 th Footy Clinic Whole school June 23rd Feast of the Sacred Heart Mass 9:00am June 25th Confirmation 2:00pm, Parish Church June 27 th Footy Clinic Whole school June 30 th Term Two Concludes 3:15pm TERM THREE July 11 th St Benedict s Day July 17 th Term Three Commences 8:45am July 18 th Hooptime Years Three/Four July 21 st St. Benedict s Day Celebration 9:00am & Mass July 27 th Italian Day August 2 nd First Eucharist Faith Night 7:00pm August 8 th St. Benedict s Athletics Years Three to Six Training August 11 th First Eucharist Reflection Day August 13 th First Eucharist 10:00am August 15 th Feast of the Assumption 9:00am Whole school Mass August 18 th Grandparents Day 9:00 to 11:00 am August 21 st Book Week August 28th Curriculum Day Students do not attend school September 1 st Father s Day Breakfast & Mass September 11 th Italian Poetry Competition September 14 th Art Expo 2:30pm September 15 th Art Expo Open Day 9:00am 3:00pm September 22 nd Term Three Concludes 3:15pm TERM FOUR October 9 th Term 4 Commences 8:45am October 13 th District Athletics October 24th Andrew Chin Concert October 31 st Prep 2018 Storytime 2:15 to 3:15pm November 6 th Report Writing Students do not attend school November 7 th Melbourne Cup Day Students do not attend school November 9 th Prep 2018 Parent Info Dinner 7:30pm to 9:30pm November 11 th Remembrance Day November 14 th St. Benedict s Sports Day November 16 th Prep 2018 Orientation November 23 rd Prep 2018 Orientation November 24 th Staff Planning Day Students do not attend school
FRIDAY MORNING ASSEMBLY Week Four May 12 Mother s Day Mass Week Five May 19 Year 5/6T Week Six May 26 Year 1/2O Week Seven June 2 Year 3/4GL Week Eight June 9 Year 1/2B Week Nine June 16 Year 3/4C Week Ten June 23 Feast Sacred Heart Mass Week Eleven June 30 CHICKEN DUTY 13 th & 14 th May Peters family 20 th & 21 st May Mallios family New volunteers are always welcome for weekends and school holidays. Please contact Lorraine Walker if you would like to be a volunteer. TUCKSHOP CLOSED TOMORROW FRIDAY 12 th MAY MOTHER S DAY MASS & MORNING TEA Shift One Shift Two Tuckshop bags are available from the school office, $4 per pack. Please send correct money in an envelope marked with your eldest child s name and class.
School Community Mothers, Grandparents & special women are invited to come along to the Mother s Day Morning Tea in the hall following Mass tomorrow Friday 12th May. MOTHER S DAY GIFT STALL TOMORROW FRIDAY, 12 TH MAY Gifts range from $1 to $10
MOTHER S DAY 2017 Mother s Day is almost upon us and I would like to let everyone know that this is the last year Cara and I will be organising the Mother s Day and Father s Day stalls. It is sad as we have enjoyed every minute, especially spending the day with all the children and picking the gifts is always lots of fun, but we think it s time for someone else to take over. With new gifts and fresh ideas, I think it will be in safe hands. It is really easy. All you have to go is go through the catalogues and find what you like and order them. We have accounts with several companies such as: Smart Gift Ideas (our favourite) Pocket Money Treasures (formally MAPS Fundraising) Crown Concepts Bear & Moon School Gifts You can order online or over the phone but you must order early as items tend to sell quickly. For Mother s Day try and order in early February and Father s Day as soon as you receive the catalogue. Hope I didn t scare anyone If anyone would be interested in taking over from Cara and myself, please let us know and come along and help us during the upcoming Mother s Day stall on Friday May 12 th. We will send out more information regarding the stall closer to the date. For more information, (as there are a few more processes that I didn t mention) please contact Maria on 0430 297 861 Or Cara on 0404 050 829 Thank you for the wonderful time we ve had Maria & Cara
Extend After School Care at St Benedict s School Recap Hi everyone, We have had a great week at Extend aftercare! We spent most of our time outdoors playing fun games such as line tiggy, the balloon game, everyone s it, octopus, and many more. We expressed our creativity through exploring watercolour paints, developing our painting skills and beautiful art works that are put on display. We made delicious honey joys, they were so yum and fun to make as a team! We also put together gymnastics and dance performances in front of our peers. Thanks Alyssa, Team Leader What s on next week? Monday 15 May: Science: rainbow crayons Tuesday 16 May: Science: snow globes Wednesday 17 May: Cooking: rocky road Thursday 18 May: Craft: peg crocodiles Friday 19 May: Science: floating M&Ms PARENT PORTAL: extend.com.au Reminder: Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) applications still open The Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF) initiative helps ensure all Victorian students can take part in school trips and sporting activities. CSEF payments to schools commenced at the beginning of March 2017, with further payment runs to occur during term two. Schools are able to accept and process CSEF application forms up until the end of Term 2 on Friday 30 June. If you have not submitted your application form yet there is still time. For more information about the CSEF including forms, payments and eligibility, see: Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund (CSEF)
Student Awards Congratulations to the following students Prep/One F Lebron R Bryson T. Year One/Two B Michael S. Chiara S. Year One/Two O Nathan P. Charlie S. Year Three/Four GL Louis Q. Chloe C. Year Three/Four C Zoe S. Isabel M. Year Five/Six SP Noah M. Stavros G. Year Five/Six T Alana S. Holly H. Captain s Award Mietta T.