18 December 2019

Newsletter Articles

Principals Address

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

As the school year comes to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your rich and varied contributions to our school community throughout 2019. Thank-you also for attending our wonderful end of year events in such great numbers, including the End of Year Mass and picnic and Presentation night. Your attendance made them truly special community occasions.

A very special and big thank you to our wonderful staff who have worked tirelessly throughout the year. We are extremely lucky to have such a dedicated, enthusiastic, talented and professional team.

I would also like to acknowledge the wonderful support Fr Paul and Fr John have provided to our Parish community, which naturally includes our school.

To our P&F, for all their hard work and commitment to raising funds for our children. Thank-you so much for the great contribution you have made this year. It is very much appreciated!

Farewell and good luck to our Year 6 students. Thank you for the wonderful leaders and role models you have been for our school. We are very proud of your achievements. We hope you enjoyed your time at St Aloysius and take many special memories and learnings with you. We wish you all the best for High School and the future.

A special mention to those families whose children are finishing at St Aloysius and who will be leaving us at the end of this year. We thank you for your association with our school and the gifts and joys your child/ren and family brought. We ask for God’s blessings on you for the future.

Wishing you all a very peaceful, Holy and Happy Christmas and an enjoyable holiday break and festive season with your families.

Grant

Principal
Grant Diggins

Assistant Principals News

2019 has certainly been a great year!

We’ve all witnessed the wonderful progress that the students have made in their own individual ways. Congratulations to all!

Thank you for the support that you’ve given to St Aloysius school during 2019.

Thank you to the children for putting a smile on my face each day!

I’d like to take the opportunity to wish each and every family a safe, happy and holy Christmas. It’s easy to get caught up in the commercialism of Christmas time, as we do, but there are many things that we need to be grateful for. They are not wrapped in pretty paper or tied up with a bow, they are our families; the ones we love and love us. During the Christmas period try to take some time to just enjoy the simple moments of being together.

Assistant Principal
Anne Higgins

Religious Education Update

Mini Vinnies

A very big thank you to all of the Mini Vinnies for their wonderful help this year in raising awareness of social justice issues. We have had a very productive year and have enjoyed organising and participating in a range of initiatives to make the world a better place. Some of our highlights this year include:

Fundraising for Caritas during Lent

Our Winter Appeal

Our Vinnies Bushfire Appeal
Mission Day activities and stalls
Our visits to Benhome Aged Care Facility
Supporting the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal

Thank you to the many families who donated an item to our Christmas Appeal. All of your donations will go to families in our local community who need our help and support.

Christmas Mass Times

Christmas Vigil 24 December

6:00pm St Mary’s, Maitland
6:00pm Our Lady of Lourdes, Beresfield
6:30pm St Paul’s, Rutherford

Christmas Day

7:15am Immaculate Conception, Morpeth
8:00am Sacred Heart, Campbell’s Hill
8:20am Holy Family, Largs
8:30am St Joseph’s, East Maitland
9:30am St Patricks Lochinvar & St Columba’s Paterson

Thank You!

I want to thank all the staff, parents and the community for their continued support throughout the year and participation in the various events, including Masses, liturgies and social justice initiatives.

We are blessed to have such an amazing community at St Aloysius who help to make our school a place of care and love, a place that reflects Christ’s message of how we should care for each other.

Have a very Merry Christmas and see you in 2020!

Religious Education Co-ordinator
Nicholas Hughes

Awards

Week 9

Reminders

Opening School Mass – Advance Notice

Our Opening School Mass for 2020 will be held on Friday 7th February at 10am. Our Year 6 student leaders will be presented with their badges and our new staff welcomed into our community.

School Car Park

Please be reminded that the car park is for staff use only from 7.30am to 4pm.

For the safety of all, under no circumstances should children be dropped off or picked up in the car park.

Parents with children attending OOSH, please use Kiss and Ride or on-street parking during these times. The car park may be used by parents and visitors outside these hours.

Collecting Children Early from School

We understand there are times when you will need to collect your child from school during class time. So that your child and the class have the minimum amount of disruption and lost learning time, we will only call your child from their classroom when you arrive at the school. We hope you understand and allow extra time when collecting your child.

Morning Drop Off

Please be reminded that gates open at 8.15am and that children should not be dropped off before this time as there is no supervision. St Nicholas OOSH has places each morning for families who require care for their children before 8.15am.

Term 1 2020

As mentioned in previous newsletters, please be advised that students from Year 1-6 begin the 2020 school year on Wednesday 29th January. Kindergarten start on Friday 31st January. Please be reminded that the school will be closed on Tuesday 28th January for a Pupil Free Day.

Sport News

Swimming Carnival Results

Please see the results from the swimming carnival –

Primary Coordinator

STEM News

STEM TEACHER ENRICHMENT ACADEMY Primary Schools Program

Next year St Aloysius has been accepted into the STEM Teacher Enrichment Academy run by the University of Sydney. This program has been limited to a small number of schools in our region. A team of teachers will be involved in Stage 2 – Years 3 & 4.

The STEM Teacher Enrichment Academy – Primary Schools Program provides teachers with knowledge, skills, resources and support to make real change in their classroom teaching. It inspires teachers to pursue their interests in mathematics, science and technology, and to pass on that inspiration to their students.

In particular, the Academy will:

• introduce and support exciting and effective approaches to learning, enhance teachers’ knowledge of content and approaches to teaching integrated mathematics, science and technology in Years 3-6 of the Australian Curriculum for NSW
• develop a community of practice for participating teachers, with ongoing support and engagement through mentoring, online forums, newsletters, seminars and events
• develop teachers’ awareness of relevant STEM-related applications to society and career pathways.

Jessica Moulder
Primary Coordinator
STEM Coordinator

CAPA Notes

What a busy term it has been!

Last week the Infants and Primary Show Choirs performed at our Presentation night. They did a wonderful job! A huge thank you to all the students who supported our school on this night to perform.

It was fantastic to watch the two performances from the Drama students as well on Presentation night. The movie “Teachers” was a hit and had the audience laughing at the some of the antics of school teachers. A big thank you to the Drama Club, Emerson Croke, Celeste Poynter, Lily Stephen and Anton Vannini for their assistance in filming and producing this movie.

The Year 5 students who performed “Therapy Session” demonstrated their amazing comedic timing and had the audience in stitches!

Last Saturday evening a selection of Primary Show Choir students represented our school at the Waterford Christmas Carols at the Waterford office at Chisholm. They performed commendably and did our school proud. I really appreciated these wonderful students who came out on a weekend at a busy time of year to represent our school with pride. Thank you so much for your support!

I would like to wish all St Aloysius families a happy and holy Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!!!

Carla Whiting
Creative Arts Teacher

Learning Hub News

Summer Holidays at Maitland Library

Our local library has outdone themselves yet again in preparing a fun filled and educational activity planner for the summer holidays. There are no reasons for the kids to be bored this holidays with activities such as the Summer reading club, paper mache masterclasses, road trip challenges or even just watching a movie in the air conditioned comfort. Click here for more information such as dates and booking details.

Thank you

What an amazing year we have had in the Learning Hub this year. It is such a wonderful community and we would like to thank each and every one of you that has helped us to make this library the amazing place it is.

Whether it was covering books, assisting with the Book Fair sales or donating a book or gift to our lunch club, all contributions have been so very much appreciated.

The Library team wish you all a very happy and Holy Christmas with your loved ones and look forward to seeing you back at St Aloysius in 2020.

Kind regards,
Sam Berry, Catherine Creasey and Carolyn Lilley (St Aloysius library team)

Student News

Presentation Evening

A very big congratulations to all our children for their great effort, progress and achievements shown over the 2019 school year. A special mention to our major award winners:

Parent News

Go4Fun – Free family program

Go4Fun is a FREE fun 10 week program available to families that is supported by NSW Health. It is evidence based and has had 12000 children participate state wide. Families learn about healthy eating and children play active games in each session.

Go4Fun helps families to be happier healthier and fitter!

P&F News

2019 P&F President’s Report

Thank you to all the members of the St Aloysius P&F for a fantastic year.

The P&F had many successful fundraisers during the year including the Easter Raffle, Entertainment Books, The Colour Explosion, Pie Drive, Mango Trays and our newest fundraiser the Wine Drive.

As a community we raised over $20,000. Our donations supported $2,300 towards a film making kit, green screen and a new hover cam, $2,000 towards outdoor living equipment, over $12,000 towards air-conditioning the new buildings. $1,500 towards digital technology and $1600 from the wine drive towards decodable readers for infants.

Our successful friendraisers included Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day stalls, and our annual school disco.

Civcon Water generously donated representative athletic shirts, The Sadlier and Price families donated netball bibs for school gala days, and the P&F donated St Aloysius swimming caps and football socks for students representing the school.

With such a supportive P&F we look forward to our journey into 2020.

Merry Christmas and have a very happy New Year.

Thank you,

Megan Price
P&F President for 2019

Finance and Office News

Office Hours

From 2020, our office hours will be 8:30am to 3:00pm.

Canteen News

Canteen Duty

If you are available for Canteen Duty (no experience necessary), please email me -tracy.mcgovern@mn.catholic.edu.au if you would like to be added to the roster. You will need to be cleared to volunteer before you can commence.

OOSH News

St Nicholas Before and After School Care

Before care: 6.30am- 8.50am
After care: 2.50pm- 6.00pm
Holiday Club: 7:00-6:00pm
Coordinator: Kyra
Service Ph: 0419 697 715
chisholm@stnicholasoosh.org.au

Dates to Remember

Wednesday 18th December – Last day Term 4 for students
Tuesday 28th January 2020 – Staff return – Pupil Free day
Wednesday 29th January – Students in years 1 to 6 – first day Term 1
Friday 31st January – Kindergarten 2020 first day
Friday 7th February – Opening School Mass 10am – Year 6 Student Leaders will be presented with their badges
Sunday 1st March to Saturday 7th March – Catholic Schools Week
Monday 2nd March – Kinder 2021 enrolments open