2021 Term 3 Week 3 Newsletter

Prayer Focus

From the Acting Principal

World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly

Recently Pope Francis announced the institution of World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, which will take place each year on the fourth Sunday in July, close to the feast of St Joachim and St Anne, the grandparents of Jesus.

The elderly, he said, “remind us that old age is a gift and that grandparents are the link between the different generations, to pass on to the young the experience of life.”

Grandparents, parents and carers are such an important part of the school community here at St Francis Xavier and we look forward to a time when we can welcome you all back onto school grounds with open arms. Until that day arrives, we thank you for your ongoing understanding and adherence to the guidelines in place during our current restrictions. 

Coffs Cup Half Day Public Holiday - Thursday, 5 August 

The School will close at 12noon for the half day public holiday on Thursday, 5 August 2021.

Important Information:

Forest Coach Lines will be dropping children at school as usual. Forest Coach Lines WILL NOT be providing any services for a 12.00pm school closure. Families will need to make other transport arrangements for their children.

Sahdra Bus Company will be dropping children at school as usual. Sahdra Bus Company WILL BE collecting children at approximately 11.45am.

There will be no facilities/arrangements for students to be supervised after 12noon. If this proves too difficult I would suggest you keep your child at home for the day.

I apologise for the inconvenience this half day public holiday will no doubt cause some families.

Should this public holiday be rescinded then a normal school day will be reinstated.

The Soul

Can I recommend to all our readers this excellent fortnightly newsletter called "The Soul". Produced by our Catholic Schools Office there is always great scripture, prayers, music, editorial and resources for an adult audience. You will see we often feature aspects of The Soul in our own newsletter.

Transition Period

As we navigate through the current transition period we look forward to welcoming a new principal into our flourishing learning community. Until then please feel free to contact me at the school should you have any concern about your child’s learning or well-being.

Sharon de Dassel
Acting Principal

All Things Learning & Teaching

Paul Jarman Workshop

World renowned local composer and musician, Paul Jarman, visited the Choir on Tuesday as part of our preparations for the Faith in the Future concert. The concert is part of an Arts Partnership that involves the coming together of students from St Francis Xavier, St Augustines, Mary Help of Christians and St John Paul College and will be held in Term 4. Mrs Ryan and the Choir are very excited to be working with Paul and are looking forward to working on new material for the concert. Thanks Paul for a great morning!

Upcoming Book Week

Each year Book Week sees schools and public libraries across Australia spend a week celebrating books and Australian authors and illustrators. Book Week this year will take place in Week 7 of Term 3. The theme this year is "Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds". So thinking caps on. What amazing character will your child dress up as, for the Book Week Parade?

National Tree Day

National Tree Day started in 1996 and has grown into Australia’s largest community tree-planting and nature care event. 

• Each year over 3,000 schools across Australia participate
• Over 25 million trees have been planted by more than 4 million people

In celebrating Schools and National Tree Day, we are reminded of our call to mission in the care of and for God’s creation. In Laudato Si' Pope Francis calls us to care for our common home.

In The Lorax by Dr Seuss, the Lorax shared these powerful words with his community:

Hope for the Homeless Fundraiser

Next week is National Homelessness Week. Coffs Harbour based charity, Hope for the Homeless has asked for our support. In the Coffs Harbour area, there is an estimated 2000 people who do not have a home or a place to sleep at night. That’s a lot of people who need our help.

The theme for their fundraiser is SMALL CHANGE = BIG CHANGES. Next week, we would like you to bring in any silver coins you have to spare, as a donation. This will go towards providing meals, clothing, tents, tarps and other needs those less fortunate may not have. 

Jesus taught us that we should always help the poor. Please bring in your donations any day next week to support this very worthy cause and help Hope for the Homeless reach their goal.  With the support of other schools and organisations in the area Hope for the Homeless are aiming to raise $25 000 to help the poor amongst us.

Confirmation 

Please pray for these students who are preparing to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation on August 12.

High Potential Learning (HPL)

This week the Stage 3 HPL students joined the other Stage 3 HPL students from St Augustine’s and Mary Help of Christians. We began with a warm up where we were each given a slip of paper that was a part of a Gospel. These Gospel readings helped form our groups for the day. 

The focus for our day was a Da Vinci Decathlon. This was a new experience for all the students and we were required to work as a team to solve a series of challenges. These challenges covered a range of areas such as Engineering, Cartography, English, Maths and Science. 

“My favourite activity was the Unexpected Twists in the English challenge. This meant I had to write an unexpected twist or a unique ending to engage the reader. It was super challenging because I had to write this in exactly fifty words!” Bonnie Yr 6

“My favourite part was the Unexpected Sentences activity where I had to identify two words that were in the wrong place but in the same sentence.” Sophia Yr 5

Positive Behaviour Support (PBS)

To align with National Tree Day, this week’s token focus was ‘Respect for the Environment: I respect Flora and Fauna.’ As well as immersing themselves in our natural environment as part of learning to value the lifegiving source of our trees, several students were caught by teachers showing respect to our flora and fauna.

Harshind, Sahib and Satkar were spotted collecting rubbish on the playground and outside of classrooms.  Max was spotted ensuring the green waste was in the correct bin.

The Stage 2 boys respectfully shared the field with a protective plover at recess.

Stage 1 students discovered many living creatures who use the trees around our school. They were enthusiastic about looking after our environment and took the time to stop and pick up rubbish on our nature walk. 

Sporting Roundup

Postponement of events

Unfortunately Zone and Diocesan Athletics Carnivals are postponed until further notice.

Rugby Gala Day

A Rugby Gala Day for Stages 2 and 3 will take place in Coffs Harbour on Wednesday, 18 August. St Francis Xavier will be entering under 10 and under 12 mixed teams. More information and notes about this will be handed out next week.

Running Club

Running Club will be on Fridays for the remainder of this Term.

Netball Club

Netball Club runs on Wednesdays at lunch time in the hall. Below are some pictures from this week’s club.

NetSetGo

Kindergarten and Stage 1 have enjoyed their NetSetGo sessions this week. 

Woopi Saints

The Woopi Saints Rugby Union teams have new training shirts!

Gold Token recipients

Assembly Awards

Environmentalist Awards presented to Tia and James. They each won a beeswax wrap made by the Environment Team.

Stage 1 students received Awards for completing great work in Literacy.

Layla accepting the very first silver token award on behalf of Year 4 for being great listeners at assembly. 

Certificates of Recognition recipients.  Keep up the great work everyone!