Dear Parents,

This Friday, 28 June, our School Community will celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart. This Feast Day is one of the most common devotions in the Catholic Church today. That is why many people are surprised to find out that the Feast of the Sacred Heart was not celebrated until fairly recently.  Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus took root first in France, but it took the visions of St Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) for the devotion to become universal. In 1856, Pope Pius IX decreed that the feast should be celebrated by the universal Church, in reparation for our ingratitude for the sacrifice that Christ has made for us. Since the Feast of the Sacred Heart always falls 19 days after Pentecost Sunday, it is almost always celebrated in June. This is why June is known as the Month of the Sacred Heart.

The Feast of the Sacred Heart reminds us that we are called to the fullness of life through the love of Jesus. God’s love is made real and personified in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Because the heart is a symbol of love, the Sacred Heart represents God’s love for us. The Feast is not some kind of Valentines Day for God. It is not about an image of a soft, almost fragile man smiling at us with his heart in his hand. It is about faithfulness in suffering, constancy of mission, sacrificial love and belief in God and humanity. In our world today, where we hear of terrorism, violence and anger, God gives us new hope in ourselves. We can learn from His Sacred Heart that together with Him we are capable of love and forgiveness.

At our celebration on Friday a student from our school will receive the Sacred Heart Award. This is a longstanding tradition at Mary Immaculate, which was initiated by a former Principal, Mrs Marie Debusch RIP. All parents and parishioners are invited to attend the Mass, which will commence at 10.00am.

REPORTS - A reminder that reports for Semester One, 2019 and the Kindergarten Summary of Progress will be sent home with each child on Friday. I remind parents that the report is ‘a picture in time’ based on assessment information, the teacher’s knowledge and professional judgement and classroom tasks completed by your child. I ask parents to take time to talk over the reports and celebrate the achievements of your children. A partial absence figure is also recorded on the report. The partial absence takes into account children arriving late and leaving early. All parents have the opportunity to discuss children’s progress during the parent / teacher / student interviews, which will be held next week. Now that our school is using the COMPASS office system, we are using an on-line parent/ teacher interview booking procedure. A note explaining the procedure was sent home last week. So far approximately 40% of bookings have been made.  If you have any difficulties with the process please contact the school office

SPARTAN - A- THON - Last week’s Spartan-a-thon was a fabulous day for all children. Having the opportunity to observe the children and staff participate in the various activities and to see the enjoyment expressed on the children’s faces was absolutely marvelous. Thank you to the many parents who assisted and especially Alexandra Zelada, Tonya Grech, Lorraine Brown and Kerri-Ann Weir for their work in organising the event. It is now time to collect the sponsorship money and return it to school. The prizes for individuals and classes will be presented to the children once the money is finalised.

NETBALL GALA DAY - Tomorrow ninety children from our school will be participating in the Wollongong Diocese Western Region Netball Gala Day. I am sure the children will enjoy the day and will be great ambassadors of our school.

Have a great week and let Christ be our way and life.

Don Spencer

Principal

PROFESSIONAL LEARNING

At Mary Immaculate the staff has an ongoing commitment to professional learning. The staff benefit from attending inservices, in curriculum areas, that assists them in providing quality learning opportunities for the students in their class. The following staff have or will attend professional learning and hence will be away from school.

PUPIL SUPERVISION

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY - PUPIL FREE DAY TERM 3

The staff of Mary Immaculate will be attending an overnight retreat in Mittagong from Thursday evening 25 July until Friday afternoon 26 July 2019. The children will not be required to attend school on Friday 26 July (Friday Week 1 Term 3)

Happy Birthday to the following children who will be celebrating a birthday this week:

Clare R, Keiren R, Madison J, Angelica S, John S, Jocelyn C, Zara I, William C, Savaiinaea-Rose I, Frank L, Cody H, Saki R and Sophey L

Congratulations to the following children who have won a Morning Tea with the Principal:

Ivory O 1 Green, Terez K 2 Green and Alexa W 5 Gold

Upcoming Events:                 

• Sacred Heart Mass - 28 June 2019
• Year One Grade Liturgy - 4 July 2019

Holy Communion

Last weekend, many of our children in Year 4 made their Holy Communion for the first time. It is through this sacrament that we remember what Jesus did for us in his life, death and resurrection. When we receive communion, we believe that we receive the person of Jesus into our very beings. Father Slawek describes communion in his homily as ‘developing our relationship with Jesus’ - this was extremely apparent with all of our children. Congratulations!

Have you ever wondered about the Sacred Heart Award?

Only one child from our school is chosen every year to receive this award based on the following criteria:

Displaying the values and attitudes that reflect Gospel values

• Displaying the values and attitudes that specifically reflect our school values
• Displaying service to others of their own initiative
• Displaying patience, empathy, initiative and selflessness.

                   Who will our recipient be this year?

                    Please join us on Friday to find out.

Have you thought about joining Alpha?

Congratulations to 3 Green and 6 Gold, the only classes who earned a Gold Star last week– wonderful effort!!. Hopefully many classes will receive a Gold Star this week, remembering to return all Library books for the term. There are over 300 overdue books from students – please look under beds, behind desks and shelves, in secret spaces….

Premiers' Reading Challenge: We now have more students who have already completed the challenge, and almost 200 who have logged in and registered their books read so far. There are only eight (8) weeks left to complete the challenge, so see how much you can do during the holidays. Holidays are a great time to catch up with some extra reading, especially at this time of the year when it’s cold outside.

https://products.schools.nsw.edu.au/prc/booklist/home.html

Remember Kinder – Year 2 must read 30 books, and Years 3 - 6 must read 20, with only 5 Personal Choice books allowed. If you are reading books from a series you can only count two towards your Challenge, any extra will be counted as Choice books, even if they are on the PRC list.

 "If you are going to get anywhere in

life you have to read a lot of books."

                                   Roald Dahl

Happy reading!

Mrs Sue Bryant, Teacher Librarian