Over the past month, the teachers have been engaged in the extensive process of writing your child’s half-yearly report. Throughout this process, the teachers review the data they have gathered about your child throughout the first semester to form an overall picture of their progress in their current year. As teachers, we observe, interact and analyse your child’s performance, and an overall grade will be given for each learning area. Having read through each of these reports and knowing about the progress students have made since the beginning of this year, there is a great deal to celebrate. Thank you to the teachers for preparing these reports. Semester 1 student reports for Years 1 to Year 6 will be sent home to parents/carers tomorrow, Friday 28 June.

Confirmation
Next Tuesday 2 July some of our Year Six students and others from the parish will celebrate the sacrament of Confirmation. The sacrament of Confirmation is one of Christian initiation. It completes Baptism through the laying on of hands and the anointing with Chrism Oil, which first happened at Baptism. As such we are confirmed with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We are reminded of our participation in the ministry and mission of Jesus and strengthened to follow Jesus more closely.

We congratulate these students and ask that you
keep them in your prayers.

Year 4 Celebration of Learning
All parents, particularly those of Year 4 students, are warmly invited to attend Year 4’s Celebration of Learning next Friday 5 July commencing at 2.10pm. This assembly will provide an opportunity for our Year 4 to share some of the wonderful learning experiences that they have engaged in so far this year. Principal and Values awards will also be presented during this assembly. Thank you to Mr Green and our Year 4 students for preparing and leading the Celebration of Learning assembly.

Welcome to our new OOSH Coordinator
This week we welcomed Mrs Tiffany Martz to our school community. Tiffany will be working each afternoon in our OOSH service. Welcome to St Francis of Assisi, Tiffany.

Special thanks to Emily Bowker for the wonderful support you provided our school during Terms 1 and 2. All the best for the future!

Grandparent’s Day
On Friday 26 July (Friday Week 1, Term 3) we will be celebrating Grandparent’s Day as a school. We will begin the day with Mass and then invite grandparents to join their grandchildren in their classrooms to see what they are learning. This will be followed by morning tea with their grandchildren in the playground.

We would like to use some photos of our children with their grandparents in the powerpoint at Mass. Could you please send in a photo that we could scan for this by the end of Term 2. Please send these photos to Mrs Briscoe and we will scan and return them. Alternatively, please email photos to info@sfawdow.catholic.edu.au

Confirmation
On Tuesday 2 July we will be welcoming Vicar General Fr Bernard Gordon to our parish to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation. The ceremony will be at 7.30pm in St Francis of Assisi Church Warrawong. There will be 25 candidates and 1 special greeting this year. (Maronite Catholics are confirmed when they are baptised and receive a special blessing at the parish ceremony). Please keep all these young people and adults in your prayers. We also sincerely thank Mrs Briscoe, Sr Anna and Mrs Dona Eady for volunteering their time to lead the candidates in their preparation. 

Sacred Heart Mass
Please join us this Friday at 9.00am for Mass to celebrate the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Our school has a special connection to this feast as the founding sisters of our school are Franciscan Sisters of the Heart of Jesus. Stage 3 are preparing this special Mass.

Thanksgiving Mass  
This term we will be celebrating a Thanksgiving Mass on Friday 5 July prepared by Stage 2. At this Mass we will give thanks for all the wonderful learning and events that have taken place this term. Mass will be at 9.00am, please join us.

Staff Development Day
On Monday 24June our staff participated in a Spirituality Day with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Focus. The day was titled ‘Listening to the Spirit of the Great South Land.’

The day began with Beth Riolo and Karan Taylor form the Catholic Education Office leading the staff through the story and history of our land and its surrounds and the importance of spiritual totems. We then travelled to Hill 60 and Coomaditchy where Karan spoke of the significance and importance of these areas to the Aboriginal community including the food sources. In the afternoon we made message sticks with symbols to represent our own stories. What a wonderful, prayerful experience!

School Athletics Carnival
Congratulations to all our students who participated in the school athletics carnival at Myimbarr Park, Shellharbour. It was a beautiful day and everyone enjoyed themselves as they rotated to the different stations supporting each other and trying their very best in each event. Thank you to all our parents who helped our teachers at every rotation. Your support was greatly appreciated.

Ribbons and medals were presented to the students at the last assembly. The following students are the Age Champions for 2019.

Junior Boys – Dylan R

Junior Girls - Eva G

11yr Boys – James H

11yr Girls – Paige M

Senior Boys – Jamie D/ Kyle Z

Senior Girls – Savannah D

Congratulations to our Yellow House, who were crowned both Infants and Primary champion houses. A team has been selected to represent our school at the Regional Diocesan Athletics Carnival on Tuesday 13 August.

Netball Gala Day
Unfortunately, due to the weather conditions, the Netball Gala Day was postponed. Please be advised that we will try again next Tuesday 2 July at the Berkeley Netball courts.

Soccer Gala Day
An expression of interest to students in Year 3 to Year 6 to participate in the South Coast Soccer Gala Day was received with great enthusiasm. Year 3 and 4 students will travel to Nowra, Senior boys will gather at Albion Park and the Senior girls will play at Warrawong. Please be aware that parents will be required to transport their child to the venue. Permission notes will be handed out on the first week in Term 3. The Soccer Gala Day will be held on Friday 2 August.

Please join Year 4 as they lead our Week 10 Celebration of Learning on Friday 5 July.  This celebration will also include a liturgy for NAIDOC Week, which occurs during our school holidays.

Year 4 look forward to sharing their learning with you, as well as introduce you to their class pets, Quakers and Daphne.

On Friday 14 June Stage 1 students had an early start, arriving at school at 7:00am ready for the bus trip to Sydney Sea Life Aquarium. What a fantastic day we all had! The students were able to see many of the sea creatures we have been learning about, and learned lots of new information. There were many tired children (and teachers!) on the return bus trip, which is always a sign of a busy and exciting day. Thank you to the Stage 1 teachers for organising the excursion and giving up their time to accompany the students on this wonderful learning opportunity. 

"We were partners and we learnt lots of things. We saw lots of sharks and stingrays and we also saw a dugong. It was eating lettuce and we also saw a blacktip shark and jellyfish. We got to touch starfish and we had lots of fun!"
Isabella A and Ariel VB - 1G

"The swordfish had a sword that looked like a jigsaw. We saw a dugong, and jellyfish were swimming too. We saw penguins and learnt about how to keep plastic and rubbish out of the ocean."
Antonio F and Lucas O - 1G

"At the aquarium, we saw lots of very cool animals like the grey nurse shark,     black-tipped reef shark and white-tipped reef shark. We learnt how they survive from predators. We also saw a dugong and he can only stay under the water for 6 to 8 minutes. Dugongs are a marine mammal. They eat cos lettuce that is very crunchy.  We saw lots of amazing fish that looked very, very cute. My favourite thing was touching the animals in the rock pool.  We were touching different types of starfish and we touched shark eggs."
Zaynab R  2B

"At the aquarium we learned that ray gills are different to shark gills.  The gills of the ray are on the bottom and the shark gills are on the sides.  We also learned sea horses are only very small!  My favourite thing was going underwater and seeing all of the underwater animals. The sea creature I liked best was the dugong."
Mia F  2B

"My favourite thing was when we saw a groper and a dugong called Pig. There was also a section where everything glows, and this was full of jellyfish. We also saw green sea turtles."
Thomas W 2G

"My favourite thing at the aquarium was the touch zone because you could touch anything you want, even a sea cucumber. It was slimy and gooey and also disgusting. I only touched two things - a starfish and a sea cucumber. When we saw a stingray it had no tail because a vicious shark ate it and the aquarium people saved the stingray."
Claudia M 2G

Our Book Fair was a huge success! A huge thank you to everyone that purchased a book to help support our school. We have $580.00 worth of scholastic rewards to purchase new books for our library. Mrs Martins and Mrs Burrows are very excited to spend this money on new resources.

A special note needs to go to Thomas.W from Year 2 who bought 2 books and donated 1 to our library, which he does every year with book fair. Thanks Thomas!

OVER THE WALL

Kindergarten have been investigating as part of their STEM inquiry-based unit - and they've left no brick unturned!

Why did Humpty Dumpty fall? How does an egg move? If Humpty wanted to sit safely on the wall, how could the structure be changed to keep him upright? 

The Catholic Education Office have prepared and shared an article on St Francis of Assisi Kindergarten news "Over the Wall".  Please visit the link.

Over the last few weeks, Year 5 worked really hard to write their Kinder buddies a special story. The children put alot of effort and thought into their stories, with some having their Kinder buddy starring as the main character or writing a story about the interests their buddy has. The Year 5 children also worked hard to create an e-book of their story including audio so that the children could listen as they read along.  On Friday 21 June, Kindergarten and Year 5 gathered together to share the stories. Each Kinder buddy received a copy of the book to keep. I know Kindergarten will treasure these books for a long time to come and will enjoy reading them many times.

A big warm thank you goes to our Year 5 Buddies and their Year 5 teachers for such a great idea!

Mrs Beckhaus
Kindergarten Teacher

We love visitors in Kindergarten and during the week we had yet another visitor to the hospital. Luckily for Mr Green, Kindergarten was ready to help when he attended reception saying he felt unwell. Mr Green was instructed to sign in at reception and wait in the waiting room until a doctor was available to see him. Thankfully, it was a bit of a slow day in the hospital so he was able to come through to triage pretty swiftly. Unfortunately, once the nurses looked over Mr Green in triage it was worse than we first thought. He was moved to the surgical ward and received X-rays. Finally, after being thoroughly checked over by our Kindergarten medical staff, Mr Green was fed a delicious cafeteria prepared meal and even got his make up done before being discharged from hospital. We hope you enjoyed your stay at our hospital Mr Green, and we hope you are feeling much better now!

Kindergarten and Mrs Beckhaus

Years 3 and 4 we will be visiting the Wollongong Science Space Centre on Monday 1 July. The Science Space gallery consists of over 90 hands-on exhibits that demonstrate STEM in action. The majority of the exhibits are aligned to the NSW Curriculum and support students to engage in STEM activities through the use of the centre’s interactive exhibits.

The STEM approach to education is a priority in most schools at the moment, especially in Wollongong Catholic Diocesan schools. This excursion will assist in further developing the skills which will be explored during the lunchtime STEM sessions that Year 4 will be given the opportunity to participate in during Term 3.

St Francis of Assisi Catholic Primary school students are being celebrated for their wonderful achievements in World Environment Day earlier this month.

Our article has been shared on the Catholic Education Office Wollongong website - "10 ways the Diocese celebrated World Environment Day".

We are very proud of the student's initiatives and would like to share this with you.

Yesterday we were very lucky to have a visit from the Edmund Rice College Band. They entertained the students (and staff!) with a great performance of music, dance and games. Thank you to the students and teachers from Edmund Rice for their time and entertainment.

We are seeking volunteers to help in the Canteen on
Monday, Wednesday or Friday from 10.00am - 2.00pm.

Our Canteen is run on a volunteer basis and we are very fortunate to have the assistance of Mrs Gerarda to manage the Canteen. Please contact the school office if you can assist in any way.

      The children always love to see their relatives in the canteen.

One of the school rules is "Being Responsible".  It is important students are responsible for their property, including lunch boxes, drink bottles and jumpers.

Please assist your child by having all property labelled with their full name.  Check this each term in case it has washed off.  There are many items unclaimed and not labelled in the lost property.  Please check if any of this belongs to your child.  Thank you.

The Woolies Earn and Learn Program ended on Tuesday 25 June. If you have any stickers at home, please bring them into school before the end of the term.

Thank you for all your support. We hope to purchase much needed resources with your help.

Casual or permanent after school care bookings are available. This service is available in the school hall. 

Our educators collaborate with children to provide play and leisure opportunities that are meaningful to them and that support their wellbeing, learning and personal development. Children in school-age care settings are challenged to be curious about what is of interest to them while at the same time developing self-identity and social competencies (taken from MY TIME, OUR PLACE Framework for School Age Care in Australia).

The day to day operations of St Francis of Assisi OSHC is managed by a Coordinator and supported by CatholicCare OSHC Leadership Team.