Newsletter - 2024 Term 1 Week 11

Calendar

From the Leaders

Sunday's Gospel

Gospel - Luke 24:35-48: The disciples recounted recognising Jesus by the breaking of bread. Jesus then appeared, offering peace and dispelling fears of his being a specter by showing his hands and feet and eating fish, demonstrating his physical resurrection. He explained scripture prophecies about his suffering, resurrection, and the call to spread forgiveness in his name, affirming their roles as witnesses.

Wishing all our staff and students a relaxing holiday.  It has been another busy term at St Agnes’ Primary School with a large number of events, activities, and most importantly, lots of learning.  

As we approach the end of the term, we would like to thank all families for your continued support as we work together as a school community, to support the faith, learning and wellbeing of our  young people. 

Catholic Schools Week

We were blessed to start Catholic Schools Week, the same way our Catholic Schools originally started… with a Sister of St Joseph. Sr Marjorie and her nephew Wayne shared an insight into her life as a nun and her role in catholic education over many years. After her talk with the students she gave positive feedback about how amazing our young people were in showing respect and commented that they were a credit to us. Thank you to the SRC and class representatives who were part of an interview of Sr Marjorie and Wayne about their work with the Soup Kitchen.

Feast Day Celebrations

The festivities continued with our families joining us for a sausage sizzle and fun afternoon. These ideas for our St Agnes’ Feast Day celebrations came from our class representatives and included having a whole school photo taken, for them to choose fun activities in their classrooms and to showcase some of their lunch time activities. Thank you to Krista Wilson for volunteering to take this photo in windy conditions. Thanks also to Kitt Quirk for sharing his wonderful guitar skills and to Claire Newell, April Crutcher, Cody and Layla for their amazing efforts with creating and selling goodies for Craft for Service. They raised $119 for Sr Marjorie’s Soup Kitchen.

Kitt was raising money for children in Gaza.

Thank you to the many family members who were able to come along and share in the celebrations.

Sentence Goal

We continue to work hard together as a whole school to improve our students outcomes in sentence structure, in order to improve their writing skills, reading comprehension and fluency. Our focus for today’s professional learning day has been all around developing a whole school “Bump it Up Wall” for use in our classrooms so that our students can see their progression, know what to do to improve and set goals for themselves.

Take a look at some more of the wonderful work we are seeing across the school. 

Kindergarten are Learning to Read and Write

Police Talk About Safety Online and in the Community

Our school term for Years 4, 5 and 6 finished with a timely police talk about safety online and in the community, just in time for the holiday break. Police Officers Steve and Tiffany provided valuable information for possible real life interactions for students of their age. They reinforced the importance of stranger danger and both students and their families being proactive in ensuring they only communicate with known people if they do have access to social media. 

Year 5 Science Design and Make Task- Forces

Social Circles

Planning is well underway for our Term 2 beginning to Social Circles. At St Agnes’ Primary School, Social Circles is an opportunity for community, connection, leadership, and social and emotional learning to improve students' wellbeing. This fits beautifully with our Positive Behaviour Support Tiers of Intervention. 

To begin this year, we have a new program called Big Talks, Little People. 'The Big Talks for Little People Mental Health Classroom Module is a primary school kit which aims to help school students better understand their mental health and enhance their well-being'.

The program is very child friendly, and is based around the characters 'The Peeps' In Session One, we will 'Meet the Peeps' as well as complete some 'getting to know you activities' to build connections in our groups.

Our Year 6 Leaders will be leading the program each fortnight that is not an assembly week. We look forward to sharing updates in the newsletter next term about our focus of the fortnight!

School Review

We look forward to welcoming special guests to St Agnes’ Primary to facilitate a review on the Mission and Learning and Teaching components in Week 1 of Term 2. The interview panel will be seeking input from staff, students and families in the area of mission and learning and teaching processes and procedures. From this we will receive feedback on areas of strength and improvements. 

ANZAC Day

All students are invited to come along and march behind the St Agnes’ Primary banner on ANZAC day, Thursday 25 April. This is one way we can honour all Australian men and women who served in times of war. We are proud that our school is often really well represented at this fantastic community commemoration.

We will hold an ANZAC Day prayer at school on Wednesday 1 May at 9:00am in honour of all Australians and New Zealanders who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations and the contribution and suffering of all those who have served. 

Family Connect

Just reminding families that we are lucky to have Anabelle Johnson working with us from Social Connections. Anabelle has already linked in with some families and is happy to be contacted to support others.

• Archie Stafford sheltering fellow students under his umbrella at car park pick up whilst it was pouring rain.
• Having so many families join us for our St Agnes’ Feast Day celebrations during Catholic Schools Week.
• The respect shown to guest speakers by our students in Catholic Schools Week; Sr Marjorie and Police Officers Steve and Tiffany.
• Students wishing staff a happy holiday as they left the school grounds on Thursday afternoon.

2024 A4Art Prize Finalists Announced!

The 2024 A4Art Prize has once again sparked a surge of creativity across our six St Agnes’ Parish Schools, with over 480 participants - representing more than 10% of the student body - contributing to the event, marking yet another year of growth.

The caliber of artworks in this year’s competition is truly outstanding. We've witnessed a diverse array of genres, from painting and drawing to origami, digital art, and 3D works, each accompanied by thoughtful artist statements. It's remarkable to see such a wide range of creativity stemming from a humble A4 sheet of paper.

After careful consideration by expert judges, 143 finalists have been chosen across 14 categories spanning from Kindergarten to Year 12, along with a special category for St Agnes’ Education Staff. This number includes artworks that have also been chosen as Packing Room Finalists, a category created to highlight outstanding pieces that may not have made it to the finalist stage but were recognized by the Creative Arts Nest Team.

All finalist artworks will be featured in the A4Art Pop-Up Exhibition, visiting each of the St Agnes’ Parish Schools during Term 2. Visitors will have the opportunity to vote for the People’s Choice Award during the exhibition. Furthermore, the artworks will be showcased at ArtWalk 2024 on 7 June in the Creative Arts Nest Tent at PMQ Town Green.

428 artworks have been shortlisted and are now available for viewing online. Community members can cast their votes for the Community Choice Award at www.artsnest.com.au/submission_2024/ 

Category and award winners will be announced at the Finalist Awards Night on 17 June, with all winners having their pieces displayed at the Wauchope Creative Hub Art Gallery post-event.

The Creative Arts Nest extends its heartfelt gratitude to our sponsors for their generous support including:

St Agnes’ Education, Toms Creek Nature Domes, Port Macquarie Surf School, Sunset Framing & Gallery, The Seed Creative Workshops, Wauchope Creative Hub, Stoney Park, Innervision Surf & Skate, Alice in Paperland, Drawn to Art, Eckersley’s Art & Craft, Wildnets Adventure Parks, Got Ya Back Productions and TwoTripleFour

This Week At Aggies

Sports News

Polding AFL Trials

On Tuesday this week, two Aggies students travelled to Newcastle for the Polding AFL trials. Henry Fryer and Flynn Wehlow gave it their all and had this to say about the experience of playing against the best AFL players from NSW Catholic Schools.

On the 9th of April 2024, we attended the Polding AFL trials in Warners Bay, Newcastle. It was a hot day. First we went into some warm ups and training like drills. One was a 25m kicking and a bow tie drill and then we took a 10 minute break, and then we went off into some games and we played about 4 games. Flynn kicked 2 goals while Henry kicked none. It was a tough day of footy but, we will be going to the next level in Albury for the 2024 PSSA AFL state championships on the 21st of May.

By Henry Fryer and Flynn Wehlow.

To have two students selected for the Polding team is an outstanding achievement, and we wish Flynn and Henry the best at the NSW Championships in May.

Zone Cross Country

Notes for the Zone Cross Country (Wednesday 8 May) went out to all students who qualified for the event via Compass. Please let the school know if your child cannot attend or will be travelling by private transport on the day.

Polding Winter Sports Trials

In Week 1 of Term 2, three St Agnes' students will attend the Polding Winter Sports Trials in Tamworth on Friday 3 May. Jade Johnson and Jagga Smith will compete for a position on the Polding Soccer team, and Ethan Favaloro is attempting selection for Hockey. Well done to Ethan, Jade and Jagga for making it this far in selections, and we wish them all the best on the day.

Future Dates

Term 2

• Friday 3 May - Polding Winter Sports Trials, Tamworth
• Wednesday 8 May - Zone Cross Country, Kempsey
• Friday 17 May - Diocesan Rugby Union Trials, Grafton
• Tuesday 21 May - Diocesan Cross Country, Grafton
• Friday 7 June - Diocesan Rugby Union Gala Day, Coffs Harbour
• Tuesday 18 June - NSW Netball School’s Cup Years 5 and 6 Gala Day
• Friday 21 June - School Athletics Carnival

Student Awards

Congratulations to the following students who have reached 200 Dojos:

Cody N and Tara A

Congratulations to the following students who have reached 100 Dojos:

Ande S, Archie M, Archie S, Asha W, Ava R, Ava W, Beau J, Benjamin C, Brodie D, Bryce L, Charlee T, Charlotte E, Chase M, Chase O, Eli B, Elsie K, Emily K, Emily T, Emmanuel  S, Everett B, Evie E, Faraday W, Florence H, Gaurika B, Hailey J, Harrison J, Huxley G, Isaac R, Ivy G, Jacob B, Jada U, Jake G, James D, Jarred P, Jasper K, Jax E, Jaxson F, Jiya R, Joel C, Joshua  A, Kallan F, Khuong V, Kitt Q, Koby S, Konnor B, Lachlan L, Layla M, Lucas S, Lucy D, Luka E, Macy C, Makayla D, Maliya L, Marley L, Mia B, Mia T, Migha A, Mikayla O, Mila S, Molly B, Myles R, Nicholas M, Noah F, Norah M, Oakley A, Olive G, Patrick M, Pip A, Piya V, Raquel R, Rose M, Ruby H, Sadie O, Sally-Ann V, Samuel B, Sarina M, Scarlett G, Sharni D, Sienna B, Sienna T, Slayter G, Stella S, Tabitha B, Thomas B, Thomas B, Thomas B, Waverly C, Wyatt B, Xavier H and Zuri T

Positive Behaviour Support

This week we continue with our focus on learning about being Resolute. We can celebrate my strengths and use them to finish the term strong.

The purpose of this lesson is to align with our catholic social teaching to ‘Human Dignity’. This lesson is designed to help students reflect on the term and celebrate their strengths by recognising all that they have achieved so far. By reminding students of their strengths and how wonderful they are, we are building self esteem to finish the term strong and inner drive to use these strengths in Term 2.

PBS Focus: Resolute. I am Resolute and I can use my strengths to finish the term strong.

Catholic Social Teaching: Human Dignity. Every person is made in the image of God. We are all valuable and worthy of respect and fairness because we are all human. 

Congratulations to our winning house Flinders who had a great time on the treat day yesterday. 

St Agnes' Primary School Community Forum

Thank you to the kindergarten families that joined us for the first ‘Social Sunday’ family event last weekend. It was wonderful to see so many families and 56 children attend. 'Social Sundays' are primarily being organised to give families an opportunity to meet, however, $130.63 was raised (after paying for venue hire and square fees). This will be combined with funds raised at each grade's ‘Social Sunday’ event and put towards a ‘Colour Run’ family event later in the year – this date will be circulated very soon! A huge thank you to Lauren Van Boxtel, Lynne Rangel, Genevieve Walsh and Leasa Harris for making this day a success.

We have many Community Forum (previously P&F) activities coming up!

• Social Sundays - See flyer below - please ‘Save the date’ and keep an eye out on individual grade facebook groups to RSVP.
• Ironman Volunteering - 5 May – We already have 25 parents, grandparents, staff and 12yo students registered to volunteer in our Ironman Volunteer group. This is a fantastic fundraising opportunity as Ironman provides a generous donation to our school for every person who puts up their hand - even if you can only manage an hour. We will be running the transition station at Westport Park. See flyer below.
  
• May Meeting – Our first meeting as a ‘Community Forum’ will be held on Monday 20 May (5:45pm) in the staff room. ALL PARENTS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND! As part of this new structure, an ‘educational’ or ‘consultative’ component must be included. Bel, owner and founder of The Root Cause ‘Mad Food Science’ Program (therootcause.com.au) will attend this meeting to talk to us for 10-15mins (from 6:30pm). Bel delivers programs to educate parents and kids on how food can affect mood, behaviour, learning and sleep. The educational or consultative element will always be scheduled as the final item on the agenda.  
  
• Special General Meeting - A reminder that the 20 May meeting will commence with a brief Special General Meeting where nominations for the executive roles of ‘Communications Coordinator’ and ‘Volunteer Coordinator’ will be called for. At the 2024 AGM, parents discussed their wish to add two executive roles. Two motions were moved and both carried for these roles to be included. The role descriptions are:
  Communications Coordinator – responsible for taking the lead on the creation of invitations, flyers and other communications for Community Forum activities and sharing these items via relevant channels to ensure parents are informed.
  Volunteer Coordinator – responsible for taking the lead on sourcing and securing parent volunteers for  Community Forum activities and briefing parents on their volunteer roles. This person will also be the best point of contact when school requests help from the Community Forum in finding parent volunteers for school led activities (such as for Shrove Tuesday etc). 
• Get in Touch! - If you would like an item added to a meeting agenda, please email pandfstagnes@gmail.com at least 10 days prior to a meeting. We are also looking for suggestions for educational topics that are of interest to parents. 
  

 Kind regards,
Allison Ritchie
Chairperson, St Agnes’ Primary School Community Forum

This Week's Notes and App Alerts

Canteen News

Parish News

Key Enrolment Dates For 2025

Kindergarten Information Sessions

• St Agnes’ Primary School – Saturday 18 May 2024 – 9:30am
• St Peter’s Primary School – Saturday 18 May 2024 – 9:30am
  
• St Joseph’s Primary School – Saturday 18 May 2024 – 9:30am

Primary School Tour for Kindergarten

• St Agnes’ Primary School – Saturday 1 June 2024 – 2:00pm
  
• St Peter’s Primary School – Saturday 1 June 2024 – 2:00pm
  
• St Joseph’s Primary School – Saturday 1 June 2024 – 2:00pm

Year 7 Enrolment Information Session

• St Joseph’s Regional College – Tuesday 7 May 2024 – 5:00pm to 7:30pm
• MacKillop College – Monday 6 May 2024 – 5:30pm to 8:00pm

Year 11 Enrolment Information Session

• St Joseph’s Regional College – Monday 29 July 2024 – 6:00pm
• Newman Technical College – Tuesday 30 July 2024 – 6:00pm
• MacKillop College – Wednesday 31 July 2024 – 6:00pm

Community News

Shine

After-school drama classes known as 'Shine' continue in Term 2. Inside a kids' drama class, young participants engage in various theatrical activities designed to cultivate their creativity, confidence, and communication skills. Under the guidance of a drama instructor, they explore improvisation, character development, storytelling, and stagecraft through games, exercises, and short performances. Through this process, children not only develop a love for the arts but also build important life skills such as teamwork, empathy, and self-expression.

Classes begin in Week 2 on Thursday 9 May and conclude on the last day of Term, 4 July. Students from Years 1 - 6 are welcome. Enrolment forms, including details regarding cost, are available from the front office. Any interested students have been given a form from their class teacher.