Dear St Anne's Community,

This week is bookended by two Sunday’s where we celebrate and remember two important women in the history of the Church. Last Sunday we celebrated the Feast Day for Australia’s first Saint, Mary Mackillop of the Cross and this Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption and the occasion of the Virgin Mary's bodily ascent to heaven at the end of her life.

St Mary Mackillop devoted her life to ensuring that even the poorest of children had access to an education with her first school, St Joseph’s at Penola in South Australia opening in 1866. Many who are not Catholic, but who chose to send their children to Catholic schools, name one of the main reasons for choosing a Catholic school as being how welcoming we are and our sense of community. As humans we are drawn to be in community, to connect to others and to be known by others. When Mary Mackillop started the Sisters of St Joseph, and opened up her first school, she created a community where even the poorest in society felt a sense of belonging.

COVID Update

Please check the most recent email that we sent from Director Ross Fox. We thank you for following the COVID guidelines for our school. We hope our community can remain COVID free so we can keep on working and have children attending school regularly.  We know that remote learning can be done; however, face to face learning works more effectively. In the event of a switch to Remote Learning, Staff and students will use Microsoft Teams as the platform for video conferences. 

School Registration Feedback

At the end of Term 1 we went through the school registration process. Here are some of the comments we received in the official report:

• The panel commends St Anne's Central School for the distinct Catholic ethos evidenced through the hospitality shown to the Registration Panel and embedding of the St Anne's Identity Statement.
• The panel recognises that the leadership team have worked collaboratively to develop and articulate a shared vision of school improvement.
• The staff are to be commended for their generosity of spirit and genuine concern for the welfare of their students and each other. The implementation of weekly, wellbeing case management meetings, ensures students are the focus of all endeavours.
• The panel acknowledges the students for the passion and pride expressed about their school and the genuine warmth of their welcome.

Staffing

This week we farewell Mrs Kristy Wallace and Mrs Georgina Breust. Both teachers will be starting their maternity leave next week. On behalf of the school, I wish both Kristy and Georgina all the best for the exciting times ahead. Secondary students farewelled both teachers at a quick assembly on Wednesday afternoon. I thank Miss Jamieson for organising such a thoughtful assembly and the students for their input into the farewell. Mrs Nikki Taylor and Dr Lynne Vey will be replacing Kristy and Georgina while they are on leave.

We welcomed back Mrs Liz Barrett from her leave last week and I thank Marna Crawford, Kerissa Reardon and Danielle Haigh for filling in while Liz was on leave. 

Handball Courts

Thank you to Mr John Goode for the time and effort that he has put into marking out and spraying the new handball courts. John's attention to detail and workmanship is appreciated and evident around the school.

Feedback

When I enrol new families, I ask for some feedback about why they chose St Anne's. Often, it is because of the positive comments that our parents have made about our school. I thank you for your support. If you know of any families that are still undecided about their child's school for 2022, please encourage them to come in for an obligation free interview and tour. 

Take care,

Grant Haigh

First Eucharist

This term the Year 4 students who are eligible to make their First Communion, (having already made their First Reconciliation) will begin their preparation ready to receive the Sacrament next term. Information will be sent home to Year 4 families shortly to explain the program for 2021. If you would like your child to be a part of the program and they are not currently a part of the Year 4 class, please contact Mrs Collins as soon as possible to ensure that you also receive the necessary information.

Important dates for the calendar:

Term 3

*Parent Formation evening Thursday 2nd September 7pm in St Joseph’s Hall

*Enrolment Masses: Saturday 4th September and Sunday 12th September (please note that it is a requirement that candidates preparing for the Sacrament of First Eucharist must be presented at one of these parish masses).

Term 4

*Retreat Day for Sacrament of First Eucharist Wednesday November 3rd 9:10-3:20pm in St Joseph's hall (for all of Year 4)

*Sacrament of First Eucharist Thursday 4th November 6pm at Sacred Heart Church

The SHINE Conference was a wonderful experience last week, with our Year 9/10 students participating with over 600 students from across the Archdiocese. We are grateful to the Canberra Goulburn CSYMA Team who once again provided an amazing experience for our students with the theme ‘Living Water’. The online presentation delivered a fantastic keynote speaker and a wonderful challenge in the faith and prayer life of each of us present. The games were also a heap of fun. This experience was concluded with a beautiful ritual blessing with holy water. All of the students received the gift of holy water to each take home. We are very proud of the maturity and commitment which our students showed and so very blessed by the impressive young men and women they are.

Week 4

Kindergarten - Skyla Morton, Karzon Rebibis, Flynn Gilchrist

Yr 1 - Ned Hale, Mack Oliver, Alice Reid

Yr 2 - Anthony Samaan, Addie Gilchrist, Jack Crawford

Yr 3 - Angus Oliver, Billy Cassidy, Bailey McCormack

Yr 4 - Harvey Drumore, Benjamin Samaan, Lillian Perry

Yr 5 - Darcy Reardon, MJ Kreyts, Amber Haigh

Yr 6 - Amelia Cooper, Jasmin Cassidy, Lenny Lancaster

Gotcha Awards - Abby Watts, Amelia Cooper

Week 3

Yr 7 - Eloise Haigh for outstanding results in English. Scarlett Minchin for outstanding results in French.  Lillian Oliver for outstanding results in French.  Teodora Vasilescu for improved results in French.

Yr 8 - Kayde Carney for good recall in his water assessment.  Isabella Darrington for great recall on water mitigation strategies. Mitchell Dunstan for improved results in Geography and improved application to Maths tasks. Alexia Lancaster for outstanding results in Geography and good use of class time in Science. Nino Matanguihan for improved results in Geography. Rachael Thompson for her conscientious approach and improved results in Geography. Guinevere Drumore for good use of class time in Science.

Yr 9 - William Scott for excellent application to Maths tasks. Daniel Hirt for excellent participation in Science.

Yr 10 - Matthew Durham for showing a great understanding of logarithms in Maths. Lachlan Crawford for an excellent work ethic in Science.

We have been very busy in Year 4!

In Maths we have been learning about lots of different topics. To consolidate our learning, we made some Maths board games. We tested them out with some of the Year 3 students.

In Literacy we have been working hard to complete our speeches. We can’t wait to present these to our class!

We have been enjoying completing Book Week Activities with Mrs Kite during our library time!

One of the units studied in Stage 4 Mandatory Technology is Fibre to Felt – an exploration of the wool industry in Australia.

Students learn about the merino, stages of wool production, the path the wool takes from farm to processing into products and even dual purpose sheep grown for wool and meat.

We have been very fortunate to visit Moses and Son wool handling facility in Temora and the merino research station. Staff have been so generous with their time and knowledge and the students have enjoyed the hands-on experiences.

Along with the theory, students have learned to make felt from wool by both wet felting and needle felting techniques. Students followed design processes to produce a book mark as well as a small sheep. Another fun practical session was in the kitchen to prepare a yummy meal of lamb cutlets.

For Terms 3 and 4 after school study will be on Tuesday and Thursday.

Each year our students enter the Michael McCormack Anzac Day Writing Competition and this year Mitchell Dunstan in Yr 8 and Carus Gray in Yr 6 received a Highly Commended for their work. 

Well done Mitchell and Carus and to all our students who entered.

Thank you for the amazing support of the Jeans for Genes Day fundraiser organised by Ms Cutcliffe and the SRC. With a generous organisation doubling our efforts, we were able to donate $691 in total to this worthy cause. Well done and thank you!

Thank you again for supporting the Scholastic Book Fair our school hosted this term. Your support has earned $780 for our school to spend on new books and resources.

Students who are still waiting on books which had to be re-ordered should receive them in the next week. They will be sent home as soon as they arrive.

Western Region Athletics Carnival Tumut update - The planned Western Region athletics carnival will not be going ahead due to the deteriorating Covid situation. Hopefully, things will improve next term and the Archdiocesan athletics carnival will go ahead on the new date of the 14th of October. All the qualifying times and distances from our carnival have been submitted for the WR carnival and these will be used to put together the WR team based on these times. We will be notified about which competitors have been selected in the Western Region team soon. 

Milo Cricket Carnival - The annual Milo Cricket Carnival will be held at Nixon Park on Wednesday 8th September, for students in Years 3-6. This is a fun, skills based day of 8 a side cricket, involving mixed teams from each year. Please return notes to the office as soon as possible.

Boorowa Touch/Netball Carnival - Please return permission notes and pay monies due for this carnival which will be held on Friday 15th October, Covid permitting!!

St Anne’s sent five teams to the annual NSW Cup Netball Carnival in Wagga at the end of Term 2. All teams reported having a great day in beautiful conditions at the Equex Centre Wagga with all players displaying great sportsmanship and behaviour. The results were:  Year 3 Red played five games winning 1 and losing 4.  Year 3 Blue played five games also winning 1 and losing 4, Year 4 White played five games winning 3 and losing 2, while Year 4 Green played five games winning 2 and losing 3. Year 5 lost four games and won one. Year 6 Red played five games winning 3 and losing 2. Thanks to the secondary girls who umpired and thanks also to Georgia Thomas who helped coach on the day.

We are always looking for new volunteers to help on our canteen on a Monday, the occasional Tuesday or for an hour (10.30am to 11.30am) on a Friday. Please contact our canteen manager, Belinda on 0412 142166 if you can help out.

Monday 16th August - Team 3 - Lisa van Egmond, Danielle Haigh

Monday 23rd August - Team 4 - Angela Gilchrist, Amber Crawford, Kerissa Reardon, Rochelle Caldwell

Monday 30th August - Team 5 - Meg Morton, Ali McCrone, Carissa Bett

Monday 6th September - Team 6 - Sally Cassidy, Marna Crawford, El Warren

Monday 13th September - Team 1 - Atalie Perry, Carly Bickham, Andrea Cartwright