“I am the living bread which came down from heaven;

if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.”

John 6: 51- 58

(from the Gospel for the solemnity of Corpus Christi, Year A)

Dear parents and carers

Kindergarten 2021 enrolment now available

We are currently accepting applications for Kinder 2021. Enrolment packages are available from the school office. Alternatively, an electronic copy can be downloaded from the school website. We will be conducting interviews (with appropriate social distancing measures) in the next couple of weeks. We will be making offers of enrolment by the end of Term 2. If you have a child due to come to school or know someone who is considering a Catholic education, please make contact with us so we can begin the enrolment process.

Interim Semester 1 Report issued by COMPASS on Friday 26 June by 4pm

At the end of Semester 1, we normally issue a progress report. Given the unusual and disrupted year we have had, the decision has been taken by our diocesan office that all catholic schools will issue an “Interim Semester 1 Report”. Please be advised that this is not a progress report. The Interim Semester 1 Report will look quite different to our normal Semester Progress Report. In this Interim Semester 1 Report, your child will be graded on engagement and effort in just Religious Education, English and Mathematics. The report will be issued to families on Friday 26 June via COMPASS.

We will be offering fifteen minute parent and teacher interviews during the last week of term (Mon 29 June to Thurs 2 July). You will receive further information regarding interviews including booking times in Week 8. 

Student Absences and COMPASS notifications 

We have activated an SMS notification if your child is marked absent from school. You have the option to directly reply to this message to provide an explanation for your child’s absence. Please keep your message of explanation short and precise. “Sick” or “attending an appointment” is satisfactory as opposed to “away” or “not at school”. Alternatively, you can telephone, email or write a note of explanation as you have previously done. Please note, absences from school are required to be explained in every instance.

Please keep children presenting with respiratory illness symptoms at home

If your child is showing even mild symptoms of respiratory illness, please keep them home. If your child is presenting with respiratory illness symptoms at school, we will ring you to pick up your child from school. We are applying the same standard to all school staff.

COVID-19 medical clearances

We have had some questions regarding COVID-19 testing and clearances. 

1. If your child has had a COVID-19 test, please let us know, provide the result to us as well as a COVID-19 clearance.
2. If we send your child home from school because we suspect COVID-19 (temperature, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath), we will ask you to take your child to the doctor to be tested. In this case, we will require a clearance before your child returns to school. 
3. If we send your child home from school due to illness (for example, headache, runny nose, sneezing, fatigue or aches and pains), we ask that you get a medical clearance from your medical practitioner. This does not need to be a COVID-19 clearance. A standard doctor’s certificate (or equivalent) is satisfactory.
4. If your child is unwell with non-COVID-19 symptoms, has not had a COVID-19 test and you have kept your child at home, you do not need to have a medical clearance to return to school. We ask that you keep your child at home until the symptoms resolve.

CEDoW COVID-19 website remains our “source of truth”

The website aims to provide clear and accurate messaging for our school communities. A link to the COVID-19 Information Centre has been placed on our school website home page. It is also available 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

Morning Supervision begins at 8:20am

School supervision begins at 8:20am each morning. Children are not able to be supervised prior to this time. If there are circumstances that make this impossible, you must make contact with the school and make an appointment with Mr O’Brien. We will discuss the possibility of making reasonable, short term solutions to help families on a case by case basis. It is not safe for students to be left at school before 8:20am.

If you require your child to be cared for before this time you can access care at Moss Vale OOSH. Children who attend OOSH are accompanied onto the bus from OOSH at Moss Vale Public School and arrive at St Paul’s during morning supervision. Please do not drop children at school before 8:20am.

Traffic safety in the morning

It is important that the road rules be followed for the safety of all our children. People have been observed parking in the bus zones, dropping children on the far side of Garrett Street and having the children cross the road unescorted and doing U-turns across Garrett Street.  

Aside from being illegal, it is dangerous.

Please continue to adhere to our school routines in relation to the morning drop off of children. If you need to park, please do so in the vacant block opposite school and escort your child across Garrett Street. Alternatively, park further down on Garrett Street (past the presbytery) and walk up to school. 

In all cases access to the school is through the church gates, not the driveway. 

Changes to afternoon travel arrangements must be made through the office by 2:30pm

If your child’s travel arrangements for afternoon dismissal change during the day, please ring the school office to let us know. We ask that you do this before 2:30pm to give us enough time to pass the message onto your child’s teacher.

DO NOT send a message to your child’s device advising your child of any such changes. We do have a duty of care to all the children in our care. We manage every child’s departure from the school and deserve to be informed directly of changes. We need to know directly from you of any variations to your child’s travel arrangements including changes to who is picking your child up from school. You can not assume that your child will be on the device and will receive the message in time. Changes to travel arrangements is an adult to adult responsibility and properly coordinated through the school office. I thank you in advance for your cooperation and observance for this requirement.

Traffic safety in the afternoon: afternoon pick up is from Innes Road. All children being picked up by parents or carers to be driven home should be collected from Innes Road only. We will walk the children to you. 

Building Project Progress

We have had another very productive week with the building project. The builders are making great progress. The new access ramp is almost finished. Take a look at the pictures below!

Building Timeline

We remain on track to have the building completed in readiness for Term 3. There has been a slight delay with the delivery times for furnishings. We now anticipate that we will move into the Year 5 and 6 classrooms in Week 1 next term.

Sport Uniform Days by Class

Your child will need to wear the sport uniform on the following days each week.

Kindergarten- Friday

Year 1- Friday

Year 2- Friday

Year 3- Wednesday & Friday

Year 4- Wednesday & Friday

Year 5- Wednesday & Friday

Year 6-Wednesday & Friday

LOLS: Lessons and Liturgy and Scripture

Keep your eye out for the weekly edition of LOLS - Lessons and Liturgy and Scripture. Each week, I will be working with Fr Richard to create a short spiritual reflection video as a way of connecting with the school community. Each video includes a scripture focus, a short ‘homily’ and a song. The video will be posted on Facebook each week. The theme for this week is COMPASSION.

St Paul’s Parish YouTube Channel

Here is the link to the St Paul’s Parish YouTube Channel where you can watch live and recorded Masses and prayers:

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

Ripples Podcast

Ripples is a PODCAST developed for staff and parents for on-going spiritual formation.  It seeks to offer a space where people can draw on the wisdom of a series of guest speakers and can experience some treasured stillness through meditation.  Practices like these create a ripple effect.  They have the potential to impact the way we respond to family, friends, collegues, to creation and to our loving God.  Come and enjoy some Inspired Voices and Treasured Stillness:

https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/clem-spiritual-formation/spiritual-formation/parents

Catherine du Bois

Religious Education Coordinator

Code 5 - HANDS OFF

This week our PB4L focus at school is on our Code 5 rule “Hands Off”. This means we keep our hands,  feet and body to ourselves. It also applies to any item that we may be holding onto. We keep out of other people’s personal space. We do not play games that include pushing, hitting, pulling, slapping, tackling, tripping, bumping, knocking, elbowing, shouldering, grabbing, kneeing with our hands, feet or another object such as a hat. It also means we do not enter into someone else's personal space uninvited. 

When children engage in games that involve hands on, we remind them of the school rule and expectations. We redirect the children to choose an alternate game. Should the children continue to engage in hands on behaviour, they will be given a time out or a reflection depending on the circumstances of the hands on incident.

Often what seems like a harmless game can quickly escalate to become potentially harmful. If children are pulling or pushing, for example, it is quite conceivable that someone could potentially get hurt or upset. This in turn can further escalate quickly into additional hands on behaviour.

From time to time, accidents occur. Children bump into each other or trip over a foot or knock into each other. These unintentional hands on actions do happen. We understand that. We teach and encourage the children to check the other person is OK should situations such as these occur.  It is part of another Code 5 rule we have, “Care for All”. 

We have been reminding the children this week about choosing games that do not involve hands on.  We are making sure the children remember the Code 5 rule“Hands Off”. Please take some time to talk to your children at home about the rule and what this means for them at school. We want our students to have fun at school and be safe. 

Last Friday Year 2 enjoyed a Teddy Bear's Picnic as a reward for their fabulous behaviour as a class!  Their marble jar was full and as a class they chose the reward of a Teddy Bear's Picnic.  Well done Year 2!

Pop-up Covid-19 flu assessment clinic – Moss Vale Showground, 11, 12 and 13 June.

COVID-19 flu assessment clinics

Please see attached flyer for other assessment clinic locations running across South Western Sydney.

If you have a fever, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath you are welcome to come to one of the clinics for a COVID-19 test.