PARISH HOLY WEEK CELEBRATIONS

WELCOME NEW FAMILY

Last Tuesday we welcomed Alice Grypych and her family to our community. Alice has joined her classmates in 1SH. 

PARENT TEACHER INTERVIEWS 

Parent teacher interviews will be held this Tuesday the 4th of April. School will finish at 1:00pm on this day and students need to be picked up at this time. OSHC will be in operation from 1:00pm. To book your child in, you will need to book directly with OSHC via their website. The front car park and all gates will open at 12:40pm. 

INFLUENZA A 

I have been advised by two families that their children have tested positive for Influenza A. If your child is unwell please consider COVID and the flu as possible causes. If displaying any flu-like symptoms children should not be sent to school.

PRIVILEGE OF PRINCIPALSHIP

End of Term Mass

Our end of term Mass last Friday also marked the first anniversary of the passing of Angela D’Amelio our beautiful friend and colleague. It was a tough day for many of us and I want to commend your amazing children for the wonderful way they joined in and participated in our Mass. They were incredible.

Year Six Camp

I had the privilege of joining our Year Six students on their recent camp to Canberra. They did our school proud in the respect they have shown each other, the staff, and everyone they came into contact with. Time after time we heard how wonderful our students were in their behaviour, attitude and knowledge. 

I am also very proud of the staff who supported the students during this camp. They have sacrificed time with family to be on camp with your children and they do it because they love being educators and they love providing students with opportunities. They have also enjoyed spending such quality time outside the classroom with their students.

I particularly wish to acknowledge the work of Justin McCarthy who began planning this camp while we were still in lockdown. Every year Justin goes above and beyond to ensure that this camp is an amazing experience. We are very lucky to have him as a member of our school community

Finally, I am grateful to our Parents and Friends and Year Six class representatives who organised a meal that the staff who attended camp could take home when they returned after a week away from their families.

ENHANCING CATHOLIC SCHOOLS IDENTITY (ecsi) Survey

A HUGE thank you to the families who have completed the ECSI survey. I appreciate that it is time consuming and I am very grateful If you haven't completed it I would be very grateful if you took the time to do so this week. Details were emailed to you on the 29th of March.

PROJECT COMPASSION BOXES

Please return your project compassion boxes by the end of this term. They can be handed into the front office or via your child to the class teacher.

END OF TERM ONE

The last day of term one will be Thursday the 6th of April. School will finish at 2:30pm and all students need to be picked up at this time. OSHC will be in operation from 2:30pm. To book your child in, you will need to book directly with OSHC via their website. The front car park and all gates will open at 2:10pm. 

FIRST DAY OF TERM TWO 

The first day for students in term two will be Wednesday the 26th of April. Staff will be at school undertaking professional development on the 24th of April. OSHC will be continuing the holiday program on Monday the 24th of April bookings need to be made directly with OSHC via their website.

CHANGE OF UNIFORM FROM SUMMER TO WINTER

Students can begin wearing their winter uniform from the beginning of term two. The transition period is the first two weeks of term two when children can wear their summer or winter uniform. From Monday the 8th of May all students are required to wear winter uniform.

STAFF CHANGE

Kreeya Gladman has been working as a Learning Support Officer in the senior school at St Peter’s since the beginning of 2021. Kreeya is moving to NSW and will be leaving St Peter’s at the end of this term. We thank Kreeya for all she has brought to St Peter’s and wish her all the best in this next stage of her life. 

BIGNELL ROAD / CENTRE RD LIGHTS 

Nick Staikos has provided an update on the Bignell Road lights installation on his Facebook page. It can be viewed via this link.

Nick Staikos update on Bignell Rd / Centre Rd lights

PARLIAMENT AND CIVICS EDUCATION REBATE PROGRAM

Students from our St Peter's have recently undertaken an education tour of the national capital. Students were given the opportunity to participate in a variety of educational programs with a focus on Australia’s history, culture, heritage, and democracy.

The Australian Government recognises the importance of all young Australians being able to visit the national capital as part of their Civics and Citizenship education. To assist with the cost of the excursion, the Australian Government contributed funding of $45 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program. 

REPORT ON YEAR SIX CAMP

On Monday we started our day by waking up early and going on the bus. Everyone was thrilled to go to camp and had an amazing time on the bus. We met our amazing bus driver Jason. He was an excellent bus driver and if we didn’t have him we wouldn’t have had a great time. He played music, movies and funny jokes.

On Tuesday we did a lot of activities. We started off the day by waking up at around 6:00 AM and went to breakfast. After we ate our delicious breakfast we drove to our first landmark, The Australian War Memorial. Here a war veteran named Richard spoke to us about his time in the war. After, we saw the eternal flame. It symbolises the Australian and New Zealander soldiers who’s memorial will never die. We saw a wall of poppies. Each poppy represented every Australian and New Zealander soldier who fought and died in the war. After that we saw a tomb for a soldier who was found dead in the war but had no tags. Nobody could identify who he was. We all gathered around his tomb and played the last post. We had a one minute silence for the unknown soldier and said “lest we forget.” We also saw the museum part of the shrine where we saw things from The Great War that were over one-hundred years old. We learned about Jack Simpson and his donkey and a lot of other people who fought and died in the war.

Next, we went to the Old Parliament House and the New Parliament house to learn about the history of Australia. Later we went to the dinosaur museum where we learned about all of the freaky dinosaurs that used to live on this planet.

Wednesday was a mind boggling day. We had our breakfast and then we rode around Lake Burley Griffin. The view was stunning and we saw all these different types of wildlife. Luckily no one crashed but we did have some close calls. 

After that, we went to the Electoral Commission where we learnt how to vote and there were cool games that helped us learn. Our instructor had an amazing way of explaining things. We all had a turn of voting and some people even got to count the votes. Next, we headed to Questacon where we visited many different science themed rooms and even went down a drop slide! We finished our day off with a game of bowling where Mr Hanrahan scored 223 points!

Thursday was our last full day. We were all sad that it was ending but we didn’t let it get us down. First, we went to the Royal Australian Mint and heard all about the robots named Titan, Penny and Robby.

Then we went to CSIRO and played a game and learnt all these interesting facts. After that, we went to AIS and saw some of the athletes. We went to the game room where we could experience what the athletes experience in a game. Finally, we went to the Aquatic Center and had a great time going down the waterslides and swimming with our friends.

We had such a great time at camp!

(Oscar and Dean) 

CROSS COUNTRY

Well done to all the Year 3-6 students on the way they participated in the St Peter's House Cross Country last Friday. The weather turned out to be great and the students did very well, all trying their best and completing the course. It was great to see all students participate and turn up in their house colours! Congratulations to the Blue House who were the winners on the day. 

The Age Group winners were:

10 Boys - Robbie Koenig

10 Girls - Mila Caon

11 Boys - Ambrose Meyer

11 Girls - Scarlett Bloomfield

12/13 Boys - Liam Martin

12/13 Girls - Macy Carter

Once all times have been collated, a school cross country team will be announced to compete at the Bentleigh District Cross Country.

OPEROO NOTIFICATIONS VIA SMS

Some rules are changing when is comes to SMS Sender names in Australia. In 2022, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) approved revisions to the Scam Code. The Scam Code outlines the process for verifying that customers have a right to use an Alphanumeric Sender ID when sending SMS.

To remain compliant with these regulatory changes that affect the entire industry, Our SMS Service provider Twilio is requesting the pre-registration of Alphanumeric Sender IDs by April 25, 2023. Alphanumeric Sender IDs used after this date without pre-registration may be blocked. Operoo has registered the Alphanumeric Sender ID "Operoo".

What does this mean for us?

From the 25th of April if we send an SMS via the Operoo platform the SMS will have the Sender Name "Operoo '' not St Peter’s.

CLASS REP THANKYOU

A huge thank you to the parents who have volunteered to be class reps this year. At a gathering of our reps last week Michelle Gibson our community leader shared a prayer of thanks with our reps to remind them how appreciative and grateful we are for the important role they play, and have included a copy here for your perusal.

EASTER EGG RAFFLE

Thank you to all our families for your support of our Easter Egg Raffle. A HUGE thank you to Martha Pavlou, (Hugo 2RN and Milah FMS) and Rebecca Clarke (Romie 2GP and Lydiah 1BE) who have spent hours creating hampers from the many donations received. a big thank you to everyone who donated to the raffle prizes and sold tickets. Raffle drawn and winners announced on Tuesday 4 April - good luck!

YEAR ONE DISCO

Our Year One Play & Disco was held last Friday, we enjoyed seeing our year one families having fun and getting to know each other.

PARENT AND FRIENDS UPDATE

Next meeting: Monday 8 May 7pm at school and online, everyone welcome.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the sausage sizzle held on Monday 27 March - it was our biggest one yet, over 900 sausages were served! We're lucky to have such a great group of parent helpers who contribute their time to put on this event for our kids.

Our Year One Play & Disco was held last Friday, we enjoyed seeing our year one families having fun and getting to know each other.

Easter egg raffle - a big thank you to everyone who donated to the raffle prizes and sold tickets. Raffle drawn and winners announced on Tuesday 4 April - good luck!

Our Family fun night survey is open for a few more days if you'd like to give your feedback, we'd love to hear what you liked and what you'd suggest for next year  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/P2GFFR6 

Our community cookbook would make a great Mother's day gift for mums or grandmothers. Available to buy at this link https://www.trybooking.com/events/landing?eid=980489& Pre-purchased books can be picked-up from the Mother's day stall.

Coming up:

Year Two - Jump, Play & Disco - Friday, 5th May - information has been sent out to all year two classes.

Mother’s day breakfast - Wednesday, 10th May - calling all dads - this is your time to shine! To put on our annual Mother's day breakfast we need volunteers for 1 hour shifts. Please email or contact your class rep if you're available to help on the morning between 6am and 9am or help with setup, 5pm to 7pm, the night before.

Mother’s day stall - Friday, 12th May - we'd love some parents to help with the stall. We need six people at each session, 9am to 11am and 11.30am to 1.30pm. If you haven’t volunteered at school before this is a great one to get involved with - bring a friend, dads are most welcome!

Email: pnf1@spbentleigheast.catholic.edu.au

Trivia night - Saturday, 17th June - details coming soon