2021 Term 1 Week 3 Newsletter

Prayer Focus

Assistant Principal

Serve Every Learner

Our school's mission statement ‘Serve Every Learner’ is at the centre of all we do. As we worked together this week it was evident that the teachers at St Francis Xavier are focused on this service to our learners - identifying the needs of each and every learner at the point of planning.

There are amazing teachers in service to the St Francis Xavier community; their energy and passion are evident. 2021 is shaping up to be another great year at St Francis Xavier.

Kind regards,
Sharon de Dassel
Assistant Principal

Date Saver

Ash Wednesday

Next Wednesday, 17 February is Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of the season of Lent. We will celebrate Ash Wednesday as a school with a Liturgy, where blessed ashes will be distributed. Services for parents and parishioners will be held at St Augustine's Church, Coffs Harbour at 7.30am and 5.30pm and St Francis Xavier Church, Woolgoolga at 9.30am. 

Lent is a time of preparation for the gift of new life that we receive at Easter. During this time, we are asked to make a special effort to: 

1. Pray - to reconnect with God and deepen our relationship with Him.
2. Fast - to help us remember the sacrifice Jesus made on the cross.
3. Give alms - show compassion to others by responding with love to those who are in need.

Sick of giving up chocolate? Need some inspiration for creative ways to fast during Lent AND help the environment? Pope Francis talks at length about the ‘throwaway culture’ in his writing Laudato Si’ (a letter where he talks about our responsibility to care for the Earth). Here are 3 ‘environmental fasting’ tips:

• Fast from things: Don’t need it? Don’t buy it! Plan meals before shopping. Avoid impulse purchases.
• Fast from big supermarkets: Support local suppliers and stores.
• Fast from the yellow bin: take eligible recyclables to Return & Earn vending machines and donate the proceeds to one of the listed charities (Fast & give alms at the same time!)

Kind regards,
Katrina Ryan
Leader Catechesis & Evangelisation

Welcome to New Families

Zone Swimming Carnival

Well done to all competitors in the Zone Swimming Carnival at Maclean yesterday.  The Zone Team did both themselves and their school very proud.

Congratulations to Mackenzie who qualified in the 50m freestyle for the Diocesan Swimming Carnival coming up at the end of February in Murwillumbah. 

Good luck Mackenzie!

Kind regards,
Tiffany Wishart
Leader of Sport

Cyber Safety

Cyber Safety Day was on Tuesday this week with the catch cry of ‘We can all start the chat’ and certainly is a focus for our students in a growing digital world. Let’s start the chat to raise awareness.

3...2...1...BLAST OFF!

This year some Stage 3 students will have the opportunity to regularly visit St John Paul College as part of the HPL (High Potential Learner) program. We had our first visit on Monday with Mr Toby Holmes. 

We had the opportunity to learn more about metacognition (thinking about thinking) and how we use this to solve problems. We also learnt about chemical reactions and how these chemicals can be used to launch rockets! We trialled mixing vinegar and bi-carb soda and putting this into a small canister. We then had to time how long the canister was in the air and this information was used to calculate the approximate height the canister reached. 

After this small experiment we then moved on to launching a bigger rocket in the SJPC oval. We each had different roles of timing, measuring the angle and launching the rocket. These measurements were brought back to the classroom and we discussed different ways to measure the approximate height that the rocket reached. Using this data we then worked out the average height of the rocket. 

Overall we had a blast and we look forward to visiting again. Next time we will be joining Mary Help of Christians and St Augustines Stage 3 HPL students. We can’t wait to learn more!

Kind regards,
Suzie Coster
Leader of Literacy

Gold Token Winners

Certificate of Recognition recipients