Happy Birthday to children celebrating their birthday this week.

Emmy Marris, Audrey Wolff, Mark Materia, Jemima Steenhuis-Young, Zara Harrington, Lachlan Hughes, Grace McCormack, Felix Wright, Meg Coleman, Ash Perrott, Ben Roache, Eddie O’Donnell, Dhanvant Sivasankar, Bonnie King, Billie McDonald, Aramis Skevofylakas and Asia Suringa.

From Tuesday 1 September, 2020, children are required to wear their hats at school whilst outside at recess, lunch and sport.

Please mark the following Term 3 School Closure Day on your calendar.

Monday 7th September, 2020

Parents are invited to join us for our scheduled PSA Meeting at 7:30pm on Tuesday 1st September via Zoom.

This meeting is going to be held via the ZOOM platform. Please enter your name when prompted.

Meeting ID: 910 4364 9617

Passcode: Pqv2GC

This week's Wonderful Wednesday theme is Costumes! You can wear any costume that you have, perhaps a superhero outfit, dressup as your Dad, a onesie or an oodie, an animal or a character from a movie or a dressup. 

Here are some photos from Crazy Hair Day.

Crazy Hair in the Classroom

Crazy Hair at Home

Crazy Hair at School

Crazy Hair by Staff

Remembering Jesus

Remember - Share - Give Thanks

We consider how this "special meal" helps us to remember and give thanks. Like a family meal, the Mass is a time when we gather to share, to talk, to listen and to be nourished: we do this in the presence of Jesus and we learn what it means to follow him.

The story of the last Supper is the foundation of our celebration of the Eucharist. The original meaning of the word Eucharist was 'to give thanks and praise" to God for his wonderful works. As Christians, we remember and give thanks and praise to God for the life of Jesus and our life in him.

When we gather at a Sunday Assembly of the Word and Communion - a gathering held in the absence of a priest and led by lay men and women of the parish, which sustains the local Catholic community - we remember, we give thanks and we share Communion. We use hosts which have been consecrated at a previous mass.

Please contact the Parish Office on (03) 5562 2231 if you have any queries.

This question provokes a variety of images in our minds, especially during the current state of our world.  For many of us, our traditional meals and the way in which we enjoy this time together has changed over the last 6 months.  A dining table used to be a place where families would come together and chat about their day, while enjoying a meal together.  However, today we are spending all our time at this same table. Working, studying, schooling, eating, playing and cleaning. This leaves us with very little conversation topics, and for some, a lonely meal time.

Our current foyer display was an opportunity to discover similarities and differences in the way we share meals.  At a sit-down dinner, the family reminisces about the many events they have shared over the day and the years. Sometimes the stories are short, other times long winded and sometimes embellished!!!

At the eucharistic meal the community reminisces about Jesus and retells this story during the ‘Liturgy of the Word’. At a table at home the family shares food and drink; at the eucharistic meal the community shares the story of Jesus and remembers his love, care and sacrifice for us through the body and blood of Christ.

The members of the Catholic community include everyone; old and young, men and women, boys and girls; all held together in a ‘Holy Communion’, united in their belief in Jesus, their Catholic faith, in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and in their common sharing of the one bread and the one cup.

During this Remote Learning time our Junior students have been learning the different words for fruit, vegetables, drinks and other food items.  They are also starting to look at how the Japanese culture shares a meal together.  The Japanese use chopsticks in place of knives and forks and they often sit on a tatami mat around a low table. 

The Japanese show great respect for those who made the meal by saying the words- ”ita da ki masu” prior to eating.  Not that dissimilar to Catholic families saying ‘Grace’ before a meal. The Year 2 students made some Felt-Sushi before we commenced the Remote Learning Program for a second time.  We are grateful for their contribution to this display.

Many parallels can also be made with our local indigenous communities and their meal sharing traditions.  Even children who live in the heart of Alice Springs will often venture out to see extended family on weekends and experience eating around a fire, under the stars and engaging in their traditional language. 

The aboriginal women gathered the plant foods, garden foods, eg. yam, taro, cassava, wild yams, eggs, shellfish and small animals whilst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men fished and hunted for larger land and sea animals such as dugong, kangaroo and turtles.

Learning about daily survival, including food-gathering practices, began at an early age for both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. From the time they are born, children are included with the collection of food and other daily chores.  Perhaps since the Covid-19 restrictions have come in place there has been a change in your children contributing more to the household chores too? (Let’s hope so!)

Mrs Emily Lloyd, Ms Rosalie Cullum, Mr Thomas Beks and Ms Tegan McDonald.

Happy Father's Day

We wish all our dads a Happy Father's Day for this Sunday. We hope that your family has a lovely day and enjoy some time together.

Father of the Year Awards

A message from the Rotary Club of Warrnambool.

"On behalf of the Rotary Club of Warrnambool, I wish to sincerely thank the schools, teachers, parents and, in particular, the students for the wonderful support of our twelfth Father of the Year promotion!

Despite the adverse circumstances we all find ourselves in, it is obvious from the communication I have had with you, that most schools have still really embraced the whole concept and encourage their students to participate. We sincerely thank you for that.

South West Credit union has provided the school with prizes from Bunnings Warehouse, Collins Books and SportsPower to present to our winners."

Congratulations to our winners

Prep, Year 1 and Year 2
Tim McDonald nominated by Aster and Quinn McDonald

Year 3 and 4
Dan Austin nominated by Millie Austin
Russell Carlin nominated by Casey Carlin

Year 5 and 6
Jason Hansford nominated by Nate Hansford

This year we welcomed a new School Photograher, Glen Watson Photography. Now that families have received their photos we invite parents to provide some feedback via this survey form.

We are aware that due to problems with the print company some orders were delayed as was the distribution of photos due to students remote learning as a result of COVID-19.

We remind parents that we went to the composite class photo format this year for safety reasons and to ensure that all students were included in the photo.

As it has been some time since the photo ordering process we have attached a sample of the photo packages and prices to help refresh your memory.

Book Week is a week set aside in Australia for celebrating books, and Australian authors and illustrators. It has its origins in 1946 when the Children’s Book Council of Australia established an annual book awards to promote children’s books that were of high literary and artistic quality. Over 70 years later it continues to support and encourage a wide range of Australian writers and illustrators of children's books.

This year’s Book Week theme is ‘Curious Creatures and Wild Minds’. Due to the current situation Book Week is being celebrated during Term 4, 17th - 23rd October, across Australia.

Over the next few weeks we will be showing videos to promote some of the books nominated for Picture Story Book Award. Below are the titles for this section.

Keep reading! Lyn Hyland - Library Coordinator