Dear Parents and carers,

Our PAWS focus this term - We participate - Be kind, Listen and Be respectful is so important for students as it covers many aspects of how they should interact with each other and their teachers.  Recently I had a ‘behaviour talk’ with students as the teachers had seen some disrespectful attitudes and actions occurring.  Respect for themselves, their peers and teachers can be seen practically when students listen, wait their turn, include others, keep their hands and feet to themselves and speak in a calm, quiet manner.  I also spoke about our school value of ‘Courage’ explaining that if students see something that is not right, then they need to show courage by informing a teacher.  

Parent Volunteers

We urge any parent who wishes to volunteer for any school event eg. disco, excursions, sport, carnivals or activities held in the classrooms, to apply for their Working With Children Check (WWCC) and complete the Sydney Catholic Schools Volunteers Induction process.  The process of getting your WWCC can take a few weeks so it could be disappointing if you can’t volunteer for an event just because you haven’t completed the process.  For a small cost, the WWCC enables you to volunteer for child related activities at school and outside of school so is certainly worth having.  The WWCC lasts 5 years so please be proactive.  

To apply for a Working With Children Check (WWCC) - https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/transaction/apply-for-a-working-with-children-check

To undertake the Sydney Catholic Schools online Induction - Safe Schools Expectations - https://scschildsafecommunities.wpcomstaging.com/wwc-accreditation/

Please forward a copy of the WWCC to the school office (info@shmosman.catholic.edu.au) once you receive it.  Once you complete the SCS Online Induction you will receive an email from SCS to say that you are VERIFIED.  Please forward a copy of this email to the school office also so that it can be confirmed.  

School Disco

Thank you to our Kindergarten parents for their organisation of the event.  You may have seen some of the Kindy mums at school drop off on Monday building excitement and wearing their ‘fluro’ - Michelle Smith, Alicia Ryder and Lucy Kierath. 

Winter Uniform

Students have now been wearing their winter uniform for a couple of weeks however we are still seeing a mixture of summer and winter.  All summer tunics should now be packed away and boys wearing shorts should wear navy knee high socks. Please remember that sports shoes are only worn with the sports uniform.

School Photos

We have been advised that school photos should be delivered to school around 9 June and we will distribute them to your child when received.  

Year 5 Camp - May 25 and 26

Wishing all our Year 5 students a wonderful 2 day overnight camp in Bathurst this Thursday and Friday.  Miss Meehan, Mrs Watson, Mrs Siokos, Mr Nokes, Miss Blake, Mrs Theirman and Mr O’Donoghue will be supervising the students during this experience and we thank them for their time and enthusiasm.  

Sports Carnival - Wednesday 31 May 

As mentioned in our last newsletter, Zing Activ have scoped Allan Border oval for us and whilst it is not an actual athletics field, we are able to run most activities.  Mosman Council have said that they can only advise whether we can sit in the middle of the oval the day before the event so we will allocate seating on the day and Miss Calizar is meeting with Council and Zing Activ in regards to line markings.  We are planning the usual running events as well as K-2 tabloid events and Years 3-6 events including shot put and discus.  Unfortunately high jump and long jump into a sand pit is not possible.  Miss Calizar is also already looking at other more suitable athletics fields to book now for our carnival next year.  

For many of our students, this will be their first carnival.  The aim of our sports carnival is for the students to have a very fun, energetic primary school experience.  Whilst we will record running and track events times and distances for some events, we are not ‘Little Athletics’ and we ask parents to keep this in mind when working with teachers and other parent helpers.  During the day we have the infants and primary carnivals running simultaneously.  We start with the 800m race and then all students begin their events.  Running races are part of the rotating activities for each group of students so when you look across the field at any time there will be races, throwing events and fun activities happening at the same time.  

Running events - students will just run once for each event - there are no heats and finals.  The infants students run 70m and primary students run 100m and 200m events with the option of 800m at the beginning of the day.  Students are awarded ribbons for first, second or third in their race. We record the first, second and third time for each race and then back at school Miss Calizar will look at the overall times to see the quickest student for each age group.  

When looking at the requirements for students to represent our school at the Conference level of  Sydney Catholic Schools,  please note that the events are organised in three categories Juniors, 11 year olds and Opens and we are permitted to send one student from each category to each event.  

Juniors = 8, 9 and 10 year olds.  This means that if your child is 8, 9 or 10 then only the child with the best time from all of these ages will be chosen.  

11 year olds = one child chosen for each event

Open =12 and 13 year olds. This means that if your child is 12 or 13 years old then only the child with the best time from all of these ages will be chosen.  

Only one week to go and so far we have over 30 parent volunteers.  There are still many opportunities for you to get involved, if you are planning to attend on the day, please add your name to the  Volunteer note. 

PRIME Drinks 

These drinks clearly state on the bottle that they are not recommended for under 15 year olds.  Students should only bring a water bottle to school.  

Kind regards,

Jane Taylor

Assistant Principal