Newsletter Term 1 Week 9

Dear Parents

It is certainly great to be enjoying the sunshine once again after the days of rain. We are fortunate that there has been limited devastation in our region but we certainly keep those in other areas who have lost so much in our thoughts and prayers.

Unfortunately, we had to cancel the Backflips Against Bullying show this week but we have booked them to visit again on Wednesday 28th April. Hopefully the weather will be on our side then.

As the grounds are so sodden and because we had some safety concerns we decided to push the Cross Country to the Wednesday of the first week back next term (21st April). That way we will be able to go back to our original whole school event. Winter sport trials for the Diocese have now been moved across several days next week.

Last Monday three of our students represented our school as members of the Diocesan swimming team at the Polding carnival in Sydney. Polding is made up of all the Catholic schools in the northern half of the state. Congratulations to Tilly Mison, Scarlett Mison and Rafael Carroll-Cinque on their great swims on the day. As the event was live-streamed we were able to watch some of their swims which provided great excitement for their peers. We were thrilled to learn that Scarlett has been chosen in the Polding team for the state championships next week in Sydney. We wish her all the very best!

Congratulations to all those students who received the Sacrament of Penance/Reconciliation for the very first time last Tuesday evening in the church. Well done to everyone for making the effort to come out on such a wet night! The children will now be preparing to make their First Holy Communion next term.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday and marks the beginning of Holy Week. This is the day we see Jesus lauded as King as he rides into Jerusalem. He arrives on a donkey, an animal of peace, rather than a warhorse of the Romans. Palms and cloaks are strewn before him as a symbol of victory. He is greeted with rousing Hosannas by the crowd. As he enters Jerusalem there is hope in the air and a frenzy of welcome. But it wasn’t to last long. Within days the people have turned against him and are calling for him to be killed.  Although Pilate finds Jesus innocent of the charges brought against him he gives in to the people and sentences him to a criminal’s death by crucifixion.

Today students waved palms and sang Hosanna as a reminder that Palm Sunday is upon us. Children will be engaged in many activities during next week including the Stations of the Cross which replay the journey Jesus took to the cross on Calvary which we commemorate on Good Friday. The events of Holy Week culminating in the Resurrection which we celebrate on Easter Sunday are at the crux of our Christian faith. I hope that families will be able to spend some time contemplating these events over the Easter break.

I take this opportunity to wish all families a happy Easter time as we rejoice in the risen Lord. I hope you enjoy the holidays. School finishes on Thursday 1st April and resumes on Monday 19th April. Thank you to everyone for the way you have supported us throughout this term. We look forward to working with you in partnership again next term.

As we witness the plights, great and small, of those around us, perhaps during this coming Holy Week we can reach out to those who suffer under the burden of the crosses they have to bear.

God bless

Lynne

Term 1 2021

Thursday, April 1st - Last day of Term 1 - HOLY THURSDAY

Friday, April 2nd - GOOD FRIDAY

Sunday, April 4th - Daylight Savings Ends

Term 2 2021

Monday, April 19th - Term 2 begins

Tuesday, April 20th - Parent Forum Meeting at 6.00pm

Monday, April 26th to April 30th - CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK

Wednesday, April 28th - Parent/Child Holy Communion Meeting at 6.00pm

Friday, April 30th - School Disco 5.00 to 7.00 pm

Sunday, May 2nd - Parish School MASS - Holy Communion Commitment at 9.00am

Wednesday, May 5th - Student Free Day

Friday, June 25th - Student Free Day

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: St Anthony's Primary School Policies

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

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

H O L Y W E E K A N D E A S T E R C E R E M O N I E S
Holy Thursday 1st April
The Mass of the Lord's Supper: KINGSCLIFF - 7:00pm
Good Friday 2nd April
Stations of the Cross POTTSVILLE - 9:00am  - KINGSCLIFF - 10:30am
Solemn Celebration of the Passion of the Lord: KINGSCLIFF - 3:00pm
Holy Saturday 3rd April
Easter Vigil: KINGSCLIFF - 7:00pm
Easter Sunday 4th April POTTSVILLE - 7:30am - KINGSCLIFF - 9:00am

M A S S  A T T E N D A N C E  A N D  P R O T O C O L S
Please do not attend if you have any cold/flu-like symptoms
The number permitted to attend Masses and any church services is determined by the 2 square metre rule.
There is no need to book in for regular Masses.
O n a r r i v a l : Please sanitise your hands on entry, check in with the Service NSW QR code (or record your name and contact
details on the Mass attendance sheet).
P h y s i c a l D i s t a n c i n g : A degree of physical distancing between persons not of the same household is encouraged. If you have any
concerns regarding distancing please wear a mask or let an usher know if you are not comfortable being seated closer than 1.5 metres
from another person.
S i n g i n g : Choirs are now permitted with 1.5 metres between singers and 5 metres from congregation. For the time being, on advice
from the Bishop, we will have no congregational singing until further notice.
H o l y C o m m u n i o n : Holy Communion to be received on the hand only, physical distance where possible.
C l e a n i n g : We ask several volunteers stay behind to help us out with the task of cleaning. We appreciate your assistance.

Sacraments for 2021

This year we will move forward with students making their sacraments. The sacraments are offered to students who are baptised Catholic and are in the appropriate class or above year levels and have not yet made that Sacrament.

Term 3 – CHANGE OF DATE on the Parent/Child Meeting and Commitment Mass

Year 3 students baptised Catholic may receive the Sacrament of Confirmation.

These students will attend a parent/child meeting in week 4, Wednesday 4th Aug. at 6:00pm at School, (or 2nd Aug. at St Ambrose School). Following this the students and their family will attend a commitment Mass of their choice over the weekend of 14th and 15th August.

The students will then receive the Sacrament of Confirmation on Wednesday 8th September at 6:00pm at St Anthony’s Church, Kingscliff. This date is given to us from Bishop Gregory Homeming’s office.

If you have any questions or queries concerning sacraments, please contact Sue Falcke via school email and I will get back to you.

If you have a child that has not been baptised Catholic and you would like to consider this sacrament please contact me, as I am happy to discuss details with you. (One parent must be baptised Catholic, for this to occur).

SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

Congratulations to all the children who made their First Reconciliation last Tuesday evening. A big thank you to all the parents and families who braved the bad weather conditions to bring your child/ren to this special event. We are now excited for these children to make their First Holy Communion towards the end of Term 3.

Year 6 Retreat Day – Incitare

On Tuesday the 9th of March, eleven Year six students attended an Incitàre Retreat Day at  Murwillumbah. The day was celebrated with other Year 6 students from our neighbouring Catholic Schools. It was a day that gave these students the opportunity to be courageous and let the Christian flame inside them shine. They had the chance to share and talk about their own personal Religious journeys. High school students from Mount St Patrick College from the CYMS class (Catholic Youth Ministry Students) worked with them through the day. This was a wonderful experience for these students and now they will share and lead this experience for the rest of the Year 6 class in the near future.

On Thursday 1st April we enter into the most Holy Triduum (three days) with the Church throughout the world.  It is the Passover of the Lord Jesus, and we pray to know the power of Jesus’ dying and rising in our lives. John’s Gospel presents Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. This is the mandatum and deepest meaning of Eucharist: to become one with Christ, blessed, broken, and shared out of love.

Good Friday 2nd April is not only about remembering the suffering and crucifixion of Jesus as a past event but about immersing ourselves in the saving mystery of Christ present among us today. Together, we hold the Death of our Lord in our hearts and draw new life from the holy Cross by which he continues to redeem our world.

Holy Saturday, on this night, in the midst of the new fire, it is sung “The Light of Christ,” and we reply, “Thanks be to God”. In the church we hear the stories of God’s saving love throughout history. In this vigil we are renewed to tell the story of God’s victory over death by how we reflect the light we received in Baptism.

Easter Sunday – The Risen Lord. Jesus’ resurrection confirms his divinity; the risen Christ is the principle and source of our future resurrection. He does not only rise to a “glorious” life for himself but he also shares this new life with all sons and daughters of the Father in the Holy Spirit.

You might hear your child coming home talking about “target groups” and you are probably wondering what on earth they are. 

Here at St Anthonys we believe in a holistic educational approach that is flexible and responsive to the students needs. This looks very different to when we went to school (where it was pretty much a one size fits all approach). 

Research states effective classroom interaction leads to successful learning when it is ‘explicit’ and ‘student-centred.’ Rather than explicitly teaching concepts to a whole class, we break our explicit teaching down into what we call “target groups’. 

Students are grouped in a variety of ways (academic, social and emotional, learning behaviours, styles and skills) and lessons are based on the identified “next steps” for those students. The groups are flexible and regularly change based on the identified needs and learning intentions. 

An essential component of explicit teaching therefore is linked to collecting evidence of student learning; teachers need to know what students can do in order to respond authentically and explicitly to their learning needs. We collect this data through observations, conversations with the students and collecting work samples. If the students aren’t in a target group they are working independently or collaboratively in student centered discovery / literacy based inquiry. This happens alongside our target groups and allows for rich, meaningful learning experiences that also not only allow for repetition and practice of important skills they also foster oral language development, social skills development, resilience, persistence and curiosity. 

 Target groups help us to ensure that no child flies under the radar, that no child is missed or left behind in their learning. The students develop their self confidence in a safe small group setting (guided by a teacher) and this helps our students to know themselves as learners and to see daily success.