In our last newsletter, we reflected on the simple practice of sharing a sense of gratitude. I invited you to reach out to at least one person, e.g. a phone call, a short note or a text message and tell them how grateful you are for who they are and the work they do.
During Wellbeing Wednesday (11.08.21), the students reflected on what they were grateful for. Here is are some of their responses. Thank you for sharing these with us.

Principal's Challenge Number 2
On Wednesday, you listened to the story of "Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed."
St Mary of the Cross MacKillop was an ordinary Australian who achieved extraordinary things. Her motto: ‘Never see a need without doing something about it', is what we aspire to do each and every day. She tried hard every day to demonstrate respect for the dignity of every person she met.

Just like 'Ordinary Mary'. Choose someone to do a kind act for. e.g. You might clean up your room, do the dishes, sweep the back verandah or do something that would be helpful and kind.

Over the next week, please continue to do those random acts of kindness.
Let us know, share them with your teacher. I would love to share these in our next newsletter.

As we have said many times before, these are unprecedented times. We want to take another opportunity to say THANK YOU. Thank you to our students - your efforts with online learning have been amazing! We are so impressed with your enthusiasm and engagement. Thank you to our parents and carers - you are all superheroes!
We know how tough trying to manage work and helping your children learn online is difficult. The St Francis of Assisi staff appreciates everything you are doing!

We would like to thank you for your emails, phone calls, baking and generous gifts.
Yesterday the staff received these gifts from the P&F Committee on behalf of everyone. Students, Parents and school community. Thank you for your kindness and generosity!

Each year from September to October the Christian community celebrates the Season of Creation by praying and acting together to protect our common home. During this time Catholics unite with others in the global family to pray and protect every creature in God’s beautifully complex web of creation. The theme of this year’s Season of Creation celebration is “A Home for All? Renewing the Oikos of God” 

The Season of Creation begins on 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. This annual day, established by Pope Francis in 2015, is an opportunity to pray, reflect and act to care for God’s creation. All of us, both those who most contribute to climate change and those whom it most affects, pray today for better stewardship of the Earth. 

Pope Francis in his announcement for the World Day of Prayer for Care of Creation said, 

"The annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation offers to individual believers and to the community a precious opportunity to renew our personal participation in this vocation as custodians of creation, raising to God our thanks for the marvelous works that have been entrusted to our care, invoking God’s help for the protection of creation and God’s mercy for the sins committed against the world in which we live." 

Today we raise to God our thanks for the marvelous works that have been entrusted to our care, and we ask for God’s help as we take action to protect our planet and all of its creatures. 

Let us pray together:
Creator of Life, the Earth is full of Your creatures,
and by your wisdom, you made them all.
At Your word, the Earth brought forth plants yielding seed of every kind and trees of every kind bearing fruit, the waters teemed with swarms of living creatures of every kind, and the world was filled with every kind of winged bird, walking animal, and creatures that creep upon the ground.
Mountains, plains, rocks, and rivers shelter diverse communities,
and through the changing seasons, your Spirit renews cycles of life.
During this Season of Creation, open our eyes to see the precious diversity that is all around us. Enlighten our minds to appreciate the delicate balance maintained by each creature. Inspire us to conserve the precious habitats that nurture this web of life.
In the name of the One who came to proclaim good news to all creation,
Jesus Christ.  Amen. 

ACTIVATE Year 6
We have been informed that once again ACTIVATE for Year 6 has been postponed and hopefully will be scheduled for Term 4.

Parish Church Sacraments
At this stage, we need to pray that we will be able to go ahead with our sacraments this year. We have no updates as yet and will certainly inform you when we are able to attend church once again.

Mrs Madaschi
Religious Education Coordinator

Due to the COVID restrictions, our building renovations were on hold. Some of the trades are now back on site, and the renovations can continue. Here are some photos of the progress so far. 

Over the past few weeks, Year 2 has been involved in a range of activities whilst learning remotely. We have been connecting weekly via a Zoom meeting. We share news, had a crazy hair day, and participated in a scavenger hunt. It has been wonderful to see the students in 2 Blue! 

In English, we have been learning about persuasive texts. We have written a persuasive text on our favourite Olympic sport and read a great persuasive story called 'Can I be your dog?' By Troy Cummings. 

In Mathematics, we have been enjoying completing learning tasks for 2D shapes and multiplication and division. The children have been actively engaged in the tasks and have produced some wonderful work.

We have also enjoyed some fun science and art activities!

Mrs Mansbridge & Mrs Zaffonato

Year 3 had fun making Olympic Athletes with foil. Can you guess what sports we made in our Olympic Art? Well done Linda, Nicholas, Lucinda and Lucas.

Mrs Madaschi

National Tree Day is Australia's largest community tree planting and nature protection event. It is a call to action for all Australians to put their hands in the earth and give back to their community. It's a day to venture outdoors and get to know your community, and most importantly, to have fun! Each year, more than 3000 students participate nationwide in environmental activities that educate individuals about the world around them. 

Illawarra Fly Treetop Adventures invited students to create an artwork to celebrate this day.

Congratulations to Lara D in Year 5 who created this amazing artwork which has been entered in the competiton. Winners will be announced tomorrow, good luck Lara!

P&F Committee Meeting
We were able to proceed with our recently scheduled committee meeting via Zoom.  It was good to come together and continue to plan for our school community. In consultation with Mrs Davidson and Mr Green, we made the decision to offer the Father's day stall for the students online, and are excited that we could make this available for them. Please see further details attached.

Next Meeting
The next P&F meeting is scheduled to be held on 9 September at 3.45 pm. All parents are welcome to attend.  Please contact the school office and we can share with you the Zoom link -  if we are still in COVID19 restrictions.

Father's Day ONLINE Gift Stall
The P&F has done an amazing job and organised the Father's Day Stall online for the children to still have the opportunity to buys gifts. Please see the attached flyer with instructions for online ordering and gifts available to purchase. Gifts can be collected via a "drive-thru contactless" pick on Thursday 2nd or Friday 3rd September. Any questions please email the P&F at stfrancispandf@outlook.com.

Book Week 21-27 August, 2021
"Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds"

We are disappointed we are unable to celebrate Book Week in person this year. It is an event that we all look forward to. The fun of parading as our favourite book character, the joy of sharing our reading experiences, and the excitement of engaging with the Book of the Year titles. 

Next week your class teachers will upload some activities based on one of the nominated children's books. Don’t forget to post your completed activities so we can all share in your fun. We also have a colouring competition for anyone who would like to participate. Simply print off the picture and send a photo of the completed work to Ms Martins email: - Martinse01@dow.catholic.edu.au or if you want to be creative, you can design your own Book Week poster for 2021.

During Book Week, immerse yourself in a book and discover 'Old Worlds, New Worlds, and Other Worlds'.

Ms Martins and Mrs Burrows

Book Club catalogues are available to view and order online. Please see the attached brochure below to view Issue 6.  Orders can be placed online via LOOP.  Click on the link below and select home delivery when ordering for this issue. 

Unfortunately, our annual Book Fair will not be scheduled this year, due to the ever-changing circumstances. So Book Club will be the perfect way to purchase some books and help support our school. 

School photo day has been rescheduled to be held on Thursday 14 October, Term 4 Week 2. Students will wear summer school uniforms (no sports uniforms). Orders will be placed online.  This information will be provided closer to the date.

Dear St Francis of Assisi School Community

Her Excellency the Governor of New South Wales has prepared a video message to thank and encourage your school community.

Thank you for all that you are doing to navigate the current circumstances and take care of students and staff.

It has been great to see some of the students connect to some of the zoom meetings this week. With the remote learning in many areas, many teachers are using Zoom to connect with their students. Zoom is a web-based video conferencing tool similar to Skype which can also be used to connect with friends and relatives. 

Remember that school PB4L rules and expectations apply when using Zoom:
All zoom meetings are recorded.

• 
  Always listen and be respectful when others are speaking
• Have your microphone on mute until you are asked to speak
• Wait your turn – teachers will give you a signal to use, like raising your hand, if you have something to say
• Keep the camera on so that the teacher and other students can see you
• Be presentable, dressed in appropriate clothes
• Find a quiet spot without distraction (not within your bedroom)
• Don’t let your background become a distraction
• Be on time

Thank you for your engagement in our Remote Learning. We are very aware that most parents are working with children also learning at home. We understand that you may be limited in the support you can provide for your child and therefore some of their work may not get done. If the students are not able to get all their tasks done in a day that is okay.
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.

Green Connect Care packages to
Illawarra Families in Need

registration_info.pdf

HRP_Flyer_Shellharbour_Term_4_2022.pdf