Newsletter Term 1 Week 11 (12.4.24)

Message from the Assistant Principal: Mission - Gemma Ballantine

Catholic Schools Week

Thank you to all of the families who supported our 2024 Catholic Schools Week initiatives. We've had native bee education for our hive, a walk for Project Compassion, Year 3 Assembly, a whole school Mass, Open Classrooms and a camp! It was great to see so many families at our Mass and Open Classroom day yesterday. Thank you for your ongoing support and encouragement. We are very blessed to have such a vibrant, engaged community.

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Start of Term 2

A reminder to families that the first day back for Term 2 is Tuesday, April 30. We have a Staff Professional Learning Day on Monday, April 29.
For your calendars, the school will also be closed on Tuesday, May 28 for Staff Proclaim. Every Catholic School in the Diocese will be participating in Staff Proclaim in each region to reinvigorate staff with purposeful prayer and passionate commitment toward their vocation of accompanying students in choosing the fullness of life in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Staff will hear from guest speakers Meave Heaney (Xavier Centre of Theological Formation at ACU) and Roby Curtis (Director of Emmanuel City Mission). 

ANZAC Day

Thursday, April 25 is ANZAC Day and occurs in the second week of the holidays. We would love as many families as possible to attend the Kingscliff March. Our St Anthony’s group will meet in their school uniforms on the path outside the Bowls Club, opposite the fire station. We had a very large group attend last year and we were so proud! 

There will be a Mass at 9am in the Church where Fr Paul will bless the wreath with the school leaders, who will then take this to the cenotaph during the Kingscliff Service. The march is set to start at 10:15am.

Companions

A reminder for Parishioners who might have some time to come into school once a week from Term 2 and work with a student (or groups of students) who would benefit from a companion to build positive relationships, self-esteem and resilience. It might be teaching a child how to play cards or how to knit and having a yarn about life’s ups and downs at the same time. 

Volunteers need a Working With Children Check, which can be organised through the school.

If you would like to volunteer for the program or want to talk further about Companions, please contact Gemma Ballantine (Assistant Principal, Mission) through the School Office on 6674 1368. 

Important Dates & School Information

Term 1 2024

Monday, 15th April - Friday, 26th April - Term 1 School holidays

Term 2 2024

Thursday, 25th April - ANZAC Day

Monday, 29th April - Pupil Free Day - no school

Tuesday, 30th April - Term 2 students return to school

Tuesday, 7th May - Parent Forum Meeting 5-6 pm

Tuesday, 7th May - Family Workshop First Communion 6-7 pm

Thursday, 9th May - Mother's Day Stall

Friday, 10th May - Zone Cross Country

Friday, 17th May- National Walk to School Day

Sunday, 19th May - First Communion  Commitment MASS @ 9 am

Tuesday, 21 May - DIO Cross Country

Tuesday, 28th May - No School - Staff Proclaim

Child Protection Policy can be found on our School Website under Information/School Policies: St Anthony's Primary School Website or in the following link: https://www.kngplism.catholic.edu.au/policies

Message from Assistant Principal - Julianne Barlogio- Learning & Teaching

We wish to inform you of an important update regarding our communication methods here at St Anthony’s. After months of diligent work and addressing various issues, we are excited to announce that all notices and communication will now be streamlined through the Compass Platform.

From now on, to contact your child's teacher, we encourage you to utilise the Compass app, accessible on your phone or computer. Within your child's profile on Compass, you will find a designated button labelled "Email [Child's] Teacher." By selecting this button, an email will be automatically generated. Importantly, this email will be visible to all teachers assigned to the class, ensuring a collaborative and cohesive approach to communication.

We are implementing this team-based approach to enhance our ability to support students, particularly during staff absences. Responses to inquiries will be crafted collectively by the teaching team, aligning with our co-teaching methodology. This collaborative effort ensures that all communication is transparent and accessible to all teachers involved in your child's education.

Furthermore, we want to reassure you that SeeSaw will continue to be utilised for sharing student learning. We believe this platform provides an excellent opportunity for you to stay engaged with your child's academic progress and achievements.

Should you have any questions or require further clarification regarding the Compass platform or any other aspect of our communication methods, please do not hesitate to visit the school office. We are more than happy to provide demonstrations and assistance as needed.

Finally, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for your continued support and partnership in your child's education journey. As the school year progresses, we wish you and your family a restful and enjoyable break, filled with quality family time and cherished memories.

Thank you once again for your cooperation and understanding.

Something to think and pray about

Do You Simply Love Me?

I was greatly helped when Pope Francis wrote in The Joy of the Gospel (n.6), ‘When everything is said and done, I am infinitely loved’.  This massive statement about your view of me, Lord, means that, no matter how I let you down, you delight in me as I am.

Just as the sun heats me without making a choice about it, you don’t have to make a choice about loving me: you simply do it! Often I’d prefer that you wouldn’t intervene in my life as you do, but if I can believe that your love for me is unconditional, total, like the warmth of the sun, I can manage what comes my way. You simply love me!
Excerpted from I Am Infinitely Loved: A Month of Meditations by Brian Grogan SJ (p.8)

https://sacredspace.com/

Sports News

St Anthony’s Cross Country

What a great morning we had last Friday for our annual school Cross Country.

Even though it was rainy and a change of venue, all the students turned up with amazing attitudes and were keen to get the job done. Well done to all students who attended and participated to the best of their abilities. School spirit was high and it was really heartwarming to see the students cheer on everyone as well as their house teammates.

Congratulations to the following students who came first in their age group and were awarded medals for Cross Country Age Champions of 2024:

8 Years:                                             9 Years:        

Girls - Lila Flaherty                          Girls - Amelia Popov

Boys - Finley Smith                         Boys - Harrison Morley

10 Years:                                           11 Years:

Girls - Gemma Rogers                    Girls - Cate Thierjung

Boys - Darcy Elliott                          Boys - Joel White

12 Years:                                          

Girls - Zali Meyer

Boys - Kalani Favaro Andreo                    

The top 6 place getters for the following age groups will be invited to attend the Tweed Zone Cross Country in Murwillumbah on Friday 10th May:

8/9 Years, 10 Years, 11 Years and 12 Years boys and girls. Students and parents/guardians have been notified through compass.

If your child has been invited to the Zone Cross Country but they are unable to attend, please contact the school office ASAP so replacements can be found.

Congratulations to Leonard house who were awarded the annual House shield for the overall winners of the day.

Thank You to all the parents who attended to cheer all the students on.

Finally thanks to all the teachers for your collective effort towards the planning, setting up running, supervision and packing up of the carnival.

Polding Swimming Carnival

Well done to the following students who represented the Lismore Diocesan Primary schools at the Polding Swimming Carnival on Wednesday 3rd April:

Finn Carroll-Cinque, Flynn Flaherty, Zara Reid and Lila Flaherty.

Some of the results of the day included:

• Finn Carroll-Cinque: 1st in the 50m Freestyle, Breaststroke and Butterfly. 2nd in the 50m Backstroke.
• Flynn Flaherty: 2nd in the Senior 50m Multi-class Backstroke, 3rd in the Senior 50m Multi-class Freestyle and 4th in the Senior 100m Multi-class Freestyle.
• Lila Flaherty: 5th in the 8 Years 50m Freestyle out of 18 swimmers.
• Zara Reid: 9th in the 9 Years 50m Freestyle out of 17 swimmers.

What an amazing effort!

Congratulations and good luck to the following swimmers who were selected to represent Polding at the NSWPSSA Swimming Carnival:

Finn Carroll-Cinque and Flynn Flaherty.

We are looking forward to hearing how you both compete.

AFL Polding Trials

Well done to the following St Anthony’s students who travelled to Newcastle on Tuesday this week to represent the Lismore Diocese for AFL: Harper Gallagher, Dash Campbell and Orlando Caine.

From all reports, the manager of this team was very impressed with the participation and effort displayed from all the players, commenting that it was a very competitive and strong trial.

Congratulations to Harper Gallagher who was selected in the Polding team as a result of his performance at these trials. He will attend the NSW state championships later this year, good luck Harper!

Cross Country

Kids Lit

On Tuesday, the 26 of March, 12 students from year 5 & 6 attended the Kids’ Lit Quiz at Coomera Anglican College. There, we answered questions about different types of books and authors. Once we got there, we got to choose a genre we thought we might do best in, our team chose “Popular books”, BIG mistake. The genre we actually did best in was, surprisingly, “Ducks”, but that was just for our team. There were ten rounds with ten questions each. In between rounds, the Quizmaster would give you clues about a book or author, first to raise their hand got to answer the question, if they got it wrong they would move onto the next person, whoever got it right got to win five dollars, and they didn’t even have to share it with their team! If your team won a round, they would win a book each, but they could only do this once, even if they won multiple times. There was a table at the front with lots of books donated by Scholastic. 

Categories:

There were 10 categories like Ducks, Dr Seuss, Books into Movies, Houses, Popular Books, Miscellaneous, Ages, Knights, Sports and Nursery rhymes. 

Breaks:

We had a short break to drink water and a short snack etc, but we only had one longer break the entire time! It was only about 20 minutes for lunch before we had to go back to the 7th round.

Clothing:

 We wore our normal day uniform to school. But we did get to wear red accessories since our team's colour chosen was red. But, another St Anthony’s team (Team 1, from Year 5) had the colour gold, and another team from St Anthony’s (Team 3, Year 6) had the colour pink. Mrs Plunkett, our wonderful librarian even made bow ties for us for the day!

Preparing for Kids’ Lit Quiz:

Mrs Plunkett helped us get ready for the day about 2 weeks before hand, she prepared us by giving us a small paper with a book’s name on it to research when we got home so we were more likely to know a variety of books to make it easier to answer the questions since we would have a bit more knowledge. We also practised working in a team to connect authors names, series, characters and more! What a fun day!

By Indiana, Layla M and Sienna

Mother's Day Stall

Misc News

THIS WEEK AT FLYING START

Our week at Flying Start Preschool has been full of fun and learning.

We have been practising our targeted social skills, enjoying interacting with our friends and practising working in pairs playing ocean bingo. This led us to walk to our excursion to help out the volunteers with Dune care in Kingscliff.

Teaching the pre-schoolers about the importance of keeping our community clean and respecting the animals and flowers that inhabit our environment was our intended Learning experience. We walked the foreshore and collected two buckets full of rubbish. Its great to contribute to keeping our community clean for everyone to enjoy.

This is our last week at Preschool and most of our preschoolers are looking forward to two weeks of vacation care where interacting with the bigger children means jumping castles, beados and lots of big brothers and sisters. Have a safe holidays

See vou all next term!!

Sports items

Parish Information and News

Parish Priest: Fr Paul McDonald

Finance Manager: Paul Crouch

Parish Secretary: Marty Darragh

Pastoral Assistant: Catherine Holliday

Phone: 0266741368

Email: parkings@bigpond.com

Website: http://stanthonysparishkingslciff.org

WEEKEND MASS TIMES
VIGIL: KINGSCLIFF 6:00pm
SUNDAY:POTTSVILLE 7:30am
KINGSCLIFF 9:00am

WEEKDAY MASS TIMES
TUESDAY: POTTSVILLE 9:15am
WEDNESDAY: KINGSCLIFF 8:00am
THURSDAY: KINGSCLIFF 9:00am
FRIDAY: KINGSCLIFF 8:00am

RECONCILIATION TIMES

SATURDAY: KINGSCLIFF 5:00-5:30pm
SUNDAY: POTTSVILLE 7:00—7:25am

Current Office Hours: Tuesday - Thursday 9am-3pm

PARISH NEWSLETTER LINK: http://stanthonysparishkingscliff.org/news-events/

St Anthony's Parish - Care Group

Many parents may have noticed from the Parish Bulletin, that the Parish has a Care Group which, among other things seeks to provide meals to any parishoners in need.

This could include times of family sickness, new mums struggling to provide for the family in the early days of returning home, and many other circumstances of genuine need.

Please be aware that the Care Group is very willing to help out if any families find themselves in need of this service.

Contact: Parish Office: 0266 741 284 or Maree Moore 0439 174 116