St Francis Xavier Primary School - Lake Cargelligo eNewsletter

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.

What a busy fortnight we have had! We welcomed several members from the Catholic Education Commission to our school on Monday. Staff and students had the opportunity to highlight the successes of our school and also raise the challenges our community faces. CEC Members joined Spelling Mastery sessions and were impressed with how embedded the program was and how students could talk to why they enjoyed the sessions. The group commented on the importance of our school in the community and recognised the work staff put in supporting students and their families. We were pleasantly surprised to receive a beautiful bouquet from the group, thanking us for hosting the visit. Many thanks to the families that joined us for morning tea to reinforce our priorities of recruitment, wellbeing and upgrades to facilities.

I’m very proud to share the news that three of our staff members have been selected to receive awards in the upcoming Excellence in Faith ceremony in Canberra later this month. Aunty Sharon, Miss Karli and Mrs Elwin have all been recognised for their ongoing commitment to the students and families of our great school. I look forward to being the photographer for the event and will share photos and awards from the night.

The visit and the awards reinforce Mary MacKillop’s quote of “Never see a need without doing something about it.” We joined together on Tuesday morning to celebrate the Feast of St Mary of the Cross. She was an incredible woman of faith, strength, determination and love. This year’s theme of Be Fierce for Fair is something we strive to instil in our students.

Tomorrow we will celebrate our Grandparents and Grandfriends Mass. I was lucky enough to see my grandparents nearly everyday when I was little. They were my absolute heroes and I miss them greatly. I look forward to tomorrow, when our students can show their love and thanks to their special people. Please extend the invitation to all who would like to join us. Please remember to BYO Lunch! Or put in a lunch order.

As the term continues, please keep our staff in your hearts and prayers. We have staff caring for loved ones, staff who have recently farewelled loved ones, staff who are preparing to welcome little ones already much loved! These are the same staff who show up every day to teach and guide and care and nurture our students. They are absolutely amazing! Thanks, Mrs Morris

Term 3 Friday, 11th August - Mass and Lunch (Grandparents Day) Please join us!

Monday, 14th August - Year 3-6 Public Speaking - winners to represent the school

Wednesday, 16th August - Year 6 Transition

Thursday, 14th August - Public Speaking, West Wyalong

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 - Arch Athletic

Monday, 28th August - Social Media Talk (Yr 3-6)

Tuesday, 29th August - Trent Barrett Shield

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

Kindergarten

In Kinder we are focussing on building simple sentences using the tricky words we have learnt, as well as the letters and sounds we have now mastered! The students can identify the capital letters and full stops in our sentences and are doing an amazing job at forming their letters! We are also learning body percussion in music with 1/2 and having an absolute blast!

Year 1/2

1/2 have been working really hard in their Literacy lessons over the past 2 weeks. We have been learning about compound words, adjectives, verbs, and learning how to spell tricky words.

Year 3/4/5

We have been integrating Geography with Religion. Some of our artworks depict landscapes of areas where we belong or know. You might be able to see that we have included places like the lake and some artworks represent the farms we live on or near.

We are also beginning to learn about stewardship and how we are here to care for the world and each other. Pictures below of the future of the world is in our hands.

Year 6

Spring Rolls were a hit with the Year 6 class last Friday - for the recipe please see the cooking section.

In other Year 6 news preparation for speeches are well underway. Yibaay topic is 'A Difficult Journey'. This topic has allowed many of the Yibaay students to reflect on their Primary school journey, and identify the challenges they have had to face during those times. As we all know Yibaay students will be leaving us this year, and are keen to make new memories. However, the speech process has built up sadness in leaving friendships behind, joy and excitement in experiencing adolescent life, and a bit of anxiety of what to expect when enrolling into a new school. Over the past two weeks, Yibaay students have had the opportunity to experience a high-school setting. Thank you to Lake CCS for allowing us to join in various activities to support a smooth transition to high-school for all of our Yibaay students.

Please share the word.

If you know of a family looking for a school for 2024 please spread the word and invite them to our Open Day on Tuesday 22nd of August 2023.

All Welcome to come along and have a look what our school has to offer.

Students in Years 3-6 will present their speeches to their peers and teachers on Monday 14^th of August 2023 at 9:15am. Two students from each of the year groups will then travel to West Wyalong on Thursday 17^thAugust 2023 to compete against St Mary's students to determine the representative for Western Region Public Speaking Competition held at Temora.

Scholastic Book Fair - there will be a Scholastic Book Fair running in the library during Book Week. This is an opportunity for families to continue to support reading with your children while supporting the school library, as the school will retain a percentage of the sales with new books for the school.

CWA Education Grants

Applications open for the CWA Education Grants on 1st August and close on 30th September annually. They will be considered at the November Executive Meeting and must be received at State Office no later than 30th September. No applications will be accepted after this date. Education Grants (cwaofnsw.org.au)

A reminder of the Cool Kids Program bieng run by Catholic Care Canberra & Goulburn. Expressions of interests for Terms 3 & 4 are being accepted for children in Years 3/4/5/6. The program will be run after school hours with the child and parent logging in from home, or another private and quiet location. One parent is required at each session, two are welcome.

Would my child benefit from Cool Kids?

The Cool Kids program is being offered to children whose main struggle is with anxiety. Cool Kids covers a broad range of fears and worries.

Cool Kids is not suitable for children whose main problem is low mood, aggression, hyperactivity, oppositional behavior or if they are autistic.

How to nominate your child or if you have questions

If after reading this information you would like your child to be considered for the program, please contact the school for an Cool Kids Expression of Interest Form or email Cool Kids facilitator, Donna Spillman on donna.spillman@catholiccare.cg.org.au.