St Francis Xavier Primary School - Lake Cargelligo eNewsletter

During 2022 our educational focus will be to improve Literacy and Numeracy skills — staff, students and families working together so all our students achieve at least 12 months growth. Other goals for the year are:

Build a community that continues to learn - Implement system Literacy and Numeracy initiatives which will increase student assessment data.

Enhance and maintain the wellbeing of all - Continued increase of attendance rates and implementation of school-wide Well Being Policy.

Build a community that is connected - Increased promotion of the school Vision and Mission statements throughout the community and to continue to increase family attendance at school events.

Thank you for all our families who have cared for our school community through following the new COVID restrictions. Working together we can care for us all.

Many activities and events have been postponned,we are still waiting for further clarification about the Western Region Athletics Carnival and families will be notifiied as soon as possible.

Over the past couple of weeks classes have been learning about NAIDOC week. NAIDOC Week is celebrated by all Australia. This year’s theme Heal Country calls for all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction.

Today we celebrated NAIDOC Week in our school mass. We reflected on the following thoughts - 2021 marks the 250th Anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in Australia. Yet the Spirit of God was poured out onto the original inhabitants of this great Southern Land many, many thousands of years prior. God’s Spirit could be heard through the singing of the birds, the cascade of the waterfall, the rustle of the wind and, most importantly, in the silence.

I will be taking some Long Service Leave this term, starting on Monday 9th August. I had planned to visit my sister-in-law in WA for a significant birthday. Unfortunately, this will not be possible at this time but I will still aim to do something special during my time off. While I am on leave Mrs Rachael Morris will be Acting Principal and Miss Sarah O'Brien will step into the exec position of Religious Education Co-ordinator, working with Mrs Morris to lead our school community. I thank both Rachael and Sarah for their dedication and continued support of all within our school and thank them for all they will do in my absence.

May our footsteps, on these ancient lands,

remind us of creation and connectedness, in our search for truth.

May the Gum Tree, from its roots to its branches,

remind us to dig deep and reach high, in our action for justice.

May the Eagle, who soars in the sky,

remind us of the power, in our call for love.

May the expanse of the lands and seas, of the sky and stars,

remind us of God’s timing in our faith in hope.

May the Holy three, Creator Spirit, Lord God, Papa Jesus,

remind us of community.

So with grace, mercy, and peace, go in truth, justice, love and hope. Amen

TERM 2

Thursday 12th May - AECG Meeting @ Land Council 3.30pm

Friday 13th May - Pirate Day - preschool visit

Tuesday 17th May - School Community Council Meeting @ 6pm

9th to 20th May - NAPLAN for students in Year 3 and Year 5

Friday 20th May - Biggest Morning Tea at 11am

- School Mass @ 11.30am

- Assembly Kinder and Year 5/6 @ 12.30pm

- First Eucharist Information Session @ 1pm

Tuesday 24th May - CWA Public Speaking

Thursday 26th May - 5/6 League Day (Griffith) and National Sorry Day

Tuesday 31st May - Reconcillation Day

PLEASE NOTE - End of Term 2 will be Wednesday 29th June for students. Thursday 30th June and Friday 1st July will be additional Pupil Free Days.

Library is blasting off this term with the book 'Mirror' by Jeanie Baker. The children loved looking at the images of a journey taken by a young boy in Morrocco and drew a journey they have been on as well as made fold out 'mirrors' of their favourite pages.

In Creative Arts the older students are busy learning guitar chords and some new ukulele chords. Our younger students have begun making some bird art and are learning how to follow dance steps in time to music. We also did some amazing weaving for NAIDOC week with rafata and beads. Miss Corcoran has been blown away by the enthusiasm that all of the students are showing to having a go at some new and exciting thigs!

Year 4/5/6 students will be participating in an exciting FEAST program. During the course of this unit of work the students will learn about food waste, nutrition and develop basic cooking skills. The program has been developed by OzHarvest, Australia's leading food rescue organisation, to help raise awareness about reducing food waste, food insecurity and the importance of healthy eating.
Our school is lucky to have been provided with a whole suite of resources for this program including cooking equipment and teaching resources through philanthropic donations to OzHarvest, valued at over $1500.

Like any good FEAST, its designed to be fun, engaging and filled with good food!

The year 4/5 girls have been enjoying some girl time on Mondays with Miss Emily, The girls are participating in the Girlwise program which focuses on empowerment, self esteem and friendships. Thanks Miss Emily!

We are very excited to have Hannah and Georgia from Albury CSU. They are both 3rd Year Occupational Therapy students currently attending a 7 week placement at our school. The OT students will be aiding students to become more independent in all aspects of their learning, through helping with barriers that affect a person's emotional, social and physical needs. Hannah and Georgia are both really keen to get to know all of the children and staff and they are looking forward to being apart of the Lake Cargelligo community over the coming weeks. Whilst they are here they will be working with Cassie Mullins from Mullins OT in Hillston, to support the staff, parents and students of the school.

This week K/1 students cooked omelettes with Ms Wheeler and Aunty Sharon. They used a couple of eggs, and mixed various other ingredients like ham, shallots, capcium and cheese. As you can see by the photos the students are becoming quite competent with cutting skills and cooking and they thoroughly enjoyed eating their own cooked omelettes.

Our Term 3 School Community Council Meeting will be on Tuesday 27th July at 6pm. The meeting will be in the staffroom, but will also be available via Zoom for anyone that would like to join via Zoom (please let the school know if you would like this option).

So far, the agenda is as follows:

School staffing while Jacinta is on Long Service Leave
Year 4/5/6 Canberra excursion
Fundraising - thank you for all who assisted in Car Rally catering
2022 staffing / classes - initial conversation

If there are any other items for the agenda, please let me know.

The NRL ran the first session of the League Stars program at school yesterday. The League Stars program is designed to encourage children to get active, while also looking to develop their basic motor skills and improve their physical literacy, with the goal being this experience could lead to further participation in sport throughout the year.

We thank the NRL volunteers Chris and Andrew for the great sessions with our students.

Craft Club was in full swing this week, Thank you to Mrs Whiting for offering her time to run these classes at lunch time. Students are working on projects to enter into our local show.

Emma McRae will be continuing with us this term supporting our students as our school counsellor. Emma will continue to support the school through both on site visits and via Zoom sessions.

A referral form can be completed if you are interested in your child starting or continuing with this service, individually or within class groups.

Visits this term will be - 14th/15th October, 28th/29th October and 18/19th November.

Zoom sessions are on the following Thursdays - 21st October, 11th November, 25th November and 2nd December.

If you would like your child to meet with Miss Emma please contact the school for a copy of the referral form to be completed.

Students are participating in the WR Public Speaking competition again this year. Public Speaking is an essential skill for all students. Students will be asked to present a 2-minute or 3-minute speech on Thursday 3rd August at school. From this 2 students from each class - Year 3/4/5/ 6 - will be chosen to represent the school and compete against the winning students from St Mary's at West Wyalong.

Public Speaking Assembly – Thursday 3rd August at 11.30am

Topics for students to choose from are as follows: -

Year 3 - Time Limit: 2 Minutes - Topic: MY BACKYARD

Year 4 - Time Limit: 2 Minutes - Topic: SPORT BRINGS US TOGETHER

Year 5 - Time Limit: 3 Minutes - Topic: LEARNING FRROM THE PAST

Year 6 - Time Limit: 3 Minutes - Topic: DIFFICULT JOURNEYS

Over the holidays students have the time to start their speeches or think of ideas for their speeches.

In Year 4/5/6 students are learning to use Excel in maths lessons. They have made some great graphs. Students researched an interest and collected information to cost their product, then put information into a spreadsheet and generated a graph to show their data.

canteen_roster_term3.xlsx

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Our garden has produced some lovely fruits and vegetables over the past couple of weeks, the students love getting in the garden to try the fresh produce along with weeding, watering and planting.

OT_Session.pdf

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