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This week, the Church celebrates Laetare Sunday. Laetare means ‘to rejoice’ or ‘to be joyful’ and there is much to celebrate in our readings today. In drawing close to Jesus, the Light of the World, we can come to see things anew.
It is also Mothering Sunday, so we celebrate mothers everywhere, and pray for all who have nurtured us.
A Reflection by Pope Francis
At the centre of the Gospel this Fourth Sunday of Lent we find Jesus and a man blind from birth. Christ restores his sight and performs this miracle with a type of symbolic ritual: first, He mixes dirt with saliva and spreads it on the blind man’s eyes; then, He orders him to go and wash in the pool of Siloam. The man goes, washes, and regains his sight. He was blind from birth. With this miracle, Jesus manifests himself, and He manifests himself to us as the Light of the World. The man blind from birth represents each one of us, who was created to know God; but due to sin has become blind; we are in need of a new light; we are all in need of a new light: that of faith, which Jesus has given us. Indeed, that blind man in the Gospel, by regaining his sight, is opened to the mystery of Christ. Jesus asks him: “Do you believe in the Son of man?”. “And who is he, sir, that I may believe in him?”, the healed blind man replied. “You have seen him, and it is he who speaks to you”. “Lord, I believe”, [the blind man said,] and he prostrated himself before Jesus.
This event induces us to reflect on our faith, our faith in Christ, the Son of God; at the same time, it also refers to Baptism, which is the first Sacrament of faith: the Sacrament which makes us “come to the light”, by being reborn through the water and through the Holy Spirit; as happens to the man born blind, whose eyes are opened after being cleansed in the water of the pool of Siloam. The man born blind and healed represents us when we do not realise that Jesus is the light; he is “the Light of the World”, when we are looking elsewhere when we prefer to entrust ourselves to little lights when we are groping in the dark. The fact that the blind man has no name helps us to see our face reflected and our name in his story. We too have been “illuminated” by Christ in Baptism, and thus we are called to behave as children of the light. Acting as children of the light requires a radical change of mindset, a capacity to judge men and things according to another scale of values, which comes from God. The Sacrament of Baptism, in fact, requires the choice of living as children of the light and walking in the light. If I were to ask you: “Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? Do you believe that he can change your heart? Do you believe that he can show reality as he sees it, not as we see it? Do you believe that he is light, that he gives us the true light?”. How would you answer?
Prayers
We keep in our prayers those in our community who are unwell, we particularly pray for Tracey Adamson and Rod Smith who are undergoing surgery in the coming weeks. We wish them both a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming them both back to school when they have recovered. We welcome Mr Len Fiori and Mr Wayne Mead who will be sharing the school maintenance role in Rod’s absence.
Parent/Teacher Meetings
Next week is an opportunity to meet with your child’s classroom teacher if you have not already done so this year. These are short scheduled meetings to meet your child’s teacher and share information about your child that may assist their learning and development. Tuesday meetings will be face to face and Wednesday is online via Microsoft Teams. Bookings can be made via Compass. You can view information on how to make bookings by following this link online bit.ly/STAinterviews
Longer Parent/Teacher interviews are scheduled in Term 2 and 4 following on from student semester reports.
School Disco
This friday is our school disco. My thanks to Maree for her organisation of this and to our parent and carer volunteers, including DJ’s Mr Garreth Wigg and Signor Mockler, who I’m sure will have the children up dancing with plenty of laughs to be had by all.
Please note that the clothing pool will also be open during this time if you are needing to purchase any additional clothes before we change to winter uniform next term.
NAPLAN
Congratulations to our Year 3 & 5 students who have participated in NAPLAN testing over the past weeks. The students participated enthusiastically, my thanks to Mr Wigg and Year 3 and 5 Teachers for preparing our students so well.
Athletics Carnival
Our school Athletics carnival is on Monday 27th March, my thanks to our wonderful parent and carer community for assisting Mr Josh McGrath our sport coordinator to run this event. Without the volunteers from our school community, events like this would not be able to happen. We look forward to seeing the wonderful talent we have at STA on the track and field.
Tuggeranong Regional Swimming
Congratulations to the following students who will be representing STA at the regional swimming event next Thursday:
- Ian B
- Liam B
- Anabelle B
- Joseph D
- Harper D
- Harry E
- Violet H
- Isaac L
- Charlotte L
- Adelyn M
- Joseph R
- Lucas S
We are so proud of you and wish you well.
Pupil Free Day
A reminder that there is a pupil free day on Monday 24 April. The first day back of Term 2 will be Wednesday, 26 April 2022 (day after Anzac day).
Annual Improvement Plan
The following three key improvement goals have been developed to form our annual improvement plan. As a staff we have collaborated to form key strategies to achieve these goals across the school, as well as consideration of budget, resources and gauging evidence of success.
- Building Catholic Identity and increasing community engagement and collaboration
- Assessment, data and analysis processes are robust, identify student achievement and need, aligned with the curriculum and inform everyday teaching.
- Staff collaborate across P-6 to develop a shared understanding of the curriculum, strong content knowledge and the skills to implement high impact teaching practices that improve student learning.
These three key improvement goals underpin our system bold goals:
- for every student to be a competent reader,
- for high impact teaching practices to be visible in every
Working Bee
In preparation for our school fete and enrolment period, we are scheduling a working bee to tidy up our school grounds ready for our community to visit. If you can spare an hour or two, our school would be very grateful. The working bee will be on Sunday 30th April from 10.00-12pm. Keep your eye out for further details.
Have a wonderful week,
Erin
St Anthony’s at South Canberra Netball
During Week 7 Students from Years 3,4,5 and 6 participated in the South Canberra Netball competition. Expertly coached by Mrs Vicki Beissner and a wave of parent helpers, the students were able to play fast paced and exciting netball throughout the competition. Many thanks goes to Mrs Beissner and our parent helpers for supporting the students on two fantastic days.
Registrations close on the 1st of April.
Any questions or queries – please do not hesitate to contact our netball coordinator Jodie
The Importance of Sleep
It’s a well-known fact that sleep is incredibly important for everyone. Sleep is the body’s chance to rest and reset for the next day. For young people, sleep is especially important because their bodies are going through their formative years and need recovery in order to change and develop. Despite sleep being so important for young people, good sleep patterns are often resisted due to a variety of reasons such as screens and social media, worrying/racing minds, and other distractions. So how can parents and carers support their children to have better sleep patterns?
Maintain Routine
It can be difficult to go to sleep at the same time every night, however maintaining some routine is important so that the brain knows when to relax and prepare for rest. It can be a good idea to have a limit to how late your child can stay up for, and they can choose to go to bed before or on that time. A pre-bed routine is also helpful for a good sleep, and can include brushing teeth, reading a chapter of a book or listening to a relaxing podcast. Every person is different, but young people should be aiming for at least 8 hours of sleep per night. A good sleep routine also includes waking up at a reasonable time each morning. Remind your child that while it may be difficult at first, their body clock will adjust, and it will get easier.
Avoid Stimuli
Avoiding screens is extremely important and we should not be looking at phone, television or computer screens for at least one hour before bed. This is because screens stimulate us, not relax us. Screentime reduces the quality of our sleep and does not allow us to wind-down properly.
Other common stimuli can include caffeine and energy drinks. These should be limited and not consumed during the afternoon or night.
Create a Good Environment
Young people will sleep easier if they are in a comfortable, tidy environment. It is also a good idea to encourage your children not to do homework on their bed. Their bed is supposed to be a place of rest and relaxation, and it can be harder to switch off if they have spent all afternoon working on it.
Check-in Before Bed
Sometimes young people can struggle to sleep due to stress. There are many worries that can keep young people up at night – from social issues such as friendships and bullying, to school issues such as assignment stress. It can be helpful to check-in before bed and offer comfort or advice if they need it.
If you are worried about your child’s sleep, check in with their GP to discuss this further. For more information, read this with your child: https://headspace.org.au/explore-topics/for-young-people/get-enough-sleep/.
Hi St Anthony’s Families,
It’s been so long. I miss you guys. Which is why it’s great that Easter is coming up and I need your help.
The Parish is holding Stations of the Cross on the Oval on Good Friday (7th April, 10:30am) and we need anyone in Year 5+ who can help out acting, reading, singing and more.
We’ll likely have practises on Sun 26 March, Sun 02 April (unless Saturdays work better for the majority).
Please let me know if you’d like to be involved and be sure to invite people to come along. Attached is a brief flyer.
Thanks,
Kathryn Liston
kathrynliston@outlook.com