Dear St Anne's Community,

Thank you for an amazing start to the 2023 school year. Students have been busy re-establishing routines or creating new ones and I commend them on their settled approach to school life. 

Community Council AGM

This week, we held the first Community Council meeting for 2023. The next meeting will be the Annual General Meeting and it is scheduled for Tuesday 14th March. We will confirm the date in the next newsletter and on Facebook. The Community Council finances will be sent off to the accountants shortly, for the annual audit process. The audit report is then presented to the community council and a copy is sent off to Catholic Education. We are calling for new members to join the Community Council. We will also be electing a new Community Council Chair at the AGM. I thank outgoing Chair Margo Townsend for her amazing work over the past 3 years and even longer as a member of the council. 

Welcome BBQ

Thank you to all that came along to our Welcome BBQ last week, it was nice to catch up with you all. Thank you to our staff for their work in preparing the evening. 

Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to all our students for their participation in the Swimming Carnival last Friday. We were blessed with a hot day and perfect swimming weather. Congratulations must also go to the Staff/Parent swim team for another successful campaign, defeating the Year 10 and 11 students comfortably. Thank you to Mr Hughes and Mr Tait for all their organisation, it is appreciated. 

New Students

A warm welcome to Jordan, Tayla, Caitlyn and their families who joined our year 10 student group last week. We wish them all the best as they settle into St Anne's. 

Staffing

After a recruitment process, Paula Godde and Kathryn Derrick have been successful in their applications for School Secretary positions at our school. I congratulate them and look forward to welcoming them to the team. 

Compass

Please do not hesitate to make contact with the school office if you are experiencing difficulties with the Compass Parent Portal. 

First Aid Training

This week, all of our staff completed their first aid certificate. 

School Canteen

We are always in need of volunteers to help out in the canteen. If you can spare a day a week or even a day a term, please get in touch with Canteen Manager Belinda Maxwell. If your child has allergies, we also encourage you to speak to Belinda about suitable foods.

High Impact Teaching Practice (HITP) and Catalyst

We have another 4 teachers completing 12 months of training on HITP this year. Miss Winkley, Mrs Hughes, Mrs Breust and Mrs Wallace will spend a number of days in Canberra conducting professional development sessions on evidenced based HITP.

Catalyst is a system wide approach that is informed by the Science of Learning and Science of Reading. Catalyst develops excellent Principals, Leadership Teams and Teachers in all Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn (CECG) schools through evidence-based professional learning programs and resources. HITP is part of this program.

Morning Time

It is important that students do not enter school grounds before 8:30am of a morning. 8:30am is when we start providing supervision on the playground. 

Ash Wednesday (22nd February)

Ash Wednesday is one of the most popular and important holy days in the liturgical calendar. Ash Wednesday opens Lent, a season of fasting and prayer. Ash Wednesday takes place 46 days before Easter Sunday, and is chiefly observed by Catholics, although many other Christians observe it too.

Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the head. The ashes symbolize the dust from which God made us. As the priest applies the ashes to a person’s forehead, he speaks the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Alternatively, the priest may speak the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.”

Ashes also symbolize grief, in this case, grief that we have sinned and caused division from God. Writings from the Second-century Church refer to the wearing of ashes as a sign of penance.

Priests administer ashes during Mass and all are invited to accept the ashes as a visible symbol of penance. Even non-Christians and the excommunicated are welcome to receive the ashes. The ashes are made from blessed palm branches, taken from the previous year’s palm Sunday Mass. It is not required that a person wear the ashes for the rest of the day, and they may be washed off after Mass. However, many people keep the ashes as a reminder until the evening.

(Source: StAnneParish.org)

Take care,

Grant Haigh

Principal

Secondary have made a great start to the year. Walking around the classes there is a lot of exciting learning happening and many new friendships being formed. Year 11 are settling into the challenges of senior school. Charlotte and Evie showed that virtual learning isn’t just about being on the computer when they completed a replica of plant cells this week. Stage 4 Mandatory Tech were busy preparing the pots in readiness for the sowing of radishes. Year 7 started their Wellbeing Program. The girls are working on relationships and empowerment with Mrs Wallace, and the boys are being put through a boot camp with Mr Haigh. These are just a few examples of what’s been happening.

Yr 8 students have been enjoying their art lessons with Mrs Cooper.

Week 1

Kinder - Jackson Bourke, Chance Williams, Austin Oliver

Yr 1 - Alby Swanston, Zoe Sinclair, Leo Jayawardene

Yr 2 - Tom Harris, Phillipa Gibbs, Bentley Combe

Yr 3 - Alice Reid, Jackson Parry, Stella Krause

Yr 4 - Abby Watts, Joey Guymer, Zephanie Lancaster

Yr 5 - Billy Cassidy, Adelen Crawford, Barney Taylor

Yr 6 - Billy Krause, Brodie Gray, Judd Oliver

Week 2

Kinder - Charlotte Williams, Jake Morton, Olivia Purcell

Yr 1 - Spencer Lynch, Harriet Talbot

Yr 2 - Tristan Swanston, Ivy Drenovski, Aiden Roberts

Week 3

Yr 7 - Charlie Cooper for a great work ethic and accuracy in French. Amber Haigh for her enthusiastic approach to History and French. Eliana Orbita for a great hypothesis in History. Laughton Pinney for working hard in Religion. Jay Player for working hard in Religion.

Yr 8 - Jonte Reid for working hard in History. Bethany Wiencke for working hard in History.

Yr 10 - Dane Sinclair for working hard in English on Romeo and Juliet.

Upcoming Primary sport:

7/3/23 Primary Swimming Queanbeyan (if successful at Young)

14/3/23 Winter Trials for Canberra Goulburn selection in under 11's rugby league, under 12's rugby league, Open primary netball in Canberra

5/4/23 Paul Kelly Cup AFL boys/girls teams

3/4/23 Canberra Goulburn soccer selection trials in Canberra

3/4/23 St Anne's Cross Country at Nixon Park

6/4/23 Stephen Bleyer Cup Union Year 5/6 boys

If your child is interested in trialling for selection in Canberra Goulburn teams, please see Mr Hughes for information sheets. Please remember that students must be of a high standard for each sport to trial.

A reminder that any students wishing to trial for Canberra Goulburn Primary netball or under 11s or under 12s rugby league, nominations must be in by 6th March. Trials are held in Canberra. 

An amazing effort by all students at the St Anne's Swimming carnival held last Friday. This was the first year where our 'Opens' age group moved to the 17+ age group and the 16-year-olds were competing against themselves. 

We had 3 records broken by Annabelle Gray in the 50m Freestyle - 39.07, breaking C. Reardon's 1994 record of 40.65, 50m Backstroke - 48.07, breaking an unknown record of 49.20 from 2004 and 50m Butterfly - 46.29 breaking C. Reardon's 1994 record of 49.73. A fantastic feat and it will be interesting to see how long her records will stand!

In a tightly fought race that came down to the relay results, Joe's managed to take home the title of Champion House only 165 points ahead of Paul's. Similarly, there was a tight finish at the bottom with John's edging out Pat's by 129 points.

Along with our Age Champions we had 23 Ironpersons awarded to the following: Elvie Crawford, Quinn Crawford, Annabelle Gray, Abby Watts, Adelen Crawford, Charles Minchin, Angus Oliver, Livvy Blackwell, Ava Derrick, Hayley Kite, Meg Ruskin, Georgie O'Connor, Brodie Gray, Billy Krause, Matthias Lancaster, Judd Oliver, Lana King, Lani Summerfield, Isabel Fairman, Carus Gray, Cate Granleese, Evie West and Gwenny Drumore. 

Twenty one primary students qualified to represent St Anne’s at the Western Region carnival in Young on the 23rd February. They were: Rylee Overs, Quinn Crawford, Elvie Crawford, Adelen Crawford, Annabelle Gray, Abby Watts, Grace McCrone, Hayley Kite, Livvy Blackwell, Ava Derrick, Ron Arun, Joey Guymer, Barney Taylor, Leo Drenovski, Mack Oliver, Charles Minchin, Brodie Gray, Judd Oliver, Clancy Gibbs, Angus Oliver, Matthias Lancaster. We wish them all the best in Young.

School sports shirts are now available for purchase at Millers.

Temora Basketball Association would like to advise that registrations are now open for the scheduled Beginners and Intermediate competitions for Term 1 2023. 

Intermediate sessions will commence Tuesday 14 February until Tuesday 4 April from 4:30pm to 6:30pm.

Beginner sessions will commence Saturday 18 February until Saturday 1 April from 9:00am to 10:30am.

Registration links below -

Intermediate

https://membership.mygameday.app/regoform.cgi?formID=108810

Beginner

https://membership.mygameday.app/regoform.cgi?formID=108811

Registrations close Saturday 18 February at 7:00pm.