Dear Parents

Last weekend was the feast of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit came to the disciples and filled them with the drive and joy to spread the work of Jesus.  One of his enduring lessons which that the disciples taught was a "new" commandment:  "Love one another, just as I have loved you."

In several meetings this week we reminded the children of this call through our school rules.  

They are:

* Respect ourselves
* Respect others
* Respect our school

As part of our wellbeing goal this year, the children were reminded of our school rules, the consequences of poor behaviour and our expectations.  Our current focus is on ensuring that play is safe and not hands on or rough.  No changes were made to games, and all are allowed to be played. However, there has been an increased awareness of what is safe play and unsafe play and this will continue to be our focus.

This week the Term 2 P and F meeting was held.  Thank you to our members for their valuable feedback, for their organisation and initiatives, for their shared goals and for supporting our school.  All members do so in a voluntary capacity and so the contribution and that of all parents who help at school are especially valued.  I saw this sign at the Bathurst Historical Society this week while we chatted to many longterm volunteers.  " Studies show that volunteers live longer and live better."

This week I have been with Year 5 students and teachers at the Bathurst camp.  It is such a wonderful growth experience for the children. 

We have done some "strength spotting" at camp.  We've seen courage as children spent their first camp away and rode the cable car at the Blue Mountains.

We've seen humour and playfulness as the children played trivia with Mr de Villiers and Mrs Siokos. 

We saw teamwork as they competed and tackled tasks. 

We saw appreciation of beauty as children took in a new environment.  Self control and fairness were being demonstrated throughout both days and curiosity and love of learning were evident in Yr.5's engagement in the lessons on bush rangers, damper making and gold panning. 

Gratitude was evident as the children politely thanked those who helped with their day and spirituality was practised with their night-time routine of mediation and prayer.  

Thank you to all our teachers who give of their own time and much effort to create experiences for our students to not only grow in their learning but also to grow as a person. 

This Sunday is the Kinder Family Mass and all are welcome.  It is also an opportunity for Year Six to be presented with their confirmation certificates. 

Our Public Speaking finals will be held over the next few weeks.  Thank you to Mrs Russell for her leadership in this.

Good luck to the students who attended the MacKillop Cross Country Championship today. 

Save the date!

I hope you have set aside Tuesday 2nd July at 8.45am to participate in our writing workshop in the hall. This will show our approach and let you see and hear examples of student writing. We will open classrooms to provide you with an opportunity to experience a range of writing across all stages.

Many thanks to Mrs Kelly who will be assisting Marist College North Shore to identify gifted applicants for their Newman strand for Year Seven. 

Please ensure you have booked your Parent/Teacher interviews for week 9 as we would like to complete these by the end of the term.  You can find the full details on booking your child/ren's interviews within this newsletter.

Kind regards

Julie Caldwell