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LOCKDOWN EXTENSION
Today’s announcement of an extension to the current lockdown until the 2nd of September and the other restrictions being imposed is significant for all of you but does not change how the staff of St Peter’s will approach the next couple of weeks. We will continue to provide online learning in the same format as we have this week. The program for following weeks will continue to come home on the Friday afternoon. We will continue to provide for a wellbeing day across the school every Wednesday.
I can also provide information on the following celebrations / events
24th August Year 5 Eucharist Reflection day Postponed - New date to be advised
26th August 6:30pm Year 5 First Eucharist Postponed - New date to be advised
28th August 4:00pm St Peter’s Dads versus St Paul’s Dads Football game - Centenary Park Postponed with only a small chance of being rescheduled
30th August Pupil Free day for Staff Professional Learning Postponed - New date to be advised
30th August 7:00pm Parents and Friends meeting - will take place online
Updates on all events /celebrations past the 2nd of September will be advised in the week beginning the 30th of August
WELLBEING - ASK IF YOU NEED HELP
If you are worried about your child’s mental health please do not hesitate to contact our wellbeing leader Louise Van Corler lvancorler@spbentleigheast.catholic.edu.au as we have support in place.
Beyond Blue Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service
Beyond Blue are providing information, advice and strategies to help you manage your wellbeing and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hotline
1800 512 348
Beyond Blue Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service
Kids Helpline contact
Kids Helpline provides a free, private and confidential phone and online counselling service for young people aged 5 to 25. The service is available 24 hours a day from anywhere in Australia.
1800 551 800
FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION OF MARY
Yesterday, Sunday the 15th of August was the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. This holy day marks the occasion of the Virgin Mary's bodily ascent to heaven at the end of her life. As we sit in lockdown we can wonder the significance of such a feast to our lives today.
For me it has helped to remind me that my plans don’t necessarily fit into God’s plans. I don’t believe it was in Mary’s plans to become the Mother of Jesus but her response to God’s calling is a model to all of us. Over my life I have not had a great devotion to Mary but during these challenging times we face I have included Mary in my prayers. Like her I have to put my faith in God.
On the Feast of the Assumption Pope Francis posted this message on twitter. There is no better way to pray than to place oneself like Mary in an attitude of openness, with a heart open to God: ‘Lord, what you want, when you want, and how you want’
I’m going to give this a go and it may be something you could do with your families as well.
KINDNESS
When we returned from the last lockdown I visited every classroom and spoke to the children about our need to be kind. Kind to ourselves, kind to our families and kind to each other. As we are now in this new lockdown it stays as being a very important part of our actions each day. Michelle Gibson, Mick Schinck and our wonderful staff have prepared a reflection on kindness that we hope you and the children enjoy. It will be emailed to all families later today - enjoy.
WELLBEING WEDNESDAY
This Wednesday the 18th of August will be wellbeing Wednesday for all St Peter’s students. Children will join their initial google meet at 8:50am for the teachers to take the attendance roll. Following this all staff will be offline and all students will be free to do whatever their families want them to do. The activities provided for this day are optional and can be used if families want to use them.
Any feedback on how this worked for your family can be sent to feedback@spbentleigheast.catholic.edu.au
Supervision at school for children of essential workers will continue as normal.
VACCINATIONS and STAFF OFFLINE
Being an older staff member I have already been able to access my first Astrazeneca vaccination with my second booked in for early September. As vaccinations become available to more people I am supporting all St Peter’s staff in being able to access a Vaccination when they can. This may mean that some staff will be offline for periods during a school day. If this does happen parents will be informed of who the replacement online teacher will be. If higher vaccination rates will enable us to keep students at school during periods of lockdown then our staff are going full out to enable this.
SACRAMENT UPDATE
All Sacramental celebrations are on hold until we have some certainty. As soon as we have a clearer picture of what is allowed we will work with the Parish to ensure we are able to celebrate as a community within Covid restrictions.
PERFORMING ARTS UPDATE
The evening performances planned for this week for our Year One, Two, Five and Six students has been postponed. Again we will provide more information when we have concrete information on our return to school date.
BOOK WEEK PARADE 27TH AUGUST - OLD WORLDS, NEW WORLDS AND OTHER WORLDS - HOME BASED DRESS UP OPTIONS.
We are planning to celebrate book week with a parade of some sort on Friday the 27th of August. It will be class based and very low key. The staff of St Peter’s are creating a document with a list of dress up possibilities that require little or no work or stressful families. This will be shared with you in the next update.
NEXT UPDATE
My next communication will come next Monday the 23rd of August
PUPIL FREE DATES, PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEW DATES AND
END OF TERM FINISHING TIMES
We will be finishing at 1:50pm for Parent Teacher interviews on
Thursday, 16th September
We will finish at 2:30pm on the last days of
Term Three - Friday, 17th of September
OSHClub will be in operation from these times on these days.
We will finish for the year at 3:25pm on Tuesday, 14th December
Our Pupil Free Days will be
Monday, 30th of August to be rescheduled
Monday, 1st of November
Friday, 3rd of December
There will be no school for students on these days.
OSHClub will be in operation for full day programs on these days.
ASSEMBLY - FRIDAY 6th AUGUST
Please click on the link below to view our Assembly
Jamie Brown - 5GH - Zac Khoury - 5RD - Eloise Fitzpatrick - 5PH
Tahlia De Petra, Sebastian Keays - 6FG - Georgette Tzolakis - 6KM - Bosco Meyer, Zara Lal - 6MH - Hannah Lentine, Aidan Johnson - 6SH
Congratulations to all the children who have read and entered books for the Reading Challenge!
Also a special mention of those children who have written book reviews. Thank you for taking the time to do that - we have enjoyed reading them. Well done!
The Challenge closes on 17th September and we need all books to be entered no later than Thursday, 16th September to allow us time to do the final verification.
Remember you need to read the right number of Challenge books and Choice books to complete the challenge.
All children who complete the challenge will be awarded a Certificate of Achievement.
Other certificates will be awarded to students who read 50 books or more.
If you have any questions or need help, please speak to your teacher or Mrs. McKee, or contact Sue O’Mahoney somahoney@spbentleigheast.catholic.edu.au
Thanks for your participation and Happy Reading!
