“I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

Matthew 28: 20

(from the Gospel for the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Year B)

Dear Parents and Carers

SACRAMENTAL MASSES

On Sunday, we had candidates for First Communion receive the sacrament of Eucharist for the first time. Congratulations to Xian, Xander, Dominic, Anthony, Tahlia, Maggie, Matthew, Santi, Sakari and Oliver on receiving your First Communion.

On Tuesday evening, Bishop Brian conferred the sacrament of Confirmation on the candidates. Congratulations to Gracie, Ella, Brittany and Adriane who were joined by other candidates from the parish in being Confirmed.

Baptism, Eucharist and Confirmation are the sacraments of initiation in our Catholic tradition. The significance of these sacramental moments is to draw us ever closer in our relationship with God. Bishop Brian described this process as “speaking God’s language” in our daily lives by welcoming, sharing and acting out of the spirit of Jesus’ message of love.

FAREWELL MASS AND DINNER FOR FR RICHARD

School farewell Mass: today we celebrated Fr Richard’s farewell Mass. It was a beautiful Mass with the children’s singing and musicianship a highlight. Fr Richard was genuinely moved and touched by the outpouring of affection for him by the children. The children will certainly miss him.

Parish farewell dinner: Tomorrow night (Friday 28 May), the parish farewell to Fr Richard will be held with a dinner at Moss Vale RSL at 6pm. There has been a strong response to the dinner with well over two hundred seats being sold. A seating plan has been organised and is available upon arrival. 

Our children will be singing at Fr Richard’s dinner tomorrow evening. Thank you to the families who have agreed to have their children come to sing. We ask that those children wear their winter uniforms and be at the Moss Vale RSL foyer at 6:15pm. The children will be met by St Paul’s staff and taken from the foyer to be seated on the stage. After the welcomes, we are the first item on the program for the evening. We will be singing at or about 6:30pm. We are singing three songs for Fr Richard. Children who are not staying for dinner are free to leave after we have sung. Parents of these children are welcome to come into the auditorium, stand at the back of the table settings to watch your children sing. Children who are staying for dinner will be returned to the care and supervision of their families. It should be a wonderful, if somewhat bittersweet, send off for our beloved parish Fr Richard.

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY FRIDAY 4 JUNE- EDUCATING WITH A MISSION LENS

We will be conducting a staff development day on Friday 4 June. This means that there will be NO classes or supervision at school on that day. The staff will be working at Hatzer Park for the day and will not be on site.

P & F WORKING BEE

Saturday 5 June between 1pm and 3pm- Save the Date

We need to do some tidying up and getting ready for spring with our school veggie gardens. We need to weed, top up garden beds with mulch and get the chicken coop ready for the return of the chickens. The children will plant and manage the gardens in spring. 

We need to do some weeding in the garden bed adjacent to the school driveway.

We also have a need to do some repairs on the sandpit. Specifically, some of the logs on the retaining wall need replacing. We also need to install a shade sail. The materials and shade sail will be on hand. We need some skilled people to install them. We will organise to have a fresh sand delivery after the repairs have been completed.

We need to install a fence panel and pool gate between the wash basins and the Veritas Room. We have the fence panel and the pool gate. We need concrete, fixings and skilled people to install it. 

We have chosen a Saturday afternoon for the working bee which ought to be after Saturday morning sport for most people. If you are able to help, your time and energy would be greatly appreciated.

KINDERGARTEN ENROLMENTS FOR 2022 ARE NOW OPEN

If you have a child who is ready for school in 2022 or you know someone who has, our enrolment period is now open. We have had strong demand for places in recent years for the limited spaces we have available. This year is no exception. Applications can be picked up from the school office or downloaded from the school website. The first round offers of enrolment will be made in writing at the end of Term 2.

ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL APPRAISAL AND CONTRACT RENEWAL PROCESS

Mrs Browne, our wonderful, hardworking Assistant Principal is participating in our system’s appraisal and contract renewal process later this term. All school leaders in our system engage in this process every four years. The objective of this process is to affirm the great work Mrs Browne does in our community and to help her set goals for her professional growth into the future. You will be invited to provide feedback via COMPASS shortly. Please take some time to complete the brief survey. Katie will certainly appreciate your input.

CANTEEN ONLINE SERVICE ON THURSDAYS 

Our school canteen service operates on Thursdays each week. The service will be an online ordering service only.  Orders for the canteen will need to be submitted each Wednesday before Thursday service. Please note that there is no canteen counter service at school. 

If there is a problem with your child’s order please let our canteen supplier Fresh Start Canteens know. They will be only too happy to assist. If a child misses a lunch order, the school will make sure that your child has something to eat! We don’t want any child being hungry or unhappy!

COVID-19 safe reminders

The management of our response to the pandemic is ongoing. We thank you for your patience, understanding and cooperation in helping to keep everyone safe.

Please click here for the  current COVID- 19 guidelines for Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Wollongong. 

WINTER UNIFORM

The children look lovely in their winter school uniforms. We will wear the winter uniform throughout Term 2 and Term 3. With the weather now turning cool, we want the children to be warm and comfortable. Our uniforms are available through Whytes in Argyle Street and NSW Uniforms (online). Our uniform details including contact details for our suppliers are available under the “Parents” tab on the school website. 

Sport Uniform days for Term 2

Sport uniforms are to be worn on the following days for each class:

Kindergarten - Wednesday and Friday

Year 1 - Wednesday and Friday

Year 2 - Wednesday and Friday

Year 3 - Wednesday and Friday

Year 4 - Wednesday and Friday

Year 5 - Wednesday and Friday

Year 6 - Wednesday and Friday

School Terms for 2021

Week 6

Last term St Paul’s was able to purchase a Therapy Pod. A Therapy Pod is like a bean bag but filled with foam instead of beans. It lives in the reading intervention room which is also called our ‘chill out’ space.

On the wall are the zones of regulation and other visual prompts to support children who may need some time to be calm. We also have a range of books the children can read or have read to them, to help them with any big emotions they may be feeling.

Feeling big emotions, at times, is a normal part of growing up. Rather than avoiding these emotions we need to learn how to deal with them. As part of the PDHPE syllabus teachers teach children social and emotional learning skills. The first of these is learning to self regulate. That means when you are feeling angry you find a way to calm your anger that does not involve hurting yourself or anyone else. The Therapy Pod is a space that children can come to, under teacher supervision, to calm down when they are feeling these big emotions. When children tell us they are feeling angry and need to calm down then they are well on the way to learning to self regulate their own emotions.

If you would like to read more about social and emotional learning you can access the casel website from this link: https://casel.org/what-is-sel/

This link is also on the parent portal wellbeing page which can be found at this link: https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/st-pauls-moss-vale/wellbeing

Regards,

Katie Browne

Assistant Principal

Sacramental Program

Congratulations to the students who made their First Holy Communion and Confirmation in the past week. Please continue to pray for these students and their families. 

Farewell Mass for Fr Richard

On Thursday 27th May, we held a special Whole School Mass to bid farewell to Fr Richard. The choir sung beautifully and were accompanied by some very talented musicians. Thank you to the readers, offertory students, altar servers and everyone who participated so enthusiastically during this Mass. We hope Fr Richard felt lots of love and got a sense of how much we appreciate everything that he has done for our school community.  

Thank you 

Catherine du Bois

Religious Education Coordinator

Bulletin_May_30_The_Most_Holy_TRINITY_2021.pdf

CANTEEN ONLINE SERVICE ON THURSDAYS 

Our school canteen service operates on Thursdays each week. The service will be an online ordering service only. Please note that there is no canteen counter service at school. 

Orders for the canteen will need to be submitted each Wednesday before Thursday service. Our canteen supplier, Fresh Start Canteens, have moved to an online ordering system called QuickCliq. Your child’s ordered lunch will be delivered to the school in time for first break each Thursday. 

If there is a problem with your child’s order please let our canteen supplier Fresh Start Canteens know. They will be only too happy to assist. If a child misses a lunch order, the school will make sure that your child has something to eat! We don’t want any child being hungry or unhappy!

How this new system works:

1. Set up your QuickCliq account: you will need to set up a free account for your family with QuickCliq in order to place orders and pay. The instructions for how to set up this account are attached to this newsletter.
2. Order and pay for your child’s lunch on Wednesday through QuickCliq. 
3. Lunch will be delivered to your child in time for the first break on Thursday.

Sentral_QuickCliq_Family_Register_flyer_Canteen_1_.pdf