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Message - Religious Education Leader
Dear Families,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
I hope you have all had a meaningful Easter break. With all the family catch ups still happening, it can’t always be a totally restful break but hopefully one that is still enjoyable, albeit busy!
The Catholic tradition is to continue the Easter season until Pentecost (5th June). The biggest thing to happen in the Catholic calendar cannot be contained in one single day, so we need a number of weeks to absorb the sheer greatness of the gift given to us. The Masses that our students will celebrate over this time will have the focus on what the Easter gift provides. A really good reflective question to ask during this time is, “What does Easter mean for me?” and not just on Easter Sunday, but moving forward.
During the period of Lent, the word Alleluia is taken out of the liturgy. Now that we are in the season of Easter, it is restored back into the Mass. These seasonal changes, just as we do when we change the colours of vestments and decoration around the church, help us get into the spirit of the time. The word ‘Alleluia’ comes from the Hebrew word, ‘Halleluiah’ which expresses joy and thanksgiving. It has become the main chant at Easter time because of the joy that the Easter gift brings. There is no greater gift than the paving of the way for us to be with God in heaven when we die. The gift is given freely – How cool is that?!
SchoolTV Launch
St Thomas the Apostle is now offering a valuable resource called SchoolTV to parents. You would have seen the email through ‘The Spear’, and possibly on our Facebook page. The reason we want to advertise it a lot is because we would love to see it being a useful thing for families. The Diocese of Sale has provided this for us through some fairly big-name experts, so do check it out.
Parenting our children is a complex, challenging and rewarding experience. However, the demands on parents to remain current with technology, drug and alcohol advice and safe practices in a virtual and social media world, as well as dealing with anxiety and wellbeing, add to our busy and diverse family lives.
SchoolTV is a new ongoing resource that is now available to all of our parents. Each online edition will address a major topic with expert interviews, fact sheets, a parent quiz, recommended apps, books and more. SchoolTV combines information from a host of reliable resources, including BeyondBlue and ReachOut. It provides a single stream of independent factual information that saves parents time and the confusion of searching across multiple online sites for information.
You can access the SchoolTV archive here https://cranbourneeast.catholic.schooltv.me/ .
During the School year we will publish various topics for you to access.
The topics covered may be pertinent to your immediate situation, or the resource may be useful for you at a later date.
We hope that you find SchoolTV to be informative and a useful source of current well-researched information.
Andrew McDermott
Religious Education Leader
School Start times
Dear parents
Kate
Traffic Congestion
At this time the council feels that the amount of traffic does not warrant crossings on either Fiorelli Drive and or McKillop Way.
Early Pick Up
Dear Families,
Occasionally, there are times when you need to pick up your child early from school. It might be an appointment or due to an emergency, but these things happen.
To help you in these situations and to minimise the impact on school logistics, we ask that you adhere to a window of time that is most convenient for everyone.
We request that if you are picking up your child early, to do so:
[before the lunch break -1:45pm] or [after the lunch break- 2:30pm] and before 3:00pm
Avoiding the lunch break and before 3pm will be quicker for you, especially when time is of the essence. We hope this can ease the task of getting to an appointment or dealing with an emergency.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sport - Get Active Kids Voucher
The Get Active Kids Voucher Program helps eligible families get their kids involved in organised sport and active recreation activities. Eligible children may receive up to $200 to cover the costs for membership and registration fees.
The program is open to Victorian children aged up to 18, named on a valid Commonwealth Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card and named on a valid Medicare Card at the time of application.
Applications for this round close at 5pm on 31st of May, 2022. To apply or for more information visit the program website: https://www.getactive.vic.gov.au/vouchers/apply-for-vouchers/
P.S. Should interested families need assistance our local MP Pauline Richards is happy to take calls and emails on the following: (03)5996 2901 or pauline.richards@parliament.vic.gov.au
Dear Parents,
As you know the area in front of the school gets very congested during drop off/pick up times.
Council members, parking enforcement and police will be visiting the school over the next few weeks at drop off/pick up times and will be enforcing parking regulations.
Fines will be issued to those parking in the wrong places and driving unsafely.
Please be courteous, follow the road and parking rules and keep everyone safe.
Again I would encourage you to look at getting your children to walk part of the way to/from school to meet you at a location where there is less congestion. The gateway closest to Ferrari Drive (away from the main road) is always staffed before and after school to ensure safe movement of pedestrians.
City of Casey are very proud and excited to release our third Safe Around Schools education animation for this year on Driving Around Schools Safely.
Watch and share our new animation to find out more:
This animation focusses on driver behaviour around the school precinct, 40km school zones signs, No Stopping, No Parking, the Drop off Pick up zone and what they mean as well as road safety education and good role modelling from parents/carers for our children around the school precinct. When all families follow the signs, the traffic flows better and it is safer for our children.
With 96 Schools in the City of Casey, we believe these animations will promote good road safety behaviour and outline the rules around creating a safer school precinct.
A huge thanks to the parents who volunteered to cover books last term!
The little readers are all ready to be taken home by our grade one learners, you are legends!