ST PETER’S CATHOLIC PARISH PRIMARY

SCHOOL

Friday 1st March 2019 – Week 5 

To the St Peter’s community,

In this Sunday's gospel (Luke 6:37-49), Jesus addressed ambition,

judgement, and weak character with images common to his time. In doing so, he touched

again upon the Gospel messages of the last two weeks: the beatitudes-woes and love of

enemy. This week Jesus finished his sermon with a set of parables describing the style of leadership every Christian is called to.

A call to leadership takes commitment and patience, study and reflection, prayer and openness.

The Christian leader must always remember the Master who gave him or her the vision to see the Way and the desire to learn.

Jesus used analogy to point to the temptation in leaders to make negative, and sometimes rash, moral judgments. It was easier to

point and condemn, than to take time to reflect, take stock, and reform.

Jesus explains the acts of a person reveal their character. Ultimately, a person would be known by the quantity and quality of their

speech. Words must match action. Action must match words.

Followers of Christ must act and speak with a single purpose. They must also surround

themselves with others who are single-hearted. In this way, followers could maximize their

efforts to evangelize, to bring others to Christ, His Church, and His mission.

Finally, Jesus spoke of true Christian character: If we truly wish to follow Jesus, we must focus

our ambitions, our judgment, and our very character on helping others.

We, the poor who share with others, must respond to our enemies and friends in love. We must treat others as God has treated us.

When we think, speak, and act according to the words of Christ and find our hope in Christ, we are saved by His power.

We Pray:

Forgiving and compassionate Father,

In weakness I judge my neighbour while not recognising my own faults and need of Your mercy; help me look at others as kindly as

you do.

Lord, you see me with a generous and compassionate gaze and do not despise or condemn me for my

shortcomings and failings. I pray for humility and for a deeper capacity to perceive Your presence and

action around me. Amen

Have a wonderful weekend,

Kerry Miller Principal 

ADMINISTRATION 

Notices:

DATES TO REMEMBER 

● Tuesday 5th March- Pancake Tuesday

● Wednesday 6th March- Ash Wednesday. Middles at 9.15               

Parish Mass

● Thursday 7th March 9.30-10.30 - 1st Prep 2020 tour

● Monday March 11th - Labour Day Public Holiday

● Tuesday 12th March 11.30-12.30 - 2nd Prep 2020 tour

● Wednesday March 13th - School Photo Day

● April 3rd, 4th & 5th - Senior Camp

● Friday April 5th 1:00 pm - End of Term 1

● Tuesday April 23rd - Start of Term 2

Deborah Racina - Director of First Impressions office@stprepp.catholic.edu.au 

 

EDUCATION IN FAITH 

The Season of Lent  

Next Wednesday we began the journey of Lent with children from each level participating in

Ash Wednesday liturgies where they will receive the ashes on their foreheads as a reminder

that we all belong to God.

Next Tuesday is known as Shrove Tuesday in our Catholic faith tradition.

Did you know that Shrove Tuesday is also known Fat Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday and Mardi Gras?

The phrase Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to the practice of the last night of eating

richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which begins on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday derives its name from the practice of blessing ashes that are made from palm branches blessed on the previous

year's Palm Sunday, and placing them on the heads of participants along with a prayer or blessing.

The Middle school students will attend Parish Mass next Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) at 9.15am and return with the ashes for the

other levels to use at their liturgies. Parents are welcome to join the children at Parish Mass.

Project Compassion 

Caritas Australia’s annual Lenten fundraising and awareness-raising appeal is an

extraordinary, ongoing demonstration of the faith, love and generosity of the Catholic

congregation and caring supporters throughout Australia to help end poverty, promote justice

and uphold dignity, we at St Peter’s are part of this!

A group of Senior students have been invited to attend the Caritas Launch next Tuesday at St Monica’s College. The new

Archbishop of Melbourne, Peter Comensoli will be officiating at the ceremony with schools from across Melbourne in attendance.

Project Compassion demonstrates how our lives can be changed through hope and determination. This particularly supports our

2019 school theme - If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Encourage one another and build one

another up. (1 Thessalonians 5:1)

Starting on Ash Wednesday, Project Compassion offers a different story to feature each week during Lent. Focused on the theme

“100% Hope” and featuring a new person each week, the stories explain the issues they face in their world. They also highlight 

how Caritas Australia is working together with vulnerable people, helping them to develop their strengths and create change in their

own communities and give them hope. Their stories humble and inspire us, and show how your contributions to Project

Compassion help people build better lives for themselves, their families and their communities.

Each learning space has a project compassion box to accept donations and each week we will collate all the

donations from the learning space and keep a running tally of how much we have raised for Project

Compassion. Every little cent counts!

Mindfulness in the Middle School 

In the Middle School we have been exploring mindfulness to enhance our meditation time. We explored how mindfulness and

meditation is like a body scan that helps us to become aware of our bodies.

We shared:

Mindfulness is paying attention to what you are doing or how you are feeling right now (in the present moment).

— Practising mindfulness helps us become more focused and aware, and more able to direct our attention to where we want it to

be.

— We practise mindfulness by choosing to focus on something, and then bringing our attention back to this when it becomes

distracted.

— Mindfulness meditation is like exercise for your brain. Just like you do exercise to keep your body healthy, you meditate to keep

your brain healthy.

— Every time you meditate you are strengthening your mindfulness muscle.

— We can start to develop the skill of mindfulness by practising paying attention to our body. Our bodies are always with us!

 

LEARNING & TEACHING 

Senior News 

This week the students in the Senior space received their new diaries for this year. We ask that as apart of at home

learning that each students reads for 20 minutes each night and records what book they have read and get a parent to

quickly initial their reading.

This year we are using Google Classrooms as a tool that students can access at school and at home to support

the learning that they are doing at school. We frequently add posts to Google Classrooms which students can

access through their Google accounts. If students are accessing Google classrooms at home, they are able to

record this as their home learning into their diaries.

Throughout the term students will be conferencing with teachers to develop personal and learning goals. Each

student has their own Conferencing Portfolio which has been shared with them through Google Drive. We have

asked the students to upload evidence of meeting their discussed goals onto their portfolio, during independent class time as well

as at home learning. These learning goals will be the main focus of student led learning conversations which will be happening

later in the term.

STEAM Learning 

This week we have focused our STEAM sessions on Wonder Days. This enabled the students to explore and find out more

information on something they were curious about. Students created a fact-based question connected to a topic. They then had to

research the question, identify the source, analyse and paraphrase the information and finish off by sharing and presenting their

findings.

Some of our senior students are also working on creating a piece of artwork for the City of Whittlesea Community Festival. The

festival theme is Many Voices, One Country.

Next week in STEAM, the middle and senior students will be going on a community walk excursion to broaden their inquiry skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Middle School Blog  

The Middle School students are beginning to use the Middle School Blog during their learning time. The blog has a range of

learning games and activities to support learning in English and Maths as well as a list of Japanese words to support learning. We

will add posts that link to school learning experiences that the students can explore at home. The site is a fun way for students to

engage in learning experiences at home and share their learning with their family. Students are able to comment on blog posts. All

comments made on the blog require approval so they will not appear right away. It is important when posting comments, the

students remember to be respectful and ensure that the comments section used for learning purposes only. The students will use

their school google account to post comments and are to only use first names on the site. We have discussed the expectations with

the students. Please the Middle Staff is you have any questions.

The URL for our blog is: http://middleschoolstpeters.global2.vic.edu.au/

Julie Percy - Director of Learning & Teaching juliep@stprepp.catholic.edu.au

SCHOOL COMMUNITY 

Pancake Day 

Next Tuesday 5th March, students will have the opportunity to purchase a pancake for pancake

day. Pancakes will be $1 each with a maximum of two per student available. Students will need to

bring their money on the day, there will be no IOUS. If you would like to assist on the day and have a current          

working with children check, please contact Emma,  

 

STEAM Community Experience  

Next week during their STEAM session, all middle and senior school students will participate in a local community walk on their

STEAM day as indicated below:

• Seniors Tuesday 5th March

• Middles Wednesday 6th March

Students will depart at 11:30am and return to school by 1:30pm. They will visit and stop at various points of interest within a 2km

radius of the school. Students will notice and name local services and facilities and how these help people, identify local issues and

develop wonderings. They will then use what they have seen to guide their personal investigations in further STEAM sessions.

As we will remain within a 2km radius of the school, this will be covered by the walking excursion note, therefore no further

permissions will be required.

We will require parent helpers for this excursion. If you are able to join us and have a current working with children check, please

email Marg mweston@stprepp.catholic.edu.au

Many thanks,

The Middle & Senior STEAM Team

Marg, Kylie, Brendan, Emma, Chloe & Madeleine

 

Emma Canning - Director of School Community ecanning@stprepp.catholic.edu.au

STUDENT WELLBEING 

CYBERSAFETY 

This week there was a great segment on A Current Affair about cyber safety. Below I have listed a 

number of tips that the experts shared 

Tips for parents

To help reduce the risk of children being exposed to inappropriate people or content online, we advise parents to:

● Engage on your child’s “digital playground”—know what sites they’re on, what apps they are using and who their “friends”

are online

● Ensure your child uses digital devices in common areas of the home e.g. no phones in the bedroom

● Disable access to smartphone/tablet cameras within apps

● Turn off voice or chat functions on games or apps

● Make sure settings are set to ‘friends only’

● Use parental control tools

● Set safe search settings

● Co-view and co-play games with your child online

● Have regular conversations about online safety early and often, and let your child know you will be there to support them if

something goes wrong online.

Please take note of these tips as it is important for our children to be safe when online.

Early in term 2 we will be having a cyber safety parent night so please keep your eye on the important dates coming up. 

 

SCHOOL CAPTAIN NEWS: 

Each year level is collecting house points for the certain colour they are allocated to.

You can earn house points by following the S.T.A.R. Acronym, completing your work and meeting expectations.

House points are very important, so you need to work with your colour to receive them.

At the end of each term we will have a ‘major’ prize for the colour that has the most points.

This term’s mini prize will be Zooper Dooper’s We will also have ‘Mini’ prizes throughout the term.

Well done to Senior Blue who this week have been awarded the most points. Keep working hard!

These are the current totals of the house points for each colour so far:

Green   Yellow   Red  Blue 

116 146 169 174

Joshua and Niko School Captains

Meet some more of our House Spirit Leaders 

Hi my name is Bailey Taylor, I am in Yellow house.

I have a family of 4 and 1 dog I am 11.

Some things I like to do are, play basketball with my friends and I play on the weekend it is fun.

I also like to play my ps4.

If you see my in the yard, I am willing to help anyone.

House color: Green 

Name: Baylie Day

Age:11 turning 12 in May

Family: Penny, Garry, RemI

Favourite color: Purple

Favourite food: chicken parma

Favourite Animal: gorilla

Hobbies: Footy, cricket and pingpong

 

Wellbeing in Prep: Over the past few weeks, and this week in particular the preps have been engaging in Circle Time regularly. Circle Time is a time

where as a whole class group we gather and sit in a circle. A ‘talking stick’ is provided and one at a time students have the

opportunity to speak when they receive the talking stick. A strong focus in prep has been on building great relationships - this is

referring to students forming friendships as well as teachers creating strong rapports with students. Circle Time has presented itself

as a time for students to share something about themselves, where teachers and other students have been able to connect in which

enables the formation of solid rapports and friendships. Our focus in Circle Time has been sharing things about ourselves and our

families. We are loving getting to know all our beautiful preps! Deb, Louise and Jo

Jackie Fleischmann - Director of Student Wellbeing jfleischmann@stprepp.catholic.edu.au