Dear St Anne's Community,

Over the last two weeks it has been great to be able to start holding some events. The NSW Health department have started to revise a number of restrictions that will support us in holding these events.

Events- The Athletics Carnival was a fun day in Week 4 and I was very impressed with the participation by the students. Thank you to Mr Tait, Mr Hughes and all the staff for their organisation and efforts. Thank you to Tracey McCormack and El Warren for their lunch order deliveries to Nixon Park. Remembrance Day Ceremony- Once again, our school captains represented the school with respect and pride when they accompanied me to the Remembrance Day Ceremony this week. Drama Production- It was a priviledge to attend the Sherwood Shennigans drama production at the Town Hall on Wednesday night. Congratulations to Mrs Eberle and all of the Year 9 and 10 students for their organisation and the amazing acting skills on display. 2021 Kindergarten Information session- It was nice to be able to welcome the parents of next year's Kindergarten class to our school. We have a number of new families and we look forward to many more welcoming opportunities as we progress into 2021. Our 2021 Orientation program for both Kindergarten and Year 7 will be starting very soon. We are very lucky to have students join us from West Wyalong for the Year 7 program and into next year. Our numbers are looking very healthy for both groups next year. 

Staffing- At the Kindergarten Information evening, I was pleased to announce that our Kindergarten teacher for 2021 is Mrs Georgia Hughes. In term 1, Mrs Samantha Park will take Kindergarten every Friday and Mrs Hughes Mon-Thurs. From term 2 onwards, Mrs Hughes will teach Kindergarten Mon-Fri. We look forward to Mrs Park returning to St Anne's for that period of time. Sadly, we will be farewelling Miss Pope and Miss Marin at the end of the year, as they take up appointments at other schools. We will have the opportunity to recognise their contribution at the end of the year. I have advertised 2 positions; one permanent/ongoing and the other as a 12 month contract. Later in the term, students will have the opportunity to visit their next year's teacher and the new classroom. 

God Bless all of our students celebrating the Sacrament of First Eucharist tonight. I ask that we continue to keep them in our prayers as they continue their faith journey.

2021- The first day of school for K-10 students will be Monday 1st February. Staff will be participating in Professional Development on Wednesday 27th, Thursday 28th and Friday 29th January. Because we are using an extra day (Friday 29th) in the first week of the term and so that students do not return to school on a Friday, we will not be holding a staff development day on the Monday in term 2.

A warm welcome to the Balinski family. Daniel and Yana started at our school last week.

Take care,

Grant

First Eucharist

This evening the Year 4 students will be celebrating the Sacrament of First Eucharist. Tuesday was a wonderful retreat day, where the students practiced for tonight, got to taste the unblessed bread for the first time, reflected on their relationship with God, completed quiz questions about their recall of all that they have learnt in preparation for this Sacrament and laughed their way through the day. The whole class is to be commended for the amazing way in which they embraced the other candidates and applied themselves so eagerly to their preparations. 

I am sure that tonight will be a beautiful experience for each of the candidates and we all wish them the very best for their First Eucharist. To the candidates:

May you always know the comfort and support of Jesus’ love and may this first reception of Jesus in the Eucharist be a treasured moment for you always.

Religious Curriculum Update

The Catholic Education Office Canberra Goulburn began the transition to a new Religious Curriculum last year and we have had the ongoing support of the office during the transition and implementation phases under the guidance of Antoinette Woods and Lee Herden. We are very pleased that the feedback we have received again this week is very positive, at St Annes we are moving along well and continue to increase the rigor and depth in our units of study K-10.

Yesterday our School Leaders along with Mr Haigh attended the Remembrance Day service in Callaghan Park. At 11am all classes stopped for one minute of silence to remember those who served during the First World War and those who have died in conflicts since.  

Building Works

The Food Tech and Wood/Metal rooms will start their renovations next week. The secondary students will work out of other rooms in the school while this is occuring. The secondary students have been fantastic in helping with the pack up of the classrooms. 

Pic: Science room ready for plaster work. 

Maintenance

Pic: New wall and Autex panelling in Secondary hall way. 

In Year 1 this term we have been very busy! We started off with Book Week and Book Fair, we saw so many amazing costumes! Congratulations everyone!

We had the Athletics Carnival Friday of Week 4. We ran, skipped and hopped down the race track and had heaps of fun! (The boys even got to race Miss Pope).

We have been looking at famous artists in Creative Arts, this week's focus was on Vincent Van Gough. We stepped inside his bedroom and made it our own.

This week is Naidoc Week. Year 1 and 2 both participated in the Naidoc Week Liturgy singing ‘I am Australian’. We have also been doing some Aboriginal Art, we have been scratching some Aboriginal Symbols onto Boomerangs. 

Congratulations to Miss Pope, Miss Ryan, Miss Marin and Mrs Coleman for their work with the Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) Pilot Program. St Anne's received a Director's award for the work surrounding the program. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the Primary staff for implementing a number of EDI teaching strategies into their daily lessons. 

Last night our very talented Stage 5 Drama class (under the guidance of the amazing Mrs Sally Eberle) put on the Pantomime “Sherwood Shenannigans”. The pantomime was written especially for the group by Marty Boyle and the students played their roles to perfection. Well done everyone!!!

Due to Covid restrictions St Anne’s only sent one girls and one boys team to the annual Mortimer Shield in Wagga on Thursday 29^th October.

In very warm conditions the girls tag team went through undefeated for the day, however, again due to Covid restrictions there were no finals played. The girls played a very fast brand of Tag showing not only great individual brilliance and speed, but wonderful team work. Well done to the girls who were coached by Donna Fogarty and Lou Gaynor. They defeated Henschke 9 nil, Ashmont 7 nil, St Josephs Wagga 5 nil and in their final game they had a close game against Sacred Heart 5-4, and the player of the day was Cate Granleese.

The boys league team had a mixed day recording one win, one draw and three losses. They defeated Forest Hill 12 nil, drew with Junee North 4 all and were defeated by St Joseph’s Wagga 8 nil, Sturt/South Wagga 4 nil and Wagga Lutheran  4 nil, all very close games. The boys played a very good attacking game, throwing the ball around nicely, however, their defence let them down at times. The boys player of the day was Harry Kelly.

Well done to all players for the fantastic sportsmanship shown and thanks to Lou for driving the bus.

Dates have become available for Primary students who may be interested in representing various sports in 2021.

Canberra-Goulburn tennis and basketball trials will be held in Belconnen on the 5th February, Week 2.

Western Region swimming date is set for 15th February, venue TBA.

CG soccer trials will be held on 12th March in Canberra.

Canberra-Goulburn cricket trials will be held on 19th March, venue TBA.

Under 11's and Open Primary (12's/13's)  rugby league trials will be held in Canberra on the 29th March.

Open Primary netball trials will be held in Canberra on the 29th March.

Western Region cross country will be held on 30th March, venue TBA.

Please note that these trials are highly competitive and parents are responsible for taking their child to the trials. Students wishing to trial should contact Mark Hughes to get more details when they become available first term.

Year 7 - Guinevere Drumore - Great efforts with paragraph writing in English. Mitchell Dunstan - Great efforts with paragraph writing in English. Alexia Lancaster - Great efforts with paragraph writing in English.

Year 8 - Lily Reinhold - For excellent work in Maths.

Year 9 - Hugh Warren - For excellent work on Linear Relationships.

Year 10 - Liam Baldock - For having a positive attitude towards all Maths tasks. Abbey Reinhold - For an excellent understanding of factors contributing to human wellbeing.

We appreciate that it gets busy during pick up and drop off times but we ask that you do not park in the disabled parking spaces. 

Kindergarten orientation commences tomorrow and Yr 7 orientation will take place this coming Monday. Please check below for all orientation dates.

Monday 16th November - Team 2 - Sally Cassidy, Marna Crawford, El Warren

Monday 23rd November - Team 3 - Atalie Perry, Mel Preston-Reid, Sam Hoskinson

Monday 30th November - Team 4 - Lisa van Egmond, Kara Clydesdale, Lauren Block

Monday 7th December - Team 5 - Mai Pham, Kirsty Oliver, Liz Oliver

Monday 14th December - Team 6 - Angela Gilchrist, Kirushanthi Nirupan, Amber Crawford, Bec Reid