September 1st, 2022

Acknowledgement of Country

Prayer

A Note from our Principal

Ngata Families & Friends,

As we approach this weekend we all have our dads and other special men in our lives on our minds. While Sunday is the big day, we would love to see as many families as possible taking part in our sports afternoon this Friday. Judging by the orders for the sausage sizzle, we are sure of a great afternoon - thanks to our Parents & Friends and our school staff for their organisation of this event.

The deadline of our school performance means the term is flying and we are now entering the final weeks. We ask all families to make sure they have September 14th set aside to attend our school production of The Jungle Book Kids. This will be a great school event and an opportunity for us to be back together as a community. As the poster later in the newsletter advertises, entry is with a gold coin and doors open at 7.00pm for a 7.30 start. Canteen facilities will operate before and after the production.

Joe Ewing

Principal

Congratulations!

Olivia Dwyer has a new baby brother. Congratulations to Paige and Daniel on the birth of Conall.

Pupil Free Day: September 8th

Don't forget our third pupil free day on Thursday September 8th. This is day is set aside for professional learning for our staff. No classes will be held. Families are required to make alternate arrangements for the care of children on this day.

TheirCare will be providing onsite care on this day. Bookings can be made by clicking on the link below.

Sports Night & BBQ With Our Dads - Tomorrow Night 4pm to 5.30pm.

We're looking forward to seeing all available dads, grandfathers, uncles and other special men at school for our annual sports night. The students of our school are looking forward to some hotly contested games of footy, soccer, basketball and other fun games. Families are able to join in an organised game or create one for themselves. If the weather is too wet, a revised schedule will be published.

Please  come dressed appropriately for your chosen sport.

The Twilight Fair is Back!

The Twilight Fair will return on Friday October 28th. The P&F intend that this be an intentionally small scale event - manageable, yet an opportunity for our community to come together. A list of stalls /  events is below. Some are already allocated, but families who would like to take responsibility for a stall / event are invited to contact the office to claim one. Fresh ideas are welcome!

Twilight Fair Raffle

Plans are well on the way with our Twilight Fair - Friday 28th October 2022.  For the last couple of years, due to COVID, we have not been able to conduct our Fair, but have had a major raffle.  WELL...... this year we plan to combine the raffle with the Fair!  Tickets are being prepared and prizes are being sorted.

Vouchers make a great prize along with an assortment of prizes.  Please consider your response to our invitation to support this raffle.  You maybe able to  

• supply a voucher from your business, 
• ask a business that you shop at for their support
• suggest appropriate business to approach
• donate towards the raffle

I welcome any assistance, suggestions and/or support that you may be able to provide.

Thank you in advance. Anne - akerr@spwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au  school:- 5562 2506

This is our chance to make valuable funds and maybe contribute to new playground equipment.  Remember raffle ticket sellers are very important.  We need everyone’s support.  Please consider helping out when tickets become available.

Hot off the Prep Press!

The Stage @ Emmanuel Visit

On Monday we went on our final excursion for the term. We went to Emmanuel College to explore their performing Arts facilities. Ms Davies and some students from Years 10 to VCE showed us some exciting features of their stage. We watched a sound and light show. We hopped on stage and danced to Baby Shark and Old McDonald. We role played lots of different animals using the Dear Zoo book. We then put on a mask and imagined we were birds - flying, eating, nesting, sleeping, swooping. Finally we took the opportunity to perform our Jungle Book song to our new friends. It was another great adventure and we just love getting on a bus and having fun learning new things. A big thank you to Emmanuel College for being so generous with their time.

Jungle Book Kids

We have still been busy practising our dance moves for the Jungle Book Kids production which is coming around fast. Over the past few weeks we are sure you have noticed our costume items listed on the newsletter. Over the next week we ask that all Prep students bring their black pants or shorts and black t-shirts into school in a plastic bag that is clearly named. We also ask that each student brings in a dark coloured pair of knee-high stockings - these will be used to make each of us a tail. Please be aware that we will be glueing something onto the black t-shirt, so be prepared to part ways with it. We are so looking forward to sharing all of our hard work with you on the night of the performance. 

Welcome to the world…

We have had some exciting news in the Prep room and one little person would love to share it with everyone. Olivia Dwyer has become a big sister for the very first time. Her new baby brother, Conall, was born on Tuesday 23rd August. She says he has been doing all the right things, especially sleeping and eating and every now and then she hears him crying. Congratulations to Olivia and her family - we know she will be the BEST big sister ever!

Rock It.

On Tuesday the whole school was entertained by CJ and Deano in a highly entertaining and informative performance called Rock It.  They had us up dancing and singing while learning about different styles of music such as Hip-Hop, Blues, Heavy Metal and Country. 

Mini Vinnies

This term in Mini Vinnies we have been making origami cards for the residents and staff of Mercy Place.  The fabulous William Carey will be delivering these for us in the next few weeks. Congratulations to the team for their hard work.

Puka Up Cycling Challenge

This coming November staff member Xavier Mills has been invited to join the Puka Up cycling group, riding through the beautiful King Valley area in order to raise awareness and funds for mental health prevention. Over the course of these three days he will ride 313.9kms to honour the 3139 people who tragically died by suicide in 2020. If you are able to support Xavier please go to the Go Fund Me page linked below:

https://gofund.me/8bd3efef

Canteen News

A reminder to parents that our Canteen is open from Tuesday to Friday each week.  Orders are to be placed either in a container or a paper bag with the order clearly marked and the money inside. A price list is attached to the side of this Newsletter.  We DO NOT provide facilities for heating food from home or filling two minute noodle containers with hot water.  Please appreciate that we have limited resources and helpers in our canteen and staff are heavily engaged in our school programs.

School Fees

A copy of your statement was sent home last week.  We greatly appreciate funds that we have already received.  Unfortunately, we have a number of accounts that have yet to be addressed.  I draw particular attention to families who have had children who attended camps and excursions. These activities have had to be paid either before or at the time of the activity and the school has had to cover all costs and this has placed a great burden on our school budget.

Could families with outstanding fees please address this issue and save us both the embarrassment of a phone call. 

Thank you Anne

Country Bus Travel

Emails were sent to families who have students who use the country bus service.  Term 4 Fees are now ready to be paid - $125 for  term 4.  Please reply to these emails as soon as possible as I have to respond to Brauer College regarding numbers and bus travellers.

Thank you Anne

Footy Colours Day for Foodshare

As the finals are nearly underway in the men's competition of the AFL and the AFLW is just getting underway for another season, we will be holding our annual footy colours day on the last day of term. Of course AFL / AFLW teams will be represented, but netball, soccer and basketball fans are welcome to wear their colours also.

Everyone wearing their team’s colours is asked to bring a gold coin donation. This money will be donated to Foodshare who not only support our Breakfast Club, but provide relief food to families all over Warrnambool.

Book Fair - Save the Date!

The annual school book fair will run from

Monday 5th September until Wednesday 7th September. 

Each learning area will have a buying day:

Monday - Juniors

Tuesday- Middles

Wednesday- Seniors

The theme this year is Paws for Books! 

The Jungle Book Kids

Only 13 sleeps until our talented performers take to the stage on September 14th. This week we have been performing in the large hall on the stage and puting the performance together as a whole. Our backdrop sets are being constructed and we are thinking about how we use the space of the stage.

This week we are sharing some links to past productions. Click on the links below to relive some of our great past productions!

COSTUMES:

We ask all students to please have their performance clothes, clearly labelled in a plastic bag. They will need to be brought to school as soon as possible. Hopefully all classroom and choir costume requirements have been examined by families. They are published again below.

Prep: Monkeys

Black tee shirt (can be long or short), 

Black pants, leggings or shorts.

Yr 1 - 6: The Jungle

Black, brown or dark pants / shorts 

Black , brown or dark top (long or short)

Choir

Black, brown or dark pants / shorts

Black, brown or dark top (long or short)

Before & After School Care

Crisis Meals

Each week a volunteer has been rostered to provide a freezable meal to our school to be distributed to a family experiencing hardship, grief or unforeseen circumstances. These meals have been regularly distributed and the families receiving them have been most grateful.

The volunteer for this week is Kate Harzmeyer.

The upcoming roster is below. More volunteers are always welcome!

Ideally meals should be easy to freeze & serve, and should be labelled so that the type meal can be easily identified. Any other families wishing to volunteer can now do so by calling the office directly. Meals can be dropped to the office.

Second Hand Uniforms

Families seeking low cost uniform items are welcome to contact Angela Verspay (mum to Dylan and Finn) who has stock of many donated uniform items. Ph: 0477660119.

Recently we have had a call on  second hand uniforms.  We are desperately in need of larger sizes to replenish our stock.  If you have any school uniform clothing in reasonable condition we would very much appreciate your support.  Please contact Angela if you are in a position to assist.

Breakfast Club

Every Wednesday from 8:15 breakfast will be available in the function room for any students that would like to have some breakfast before the school day starts! Everyone is more than welcome to come along, even if they have already had breakfast at home. It is a great initiative supported by FoodShare who provide fruit, yoghurt, cereal and yummy toast. 

Thanks  to our parent volunteers Maddy and Tracey.

Parish Contact

Sunday Mass 10.00 @ St Pius X Church. School families are always welcome.

The Parish office can be contacted on 5562 2231

Other information and contact details can be found on the Star of the Sea South West Coast website: https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/parish/southwestcoast/ 

Upcoming Dates

Sep 2 Assembly at 2.45pm

Sep 2 Sports Night with Dads 4pm to 5.30pm

Sep 8 Pupil Free Day: Staff Professional Learning

Sep 14 School Production: The Jungle Book Kids

Oct 3 Term 4 begins

Oct 28 Twilight Fair

School Canteen Roster

Father's Day

A song I’ve always loved is Father’s Day by Weddings, Parties, Anything.

The narrator tells the story of his love for his son. The son lives with his mother and visits his father on Saturdays - father’s day. Over the years since becoming a dad myself, I find it difficult to listen to the song without a tear coming to my eye. The song is a powerful portrayal of the life-giving relationship between the father and the child. I think the song was a hit for this very reason, that it speaks to the very deep love that we have for our children and our children have for us.

Of course I’m generalising - not all these relationships are easy, some are complicated and of course we know that some are abusive.

But Father's Day should be a celebration of positive masculinity, so let’s take the time this week to celebrate all of the good men in our lives - be they dads, grandfathers, uncles and friends. The relationship we have with them is precious. 

It was no accident that Jesus taught his disciples to call God ‘Father’. He was looking for a name that illustrated care, love and nurturing.

Our Diocesan Community

The link below opens the quarterly diocesan magazine that features news from across the Ballarat Diocese.

COVID 19 Arrangements

Masks

All education sectors in Victoria are strongly promoting the wearing of masks for anyone in an indoor school setting, aged 8 years and above. The wearing of masks has been a recommended practice for some time (the letter from education sector heads is included below).

Students will be required to wear masks in certain circumstances including bus travel or a period of high levels of prolonged transmission in the school or in a specific area of the school.

Any staff of students who are identified as close contacts must wear a mask indoors.

RAT Kits

Staff and students should only be tested with a RAT kit when symptomatic or when testing daily as a close contact over the 7 day quarantine period.

Another supply of RAT kits was sent home this week. Families who require extra kits should make contact with the administration office.

Vaccination 

St Pius X strongly supports vaccination for all in our community who are eligible. However, the new COVID regulations have lifted the mandate for all employees and volunteers to be vaccinated. This means there will be no requirement for adults entering the school to declare their vaccination status.

All community adults are reminded of the child safety requirement to sign in when attending the school between 9.00am and 3.00pm

Transport 

Parents who have tested positive to COVID 19 are permitted to drive children to and from school during their 7 day isolation period. They are required to return home immediately afterwards and not attend other locations.

Managing a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 

As soon as a staff member or student becomes aware of being a suspected case - that is symptomatic (fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, loss of smell or taste:

1. The suspected case is required to leave the school site, or be isolated on-site until they are able to leave.
2. The suspected case is required to be tested with a rapid antigen test. A positive test result must be reported to the Department of Health
3. Positive cases must be isolated for 7 days, testing again on day 6.

In the event that school receives notification that a staff member or student was infectious while onsite:

1. All staff must use a rapid antigen test if they have symptoms.
2. All students must use a rapid antigen test if they have symptoms.
3. Staff and students will be strongly encouraged to use rapid antigen tests for the following 5 days if they don’t have symptoms.

Where a positive case is recorded from a staff member or student who has been on site, the school community will be notified. Personal information will not be released in this communication.

If a staff member or student tests positive with a rapid antigen test but does not have symptoms or has not been in contact with a positive case, a PCR test is recommended. If a subsequent PCR shows a negative result the staff member or student can return to school.

Close Contacts

A close contact (a person who has spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID 19 inside a house, accommodation or care facility) is no longer required to quarantine, as long as they follow the additional safety measures:

• Notify the school if returning within the 7 day period.
• Undertake RAT testing on school days within the 7 day period (unless the 4 week exemption applies)
• Wear a mask indoors if an adult or a student (aged 8 years or above).
• Not visit hospitals or care facilities.
• Avoid contact with people at higher risk of infection.
• If symptomatic take a RAT or PCR test.