Dear Parents and Community members, Sickness at School Over the last two weeks the Finnie’s sick bay has been overflowing with children suffering from vomiting, diarrhoea, head-aches, and other flu like symptoms. In the interest of containing illnesses, I advise parents to keep children at home when there is an onset of fever or flu like symptoms. They are most contagious within the first 48 hours. We will contact parents to collect students when they come to Sick Bay so that the risk of cross infection is reduced. Please refer to the below list of illnesses and their relevant school exclusion time. Common cold: There is no exclusion time specified for a cold, unless your child is lethargic or has a temperature over

37.5 Influenza: The child is to remain at home until they are feeling well and able to manage the day without any pain relief

and/or medicines (eg Panadol) High temps: Children with temperatures above 37.5 are required to stay home until a minimum of 24 hours has

passed since the temp has subsided Diarrhoea & Vomiting: Children are required to stay home until the gastro had stopped, for a minimum of 24 hours 2018 Enrolments This week our Kinder 2018 offers will go out to parents via email. If you have not received an email from us, please call the office and speak to Rita or Alison. Parents will need to accept or decline this offer by Friday 18th, and then we will begin the process of distributing second round offers.

Principal on Leave An email was sent out last week informing parents that Michael Cowley is on leave. The leave is for personal reasons and

this is all we know at this time, and we will let you know when we have more information. It is really important that we re-spect the decision to take leave and not make assumptions and/or look for reasons why.

Seasons for Growth It is with great joy that St Finbarr’s is able to announce that we will be offering the highly successful loss and grief program, Seasons for Growth, this term. Change and loss are issues that affect all of us at some stage in our lives. At St Finbarr ’s we recognise that when changes occur in families through death, separation, divorce or related circumstances, young people may benefit from learning how to manage these changes effectively. It is with this in mind that we are offering the very successful education program called Seasons for Growth which will commence on Thursday, August 24th. This program is facilitated in small groups of children within the same Stage grouping and is based on research which highlights the importance of social support and the need to practice new skills to cope effectively with change and loss. The program focuses on issues such as managing feel-ings, problem-solving, decision-making, effective communication and support networks. Every family has received a note with more details about the Seasons for Growth program. If you think your son or daughter would benefit from Seasons for Growth we would encourage you to talk to him/her about participating in the program and to attend the Parent Information Session on Thursday, 17th August from 6 to 7pm. Children may attend this night and babysit-ting will be provided at the back of the hall where the meeting will be held. St Finbarr’s is pleased to be able to offer this important program and we are confident that it will be a valuable learning ex-perience for those who nominate to be involved. If you require further information please attend our Parent Session or con-tact Mrs Kate Jones (katejones@lism.catholic.edu.au) or Mr Tom O’Dwyer (todwyer@lism.catholic.edu.au).

Kind Regards,

Carolyn Wade Assistant Principal

Principal’s Message

1 Arakwal Court, Byron Bay NSW 2481 tel: 6685 6342 fax: 6685 8784 email: bbp@lism.catholic.edu.au www.bbplism.catholic.edu.au

Term 3 August 8 2017 Week 4

St Mary of the Cross MacKillop Celebrations It was wonderful to see so many parents and friends join us for our St Mary of the Cross celebrations. We have now planted the official Saint Mary Callistemon beside her statue at school and look forward to the bright red flowers in Spring and Summer. The children have spent four days making our statue a special place of prayer with many students visiting and lighting a candle on their way to school. Social Justice Fundraiser On Friday, August 11th our Mini Vinnies have organised a dress up day to raise money for ‘Fred’s Place’ at Tweed Heads. The theme for the day is “Wacky Winter” and students are invited to wear fun dress up clothes and bring along a gold coin donation. Fred’s Place is an intervention and prevention support service that assists people in the Tweed community who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. In the last 12 months Fred’s Place has helped 11,894 people. They housed 272 people, provided case management support to 462 peo-ple and 11,160 people utilised their laundry, meal and shower ser-vices. Fred’s Place is 100% funded by St Vincent de Paul Lismore. All pro-ceeds from this day will go directly to supporting the ongoing work of Fred’s Place. The Assumption of Mary The Assumption of Mary will be celebrated with a whole school Mass at 9.30am on Tuesday 15th August at St Finbarr’s church. Parents and friends are welcome to join us for this special celebration when we commemorate Mary’s assumption to heaven. Sacrament of the Eucharist Please keep all the students who are preparing for their First Holy Communion in our prayers and thank you to all the parents and teach-ers from St Finbarr’s who are helping out with extra groups for Chil-dren’s Liturgy of the Word at Saturday evening Masses at 6pm Byron Bay. Andrew Chinn Concert 28th August All students will be attending a day of workshops and concerts with Andrew Chinn who is a renowned composer of children’s liturgical music. Parents and parishoners are welcome to attend the concert at

1.55 in the school hall.

ALTAR SERVERS

Kind Regards, Sheryl Hurley & Kate Jones Leader of Evangelisation Leader of Catechesis

August 2017

8 9.30-10.30am St Mary of The Cross Mass @ St Fin-barr’s Church

11 Public Speaking Finals—Tweed Heads Wacky Winter—Mini Vinnie fundraiser 2.00-2.30pm— URGENT CHRSITMAS FAIR MEET-ING outside school hall 2.30-3.00pm Assembly Stg 1N on prayer

12 6.00-7.00pm Mass—Poster Presentation at St Finbarr’s Church

13 9.30-10.30am Mass—Poster presentation at St Finbarr’s Church

14-16 8.30am-9.30am / 2.30pm-4.30pm Book Fair Sales in the Mul-tipurpose room

15 Maths—ICAS Test 9.30-10.30am K-6 Mass for Assumption of Blessed Vir-gin Mary at St Finbarr’s Church

17 6.00pm-7.00pm—’Seasons’ parent information night

18 DIO Athletics Carnival 9.00am—Book Fair Parade

24 ‘Seasons’ program com-mencing

25 2.30pm-3.00pm Assembly Stg 2H on prayer

28 Andrew Chinn workshop & Concert

September 2017

1 7.00am-9.00am Father’s Day Breakfast & Assembly 9.00am-3.00pm—Stg 3 Gala Sports Day

2 6.00pm-7.00pm First Eu-charist Sacrament at St Fin-barr’s Church

Evangelisation

12th August

Jack Bugden Miles Horner Sunney Horner Oliver Kearey

19th August

Sarah Crawford Chloe Crawford Olivia Hosie

St Finbarr’s Celebrate St Mary Of The Cross MacKillop

Stage 2 Learning

2M Science In Science, Stage 2 students are learning about simple machines in preparation for the Rube Goldberg CSO competition at the end of the Term. There are six simple machines: an inclined plane, wheel and axle, screw, pulley, wedge and lever. The students worked in groups to identify as many machines as possible as well as explaining how they work.

Stage 2 - Writers Festival Stage 2 attended the Byron Bay Writers Festival last Wednesday to listen to two authors: Sally Rippin and Isobelle Carmody. Both speakers explained how they have developed their craft and what has inspired them to write. Thank you Stage 2 Teachers for organising these ex-cellent learning opportunities for our students!

Student Awards Congratulations to the following St Finbarr’s stu-dents whose achievements will be recognised at our next school assembly this Friday at 2.30pm.

Classes Learning Award

Value Award

Kindergarten Whittingham

Cole.K Sophie. K

Year 1B Miss Blower

Aidan. O’B Rory. McK

Lola. G

Year 1N Miss Ninness

Deon. K-B Raine. D

Year 2P Mrs Piccoli

Orlando. J Eva. W

Stage 2BC Mrs Boggis/Mrs L Clark

Campbell.Mc Olive. D

Stage 2M Mrs McEvilly Butler

Ebony. P Christopher.K

Stage 2H Mr Houghton

Samuel. S Dylan. C

Lola. S Harry. C

Stage 3N Mrs Cronan

Dylan. C Isarbella. W

Stage 3J Mrs Jones

Jake. G-G Lola. O’M

Stage 3C Mrs Clark

Josie. C Charlie. B

Name Class

Finnies Finest Amber. H Stg 3J

Mary MacKillop Ella. B Maya. S Anouk. S Leelu. W

Stg 3J Stg 3C Stg 2BC Stg 2 BC

EMU Award Will. S 1N

NSW PREMIERS READING CHALLENGE (PRC) Just a reminder the NSW Premiers Reading Challenge closes in just over two weeks, on Friday 25th August 2017. Don't forget to log your books by going to the PRC link https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html and then log on and then go to student reading records and then click on enter books. Happy reading!

ICAS AWARDS Students who have participated in the ICAS assessments will receive their awards at Assembly this Friday. Learning in Maths In Maths we have been using lots of concrete materials to visualise the quantity of numbers. What is the value of 12? How can we represent 12 using different materials?

Warm Regards, Lisa Conte Leader of Pedagogy

Learning

Tweed Zone Athletics Carnival- Friday 28th July

We were blessed with a beautiful day for the Tweed Zone Athletics Carnival and as usual our Zone Ath-letics team participated with great sportsmanship and enthusiasm, with many children making finals and achieving personal bests. Thank you to the parents and families who were able to support the team and help out on the day.

Congratulations to the following children who have qualified for the Diocesan Carnival to be held at the Coffs Harbour International Stadium on Friday 18th August. Declan- 9yrs 100m (3rd) Layla S- Junior Long Jump (3rd) Liam- Junior 800m (1st) Coco N- 11yrs 800m (1st), 11yrs Long Jump (1st) Amy- 11yrs 800m (2nd) Jake G- 11yrs 800m (1st), 11yrs 200m (1st), 11yrs 100m (1st), 11yrs Discus (2nd), 11yrs High Jump (3rd), 11yrs Boy Age Champion

Matt- 11yrs 200m (2nd), 11yrs Long Jump (2nd) Sam- Senior long Jump (2nd) Junior Boys Relay- Josh T, George, Liam, Declan (1st)

Regards

Lisa Clark- Sports Coordinator

Sports News

CALLING ALL PARENTS

URGENT CHRISTMAS FAIR MEETING

Parents are asked to attend the meeting this week on Friday 11 August at 2.00-2.30pm outside the school hall.

Please save our annual Christmas Fair event, this event is a much needed fundraiser for St Finbarr’s and a wonderful event for family and community mem-bers. HELPERS ARE URGENTLY NEEDED so that this event can go ahead. New parents welcomed, no commitment required.

Forum News

Message from the Forum August 2017

Air conditioners Mr Cowley informed the last Forum meeting that all of the school’s classrooms now have air conditioners. When Mr Cowley arrived at St Finbarr’s, six classrooms were without air conditioners. The late summer heat was tough on the children so the Forum paid for half of the cost for the remaining six rooms. The Forum’s contribution amounted to around $11,750. As summer approaches this decision was well-timed. Basketball court and outdoor sports field In about two weeks you may notice some building activity near the school’s northern boundary. It is our new the basketball court! It has taken three years of saving and planning by the Forum and we are over-joyed to announce its commencement. It should be finished in about five weeks, weather permitting. This effort is a tribute to parents and friends who have helped stage the fundraising events held throughout the years. From the Gala night to Finnie’s Fair, Mother’s and Father’s day breakfasts and the writing and sell-ing of the cook book. All of these activities have helped reach this wonderful goal. Forum meetings I welcome you to attend Forum meetings and/ or be involved in upcoming events. The next general meet-ing is on Monday 16 October at 5.30 pm. Agenda items which you may be interested in include the allo-cation of money for new projects, Finnie’s Fair and the basketball court. Peter Parker Forum Chair

DID YOU KNOW?

It is tradition at St Finbarr’s that a parent volunteer is “Birthday Monitor” for a given year. This parent has all the teachers and staff birthdays listed. The monitor will issue a

card on behalf of the “Parent Body” at St Finbarr’s. Relevant class parents will be notified when it is their teach-er’s birthday. This is an opportunity to celebrate and thank

our teachers. There is no need for extra expense, simply help sing happy birthday, send in hand made cards or a posie from

the garden. Teachers are human, we appreciate their work and everyone

loves birthdays!

It’s ‘Earn and Learn’ Time!

The Woolworths Earn & Learn program has begun for 2017, providing St Fin-barr’s with the opportunity again, to acquire a range of free educational re-sources for our school.

How does it work?

Up until the 19th of September, every time you spend $10 at Wool-worths, you will receive an Earn and Learn sticker. All you need to do is place these stickers onto a Wool-worths Earn & Learn Sticker Sheet, and when it’s complete, drop that in the collection box here at school or at your local Woolworths store.

In the past we have received hundreds of dollars of valuable resources from this promotion. The more stickers col-lected, the more educational re-sources we can redeem! So please ask family, neighbours and friends to start collecting stickers for St Finbarr’s .

School banking news

Welcome back to School banking term 3. We have a regular banker prize for our school at the end of the term. The top 15 students who have been regular bankers so far this year will go in the draw. Reward news; Oscar S and Evie C have 9 tokens and will be able to choose a reward next deposit. Lily S, Isabella M, Archer J and Liam P can order a reward now. Check the poster in the office for prize options that include; handballs, Emjoy keyring, Tablet case, 3D Chalk, and Colour change markers. Good work everyone and keep saving. Susan

FREE ORAL HEALTH CHECKS

The Northern NSW Local Health District would like to remind

parents and carers that the Child Oral Health Service offers

FREE dental care to ALL children under 18.

Oral health is essential for health and wellbeing.

It is recommended that children have regular dental

check-ups starting at 1 year.

Regular dental check-ups can prevent minor problems

becoming major ones and prevent unnecessary pain and

distress.

Dental visits can be fun for kids, treat these visits as normal,

routine events so as not to develop fear.

Inspire Your Kids to Live Offline

With electronic media and small screen devices becoming an increasingly common

part of our everyday lives it can be difficult to set limits for our kids’ usage of them.

Rather than saying ‘no’ all the time, entice your child away from the TV and screens with

an outdoor adventure, project or idea. Encourage your kids to spend time outdoors with

friends or family. Introduce them to new hobbies or try things like flying a kite, bushwalk-

ing, bug catching, baking, painting, photography, craft activities, board games or help

them come up with their own creative ideas.

Setting simple limits such as ‘no screen time’ before school and at dinner time and mak-

ing bedrooms screen free zones will help you to keep track of the amount of time your

kids spend on screens and ensure that it doesn’t get in the way of sleep and activities

that are good for their development.

SCHOOL FEES Term 3 Fees are now overdue, please finalise any outstanding accounts.

Payments can be made by cash, cheque, credit card or forwarded direct to: Bank account BSB 062-514 A/C No. 00900371. Please quote account number or child’s name as details. BPAY facilities are also available using biller code & reference number from statement.

Please contact Alison Mason immediately, amason@lism.catholic.edu.au, if you are experiencing financial difficulty.

Thank you to all those families who pay their fees on time, it’s greatly appreciated.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CURIOUS ABOUT SCOUTING? Byron Bay Scouts are holding a free information night for both children interest-ed in joining, and adults interested in becoming a leader. Scouts are an active group of both girls and boys from our youngest Joeys at 6 through to older Venturers aged 18. Like to find out more? Come along to our camp fire and games night at Tuesday August 8 from 6.00pm, Byron Bay Scout Hall, Tennyson St, Byron Bay

The 20th Annual North Coast Dance Festival, 2017

Dates – Friday 25th, Saturday 26th and Sunday 27th August, 2017 Times – 8am till late Venue – Byron Bay High School Auditorium Adjudicator – Anne Marie Ludwig-Cox All welcome to come along and watch an entertaining weekend of dance. Thanking you Deslie Daniels Hon Secretary North Coast Dance Festival

General Messages

Canteen Helpers Needed Helpers needed and warmly invited to join the Can-teen Roster. If interested, please contact Cyra 0481 250 585 or the School office to be added to the Roster. Alternatively, just turn up any Tuesday or Friday morning and lend a hand!

General News - On Display - Parent Notice Board

General Messages