Jesus my Lord, let me strengthen my courage by taking on the courage of all those people who have been "centurions" for me.

Many have faced disasters and hard times with great constancy.

The upper hand of evil never turned them against you. They kept going. Let me be like them, Lord.

No matter what the cross, let me never stop declaring you to be "truly the Son of God, the source of my hope, the reason why I will never quit on life.

Amen

Week 8

We keep in our prayers this week all those who have been impacted by the devastating bushfires in Victoria, Tathra and around Bega. As they begin clean up and start to rebuild their homes and lives, may all be blessed with God’s loving presence.

P&F Exec and Committee

I thank all who attended the Annual General Meeting, particularly those willing to take on roles as the Executive on the P&F committee. Please remember that all parents are welcome to attend the meetings, held the first Wednesday of each month at the school. Please check the newsletter for the time of each meeting as this may change given parents work commitments or other events.

Our new P&F Executive are:

President                Melissa Finnigan

Vice President         Rhonda Douglas

Treasurer               Jody Miller

Secretary               Jackie Smirl

Thanks also to those who have taken on organising roles for the various sub-committees:

Catering                 Brigid Holder

Holy the 13 Golf      Emma Deep

Garden viewing       Kylie Murray

Fun Run                  Melissa Finnigan

1200 Club               Mel Finnigan

Uniform Pool           Jody Miller and Nancy Smith

Thank you to the outgoing Exec, Vice President Kristy Rumble and Treasurer Nancy Smith and to Aileen Maher who has run catering and uniform pool over the past few years. Also a thank you to Kerrie Murphy for running the uniform pool for the past year. We greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into these roles.

In 2018, we are trialling the idea of having a class rep for each class from K to 10. Thank you to the parents who responded to this call. It is the hope that this will allow for easier communication for P&F events and when volunteers, etc are required to assist.

Changes to Newsletter and Skoolbag

We appear to have made a smooth transition to the way the newsletter is published and disseminated and feedback has been very positive with regards to the new format.

We will now be closing down Skoolbag and using the message system within Schoolzine. You may have already received messages via email, which have appeared as an email from me. This is how messages will now be sent. Often they will be sent from the Front Office staff but I am the designated person on the message. This system will allow us to target families in particular year groups so parents will only receive whole school or if they have children in the target year group. We hope this reduces the number of messages received and assists in more effective communication. We would greatly appreciate any feedback you may have.

Our most important investment

Being a parent is like riding a roller coaster; sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down; it's frantic and frightening in some ways but exciting and rewarding in more ways.

For every person, the family is the cradle of life where they are born and grow; the climate of affection that unites the family is where we learn about truth and goodness.

No matter what size family we live in, we all rely on our family to provide an affirming, positive and loving experience that is supportive and gives us an identity of who we are and what’s unique about us. Family life teaches us how to share, how to stand up for ourselves and how to love other people. In addition to providing for our physical welfare, a family provides for the emotional and mental welfare of each of its members. Family provides the esteem and confidence when we set out to face each new day and family provides the comfort and consolation when we return.

If you’re looking for investment advice, go for the advisor who tells you to invest in your family. The dividends will come daily, will be warming to the heart and will provide a consistent stream of emotional security; what an inheritance your children will have.

CHANGE OF DATE (repeat information): Due to some travel issues for our Professional Learning organised with Kath Murdoch on 9 May we are now changing the date of our student free day for Staff professional learning to Friday 18 May. Our presenter will now be Leonie Anstey. Leonie is an educational consultant we have been working with over the past 18 months. She is a dynamic and knowledgeable presenter who will assist us with our continuing journey of “Challenging Learning”, the “Learning Pit” and ensuring we are meeting student needs for learning by providing differentiated learning in all classrooms. There will also be some further workshops with a focus on numeracy and mathematics.

This is the last day in the week of Naplan. Our make-up sessions for students will be held each afternoon for students – for example if they miss Tuesday mornings test, students will be able to sit on Wednesday afternoon, etc. If there are any students who still need to sit any tests on Friday, we will have supervision available and students are able to attend, sit the test and then return home.

Please make these date changes in your diary – 9 May is now a normal school day for students. 18 May will now be pupil free.

With blessings,

Mrs Janet Cartwright

Principal

Changes to the calendar

2 weeks ahead