St Paul's Catholic Parish Primary School Moss Vale eNewsletter

“Did not our hearts burn within us while He talked to us on the road”

Luke 24: 32

(from the Gospel for Easter Sunday of the Resurrection, Year A)

Dear parents and carers

Today is Holy Thursday. It is the beginning of what the church calls the Paschal Triduum encompassing Holy Thursday, Good Friday and culminating in Easter Sunday. This is the most important part of our liturgical year.

In celebrating Easter, we acknowledge the fullness of God’s love for us as shown to us in the person of Jesus. In the resurrection we have God’s promise of eternal life and eternal hope realised. The Paschal mystery of birth, death and rebirth is the fundamental pattern of all human life. This will be like no other Easter in living memory. In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the message of life everlasting and continuing in love, hope and fidelity is more crucial than ever. We will need to continue to stand in solidarity with each other albeit remotely. As people of faith we must remember, there is always hope. We can always begin again. And we will. Happy Easter everyone and God bless.

Liturgical support and Access to Holy Week Liturgies available online

Fr Richard is saying Mass daily and streaming the Mass online. You can join Fr Richard using the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL9F08CA4ayKjhG-3ke-2rQ

Fr Richard will also be streaming the Holy Week Masses via this YouTube channel. This is a great way to stay connected to our Parish Priest, our faith tradition and practices. Please consider subscribing to Fr Richard’s St Paul’s Parish YouTube channel.

Bishop Brian is also offering Mass on line each Sunday at 9am. Holy Week liturgies will also be celebrated and offered online. Visit the Diocese of Wollongong response to COVID-19 website available at the following link for more information: https://www.dow.org.au/covid-19/.

Bishop Brian’s Holy Week timetable is as follows:

7pm AEST | Holy Thursday (9 April)—Mass of the Lord’s Supper

10am AEST | Good Friday (10 April)—Stations of the Cross

3pm AEST | Good Friday (10 April)—Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion

7pm AEST | Holy Saturday (11 April)—Mass of the Easter Vigil

Consider using the Pray as you Go app that Miss du Bois recommended to you. This is a beautiful, reflective and calming prayer resource based on the daily Gospel. If you are feeling stressed or worried (and let’s face it, who isn’t at the moment!!) take some time to access this resource.

Term 2 arrangements

We will be continuing to deliver remote learning commencing on Monday 27 April. We are planning to move our Kinder to Year 2 children into Google Classroom to better manage the digital resources they are already beginning to access. Paper based learning will also continue to be offered. We will of course provide explicit direction for families on setting up for more digital learning with our youngest classes.

For the first week of term, the children will continue to use the materials we have already sent home. The teachers will use the work they had planned for the children for this week (Week 11) at the beginning of term. New learning packs will be sent home during the first week of term. We will ask you to come to the school to pick them up. The day and time will be sent to you via COMPASS.

We have offered to lend school iPads to families of Kinder to Year 2 children who don’t have an iPad available to use at home. We will notify you of a pick up day for those families who nominated that they would like to access the loan iPads. We anticipate that this will be early in Week 1. We will confirm a definite date and time via COMPASS before the end of the holidays.

Wellbeing and self care

The free apps we have selected are Smiling Minds, Dreamy Kids Meditation and Stop, Think, Breath. We strongly encourage you to download these free apps if your child does not have a school managed device.

You will notice that the teachers have incorporated mindfulness time into your child’s daily schedule. Consider using them yourself - they are kind of wonderful for everyone!

Along with exercise, a healthy diet and good sleep, looking after your spiritual and emotional health is important. Children can’t learn if they are stressed or worried or sleep deprived. We hope these tools and suggestions will help. I refer you to Mrs Browne’s items below for some further advice and guidance.

Staying informed about COVID-19

Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong have developed a website for parents and community regarding current advice for the management of COVID-19. This website will be updated regularly with the latest advice from the government and our system of school. This website is our “source of truth”.

All information and updates regarding our school and system’s response to COVID-19 will be published on this website. A link to this resource has been placed on our school website home page as well as on the CEDoW website. You can access the site from this link.

https://www.dow.catholic.edu.au/about-us/general-news/covid-19-information-centre

Building Project - school office moved to the Hall

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote learning response, the long anticipated and planned building project has commenced! From Term 2, the school office will be in the Parish Hall. Access to the school from Garratt Street for everyone will be via the church steps and the side gate near the Infants Eating Area. The builders will have safety fencing up and the building site will be isolated from the rest of the school. Children’s safety is always our highest priority. We hope that by the time the children return to school full time that the project will be close to completion. That of course depends on how long the government requires us to continue to provide remote learning.

Cancelled or postponed school and related parish events

Gym lessons scheduled for Fri 27 March/ Fri 3 April (cancelled)

School Photos (rescheduled Tues 4 August)

Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation planned for Thursday 26 March (cancelled)

Whole school assembly planned for Thursday 26 March (cancelled)

First Reconciliation liturgy and sacrament planned for Friday 3 April (cancelled)

P&F fund raising event at Brigadoon planned for Saturday 4 April (cancelled)

Holy Week whole school liturgy planned for Tuesday 7 April (cancelled)

ANZAC Day march planned for Saturday 25 April (cancelled)

Diocesan cross country planned for Tuesday 5 May (cancelled)

NAPLAN scheduled to commence 12 May (cancelled)

Science and Engineering day (Year 5 and Year 6) planned for Tuesday 26 May (cancelled)

St Paul’s athletics carnival planned for Friday 5 June (postponed to Term 3)

NAIDOC Day celebration planned for Friday 26 June (postponed to Term 3)