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Category: From the Principal

Family Fun Night 2018 – thank you everyone!

February 18, 2018
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Many thanks to all the fabulous families who came along to join in our Family Fun Night for 2018 – you were such a wonderful example to one another and to your children!

The goal of the night was simply to be together as a community, to give our kids a chance to gather in a relaxed social setting and for all of us to get to know and to welcome new families to St Emilie’s.

We are so grateful to every family that made the effort on a Friday night to come along – especially those who reached out in friendship to others. Your presence means a lot to us all and especially to your children.

Click HERE to see the cutest little St Emilie’s supporter! 🙂

Click HERE to listen to a snippet of our wonderful musicians – Jo and Mark.
Click here to see St Emilie’s families getting their boogie on!

Above: Mark Grima and his lovely wife Nicole. Thanks so much Mark for donating your time and talent so very generously! Nicole is also always helping out our school in so many very special ways.

I thoroughly enjoy the opportunity to have a chat with Mum, Dads and children at events like these – thank you to all those who said gidday – it is really appreciated.

Have a great week everyone!

Thank you for your wonderful presence

February 4, 2018
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Dear Families

A very sincere thank you is being sent your way for your presence at our Parent Information Night last week – it was wonderful to see you and we hope you walked away feeling positive, informed and excited about the year ahead!

Just as a family benefits from spending quality time together, so too does our whole school community. We really appreciate how busy life is for everyone, however opportunities where we can come together as one school family are also really special. We look forward to seeing your family support these type of events throughout the year.

Each time we meet is another chance to talk to another parent, another family or staff member. When we strengthen our relationships, we strengthen our community.

This Wednesday morning 7th February, from 8.00am to 8.30am families are warmly invited to join staff, Board and P&F members as they are commissioned in their roles for 2018. A Community Mass was introduced a couple of years ago to give families on their way to work a chance to attend Mass with their children – it’s a really great way to start the day.

As you will have read our Annual Family Fun Night is being held on Friday 16th February from 5pm to 7.30pm..

The main goal of this night is to come together, to join in the activities, to spend time and have fun with your own children and to reach out and get to know some other families a little better – especially our new families. As significant adults in the lives of our children, our own attitude to opportunities like this one is key. If we project a positive attitude, enthusiasm and enjoyment, then it has a ripple effect on our children.

The Fruit of the Holy Spirit focus for Weeks 1-5 is KINDNESS. May we all continue to strive to model kindness each and every day – in our families, in or school, in our workplaces and while online.

Bravo to everyone on the great take-up of the new school app. Like anything new, there is always a learning curve before success. Parents are reminded to please remain patient, kind and understanding – particularly with our hard working Office Admin team.

Have a terrific week everyone!

Welcome back and see you at the Parent Information Night this Wed 31st Jan

January 27, 2018
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Dear Parents,

Hello everyone and a very warm welcome back to you all! We hope you managed to have a really relaxing break with your family and that you are as excited to begin the new school year as we are! 🙂

After a great holiday we have been very busy here at school for the past few weeks – planning, meeting, shifting furniture, interviewing, re-organising, cleaning and dreaming big once again!

Mr Glenn Cogger our groundsman has worked so hard over the holidays and the Kindy space is looking wonderful as a result! If you see Glenn around the school please let him know what a great job he does in keeping our grounds looking so fabulous.

Likewise, Mr Nigel Yoxall and his team have also done a superb job cleaning all our windows, carpets, gutters and attending to our holiday maintenance list.

As was advertised at the end of last year, our Parent Information Night is to be held this Wednesday 31st January. While it is the first day of school, we hope that families will appreciate meeting their teacher and getting classroom information early. As per other years, each teacher will run two identical sessions either side of a whole school session in the hall, which each family is asked to please be represented at. This is the one night of the year where we have a wonderful opportunity to revisit who we are as a community and to reaffirm our commitment to one another and to our children.

For families with one child you will choose which classroom session time you wish to attend as well as the hall gathering. For families with two children you will typically attend one class session for your first child, go to the hall gathering and attend then the second session for your other child. If two parents come then you have a little more flexibility with how you choose to cover classes. Larger families may have to catch up with the teacher that you miss at another time.

Format for the evening

5.45pm Classroom Session 1

6.15pm Walk to the Hall

6.30pm Whole School Gathering and Presentation

7.15pm Walk to classroom

7.30pm Classroom Session 2

8.00pm Lights out and homeward bound

We have a number of new children, families and staff starting at St Emilie’s this year, so please keep an eye out for them and have a friendly smile ready. Sadly, we have lost a number of beautiful families who have relocated to other suburbs, states or overseas generally due to work commitments.

We are currently seeking enrolments for Year Three in particular. so if you know anyone who is seeking this year level, please let them know, as they may consider a move, if not this year perhaps in Year 4, especially if they live close to our school and were unable to get into a Catholic school, or our school originally. Otherwise however, our enrolment pattern remains very strong, which is very encouraging.

We look forward to joining you at our Family Fun Night on Friday 16th February (end of Week 3). Please save the date and help us to make this a fun night for everyone.

New Phone App for St Emilies – time to download it!

Our school has moved from our old app to a new school app called SKOOL BAG!

Parents are asked to please download the app on to their phone prior to school starting.

TO INSTALL THE SKOOLBAG APP

Search for Skoolbag in either the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Install the Skoolbag app, then tap the Select your school search and type in St Emilie’s.

SKOOLBAG REGISTRATION

Now that you have downloaded your app:

· Click on the “Register” tab.

· Fill in the fields: (Full name/Email Address/Password)

· Click “Register” to submit your completed fields.

(*Tip: Make sure you write your password down and store it somewhere safe as it needs to be precise when you retype it to login).

To do This:

1. Fil in the Username (your email) and Password

3. Click “Login”

4. Click on the “Home” tab (bottom left hand corner of the screen).

We are hoping to have a lot of our forms and notes come to you as online versions this year rather than paper copies. This means that you fill out information directly onto the form and data is retrieved and collated automatically. We will give you more information on Wednesday Night.

Carpark Drive through – a new yellow line

When you arrive on Wednesday to drop/collect your children at drive-through, there will be a yellow line painted a metre from and running parallel to the pedestrian footpath that borders the PP fence.

Cars are to drive to the bays as normal, however you need to pull up along the yellow line – not in the area between the line and the footpath.

This initiative is an added safety measure and all parents are asked to please communicate the change to grandparents and others who will be dropping/collecting children this year. Thank you everyone! A reminder that the first day is always a very, very busy one so please be extra vigilant in the carpark area as new families particularly may not be familiar with various procedures.

The small hall will be available for any parents to have a cuppa and a chat. It would be lovely to see some older faces welcoming some of our new faces! The leadership team and some P&F members will pop in each morning from 8.45am to 9.15am too – all welcome!

Looking forward to seeing you all soon! 🙂

Merry Christmas Everyone and Thank you!

December 8, 2017
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Dear families,

Wishing you all a really wonderful holiday! It’s been a great year and we look forward to doing it all again next year! Take care everyone and God bless.

Click here to read the Community Christmas Letter 2017

You are Invited…

December 5, 2017
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Dear Families,

We are looking forward to seeing as many of you as can make it tomorrow, Wednesday 6th December at our 9.00am, final school Mass for the year. This Eucharist is offered in praise and thanksgiving for all that has made up our 2017 school year.

After Mass you are warmly invited to join us for a simple morning tea – an opportunity to catch up with one another before we all break for school holidays. We will be providing a cuppa, some fruit platters and cake so just bring yourselves, and little ones are of course welcome.

Have a lovely day everyone and please keep our Year 6 families,staff and students in your prayers as they prepare to attend our Graduation Mass and celebration evening tonight.

Heading to the Finish Line!

November 24, 2017
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Dear Parents,

Hopefully you have heard the wonderful news about our new St Emilie’s State basketball champions!

A sincere congratulations to all the boys involved and of course a huge thank you to their coach, Mr Brett Forrest and to Mrs Rachel Davies for her organisation of the uniforms – certainly a very proud moment in time for our whole school community! Thank you to Stuart and Paul for representing all of us who would have loved to have been there too! As we know Mr Davis’ wife has just had a new baby so it was very good of him to pop in while on leave.

Below are the most of the main ‘events’ for the next two weeks on the term planner for 2018. If you click on the image it will enlarge the planner for you. The last two weeks with our students are always very special as we prepare to say goodbye and to celebrate the many successes throughout the year.

Please read the Weekly Reminders page for more information about each of the following events.

As you would appreciate, it is a very, very busy and physically demanding time for all staff as they complete parent interviews, Semester Two reports and finalise their teaching and learning programs and celebration days for the year.

Kindy staff also offer an extra opportunity for incoming 2018 Kindy families to gather and get to know each other prior to starting school next year. Next week they will set out equipment, games and activities, make time to chat and answer parent questions and happily help to supervise new children to the St Emilie’s family, after a long teaching day. A special thank you to the Kindy team who have also been pastorally supporting Mrs Fleming, who very sadly lost her mother just last week.

Likewise, Year Six teachers have been so generously preparing their students for Graduation amidst parent interviews, students heading off to high school orientations and finalising semester reports.

Front Office staff continue to respond to parent calls, questions and concerns, as well as tend to student bumps and scrapes and teacher requests.

Mrs Norris has been involved in the change from cash to accrual accounting, preparing for the AGM and following up on unpaid school fees. Thanks again Gill for your presence at the AGM despite it being your birthday!

Glenn Cogger our groundsman continues to make sure that our grounds are well maintained and he has some great projects planned for the school holidays!

Mr Munro and I have of course been busy with everything in between, including planning for 2018!

Thanks to those who were able to pop in to the AGM – these reports will be uploaded to the School website.

Likewise, we will confirm the 2018 Staff List, Class Lists, School Fees and P&F changes prior to school finishing.

Amidst the busyness and demands of our vocation, as a team, we continue to stay focused on the children in our care and keeping Christ at the centre of all we think, do and say.

We all want to finish the year positively and constructively. Thanks go out to those parents who make a habit of communicating to and about staff in a wise, measured, friendly, mature, and respectful manner – in this way you are being a wonderful role model to your child.

Take care and God bless everyone.

I look forward to seeing you before the year ends!

Regards, Tania.

It’s World Teachers Day today! Have you said ‘thank you’ lately?

October 27, 2017
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

It is World Teacher’s Day today and we take a moment to celebrate our own teachers and Education Assistants and those across the world who dedicate themselves to sharing the gift of learning!

Every day, our staff are making a difference educating and inspiring your children in our school!

World Teachers’ Day is an opportunity to acknowledge our teachers, EA’s and all our staff – to say thank you for the significant contribution they make in our classrooms, playgrounds and communities.

World Teachers’ Day is held internationally on 5 October. As the day usually falls during school holidays, Australia celebrates it on the last Friday of October each year.

Have you thanked your child’s teacher lately?

St Emilie’s staff love what they do, and they work very hard! Sometimes a little email, card or note of thanks can really make the day of a teacher or EA in the midst of a sea of planning, paperwork and teaching!

If you have a minute, why don’t you think of a way that you might be able to let them know how much you appreciate their efforts? 🙂

Below is a poster showing some really positive and powerful ways that you can support and work well our teaching staff … please try to make some time to read it, thank you!

Download (PDF, 2.87MB)

Have a great day everyone!

All Saints Day Whole Community Mass – 8am this Wednesday 1st November

October 27, 2017
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Dear Parents,

Next Wednesday’s Community Mass celebrates ‘All Saints Day’ which starts at 8am and finishes by 8.30am.

Beginning the day in this way is a wonderfully peaceful, reflective time for staff, parents, children and parishioners.

Prioritising this opportunity, by getting up a little earlier and placing a value on it sends a very powerful message to your child.

Likewise by talking to them about how going to Mass is a special time to reconnect, to pray, to ask for help, to say thank you, to receive the spiritual food we need to keep trying hard to be the very best we can be – you are helping them understand how our faith plays an important part in who we are and in how we want to live our lives. The Eucharist nurtures us for the ups and downs we all face in our daily life.

We would really love to share this Eucharist with you and we hope to see you there if you can make it.

As the next day is All Souls Day, Father Giovanni has invited families who would like to remember a special family member or friend who has passed away to write their names down and these names will be prayed for during the Mass. A slip of paper and pencil will be available before Mass if you would like your loved ones remembered. in this way

Below is an excerpt from a little book that you might like to read with your children 🙂

WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A SAINT?A Word to Kids by Kids

God doesn’t just pick out certain people to be saints and nobody else. After all, everybody is special to Him, right? I mean, I feel special. Don’t you? God wants everybody to be good so I guess He wants everybody to be a saint.

Well, then, why are some people saints and not others? What exactly is a saint?

I’ll bet they were a lot like you and me. They were real people with real feelings, with real problems. Just like me. They all lived on the planet Earth. Just like me. When they were kids. . . .

Some saints were really poor, some were rich.
Some were beautiful, some were average.
Some were skinny, some were fat.
Some were shy, some were forward.
Some were smart, some not as smart.
Some went to school, some were uneducated.
Some were healthy, some were sickly.
Some behaved, some were troublemakers.
Some were popular, some simply got on people’s nerves.

Saints weren’t born perfect. Nobody is perfect. They didn’t walk around with halos over their heads. That would be kind of weird, don’t you think? No, I think that saints started out just like the rest of us—the hard way.

But something must have happened to make the saints stand out from the rest of us. Since God wants everybody to be a saint, maybe they just listened better. Maybe when He called, they heard—or something like that.

If you really look at saints, they had a few things in common. For instance, they were always talking to God. That’s called praying. And they always wanted to make God happy because they loved Him so much. They weren’t just thinking about themselves all the time. They were thinking about what God wanted them to do.

Some of the saints were good thinkers, so those saints would write about religion or teach. Some saints were good workers, so they would lend a helping hand to the poor and elderly. Some were rich, so they would give away money and things to the needy.

I don’t know, but I guess it’s really hard to be a saint. I mean, I wouldn’t like to give all my stuff away. And I’m always busy with things to do. I try to do what I should, but sometimes things happen and I make mistakes. I try, but I’m no saint—not yet, anyway.

I like hearing about the saints, though. We can learn a lot from their examples. They teach us how to be closer to God. And they show us how to stay on the right track. They help to correct some of the bad things that go on. That’s why God gives them special powers. You know, they get to make miracles happen.

So, if we pray to them for things, they listen. Saints are definitely good listeners. They are like our special friends in heaven. They know what it’s like down here, and they can help us.

From Saints for Kids by Kids, by the Reverend Robert Charlebois,

A Shared Understanding …

October 25, 2017
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal

Download (PDF, 444KB)

A Pastoral Concern re: ‘M’ and ‘R’ Rated Content

October 25, 2017
Tania Thuijs
· From the Principal · Kindy · Pre-Primary · Year 1 · Year 2 · Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

Dear Parents,

It has recently come to our attention that some of our children have been allowed to watch an MA15+ horror movie called ‘IT’ while other children have been exposed to the content, via older brothers and sisters. Quite disturbingly, some of these children are as young as 8 and 9 years old.

The film is apparently about a group of bullied kids who band together, while a demon, taking the appearance of a clown, begins hunting down children.

Quite clearly this movie (and other movies with this rating) are simply inappropriate for primary aged children (and low teens) to watch.

We are deeply concerned about the lack of parent judgment in relation to this matter.

The flow on issue for us as a school, is that children are coming to class and the playground, talking about very scary and confronting aspects of the movie, which are unsettling and distressing to those children it is being shared with.

Once aware of this, we have of course shut these conversations down quickly and explained why they are inappropriate and not allowed, however for this situation to really resolve itself, we need all parents to do do some serious thinking about the choices being made at home.

Advisory categories for films and computer games

Three classification categories are advisory categories. This means there are no legal restrictions about viewing and/or playing these films and computer games with these markings.

G—General

PG—Parental Guidance

M—Mature

Restricted categories for films and computer games

The following classification categories are restricted categories. This means there are legal restrictions on viewing and/or playing these films and computer games.

MA 15+—Mature Accompanied

R 18+—Restricted

Please find below a very good article dealing with children and media viewing in general and we ask that you read it and consider auditing your family viewing choices with the big picture in mind.

Download (PDF, 530KB)

You may recall us raising a similar issue a couple of years ago with a computer game involving a very dark character called ‘Slenderman”. Some parents supported each other by ensuring they were all ‘on the same page’ in regard to not allowing the game to be played at one another’s homes. When parents take a stand and restate their values and their desire to create and maintain a safe space for all children, it is a powerful message.

As we have said many times – ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and the school is part of the village. We trust that you will support us in protecting children from unnecessary harm.

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