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While we don’t have the opportunity to gather with our parish communities, we are still encouraged to pray together as a family in our homes. The early Christians prayed in the church of the home. Once more, in troubled times when public worship has to be restricted, we are called to pray in “the domestic church”, always aware of the promise of Jesus.
“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them.” (Matthew 18:20).
Welcome back to Term 3. A start to the term that we did not anticipate. We hope you are all coping with the ever-changing challenges we are all experiencing in this lockdown. Our prayers and thoughts are with you all.
Last week saw a successful transition to remote learning. Congratulations to our students, parents and teachers for allowing this to run so smoothly. We will continue to provide our students with engaging and meaningful learning. We appreciate that some students may not be able to complete all tasks during the school day and that often parents are able to support their children outside of these hours, we are truly grateful for the assistance you are providing during home learning. Our teachers will continue to provide feedback and assistance and answer any questions. As previously communicated, please contact the school or your child's teacher if your child requires any assistance in participating in the learning tasks.
We thank you for all of your support as we work together to do our best for our wonderful community. We will continue to update you as information comes to hand. Please see the Remote Learning section in this newsletter for some additional information.
Keep safe and thank you for all you are doing for your children and your families.
Mrs Vicky Davidson
Principal
Last Wednesday, the NSW Premier announced that the stay at home (lockdown) orders for Greater Sydney, including Wollongong and Shellharbour, will remain in place for another two weeks until Friday 30 July 2021. While this is not the news we hoped for, please be assured we are well prepared to support the continued wellbeing, learning and faith formation of students for as long as remote learning is in place.
During this time, we will continue to provide daily online learning for K-4 using Seesaw and Years 5-6 on Google Classroom. In keeping with the Premier's strong message that everyone who can stay at home should stay at home, we are working to minimise the number of staff on-site at school each day. If you are able to keep your child home, we strongly encourage you to do so.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the St Francis of Assisi school community for the wonderful support that has been given to our staff as they have transitioned from face to face learning to remote learning. You have been patient and understanding, and this has been very much appreciated. I would also like to congratulate and acknowledge the great work that our staff and parents are doing to keep the continuity of faith and learning for our students.
It's important that you don’t feel overwhelmed by the work your children are being asked to complete; just do what you can. Remember, we are all doing our best under the circumstances. Teachers are available to support you and your children and can walk you through any issues that may arise. Thank you for understanding the importance of these measures in keeping our students, staff and school community safe during this time.
Please join us in praying for our political leaders, frontline health workers and those who are sick, as well as a quick resolution to the unfolding COVID-19 situation in NSW.
Thank you for your continued patience and support as we navigate these new and emerging challenges together. Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW) will be offering support to families, conscious of the significant financial impact that many may be experiencing as a result of the continuing COVID-19 restrictions. Please find below detailed information regarding support for families through COVID-19 restrictions and school fee payments. As always, please do not hesitate to contact the school about any matters you wish to discuss, especially those related to financial hardship.
As we begin the term, I would like to stress the importance of helping your child/children develop a positive attitude towards Mathematics, especially during Remote Learning. Some children find it difficult to solve Mathematics problems and therefore develop a negative mindset towards Mathematics which means they give up very quickly. We want students to develop a growth mindset towards learning Mathematics.
Mathematics introduces children to concepts, skills, and thinking strategies that are essential in everyday life and support learning across the curriculum. Children delight in using Mathematics to solve a problem, especially when it leads them to an unexpected discovery or new connections. As their confidence grows, they look for patterns, use logical reasoning, suggest solutions and try out different approaches to problems. Mathematics offers children a powerful way of communicating. They learn to explore and explain their ideas using symbols, diagrams and spoken and written language. They start to discover how Mathematics has developed over time and contributes to our economy, society and culture. Studying Mathematics stimulates curiosity, fosters creativity and equips children with the skills they need in life beyond school.
Listed below are suggested ideas you could do at home to help your child engage in Mathematics:
- Ask your child to start counting from a number other than one. This will help them when they need to add two groups together and can start counting from the larger group.
- Ask your child to tell you the number before or after a number. How old will you be next year? How old were you last year?
- Ask your child to give you enough plates, cups or cutlery for each person when setting the table.
- Play games such as Dominoes, Snakes and ladders, card games or board games involving dice with dot patterns. This will help your child to recognise patterns and count.
- Collect and sort shells/pebbles etc. Count how many are in each group.
- Look at and say the numbers on license plates and road signs.
- Ask your child to help you count the pieces as you cut up food such as pie, quiche, fruit or sandwiches.
- Have your child help share out food to the family. For example, how many slices will I need to cut the pizza into so that everyone has two slices?
- Ask your child to share out items fairly with others.
- Count the number of things in a collection, such as items in a bag or a large jar of buttons. Ask your child if there is a quick and easy way of counting, e.g. counting by tens, fives or twos.
In the School Newsletters this term, we will provide you with a variety of Maths questions/ideas that your child could complete at their leisure. Please feel free to be involved in these activities. These questions/ideas might be targeted at Infants, Primary or Upper Primary students. If you think the questions are not suitable for your child’s stage, please do not hesitate to change the numbers to suit your child’s level.
Remote Learning / PB4L
As we commence Term 3, we find ourselves undertaking remote learning again. As Mrs Davidson has stated, this is not an ideal situation for anyone, as we are all impacted in some way. On the slides that the students access each morning, there is a slide that reminds them of how they can be Safe, Respectful and Responsible while participating in Remote Learning. If your child/ren follows these expectations, it should make the process of remote learning a lot smoother for your household. Please refer to them throughout the day to give praise where due, as well as reminders, which I am sure, are very rare.
Take care, look and after yourself.
Mr Green
Assistant Principal
Sacraments
At this stage, all sacraments for this year are on hold until restrictions are eased, and we are able to look at new dates. We will also need to look at how these lessons will be delivered.
Our Confirmation ceremony was supposed to have taken place last Tuesday. As mentioned above, please be patient and we will let you know what is happening as soon as possible.
ACTIVATE
ACTIVATE for Year 6 has also been postponed. Hopefully, this will be rescheduled until later in the year.
Cancelled or Postponed Events.
| Confirmation | Postponed |
| ACTIVATE Year 6 | Postponed |
| Year 6 Mass with the Bishop | Cancelled |
| Reconciliation Meeting | Postponed |
| Parish Masses | Postponed |
| Fr Damien’s Installation as Parish Priest | Postponed |
Staff Spiritualty Day
On the last day of Term 2, the staff gathered at St Mary of the Star Gerringong to participate in a Staff Spirituality Day. The staff focused on three main areas:- Catholicity and what it means in our world today; revision of our School Vision and Mission; and St Francis of Assisi Spirituality and what it means in our school. There was a great deal of meaningful discussion as well as time to meditate and renew. It was a very successful day. Thank you to our staff for their participation.
Religious Education and Remote Learning
During Remote learning and lockdown, it is important for students to engage in prayer, meditation and Religious Education. As a Catholic school, and with the support of our parents, faith education is vital. Please complete these tasks to the best of your ability and make prayer a priority.
Thank you for uploading your videos, we have enjoyed seeing the students say their prayers.
Mrs Madaschi
Religious Education Coordinator
Thanks for your continued support and understanding.
Mr Murphy
Term 3 Sport Dates
| 23 July | Soccer Gala Days - Year 3-6 @ Nowra, Albion Park and Warrawong | Cancelled |
| 03 August | South Coast Athletics Carnival @ Beaton Park | Cancelled |
| 10 August | Diocesan Athletics Trials @ Beaton Park | Cancelled |
| 09 Sept | Junior Basketball Gala Day - Year 3-4 @ Berkeley | TBC |
| 10 Sept | Senior Basketball Gala Day - Year 5-6 @ Berkeley | TBC |
At the bottom of the class pages, you will see all the slides for the last two weeks. Students may go in at any time and access these slides.
An attendance sign-in is required, this form can be found on each class page. Please ask your child/ren to sign in when they commence their learning for the day, only once per day is required. Please see the image to the right. This is the way we are tracking student attendance.
Students are to visit the school-home learning site each morning. This website will be updated at 8.30 am daily with the students learning tasks for that day. It is important that each child reads the slides on their class page before they commence the task on Seesaw (K-4) or Google Classroom (5-6). Students need to read the instructions on the slide/s before they complete the task.
Remote Learning Attendance
We advise the attendance in the Compass Parent Portal has been disabled during remote learning. We are required to show attendance for remote learning and this is tracked by the students logging in to the SFAW Home Learning Site.
If your child is sick and not be participating in remote learning for that day, please email the class teacher or notify the school so that the attendance can be explained as "sick". For the moment this will be recorded manually from the office. Thank you.
Well done Year 2, you are all doing such a wonderful job with your home learning. Keep up the fantastic effort and we look forward to seeing you when the restrictions are lifted.
In keeping with the Premier's strong message that everyone who can stay at home should stay at home, we are working to minimise the number of staff on-site at school each day. If you are able to keep your child home, we strongly encourage you to do so.
Please see the letter sent home earlier in the week.
We have been fortunate to seek the employment and services of a speech pathologist from Necessity Kids- based in Dapto, to work alongside our staff for the remainder of the year. Jenny Hill will be overseeing this service. She brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge in the field of speech pathology. This is an exciting venture that we have been looking at implementing here at St Francis of Assisi.
Speech Pathology (therapy) is aimed at helping anyone with difficulties communicating. In early childhood and early years of Primary School, this covers learning to talk clearly, using words in sentences with appropriate grammar, sequence ideas to be able to clearly express details as well as understand and follow complex instructions. Speech therapy also includes stuttering therapy, voice disorders and helping children who have a specific diagnosis with communicating without words, e.g. sign language, using computer-aided apps or visuals.
The school will be utilising Jenny's expertise in identifying students who may require additional support in this area and providing staff professional development on how to support and address speech needs in their classrooms. This is an exciting time at St Francis of Assisi School as we continue to build the capacity of our staff to support our students.
School Counselling
During remote learning, students may experience high levels of stress due to the changes that are happening around them. They are separated from friends, others may be worried about getting sick.
St Francis of Assisi works closely with CatholicCare to ensure the pastoral needs of all students and their families are supported. We aim to be proactive in meeting the social, emotional and spiritual needs of our students.
Our CatholicCare school counsellor Mrs Barbara Woods is available to work with children and their families to support their social and emotional wellbeing. To book an appointment with our school counsellor, please contact the school office.
Happy Birthday to the following students and staff who celebrate their birthdays in July:
Brae, Layla, Lexie, Mallek, Felicia, Anastasia, Adam, Joseph, Jaxen, Ryan, Rocco, Lukas, Hussein.A, Tyrese, Makedde, Mia.D, Alivia, Sekne, Corey, Celina, Mia.D, Brock,
Father Damien, Mrs Matos and Mr Gilmore.
