Term 3, Week 6: Thursday 19th August, 2021

From the Principal's Desk

Confirmation is a sacrament instituted by Christ, and it is administered by laying on of hands and anointing with chrism accompanied by prayer.  The bishop or priest blesses the chrism, and the bishop or priest administers the sacrament.

Next week students from Years 4 and 5 will complete, confirm and perfect the sacrament of Baptism by participating in the sacrament of Confirmation. Confirmation emphasizes the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Initiation begins with the water of Baptism, is signified with the Chrism of Confirmation and is nourished by the Eucharist.

Confirmation Prayer

Spirit of God, grant me:

The gift of Wisdom, to see the world through your eyes,

The gift of counsel, to make difficult decisions,

The gift of knowledge and understanding, to use my mind to know you

The gift of fortitude, to have the courage to live in faith

The gift of piety, to be able to express my love

 And a commitment to you.

AMEN

We take this opportunity to wish the candidates and their families all the best as they prepare for and receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this coming Tuesday 24th August.

Congratulations to:

Miley Singline, Bing Scopel, Ella Wright, Georgina Righetti,

Milla Preston, Zahra Winduss, Aisha Singh, Jasper Szalonti,

Elijah Van Raaphorst, Jacob Van Raaphorst & Ashton Van Raaphorst.

Key Operational Guidelines

Masks must be worn on the school grounds and inside the building.

Entry to admin area via the front door only for essential purposes, e.g. First Aid, medication, fees, drop off of children’s supplies.

Drop off -  at either the front gate or back gate.  Please do not linger.

Pickups -  at either the front gate or back gate.

If you are entering any school buildings, it is a Victorian Government mandate that you check-in via our QR code. We are still restricted to four square metres per person if visitors enter the property.

The most crucial action our school community can take to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 is to ensure that any unwell students remain at home and get tested, even with the mildest of symptoms. 

As advised by VicHealth, visits to Melbourne should be avoided in the near future.  If you choose to go to Melbourne, then to protect the wellbeing of all in our school, your child(ren) may require a COVID test before returning to school.

St Augustine's Feast Day

Put love in all things you do, and they will make sense.  Take love away, and they become worthless and empty. (St Augustine - Sermon 138, 2)

Augustinian spirituality reflects the actual life story of Augustine.  As a young man, he was restless and without direction.  He pursued a long and painful search for truth that he hoped would provide him with peace.  In the drama of his conversion at the age of thirty-three years, he felt his innermost heart lovingly spoken to by the Word of God.  He wrote, “The words of your Scripture knocked at the door of my heart.”

That the significant spiritual events of Augustine’s life took place in the company of others is of significance to his spirituality.  Augustine greatly valued relationships with others.  He reached out to people; he was, in turn, beloved and appreciated by them. 

The warmth of friendship was essential for Augustine.  “Without a human being who is our friend, nothing in the world appears friendly to us.”  Life shared with others often culminates in friendship - the gift of loving and of being loved. 

We will celebrate his feast day on Monday 30^th August.

Gymnastics

Our students are having an amazing time experiencing a whole new skill set, in the form of formal gymnastics lessons.  Adjusting your body and mind to a foreign action takes a lot of adjustment as the brain and inner ear get used to new positions, and the body starts to open up nerve pathways that might have never been used before.  

Parent Teacher Interviews

Thank you to the parents that participated in the recent Parent-Teacher Interviews.  It was great to observe the interaction between teachers and parents as they discussed children’s progress. Parents that know their children have no surprises.  Parents and teachers working together for the best of the child is a mutual effort.  We all want the best for them.

Extend - Outside School Hours Care

A reminder that we have access to an Outside School Hours Care Program that has been set up at Creswick Primary school.  Extend is a family-owned and operated Outside School Hours Care provider offering before and after school care.

They offer a wide variety of experiences and activities suited to help your child grow and develop their learning, as well as create long-lasting friendships with other children in all grade levels.

Here is what some of our students had to say about their experiences:

We do lots of special things like painting.  We get fed, and the food is delicious. We get to mix with other kids, not from our school, and we are starting to form friendships.  We get to play games in the school hall, and this is terrific fun.  We enjoy our time at Outside School Hours Care.

Thanks to Bailey, Noah and Ruby for their input.

For more information, visit – extend.com.au

Bookweek 2021

This year we celebrate Book Week in the week beginning 23rd – 29th August.  The theme is,

 “Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds.”

Here at St. Augustine’s this year, we are setting aside Friday 27th August as our special day to celebrate this event, beginning with a Book Character Parade in the morning at 9 am. You are most welcome to come to the parade.  Weather permitting, we will have the parade outside.

We would like to invite children to come to school dressed as their favourite book character, author or as an expression of this year’s theme.

- Terry Brennan -

POSTPONED - School House Sports

We have confirmed today that the District Athletics will take place at Llanberris on Friday 10th September.  We have a number of students who have qualified to attend this event and therefore, will be rescheduling our school house sports day to enable these students to participate in both events. We apologise for the late notice of this, we have only confirmed the date for District Athletics this morning. 

Our school house sports will now be held on Friday 8th October, which is our first week back in Term 4.  Mandy will update the PAM parent helper form to reflect our new date, if you have already completed the form and are still available to help on our new date you do not need to do anything. If you have completed the form and are now unable to help, please call Mandy directly to let her know.  If you are available to help and have not yet done so, please complete the form on PAM asap.

A reminder also, that the Sports Day 'Parent Helper Request' Activity in PAM, is purely for parental assistance on sports day ONLY.  Please ignore student names and the standard info that appears on permission forms: 'If you wish for your child to participate in the activity, please complete this permission form and return all pages (including this page).........and so on. All students will be participating as normal at the school house sports day - student permission is not needed!  We are merely seeking parent helpers to assist on the day. If you are unable to assist, please do not complete the activity, no reminders will be sent, as it will be assumed that those able to assist, will complete the activity by the due date. For those who do complete the activity, contact will be made with you to advise where and how you will be assisting on the day - thank you! 

Melissa Willey is today sending home more information regarding the District Athletics, with students who have qualified for this event.

Again we apologise for the changes, but feel it is important that all students are able to participate in our school sports day as well as have the opportunity to represent our school at a higher level. 

- Emma Paterson on behalf of the Leadership Team -

Tuck-Shop Changes!

As Term 4 is a summer term we will be reverting to icy-poles instead of hot lunch orders on Fridays.  Icy poles will not be paid for using CDF Pay as in Term 1, rather students will need to bring in $1 each Friday to purchase their icy-pole at lunch time.

We would like to extend an invitation to interested parents to join our Tuck-Shop committee. We are looking for a group of around 3 parents to coordinate tuck-shop in 2022 in consultation with the Leadership Team. We feel that a group of parents could bring fresh ideas and menu choices to our tuck-shop, and also enable it to run all year. 

We ask you to please consider taking up this role, which will commence in 2022.   Please feel free to contact the Leadership Team to discuss this further, thank you.

- Emma Paterson on behalf of the Leadership Team -

Tuck-Shop Roster: Term 3

A big THANK YOU once again to Shondra Baker and also to Darren Gladstone for helping out last minute to assist in the Tuck-Shop last Friday 13th August.   We thank all who have assisted across terms 2 & 3 - your help has been very much appreciated!!  Due to the school house sports day being moved to Term 4, we now require a helper on Friday 10th September, if you are able to assist, please contact Mandy asap - thank you!

• 20/08/21:   Emma Grant & Darren Gladstone
• 27/08/21:    Jac Keating  &  Olga Torgovnikova
• 03/09/21:   Amanda Chamings & Shaun Dossor
• 10/09/21:    Fiona Trounce & HELPER NEEDED PLEASE!   
• 17/09/21:    TEDDY BEAR’S PICNIC  (no tuck-shop on this day)

School Timetable Reminder

We understand that from time to time students will either arrive late or depart school earlier than normal for appointments, etc. but we ask parents to please be mindful of leaving times on the days students have their specialist classes.   Where possible, please ensure apppointments are made outside of the specialist class time, so that students do not miss their allocation, as students only have Art, PE and Japanese ONCE PER WEEK.  

For your information, the specialist timetable is as follows:  

It is also worth noting the school break times, so that should you need to collect your child early, it is preferred to collect them either before break time or at the end of break time, as it can be difficult to locate students once they are in the school yard, where late notice is given.  Break times are:  FIRST BREAK:  11 am to 11:45 am  &  SECOND BREAK:  1:45 pm to 2:15 pm - thank you!

Dates to Note!

TERM 3

AUGUST

Tuesday 24th:  Celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation at 10 am  (2^nd round of students)

Wednesday 25th:  Foundation/Year 1 'Melbourne Aquarium' Excursion   - POSTPONED/New date TBA

Friday 27th:  Book Week Parade Dress-up Day

Saturday 28th: St Augustine's Feast Day

Monday 30th:  Celebration of St Augustine's Feast Day (internal activities & celebrations)

SEPTEMBER

Friday 3rd:  Father's Day Morning Tea  (more information to come)

Friday 10th:  District Athletics at Llanberris 

Monday 13th:  Footy Colours Day being run by the SRC   (more information to come)

Friday 17th:  Teddy Bears Picnic  (refer attached flyer for details)

Friday 17th:  Last day of Term 3 - students finish at 1:45 pm

TERM 4

OCTOBER

Friday 8th:  School House Sports Day

Thursday 14th - Friday 15th:  Year 3 Camp (Adekate)

Tuesday 19th:  Parent Meeting for Sacrament of Eucharist

Sunday 31st October:  Dismissal Mass

NOVEMBER

Sunday 7th:  Dismissal Mass

Sunday 14th:  Dismissal Mass

Sunday 21st:  Celebration of the Sacrament of Eucharist

Friday 18th:  Student Free Day - School Closure (whole staff Literacy PD)

Monday 22nd to Wednesday 24th:  Year 6 Camp

DECEMBER

Wednesday 1st & Thursday 2nd:  Life Education visit

Monday 13th:  Year 6 Fun Day

Tuesday 14th:  Year 6 Liturgy

Wednesday 15th:  Year 6 Graduation

Wednesday 15th:  Students last day of school - students finish at 3:15 pm!

Friday 17th:  Last day for Staff

Looking for a great summer outdoor sport for your child to get involved with, then tennis at Mt Prospect is for you. Played across both Term 4 and Term 1 at the same location in Creswick on natural grass courts, tennis provides your child a great chance to be physically active in a safe, multi-gendered sport. With coaching available, along with competitions, now is a great time to get your child into tennis. To find out more, please contact Kerry on 0400 947 477 or

mkarma28@skymesh.com.au, or visit www.mtprospecttennis.com.au  

Scholastic Book Club

Issue number 6 is now available with orders due in by Monday 6th September, 2021.   Catalogues are available in the office foyer or can be viewed via their site below.

https://scholastic.com.au/media/6421/bc621web.pdf

News from Hepburn Shire Council

Resourceful Hepburn’s survey results and strategic planning - Great response to our survey!

Thanks to the 102 people who completed our recent survey. We’ve started posting results, one question at a time, on our Facebook page. Some great insights and plenty of community interest about improving how we reuse, repair, repurpose and recycle. Also, many fantastic ideas about how to go about it.

Overall respondents indicated they rated the council’s performance in various resource recovery categories rather poorly and overwhelmingly indicated that a community resource recovery enterprise in Hepburn Shire would be an improvement compared with the current situation.

The results also showed that the areas of reuse and repair would be the most beneficial categories of reform for the community to prioritise. It’s so great to know our community sees the importance of taking accountability for our own waste! Keep visiting our Facebook page for the full survey results.

Successful planning day

Many thanks to Jane Grimwood, Strategic Facilitator Extraordinaire, who facilitated a Resourceful Hepburn strategic planning session for us last week.

Key outcomes were an agreed approach to formalise the group, communications with the community, and two priorities for enterprise activities – repair, upcycling and sale of useful goods/materials, and, a focus on organic waste, particularly commercial food waste composting and a community chipper.

Incorporation

Resourceful Hepburn became an Incorporated Association on 4 August 2021, and we thank Hepburn Wind for helping us with this through a $500 sponsorship.  We plan to conduct our first public meeting soon. Stay tuned for details!

And in the meantime, let's all keep up the good work of being active resource recovery warriors in our own patch.

Resourceful Hepburn -  6 August 2021

Contact:    Sebastian Klein, 0428 331 173