An invitation to all of our

Mums, Grandmothers, Aunties

the special women in our children’s lives

and Special Friends to celebrate

Mothers’ Day at St. Aloysius School

in

Our Vision ‘As partners in Catholic Education and open to God’s presence, we pursue fullness of life for all.’

Happy Mother's Day

An invitation to all of our

Mums, Grandmothers, Aunties

the special women in our children’s lives

and Special Friends to celebrate

Mothers’ Day at St. Aloysius

School

All-loving God, we give you thanks and praise for mothers young and old.

We pray for young mothers, who give life and count toes, and tend to our every need:

May they be blessed with patience and tenderness to care for their families and themselves with great joy.

We pray for our own mothers who have nurtured and cared for us:

May they continue to guide us in strong and gentle ways.

We remember mothers who have separated from their children because of war, poverty, or conflict:

May they feel the loving embrace of our God who wipes every tear away.

We pray for women who are not mothers but still love and shape us with motherly care and compassion.

We remember mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers who are no longer with us but who live

forever in our memory and nourish us with their love.

Amen.

We wish all our Mums and the special women in our children’s lives Happy Mother’s Day We hope the day holds many wonderful moments…

Child Safety at St Aloysius School: We are committed to ensuring the care, wellbeing and protection of children and young people at St Aloysius School is inherent to the Catholic tradition, which celebrates the sanctity and unique dignity of each human being.

Dear Families,

Last night the School Advisory Council met online for our May meeting. We have a couple of exciting announcements that were shared. Firstly, our School Oval Area is about to have a makeover. After many years of fantastic fund raising by our Parents and Friends, we are able to go ahead with our plans to install synthetic grass over about three quarters of our school oval. This will create three soccer fields with a two-lane athletics track around the outside. Football goal posts will be installed at each end to finish the project. We are delighted that Ballarat Groundworks will complete this project and they are hoping, weather depending, to commence in coming weeks. This will create an all-weather facility for school sports, PE lessons and playtimes. The second item covered was our progress with the new Year 1/2 Learning Hub which will be constructed at the front of the school. We have received six expressions of interest to tender for the work. Currently, we are looking at these companies and waiting for the green light to go ahead. Our architects and a representative from Catholic Education Ballarat are waiting to see what happens in the building industry before we move to the tender stage. But we are ready to go!

At St Aloysius’ we are continuing to refine our Home Learning program after feedback from staff and families. You will have noticed that this week all learning levels are introducing video conferencing for wellbeing check-ins and learning. Naturally, there will be some difficulties in connection at times, but overall, this has been a very successful initiative. The Year 3-6 children are in their second week of online meetings and the Year 5/6 classes introduced a whole class get together which they enjoyed. The online meetings have the advantage of reducing isolation, as children not only see a staff member but they are also able to see and chat with their friends. A reminder to parents that if children are planning to meet up online with their friends outside of these meetings, that parents provide supervision, that children comply with online codes of conduct and that these social meetings do not take place during normal school hours.

Every child at St Aloysius is now connected and learning. Most are learning at home with family support and we thank our amazing parents for juggling home duties, at home work and teaching. You are doing an amazing job. We have around 30 students at school each day and they are also completing the same home learning but with a staff member providing supervision. The next key date for us is May 11th when the Premier of Victoria will outline the plans for the weeks ahead. As a school, we do not know much more than you are able to gain from news reports. Schools in other states are slowly returning and hopefully, if the virus remains contained, we will also be able to inform you of a plan to return to school in the weeks ahead…. but there is no certainty about anything at this time.

I trust that all families are looking after yourselves during self-isolation. I am hearing stories of long bike rides and walks with the family. Some are doing jigsaw puzzles, sewing or arts projects, one family have even written and published a book! I am creating a dog kennel for my daughter and laying flooring in the laundry. I tend to do whatever my wife tells me to do. It is safer that way.

Take care all and keep safe.

Michael Kennedy

Have a great week everyone. Michael

Flags across Ballarat have been lowered to half-mast this week, as a sign of respect

for the four Victorian Police officers who lost their lives on duty and to their

colleagues across the state, at this very sad time. Funerals were held this week for-

Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King,

Constable Glen Humphris and Constable Joshua Prestney,

News and Events

Hello and welcome to week 4! Greetings to everyone from the Senior Team. We would like to Welcome Ms Townsend back to our Senior Team this Term. What a way to begin the year! A once in a lifetime experience! We would also like to say 'Thank you 'to Rebecca Atkinson for her amazing contributions to the senior unit and her expertise in taking over Jo's class seamlessly? We thank her for her hard work and dedication to 5/6T and the senior area. We also would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Wilson, Angela Brookes, Alee Bryce and Ms McAdie who are working tirelessly in the senior unit to support staff. As we move into Week 4 the routines of Online Schooling are becoming more established and we are confident that the students are able to turn in their work without difficulty. At times there may be a hiccup but we are able to email each other and on Tuesday and Thursdays, you may receive a phone call, if necessary, to sort out any online teaching issues. Just a reminder that if the senior teachers do phone, it will be seen as an unknown number. It has been delightful to touch base with children in our class and see their smiling faces, despite the fact they are missing their friend immensely. This Friday is a catch up day for students so no compulsory work will be set. There will be a survey sent out next week in order to ascertain how the senior students are coping with the lock down, the workload and the online learning situation. Hopefully the students are maintaining routines that will set them up well for when we do return to school. There is a prayer on the Classwork Stream which students may say each day. This will change each week. We also keep you in our prayers and hope that each and every family is coping. We understand and appreciate these challenging times families are facing and we appreciate your positive comments, as we all find our way through this together, learning as we go. Take care in the coming weeks. Have a great week! Kind regards, Annie, Mitch and Jo

Look who is in the news…

Some great photos of Annabelle and Charli. The girls have been busy, keeping fit, lots of runs and keeping in touch

with their grandparents who live in Adelaide. They even had a virtual game of ‘Scattergories’ with Granna and

Poppy. What a great idea! Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos.

If you have something to share … please feel free to share. We miss all our beautiful children and would love to see

what you are up to… if you have a photo to share with us – please email to aloysius@saredan.catholic.edu.au

Kitchen Gardenv

tHE

It was great to see so many of our families at last week’s welcome BBQ. We hope that everyone had a lovely evening.

The Kitchen Garden is looking fantastic, all the beautiful seedlings that our 3/4 children planted are taking off…in all directions. Clare (SAKG) and Darren (Maintenance) have begun landscaping the front section facing Leith Street, ready for the next stage … stay tuned!