Dear Parents and Carers,

Confirmation

Our Confirmation Candidates have registered to begin their journey. After Mass on Sunday Father Josh explained the expectations of the formation program and how important this Sacrament of Initiation is. I ask you to keep our Year Six students in your prayers.

Parking Safely around schools

Transport Canberra and Access Canberra would like me to remind families of the need to park safely around schools. Please read the following messages and take their advice into consideration to keep our students safe.

Unsafe driving and parking behaviours increase the potential road safety risk for children around schools. Road safety is a shared responsibility, it is important the road rules are followed near our school to ensure the entire school community feels safe.  Please remember children are more at risk than adults around schools because they are smaller and less visible to drivers. They are also less predictable and less experienced, which makes them more likely to make errors of judgement.  Failing to follow simple road rules like parking on the verge, in no stopping zones, in bus stops, near children’s crossings, on footpaths or across driveways increases the risk to children around schools. Please do the right thing to create a safe environment around our school.

Enforcement around schools

Parking Operations use a Licence Plate Recognition vehicle (or electronic chalking), which regularly patrols school environments to increase safety for children. Motorists that commit an offence will receive their infringement notice in the mail (rather than on their windscreen) 5-7 days after the offence.  While the school can become congested during the peak times, illegal parking should be avoided at all times as it creates an unsafe environment for children and local residents. Parents are welcome to park on side streets around the school, but please remember to park legally. Infringements for parking on nature strips, footpaths, verges, street corners and near children’s crossings start from $114.  More information is available on the Transport Canberra website to promote safe behaviours around schools. Please help to make our school community safe.

Protective Behaviours- Health Curriculum

This term the students are learning about safety and protecting themselves. Key messages taught are that we all have the right to feel safe all of the time and that we can talk about anything with someone we trust. The children will identify a network of adults that they can trust and rely upon. They will learn about persistence and telling a trusted adult when they are feeling unsafe.

Athletics

Last Friday we had superb weather for our Athletics Carnival. Thank you to Kristy Poole and Donna Victory for their organisation. Our Merici student helpers were of valuable assistance and we are fortunate to be able to access the facilities at Merici College. Thank you to the huge number of parents that came to cheer and to also help out with record keeping, judging, marshalling etc. We can’t run these events without your help and time. Thank you.

Book Week – Week 5 August 19-23

Are you book week ready? A much loved week in our calendar- save the following dates.

Monday 19^th : Bring a gold coin to buy a piece of cake from our 5/6 students who have baked a cake with a book theme.

Wednesday 21^st : Snuggle Up and Read. Come to the library with a parent any time between 5:30pm and 6:45pm and read together. You can wear your pyjamas, bring a cushion, bring a torch and read. Stay a little or a long time. There is no teacher supervision. All children must be accompanied by an adult.

Friday 23^rd: Book Week Parade. Come to school dressed as a book character and tell your class what is your character’s reading power. The children will parade class by class in Holy Faith Hall to an onlooker’s delight. Parents welcome to attend the parade at 9am. Who will you be?

Read-More-A-Thon

Bring in your Read-More-A-Thon logs on Friday with a donation if you can. Your child will receive an incentive to read even more the following week. I am encouraging children to ask parents, grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, close family friends, Godparents to donate to our school. With the funds raised, we will purchase new books for our classroom libraries.

Yours sincerely

Nicole Mikkonen
Acting Principal