Thanks to all the school community who have contributed to a successful term 1 2024. I hope you gained some insights to how your child is going at school from the parent/teacher interviews.

Teachers are always happy to meet with you at any stage of the year. Please use the Compass app to make a time with your child’s teacher.

Car Line

It has been bought to the school’s attention that cars are leaving the carline carpark at an unsafe speed. Please ensure that you are driving in a safe manner in and around our school (as well as Goulburn West Public). There are many students, siblings, grandparents and parents on foot, as well as a high volume of vehicle movements including buses. Police also regularly patrol Knox Street.

Uniforms

I spent Tuesday helping with the school photos and I was happy to see children presented nicely in their school uniforms, however a couple of areas need a reminder. Students should not have nail polish on at school. Jewellery should be kept to a minimum - studs or sleepers in the ears, no bangles, only watches & plain chains around the neck.

In winter children can only wear the school beanie, scarf & spray jacket - NO OTHER jackets, scarves or beanies are permitted.

Attendance

A reminder that your child’s attendance at school must be a priority. The aim is to have a 90% attendance rate. That means children need to be here at least 45 out of a possible 50 days per term. If your child misses 20 days in a school year that is equivalent to missing 4 weeks of schooling out of 40 week school year. This impacts their learning. A high attendance rate translates to better results at school. Learning at SPP begins at 9.20am and children who arrive consistently late are also losing valuable learning time.

• Reminders
  • Please fill out the Compass app when your child is away as soon as possible.
  • You must sign in at the office if your child is late to school
  • If you know your child will be away from school for more than a couple of days you must fill out the absentee note on the Compass app before you go, as well as let your child’s teacher or the office know in writing. We will follow up if a child's absence is unexplained for more than 3 days.
  • If your child is going to be away for more than 25 days in a row you must apply for extended leave.

School Counsellor

Our counsellor Ash Venkat has advised that she has some spare sessions. If you are wanting to book a counselling session for your child during school hours, please follow the below link which can also be found by clicking the "For Parents" tab on our school website.

https://mccg.my.site.com/housing/s/school-referral-form

All couselling sessions are held in strict privacy with a qualified school counsellor from Marymead CatholicCare who visits our school every Wednesday.

If you have any further questions please get in touch with your child's teacher or Mr Brown.

If you remember the following details school drop off and pick up should run smoothly. Please view the map below for parking restriction details:

Morning Drop off:

• Supervision at school starts at 8.30am. Students arriving earlier than this WILL NOT be under active adult supervision so please avoid dropping your children off before this time. Between 8.30am and 8.55am students are to take their bag to their classroom and then make their way to either the hall or basketball court where they are to wait in year groups until the morning play bell rings.
• Knox Street/Princes Avenue parking (front school entrance) - ideally families with students in Kindergarten only should be parking in this area. Please be aware of the bus zone, parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear. We also ask that you consider our staff when parking in the morning as there are limited all day parking zones where they are able to park.
• Hall gate (Knox Street) - Bus students are dropped off here. 
• Princes Avenue/Adam Street (back school entrance) - Parents are able to park on either side of Princes Avenue (outside car line) or in Adam Street if you need to walk your children into school (please note that this part of Princes Avenue is a one-way road). Be aware of parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear.
• Car Line (off Princes Avenue) -  Car line is a 'kiss & go' system where parents drop their children off without getting out of the car; please do not park and exit your car in car line as this creates major traffic issues. Car line is our preferred method of parent drop off as it ensures student safety.

Afternoon pick-up:

• Knox Street/Princes Avenue parking (front school entrance) - ideally families with students in Kindergarten only should be parking in this area. Please be aware of the bus zone, parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear. Kindergarten parents are welcome to park and wait for their child outside the classrom. Kinder students are also able catch the bus or get picked up from carline.
• Hall gate (Knox Street) - Bus students only are collected from here. A teacher is rostered on duty at this gate each afternoon and stays to supervise students until the last bus comes.
• Princes Avenue/Adam Street (back school entrance) - Parents are able to park on either side of Princes Avenue (outside car line) or in Adam Street if you need to walk into school to collect your children (please note that this part of Princes Avenue is a one-way road). Be aware of parking restrictions and keeping our neighbour's driveways clear.
• Car Line (off Princes Avenue) - Car line is available for parents to pick their children up without having to park and get out of the car; please do not park and exit your car in car line as this creates major traffic issues. Car line is our preferred method of parent pick up as it ensures student safety. Car line can be very congested in the afternoons. If the waiting line is outside of our driveway the advice from NSW police is that you should continue around the block via Adam Street until the line moves forward. Please consider arriving at 3.30pm or after to ease this congestion; your child will be safe and supervised until you arrive. Two teachers are rostered on and supervicion at car line is until 3.45pm. After this time your child will be taken to the office and a call will be made to parents to arrange pick up ASAP.

Before & After School Care

FIRST HOLY COMMUNION

First Holy Communion lessons for our year 4 students and above commence Thursday 2nd of May, week 1 of Term 2, 4pm at Our Lady of Fatima. The first 3 lessons will be held at Fatima with the 4th lesson being at Ss Peter and Paul's Cathedral. The retreat day for those making Communion will be held at St Mary's Crookwell on Thursday 30th of May during school hours. More details will come on Compass closer to the date. 

Students who enrolled for both Reconciliation and First Holy Communion won't need to enrol again. 

Please email Cassie Harris with questions or more information at cassandra.harris@cg.catholic.edu.au

PROJECT COMPASSION

Last week Mrs Kain banked $1607.95 into the Caritas Project Compassion bank account! This is a fantastic donation, so thank you to all our families for your generosity.

SPP CROSS COUNTRY CARNIVAL

A big thank you to staff and parent/carers for your involvement in our Cross Country Carnival in week 10! 

Congratulations to all the children that participated. We were impressed with your efforts and good sportsmanship.

Results

1. O'Brien (526)
2. McCauley (494)
3. Patrick (486)
4. Blake (424)

O'Brien House Captains Tobias & Georgia

Results (1st-3rd):

Joining our 1-3 placed students in Years 3-6 at the NR Carnival next term will be:

Lucy Boniface, Rose Dillon, Lily Delaney, Billy Dale, Huxley Smith, Kyson Swan, Georgia Batty, Sophiah Chant, Leila Martin, Will Harris, Henry Beardmore, Edeva Shannon, Heidi Skuthorpe, Stella Salmon, Jack Hayter, Jordan Tate, Zach Anderson, Gabe Kerr, Loralai Ryan, Harriett McMahon, Ava Cosgrove Bowden, Oliver Keast, Oliver Martin & Ashton Kennedy.

NSWCPS SWIMMING

Congratulations to Zoe & Kyson who represented the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn at the recent MacKillop trials at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. They competed against students from Parramatta, Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Wollongong and Wilcania Forbes Diocese.

Both students participated in the 50m Freestyle and finished 16th and 14th respectively. A special experience and a wonderful achievement.

INDIVIDUAL SPORT TRIALS

Zach, Noah, Austin and Georgia braved the wet and cold weather on Tuesday to attend the Archdiocesan Football (soccer) trials in Canberra. Noah, Zach, Austin and Georgia made it through to the possibles v probables game with Georgia being selected in the Archdiocesan team! She will now attend the Mackillop trials to be held in Goulburn next term. Congratulations to all those involved.

Georgia Brown

Individual sports trials are open through the CECG sports website. These trials are intended for Year 5 & 6 student's ONLY.

This year our school canteen will continue to operate Tuesday to Friday. Student's requiring lunch from the canteen need to submit a lunch order via the QKR app by 9am the day the order is to be received (remember you can order up to two weeks in advance). It will also be open during first break for over the counter snacks, ice creams and drinks. Miss Courtney Kozel will be our canteen manager while Mrs Bennett is on leave.

We currently have no Size 8 black sport shorts in stock, and the supplier is out of stock also.

Winter Jumpers are on their way, we will communicate when they are available.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

The uniform shop is run by parent volunteers and is open on a Wednesday morning 9-9.30am for fittings and sales. The best way to organise your child's uniform requirements is to order via Qkr. Orders need to be placed by 8.30am each Wednesday so that they are able to be sent home that day; orders placed after 8.30am will not be filled until the following week.

4 Blue Poems

4 Red Daycare Visit to Lady McKell!

Birthdays 11-30 April!

We are able to hold student medications in the office for those children who require either short term or ongoing medication. Any medication must be supplied to us in its original packaging, with the pharmacy label attached for prescription medicine. Our system has been updated by head office so please read the following carefully if this applies to your child.

Short term medication (pain relief, antibiotics, antihistamine etc) -

• Parent/carer must visit the office to sign medication administration authorisation form so that our staff are able to administer the medication.

Ongoing medication (asthma inhaler, antihistamine, ADHD medication, etc) -

• Parent/carer must visit the office to sign medication administration authorisation form so that our staff are able to administer the medication. 
• Parent/carer to ensure medication remains in date, and that there is sufficient supply for one term, each term.
• Parents/carers of students with asthma action plans or other official diagnosis must provide current paperwork from the doctor
• Asthma Inhalers - if your child is in year 5 or 6 or capable of self-administering their ventolin, they are able to keep their inhaler with them in their bag; if this is the case there is no need to complete the authorisation form.

Our newsletter, The SPP Chronicle, is normally published fortnightly (odd weeks) on a Thursday afternoon at around 5.30pm.

Each fortnight we include anything and everything that has happened in the preceding two weeks such as excursions, assemblies, sporting results and photos, liturgies, etc. We also provide information about upcoming school activities and events, student birthdays and important information and correspondence for families. We love to give shoutouts to our students and school community like thankyou's, baby announcements, special achievements and EOI's for sporting & other school or community group involvement, so if you have news that you think we could include just email it through to office.sppg@cg.catholic.edu.au.