St Francis Xavier Primary School - Lake Cargelligo eNewsletter

Term 3 Volume 11 2023

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Term 3 Volume 11 2023

School Goals for 2023
Principal's Report
Religious Life of School - Prayer
MOBILE PHONES are Banned at St Francis Xavier School
What's On
Catholic Education Commission visit
Classroom Update
100th Day Celebrations
Wellbeing - Seasons for Growth
Year 6 Transition to Year 7 2024 - Lake Central School
Term 3 Canteen Cooking - Helpers Needed
NRL Clinic
Swap It Program
League Stars - Lake Cargelligo Recreation Ground
Free Art Workshops - Stronger Communities

School Goals for 2023

During 2023 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.

Principal's Report

A very big CONGRATULATIONS to our Year 6 students who received an Archdiocesan NAIDOC Award at the NAIDOC Mass at St Christopher's Cathedral last Friday. The following was read out about our Year 6 class as they were receiving their award and recognition...

Our Current Year 6 class have shown themselves, since the beginning of their
Primary school journey in Kindergarten through to this year, to be a class group that have lived out our school's vision and values.

They have lived their school life following the footsteps of Jesus, and living the
motto of Mary MacKillop 'never seeing a need without doing something about
it'. We also would like to commend them on their efforts to understand, share
and learn more about the cultures, traditions and beliefs of their classmates
and families in the spirit of the Reconciliation movement of Australian. They
have continued to support each other, being aware of the differences in
capabilities and learning needs, assisting in the success of each other each year. Over the past couple of years their genuine care and empathy for each other have significantly assisted in the many challenges they have all faced.

Archbishop Christopher makes the NAIDOC Mass exceptionally special and he always makes our school feel very welcome. We thank him for his blessings on us all and our return trip to Lake Cargelligo.

I would also like to thank the Year 6 students for their exemplarily behavour while on excursion, the school and their families should be extremely proud of them! A very big THANK YOU to Mrs Anita Carter, Mrs Sharna Hayward and Mr Simon Elwin, your willingness to accompany this excursion and support the care of our Year 6 class enabled the excursion to go ahead and be successful!!!

Religious Life of School - Prayer

The 8th August is the Feast Day of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Australia's first saint. St Francis Xavier School was started by the Sisters of St Joseph, Mary MacKillop's order. As a school we aim to continue the values and traditions of the Sisters of St Joseph and St Mary MacKillop, through our Mission to work in an environment of mutual respect for cultures and backgrounds and celebrating the Gospel principles in order to achieve quality education for all.

We also aim to'never see a need without doing something about it' which is the way Mary MacKillop lived her life.

Staff travelled to West Wyalong on the first day of term, to join our peers from St Mary’s and St Joseph’s, for a Spirituality Day. The theme for the day was Mercy and extended the work we did last year. There was several opportunities for reflection, discussion and learning. The day allowed us to reaffirm our commitment to be educators in Catholic schools. It was a wonderful way to start the term.

RE units this term have begun in all classes. This term we will explore themes around interconnection, stewardship and place. We look forward to seeing the students extend their knowledge. We have several celebrations planned for the term – prayer liturgies at school celebrating Mary MacKillop and the Assumption of Mary; and joining with our parish family for fortnightly liturgies. This week, student’s in Years 3/4/5 will be reading at mass. We welcome all families to join us.

MOBILE PHONES are Banned at St Francis Xavier School

A reminder to all families that St Francis Xavier School is a MOBILE PHONE /DEVICE FREE school. As is mentioned in our school policies no student should be bringing a mobile phone or device to school. We have iPads and laptops for each student that they use to support learning in each classroom and therefore any other mobile device is not needed.

Any student that needs to bring a device to school for before or after school family reasons need to leave their device at the office on arrival to school and to be picked up at the end of the school day.

Please help us keep our students safe.

Families wanting advise or support to assist keep their children safer online please visit the eSafety Commision website and the parent page - https://www.esafety.gov.au/parents

What's On

Term 3

Tuesday, 1st August - School Community Council Meeting @ 6pm

Wednesday, 2nd August - Year 6 Transistion

Thursday, 3rd August - 100 Days @ School - Kinder Celebration

Monday, 7th August - Catholic Education Commission Visit 9 to 11:30am - please join us for Morning Tea @ 11am

Wednesday, 9th August - Hearing Screening and Year 6 Tranistion

Friday, 11th August - Mass and Lunch (Grandparents Day)

Wednesday, 16th August - Year 6 Tranistion

Friday, 18th of August - National Day against Bullying and Violence

Monday, 21st August - WR Public Speaking Final

Tuesday, 22nd August - Open Day, Book Parade and Preschoolers Visit

Wednesday, 23rd August - Year 6 Transition

Tuesday, 29th August - Trent Barrett Shield

Wednesday, 30th August - Dad's in School Day and Year 6 Transistion

Catholic Education Commission visit

Catholic Education Commision members (approximately 14 members) are visiting our school on Monday 7th August. Mr Ross Fox, Director of Canberra Goulburn Catholic Education Office, will be visiting this day as well.

The Catholic Education Commission (CEC) was established to support and advise the Archbishop in his responsibilities for Catholic schools. The CEC advises and makes recommendation to the Archbishop.

We invite all families to a morning tea celebration with our visitors at 11.00am on this day.

Please join us at this time to ensure our school has a voice to this important committee.

Classroom Update

Kindergarten and Year 1/2

Year 3/4/5

Year 6

Canberra Excursion: Yibaay Students had the opportunity to explore many fun adventures in the Canberra region. We started off at the Reconciation walkway which allowed the students to build on knowledge around experiences many First Nations people went through, which then led us to a beautiful dinner at the Sports Club, and ended our first night watching Elementals at the movies. Thursday was a huge day starting at the Film and Sound Museum, students got to learn more about visual and sound technology, after that the students embarked on an adventure to the iPad store where they were able to learn about different forms of digital technology (sketching, portraits and drawing). After lunch, students visited the Portrait Museum which allowed them to interact with the art pieces, creating a master piece of their own. This then led to the War Memorial, to build a better understanding and learning experience about our First Nations History in the WW1 and WW2, both women and men. After that was our night bush walk, which seemed very popular for our Yibaay students. Our last day ended with our NAIDOC mass which saw Canberra Goulburn Catholic schools attending a beautiful service led by the Achebishop Christopher Prowse, during the service all Yibbaay students were awarded for their amazing achievement and efforts during their Primary School Years, Margaret Kennedy was award NAIDOC Recipient of 2023 for St France Xavier. Our last stop was AIS, which was another popular adventure Yibaay students enjoyed.