And He said, “Bring them here to me.”

Matt 14: 18

(from the Gospel for the eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A)

Dear parents and carers

This weekend’s Gospel is the feeding of the five thousand. In this story Jesus teaches an assembled crowd in an isolated place. The crowd was large, “about five thousand men, women and children aside” (Matt 14: 21). At the end of the day, the disciples wanted to send the crowd away. Jesus instead told the disciples to not send the people away but rather to offer them hospitality and feed them. All they had to offer was five loaves of bread and two small fish. And yet, when it came to feed the crowd, miraculously there was enough and, in some accounts, even left overs! What this story is about is the abundance we have when we work together. When we each offer the various gifts we each have, the community comes together and is able to provide. We don’t need to think very hard to see examples in our own community during the summer bushfires and during the present pandemic. What this Gospel teaches us is that our strength is in community and in generosity of spirit. It is in community and in the day to day events of our lives that we encounter God. This is a challenging teaching in a time when the world tells us to look after ourselves and concern ourselves with our own needs alone. Being a disciple of Jesus can put us at odds with the received wisdom and “common sense” of the world. As has been frequently said during the pandemic, we are indeed in this together.

School Photographs next Tuesday 4 August

Next Tuesday, we will be taking the annual school photographs. Like everything else this year, photographs will be different for 2020 due to COVID-19. We will be taking individual portraits only this year. There will be no whole class group photographs. Instead, you will be able to purchase a gallery style (or composite) photograph of your child’s class with all the children and staff of the class included. Similarly, the whole school photograph will be a composite print with every child and staff member represented. Sibling photos will go ahead as normal. We thank you for your understanding with these unavoidable but necessary changes. We ask that the children are in their correct winter school uniform for the day.

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

COVID-19 remains an ongoing concern for our whole community at family, local, state, national and international levels. As has been the pattern throughout the pandemic, advice and directives change frequently and rapidly in response to the frequent and rapid course of events. Media reportage can be confusing and at times misleading in regard to how specific directives apply to our community context. Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW) have created, maintains and regularly updates a COVID-19 specific website to communicate accurate information to all our school diocesan communities. The CEDoW COVID-19 Information centre is available here. We ask that you review this website regularly. A link to the COVID-19 Information Centre has also been placed on our school website home page. It is also available on the CEDoW website. 

ICAS not participating in 2020

St Pauls’ will not be participating in the annual ICAS competition in 2020. With the on going uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and potential for further future disruptions, we have taken the decision to not participate in 2020. We will revisit this decision for 2021.

Trading Cards and Toys at school

Children occasionally bring trading cards (football cards, pokemon cards and the like) to school. Children also bring toys to school. We ask that children keep these items at home. We can not supervise or manage these additional items at school. Loss or damage to these items often leads to unnecessary upset and conflict. The school provides a range of balls (soccer, football, hand balls, netballs and soft bouncing balls), skipping ropes, hoops and games for the children to play with at break times.

Staggered afternoon pick up from Innes Road to continue

Afternoon pick up for children travelling home with parents and carers remains via Innes Road. We need to continue to observe adult to adult social distancing as best we can. We have implemented a staggered pick up in the afternoons to ease congestion and make social distancing possible for adults. Children travelling home with parents or carers, are being assembled in colour house groups outside the library at dismissal time. School staff will walk the children down to Innes Road one colour house at a time to meet parents and carers. We have staggered departure times for families picking up children. We ask that families arrive close to pick up time, and move off promptly after collecting your child. We must continue to remain mindful of social distancing during the afternoon pickup. 

• Blue House will leave the top playground at 2:55 pm
• Red House will leave the top playground at 3:00 pm
• Gold House will leave the top playground at 3:05 pm

We have school staff deployed at the gates to avoid parents needing to touch the gates. Parents enter via the “In gate”, wait to collect your child at the yellow line and then exit via the ”Out gate”.  Thank you everyone for your cooperation with this safety measure.

Sport Uniform Days by Class

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

Kindergarten- Friday

Year 1- Thursday & Friday

Year 2- Thursday & Friday

Year 3- Wednesday & Friday

Year 4- Wednesday & Friday

Year 5- Wednesday & Friday

Year 6-Wednesday & Friday

LOLS: Lessons and Liturgy and Scripture

The LOLS videos will continue this term, most likely on a fortnightly basis. These videos will include a spiritual reflection including a scripture focus, a short ‘homily’ and a song. These videos will be uploaded on Facebook and posted on Google Classrooms.

Reconciliation Program

In Term 1, a group of students commenced the Reconciliation Program. This was postponed due to covid-19 restrictions. The sacramental team has developed an online program so that these students can continue the program. The families that have opted to participate in the online program will be sent the modules and activities to complete online. If you have any further questions about this program, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Ripples Podcast

Ripples is a PODCAST developed for staff and parents 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, colleagues, 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

SPLICED 

St Paul’s aims to provide a challenging, engaging and enriching educational experience for all children. We aim to teach every child at the child’s point of need in order for your child to work to his or her full potential. Some children require additional challenge and extension to reach this potential. To meet this exciting challenge, St Paul’s participates in SPLICED.

Annually, Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW) offers an enrichment program for Stage 2 and Stage 3 students called SPLICED.  SPLICED is an acronym for 'Stretching Potential through Learning in Interactive and Challenging Environments in the Diocese of Wollongong'. The purpose of the SPLICED program is to provide both enrichment and extension for children who demonstrate outstanding intellectual capacity, creativity and curiosity. Participation in the program is determined by outstanding academic performance and identified potential. Children who demonstrate these competencies are asked to participate. A discernment process is undertaken with the child, their families, teachers and the CEDoW convenor of the program. If the place is accepted, the child works on a specific investigation of his or her own choice. A celebration of learning is published at the end of the year.

Gracie Ross in year 5 has written a piece about her reflections on memories of Kindergarten.  Here is an extract:

“On my first day of school, the place where I would spend the rest of my childhood,” I thought. I had confidence beyond belief. I marched through the doors to see a room full of dreadfully glum children. I didn’t understand how they could be so sad on a day as glorious as this. Suddenly all eyes turned to me I flashed red, I slowly lowered my head to see I had crushed the LEGO build they had all built together while I wasn’t present. I ran into my mothers arms begging her to let me leave. She slowly guided me to my desk everyones eyes still glued to me. I rummaged around in my pencil case trying to look interested in what coloured crayons I had. Suddenly I looked across the room to see a girl with long brown hair and honey brown skin, she had herself buried in a picture book. No one in the room seemed to notice she was there. I escaped the warm loving embrace of my mother and made my way across the room desperately trying not to be seen. When I reached the end of her unnecessarily organised desk. I waved a shy little wave she didn’t notice me I tried again but this time I cleared my throat, she still didn’t notice. “Excuse me,” I said probably too loud. She looked up from her book."