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Dear Parents and Carers,
This coming weekend we have an opportunity to especially thank the fathers, grandfathers and special friends of our Mary Immaculate community who have supported our students with their learning and families with their love during remote learning.
This Father's Day we can take advantage of the opportunity to let the special men in our lives know the unique place they hold and the valuable influence they have on us.
We invite all our families to be part of a whole school Father’s Day prayer that has been organised to celebrate this special day on your child's Google Classroom. Although we cannot be together we are grateful to the students, parents and staff who have contributed to bringing a remote prayer to fruition. A special ‘thank you’ to Miss Price for coordinating the completion of the final version of the prayer that will be uploaded to all Google Classroom pages and the Seesaw portal on Friday morning.
We wish you all our wonderful father’s and father figures a very special day on Sunday.
GOD OUR FATHER, WE GIVE YOU THANKS AND PRAISE FOR FATHER'S YOUNG AND OLD.
WE PRAY FOR YOUNG FATHERS, NEWLY EMBRACING THEIR VOCATION; MAY THEY FIND COURAGE AND PERSEVERANCE TO BALANCE WORK, FAMILY AND FAITH IN JOY AND SACRIFICE.
WE PRAY FOR OUR OWN FATHERS AROUND THE WORLD WHOSE CHILDREN ARE LOST OR SUFFERING; MAY THEY KNOW THAT THE GOD OF COMPASSION WALKS WITH THEM IN THEIR SORROW.
WE PRAY FOR MEN WHO ARE NOT FATHERS BUT STILL MENTOR AND GUIDE US WITH FATHERLY LOVE AND ADVICE.
WE REMEMBER FATHERS, GRANDFATHERS, AND GREAT GRANDFATHERS WHO ARE NO LONGER WITH US BUT WHO LIVE FOREVER IN OUR MEMORY AND NOURISH US WITH THEIR LOVE.
Please keep Sr Colleen in your prayers as her sister Bernadette suddenly passed away.
Enjoy the week ahead and most especially to all those in our community who hold the title ‘Father’ - Happy Father’s Day!
Let Christ continue to be our Way and Life.
Tina Murray
Principal
REQUIREMENTS FOR RETURNING TO SCHOOL AFTER
SELF-ISOLATING OR UNDERGOING TESTING
- Students and staff who have been directed to self-isolate and have undergone testing can return to school when their 14-day isolation period is complete AND they have received a negative test result AND they are not displaying symptoms of illness.
- Students and staff who have undergone testing but HAVE NOT been directed to self-isolate can return to school when they have received a negative test result AND are not displaying symptoms of illness.
- Schools must sight the student or staff member’s negative COVID-19 test result and make a file notation of the date and the staff member who sighted the negative test result.
A complete guide of all CEDoW COVID requirements can be accessed via the following link
https://www.dow.catholic.edu.au/about-us/general-news/covid-19-information-centre
TIMELINE FOR THE COVID-SAFE RETURN TO FACE-TO-FACE LEARNING
Present
All schools in NSW at Level 4 restrictions (remote learning).
25 October 2021
Kindergarten and Year 1 will return to face-to-face learning with Level 3 COVID restrictions on school sites.
1 November 2021
Years 2, 6 and 11 will return to face-to-face learning with Level 3 COVID restrictions on school sites.
8 November 2021
Years 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 will return to face-to-face learning with Level 3 COVID restrictions on school sites.
Tina Murray
Principal
NUMERACY TIPS TO HELP YOUR CHILD EVERYDAY - Over the next few newsletters, I will include handy tips and ways you can help your child develop numeracy skills which have been taken from the Victorian Department of Education and Training, Guide for Parents.
Through everyday activities at home, families can help children develop their numeracy skills, such as calculating and using numbers, recognising patterns, and using language to develop mathematical understanding.
NUMERACY - Family participation in learning is one of the most accurate predictors of a child’s success in school and beyond. Providing opportunities to discuss and engage in mathematics supports your child’s learning in and out of school. Your child will also begin to connect the importance of maths with their everyday activities, such as navigating public transport, comparing and choosing the best item to buy in stores, setting a budget, and cooking. Talk positively about maths so your child also values it. If your experiences in maths at school were less than ideal, avoid making comments like “I was bad at maths at school,” or “I didn’t like maths because it was too hard.” Comments like these can lower your child’s expectations of themselves and can perpetuate myths about people being naturally bad or good at maths.
Conversely, if you did well at maths in school, avoid jumping in with answers or solutions. Encourage your child to talk about how they might work out maths problems. This helps boost their confidence and deepens their understanding. Regardless of your own school experiences in maths, be reassured that maths today is not about learning by rote. Today, the focus is on recognising that there are multiple ways to get an answer and being able to explain how and why you chose the approach you did.
There are many activities you can do at home to help explore maths with your child. When participating in these activities, avoid associating them with speed. Expecting your child to work quickly on maths can cause maths anxiety. Try to focus on the process and not the outcome.
EXPLORING NUMERACY WITH YOUR CHILD
SPORTS
Sports provide a good opportunity to engage your child in maths, particularly if they are a keen sportsperson. Here are some questions to ask your child when watching or playing their favourite sport:
- How does your favourite sport tally the score? What maths is presented on the tally?
- How do other sports tally the score – for example, tennis, golf, cricket, netball, football?
- What maths do you use to find the total of the scores?
- Who is at the top of the ladder? How is this determined?
- Are there other ways to record the score?
- How long do your favourite sport games go for in minutes and seconds? How is the time in the game divided? Into halves, quarters or something else?
- What are the shapes of different playing fields and courts? Talk about edges and angles.
- How can you estimate the perimeter and area of a playing field?
- How many cars could be parked on the SCG field? How could we work this out?
LILLIAN DEL GIUDICE
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL
Premiers Reading Challenge 2021 - Congratulations to the students who have successfully completed the challenge in this difficult year. We have 93 students who managed to read the required number and enter them online. This is an exceptional achievement considering the conditions our learning has endured during the year so far! The final day for registering books is this Friday 3 September, so still time for last minute registrations. Even when the Challenge has finished, it is important that we continue to read each day.
Authors and Illustrators - Book Week gives us the opportunity to celebrate the talents of some wonderful Australian Authors and Illustrators. Now that Book Week celebrations are over, we may have time to explore the talent of other Australian Authors and Illustrators. Many of us have a favourite author, it can be fun to find out a little more about this person and other books they have written. For example, Mem Fox is the author of, “Where is the Green Sheep?” Did you know she has written more than 40 books? She gets her ideas from real life, books, memories, and feelings of the deepest kind. You can find out more about her on her website:
https://memfox.com/
To find out about lots of other authors and illustrators, take a look at the Scholastic site:
https://www.scholastic.com.au/booksellers/authors-and illustrators/
Be sure to make time to read and relax - continue to explore the many worlds that books make present to us.
"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."
Maya Angelou, Poet
Happy reading!
Mrs Susan Bryant
Teacher Librarian
