Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. 

Whoever comes to me will never be hungry”

John 6: 24- 35

(from the Gospel for the eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary time, Year B)

Dear Parents and Carers

WELLBEING FUN DAY - Pyjama Day tomorrow Friday 30 July

Tomorrow Friday 30 July we are going to have a pyjama day. The children can come to school in their Pyjamas (and dressing gowns and whatever they need to stay warm!). We are doing this just to add some extra joy to school and keep our spirits up in these strange times in which we live. We ask that children wear warm clothing and enclosed shoes for the day. They will still go outside to play. PJ day was a great hit last year and I’m sure it will be again tomorrow! 

VISION AND MISSION REVIEW

We are undertaking a review of our school’s vision and mission as part of our school’s annual School Review and Improvement (SRI) plan. We want to review our vision and mission in order to be clear as a community as to what we hope for the children at our school in the future. 

We are seeking your feedback and thinking.  The link to the survey is here.  Thank you to the families who have already completed the survey. I ask that you give some time to complete the brief survey by this Friday 30 July (Week 3). Your voice in this process will be highly valued.

BOOK WEEK PARADE - Thurs 19 August (Week 6)

We will conduct our annual book week parade on Thursday 19 August. The book week theme this year is  'Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds'. We have been reading the shortlisted books to the children. The children can come dressed in a costume for the day. We will hold a parade where every child gets to show their costume. Again this is an annual highlight. Start thinking about your costumes!

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 unsupervised 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 mooning supervision. Please do not drop children at school before 8:20am.

TRAFFIC SAFETY IN GARRETT STREET IN THE MORNINGS

It is important that the road rules be followed for the safety of all our children. People have been again observed parking in the bus zones, dropping children on the far side of Garrett Street and allowing the children to cross the Garrett Street unescorted, parking in the drop off zone whilst walking children into the school. Drivers have been observed doing U-turns across Garrett Street.  

Aside from being illegal, this behaviour 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 beyond the bus zone and drop off zone) and walk up to school. It is a short easy, walk. Safety is everyones’ responsibility. We all need to do our part.

COVID-19 - Level 2 restrictions on going

Thank you for your patience, understanding and cooperation in helping to keep everyone safe during this latest COVID outbreak.  We are all doing our bit. The management restrictions we have had in place since the beginning of term have not changed. We continue to monitor and stay alert to any such variations. 

As anticipated, there are now many changes to planned events within our school and diocese. The scheduled visit to St Paul’s by Opera Australia has now been cancelled. Similarly, the Basketball gala day has been cancelled as has the visit to Mary Mackillop Place for Year 3 and 4. We organise refunds to be credited to your account for any events that are cancelled.

We will continue to remind the children of good hygiene practices (wash your hands; cover your cough/sneeze; wash your hands; stay at home if you are sick). We have maintained our regular, daily regime of hand washing and hard surface cleaning. 

The current measures in place in Level 2 schools are detailed on the  current COVID- 19 guidelines for Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Wollongong . You will also see on this website the restrictions in place for Level 4 schools (that do not apply to us). This website is regularly updated to reflect the current measures in place. I suggest you check in regularly in order to stay up to date as well as seeking clarification.

CANTEEN SERVICE HAS RECOMMENCED

Our school canteen service has now recommenced. You can place an order and pay online on Wednesday evening for Thursday lunches. Thank you for your patience, understanding and support of this service.

Week 3

Please refer to the Parent Portal Parent Support tab regarding our morning procedures. School supervision does not begin until 8:20am in the morning which means no student should be arriving at school before this time unless prior approval has been sought with the principal.

Before school care is available at Moss Vale Public school if you require your child to be cared for before school begins. The link to their website is here: https://ccel.com.au/location-details/moss-vale-child-care-services/

Our Parent portal has lots of information for parents. Take some time to have a look.

https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/st-pauls-moss-vale/home

Regards,

Katie Browne

Assistant Principal

School Terms for 2021

UPDATES TO SCHOOL ATTENDANCE MANAGEMENT PROCEDURES

Regular attendance at school is a legal obligation. I have attached a link to information regarding regular school attendance here. If your child is away from school, you need to notify the school and explain why your child was absent. You currently receive a message via COMPASS informing that your child is away from school. 

Commencing this term you will be contacted directly after your child has had three (3) consecutive, unexplained absences. You will also begin to receive reminder notifications for any unexplained absences from school for your child via COMPASS. You can respond in COMPASS to provide an explanation.

COMPASS USAGE

COMPASS is our school’s communication app. Whilst this weekly newsletter remains the “source of truth”, COMPASS is one of the modes of delivery for the newsletter (website and email being the others). It is important that our COMPASS app and usage is working for us.

In COMPASS, you receive push notifications, updates, letters, school reports and attendance notices directly to your device. Staying in touch is important in maintaining good communication and the home/school partnership.

Last week you received in your COMPASS feed a troubleshooting handbook for your information. We are always happy to help if you are having trouble with COMPASS. You simply need to call the school office and we can assist.

How to get COMPASS

If you don’t have COMPASS, you can download the free COMPASS app from your app store. Search for “Compass School Manager”. It is a free to download app for both Apple iOS and Android. If you need help with the setup, feel free to contact the school office.

Your Contact Information

It is important that you keep your contact information up to date in COMPASS. This is especially true of your email contact. Please make sure that your email listed in COMPASS is the email you most frequently use. You can change your address or telephone number in COMPASS

Forgotten passwords

If you have forgotten your COMPASS password, you will need to ring the school office. We can reset the password for you. Please be aware that each COMPASS account has a unique password. The password that one parent uses is different from the other parent’s password.

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

CANTEEN ONLINE SERVICE ON THURSDAYS 

Our school canteen service has recommenced this week and 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