St Raphael’s Catholic School Term 2, Week 9/A Newsletter 19 June 2017
Dear Parents, Tomorrow Year 6 students spend the day at their Confirmation Retreat. Investing time reflecting on and deepening their appreciation of the importance of the Sacrament is a valuable priority. On Saturday the 6pm Confirmation Mass is the only Mass at St Raphael’s for the weekend. We pray that these candidates and their families are richly blessed. Today prospective Kindy parents visited the school and shared morning tea and discussions about the transition process to “big school” for their children. The children from the local preschools will also be visiting within the next ten days. We warmly welcome enquiries from anyone considering enrolment will set aside time to answer questions and show around.
All members of the St Raphael’s family are invited to attend the Kinder – Year Twelve Assembly. The assembly will be conducted at 9:30am on Thursday, June 29th. Friday, June 30th we are conducting the annual NAIDOC Mass (9:30pm) followed by associated activities. You are, of course, invited to participate in both events. For your planning: Day one of the third term is Tuesday 18th July. The Monday is a Pupil Free Day – for staff only. Staff members are commencing the Cultural Competence certification that will continue throughout Term 3 Michael Gallagher Principal
Western NSW VET Training Awards: Very proud parent, teachers, principal and Executive Director supporting Axton Farrel-Gray at the very high profile and glitzy awards ceremony on Friday night. To be named as finalist is a fitting tribute to Axton’s hard work and fine achievements in his VET studies.
Congratulations to our representative Netballers on their successes at Bathurst last week. Best of luck to our representative sports people in Rugby League later this week. On Friday and Saturday of this week each family of Year 10 students is meeting with Curriculum Coordinator, Ben Thomson and myself in the second portion of the Year 11 Course Selection process Semester 1 Reports will be circulated next week. I expect that it will be a time of recognition and celebration of the wonderful growth that has occurred during the first semester. P.O. Box 7, Cowra 2794 Tel: 6342.2940
Spirit of God, grant me: The gift of wisdom To see the world through your eyes, The gift of counsel To make difficult decisions, The gifts of knowledge and understanding To use my mind to know you and to love you, The gift of fortitude To have the courage to live in the faith Despite the difficulties and disappointments, The gift of piety To be able to express my special love And commitment to you, And the right kind of awesome fear That makes me pause to wonder and revere God’s Love. Amen. Email: straphaels@bth.catholic.edu.au School Website: www.straphaelscowra.catholic.edu.au
Confirmation Catholics believe the Sacrament of Confirmation builds on what was begun in Baptism and what was nourished in Holy Eucharist. It completes the process of initiation into the Christian community, and it matures the soul for the work ahead.This weekend students from St Raphael’s Parish will be confirmed with the Gifts of the Holy Spirit when they receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. We ask that you keep the following students in your prayers:
Tianna Azzopardi, Georgia Buchtmann, Mitchell Casey, Philippa Elwin, Eppie Emseis, Alannah Gocin, Logan Haslam, Melissa Mood, Jarred Stead, Jack Webb, Aaron Azzopardi, Matthew Banks, Daniel Gorham, Georgia Hanley, Lizzie Heilman, Natalie Mallon, Stanley Rush, Kate Statham, Codie Thompson, Amelia Thomson, Louis Johnson.
Monday 19 Happy birthday to Rowan Wheeler. P&F Meeting at 7pm. Prospective Kindergarten Parents Meeting 10-11am. Tuesday 20 Happy birthday to Georgie Anning. Study Centre @ S17 8-8:45am. Wednesday 21 Happy birthday to Thomas Partridge. Study Centre @ S17 8-8:45am. Carinya Preschool Visit 11:10am-1:10pm. Year 4 Bathurst Goldfields Excursion. Confirmation Reconciliation at 6pm in St Raphael’s Church. Thursday 22 Happy birthday to Jack Parrish and Bernadette Zarb. Study Centre @ S17 8-8:45am. Secondary Small Schools Rugby League Dubbo. Friday 23 Stage 6 Course Selection Discussions. Saturday 24 th Happy birthday to Rory Sullivan for the 24 . Stage 6 Course Selection Discussions. Confirmation.
Condolences We offer our sympathy and prayerful support to Fr Laurie on the death of his mother on Saturday afternoon. The supportive presence of so many of his friends at the Liturgy Conference was a blessing. P.O. Box 7, Cowra 2794 Tel: 6342.2940
Dates for the Calendar Reminder Confirmation Reconciliation Wednesday 21st June. Please note the change of time to 6pm. Altar Servers’ Roster th Sat 25 June: Laura Price, Darby Hubber, Maddison O’Reilly. th Sun 26 June: Ky Garratt. School Eucharistic Ministers for Weekend Parish Masses: th Sun 26 June: Mrs M McMurtrie. School Computer Roster th Sat 25 June: Price family.
Year 7 Gold Year 7 Gold has discovered that more than 800 000 tonnes of food waste is thrown away every year in Australia. Imagine you have gone to do your grocery shopping...before you even unpack the products, throw away every 5th bag. This is how much we waste! Up to 40% of the average household bin is food waste. We throw out 345 kg of food per year which is equivalent to 3 average size fridges. This got us thinking. We decided to see how much food is wasted at St Raph’s. On Friday of Week 7, 7 Gold collected 2 bins from the Primary playground and 2 from the Secondary area as well as some small bins from the staffroom. We put on our gloves and got to work. We emptied the bins and sorted through the rubbish, putting it into 2 groups on a large tarp: food waste and everything else. The amount of food waste from the primary department was appalling! We collected over 20kg of food waste. About 90% was from the primary students. We also found an alarmingly large amount of perfectly good food including whole fresh apples, unopened juices and yoghurts, delicious sandwiches and even fairy bread! Over the coming weeks stay tuned for our updates on how to combat food waste yourself, in your home, at a local level and globally. Year 6 Canberra Excursion On the 22nd to the 24th of May, St Raphael’s Year Six students experienced 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 families in meeting the cost of the Email: straphaels@bth.catholic.edu.au School Website: www.straphaelscowra.catholic.edu.au
excursion the Australian Government is contributing funding of $20 per student under the Parliament and Civics Education Rebate program towards those costs. The rebate is paid directly to the school upon completion of the excursion. Here are just a few of the students perspectives of each of the places we visited and programs we participated in. Eppie Emseis - Parliament House was really interesting because we went to both ‘the new’ and ‘the old’ Parliament House. We participated in a fun role play where Natalie became The Boss (Sorry Natalie “Madam Speaker”) and Ethan got to dress up as the Sergeant at Arms. We also visited the Senate, which was cool, it’s all red and the House of Representatives is the green room!
Jack Chamberlain - On the first night we visited Canberra Indoor Rock Climbing Centre. It was amazing! We had to learn how to put on a harness and how to use a belay correctly and safely before we could start! Many people managed to make it to the top on some of the walls, they were really tricky! We watched the experts climbing on the higher levels, they were awesome. Some of us got a little scared of heights, but they conquered their fears and tried their best, achieving great heights.
Georgia Buchtmann- At the Australian Electoral Commission we got to learn about Australia’s voting system and what to do when we vote. We got to have a turn at voting in a mock election for who we wanted to be Prime Minister. We all voted, then counted up the votes but we had an informal vote so the election ended in a tie. This would not happen in a real election as there are millions of votes in a national election. We had great fun and loved having our own turn to have a say in who we wanted to vote for. Mitchell Casey - Telstra tower was amazing. We went about a quarter of the way up and had a look at the whole of Canberra. Many people were terrified, so they did not go up any higher. The top observation deck of the tower was 870 metres above sea level and the ground was 812 metres above sea level. We saw some of the places we had been to, we did not realise those places were so big. When we went up to the highest observation deck and went outside, it was so windy! Codie Thompson - The War Memorial was fantastic. We watched the light show and learned so much about three different wars. I learned how the people controlled the airplanes and it’s guns at the same time, whilst trying to dodge bullets and other planes! We also learned about the different colours and symbols they used on planes.
Eoghan Killick - One of the best places we went was the Old Parliament house. It was so cool! We had to wear gloves, because it was so old we couldn't touch anything with our hand because of the oil on our hands would damage it. One of the best activities was when we had to use a key card to look and study some of the great people and events that contributed to making our parliament what it is today! We also got to see the old Senate and the House of Representatives. P.O. Box 7, Cowra 2794 Tel: 6342.2940
Email: straphaels@bth.catholic.edu.au School Website: www.straphaelscowra.catholic.edu.au
Lizzie Heilman - iPlay was so much fun. iPlay is an arcade full of fun and video games. We had so many choices to make! What would we do first? One go on the Dodgem Cars, a Laser Tag or a game of Tenpin Bowling and UNLIMITED video games! Laser tag was my favourite, of course the girls won. Emma and I went on the game called Dance Attack, it really was an attack! Boy it was more of a work out than a game! Jarred Stead - The Australian Mint was great. There were so many great things, such as the delivery room and the proof coin room it was a great experience. We got the great experience of looking at these two giant robots, one was called ‘Titan’ the other was called ‘Georgia’. ‘Titan’ was a lifting robot while ‘Georgia’ was a sending robot. Then at the end we were allowed to enjoy browsing the gift shop where I bought two separate coins for my family. Some of us even minted our own $1 coin, but it cost us $3. This caused a big disturbance when Meg minted a coin with obvious damage. This almost shut down the minting machine for the day until they found out it must have been a damaged blank!
Stanley Rush - One of the best things that we did in Canberra was going to the Australian Institute of Sport. We learned about how our athletes train and where they train for things like the Olympics and other major competitions around the world. Sportex was awesome, we got to challenge our skills with our friends to see who could throw, ride, jump, ski, skeleton as far, fast and accurately as we could. Thank you Mr O’Reilly, Mrs James, and Mr Jefferies for organising, supervising and making our Year Six Canberra Excursion such a wonderful and memorable experience!!!
Central West Rugby Union Congratulations to Eoghan Killick who was selected for the Central West Rugby Union team at the beginning of the season. Eoghan has had a cracking season so far. He received the Central West Best and Fairest Award at the NSW Country Championships st held on the 21 and nd 22 May and he went on to play at the State Titles in Camden on the long weekend. His team had 2 wins and 2 losses with great rugby being played on the weekend. Well done Eoghan!
School Photos The backup date for anyone who missed the school photos last week is this Thursday, 22 June. The photos will be taken first thing in the morning so please make sure your child is here on time. Please make sure your child is in full winter uniform for this photo. If they have sport on the day, please pack sports clothes. Thank you. Lost Jumpers and Jackets There are a number of lost jumpers and jackets in the front office with no names or illegible names. If our child is missing an item please get them to come and check. Please could all parents and carers also check the jumpers and jackets their children have brought home. Often in the rush of bells going incorrect items are picked up in error. You can return any of these to the front office. Thank you. School Fees Financially, we need to assess our position near the close of term. Thank you to all parents who have taken care of the current fee accounts by the due date. Numerous accounts, however, are overdue and your attention to this matter will be appreciated.
All Year Six students
If there is any difficulty or reason why payments are not currently being made please make contact promptly and a solution can be found with discretion and confidentiality. Thank you.
P.O. Box 7, Cowra 2794 Tel: 6342.2940
Email: straphaels@bth.catholic.edu.au School Website: www.straphaelscowra.catholic.edu.au
Canteen Update This week’s roster is as follows: Tues 20 Dee Mitchell
Wed 21 CLOSED
Tammie Penyu
Thurs 22 Dianne Franks
Fri 23 Cindy Langfield
Mon 26 Kate Wilson
Sally Bruncher
Nicky Hudson
Fiona Kerin
Robyn McAllister
Soup of the week: Meatball soup.
P&F Monthly meeting tonight at 7pm at the school. All are welcome to join us – we look forward to seeing you there.
WELL DONE Congratulations to the following students who have achieved the next level on the Behaviour Management Programme. Level 6 Jayden Azzopardi Matilda Healey Cohan Howden Mia Lewis Lucas Bryant Kate Proctor Sophie Falconer Monique Chang Philippa Elwin Melissa Mood Benjamin Smith Prue Cucchiaro
3 Green 3 Green 3 Gold 3 Green 4 Gold 4 Gold 5 Gold 6 Green 6 Gold 6 Gold 6 Gold 7 Gold
Laura Chang 3 Gold Deakin Horton 3 Green Tobie Hubber 3 Gold Pyper Muddle 3 Green Mackinlee Charnock 4 Gold Isabelle Doorey 5 Gold Georgia Buchtmann 6 Gold Emma Clements 6 Gold Eoghan Killick 6 Gold Scarlet Shepherd 6 Gold Jack Webb 6 Gold Michael McNamara 7 Green
Your Teachers are very Proud of You!
Hockey Clinics Hockey NSW is hosting School Holiday Clinics in various areas Keep the boredom out and the hockey in this July school holidays with one-day hockey clinics run by Hockey NSWaccredited coaches. Focused on fun and development and utilising the revolutionary new Joey Ball, they’re suitable for kids of any ability under the age of 12 and start from just $47. Don’t hesitate - get your school holidays plans sorted now. Head to https://www.hockeynsw.com.au/participation/schoolholiday-clinics/ to find a clinic near you. You don’t need to be a hockey player/member to be involved. All participants will receive a bucket hat and a Glitter Hockey NSW ball to take home. For more information contact your local RCC Kate Pulbrook on 0447 186 494 or email kate.p@hockeynsw.com.au
P.O. Box 7, Cowra 2794 Tel: 6342.2940
Email: straphaels@bth.catholic.edu.au School Website: www.straphaelscowra.catholic.edu.au
P.O. Box 7, Cowra 2794 Tel: 6342.2940
Email: straphaels@bth.catholic.edu.au School Website: www.straphaelscowra.catholic.edu.au