Dear Parents,

Welcome back to term 3! I hope you had an enjoyable holiday period with your families.

Next Monday and Tuesday are parent/teacher interviews, a vital time where you can talk further about your child’s report and support the teacher in their work. We ask that all students attend with their parent(s) and that each interview will begin with students sharing reflections on their learning and their goals for Mathematics and English.  In addition to the general discussions about your child’s learning and social interactions at school, teachers will share and discuss assessment results from key curriculum areas and parents will have the opportunity to discuss and clarify information from the report. Once students have finished presenting, they will make their way down to the multi-purpose room where they will be supervised by school staff.

Parent Teacher Interviews are now open via PAM, please see the attached letter for instructions on how to book your interviews. 

New Staff Appointment

We welcome Mrs Kelsey Francis on staff at St Angela of the Cross. Kelsey will teach our Physical Education classes on a Friday, I’m sure you will join me in welcoming Kelsey to our school community. 

Afterschool Care | Extend

I’m pleased to be able to inform you that our After-School Care program will be back in operation starting next week. We welcome Anne-Marie Mills who has been employed by Extend as the new educator to run this program, please see attached flyer for more information.

Assemblies

Due to the ongoing building works and the weather at this time of year, school Assemblies will be provided to parents each fortnight as a video link. They won’t be live streamed but pre recorded so parents can watch at a time that suits best.

The Victorian Government has announced that it is providing  further deliveries of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) to schools in Term 3 and again in Term 4. St Angela of the Cross will distribute RAT kits on request to students for use when they are symptomatic or for use as household contacts. Please contact the office for further information if required.

Our St Angela of the Cross community is truly amazing! It is wonderful to share that our Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie Dough fundraiser was a huge success!

We are pleased to announce that we sold 838 tubs and raised $3,352 for our school.

Collection Information

Your incentive prizes and cookie dough will be available to collect on Monday 18th July between 3pm-4pm. Billy G’s Gourmet Cookie dough will stay fresh and safe for up to eight hours outside the fridge - but make sure you get it inside and in the freezer as soon as you can.

Parent Helpers
We have 331 orders to pack and would greatly appreciate some helpers.
Please see the below web form to register your assistance if you are available to help on the day. Times to be confirmed.

Again, our most sincere thanks for your support and fundraising efforts. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Our school is taking part in the Wonder Recycling Rewards campaign this term.

Help us collect bread bags so we can earn points to redeem on new RHSports equipment. 

We are collecting ALL bread bags, not just the Wonder brand

The more we collect the more points our school earns.

We have received many more books that need some contact covering. If you would like to help the school with this task, please see the office staff for a take home bundle. Any help big or small will be appreciated.

HELPERS IN THE KITCHEN

Many of us who re-hear the story of Jesus with Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42) this weekend will be a little niggled by what seems unfairness to Martha. While she is doing the work in the kitchen, Mary is sitting still at Jesus feet, listening and learning.

Of course Martha could have dealt with it a little better, rather than venting at Jesus about why he won’t make Mary help her. Nevertheless, somebody needs to get dinner ready and Martha is it, but Jesus’ responds that Mary has, “chosen the better part.”

This poses a conundrum for us. Surely someone needs to spend the day working at a desk or on the farm or workbench (or preparing meals)? That’s what makes the world go round, what enables us to eat. And, as Paul tells us, (2 Thessalonians 3:10) we all need to do our bit to ensure the community thrives.

Jesus is teaching us here though about balance and perspective. We should work to live, not live to work.

Many of us race around busily doing “important” things so we almost get into the mindset of “I am busy therefore I am,” forgetting that whatever we do here is transitory and our relationship with him is the main game.

Sure we all have work to do, but we mustn’t prioritise our work, or other activities in our lives, over sitting at Jesus feet, listening to his word and building relationship with him.

Family and other relationships too are enriched by being able to say, “Don’t worry about xyz. This is important. Be in the moment (and we’ll all help in the kitchen later).”

Deacon Mark Kelly                                         

Foundation Term 3 Overview

We warmly welcome our students and families back to Term 3! During Term 3, our Foundation students will be busily working on the following:

Literacy
Phonics
Students will continue to build on their knowledge of identifying and recording letter names and sounds. They will be involved in activities that promote the skills of blending, segmenting and phoneme (sound) manipulation, to help them read and spell words. Students will be working towards using these skills with speed and accuracy to help them become proficient independent readers.

Reading
During shared reading, students will be learning about the reading skill of making ‘Inferences’. They will learn to use the clues in a text or illustration, along with their thinking skills (what they already know) to help them make meaning. Together, we will explore a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts to make inferences, explore vocabulary and generate and answer questions.

Writing
Students will be using a variety of visual writing prompts to develop their creative minds. They will be given time to study, think, question and discuss what they can see in an image and will then have the opportunity to come up with their own simple story. Students will also be exploring Procedural writing. They will learn that procedures are texts that provide instructions in step-by-step format and will be given opportunities to follow procedures and then write about them afterwards. 

Mathematics
Number and Algebra
Students will use drawings, numerals and words to record subtraction sums. They will learn vocabulary related to subtraction and explore the ‘Count Back’ strategy. Students will have an introduction to Multiplication and Division and will experiment with making groups of objects and sharing objects equally.

Measurement and Geometry
Students will explore length by measuring and comparing classroom objects. They will learn to use vocabulary related to length such as ‘shorter’, ‘shortest’, ‘longer’ and ‘longest’ to explain their findings. Students will learn to describe position and movement using the language of location and direction. They will follow and give simple directions and will explore vocabulary such as, ‘forwards’, ‘towards’, ‘between’, ‘near’ and ‘next to’.

Inquiry
In our Inquiry ‘Community - Faces and Places’, students will investigate what makes a community and what communities they belong to. They will explore what responsibilities members of different communities have, what makes communities different and similar and why communities are important to people.

Religion
In our Inquiry ‘Community and Belonging are important……..Explore!’students will explore attributes of our local community. They will investigate how communities bond through shared beliefs and will learn that they are part of a local Church community, who share God’s love. Students will learn through Scripture and celebrations such as the Feast day of Saint Mary of the Cross Mackillop and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the role others played in Jesus’ life and mission – to teach about the love of God and love for others. 

During term 3, Homegroup B will be focusing on the following areas:

Phonics
Through the Sounds Write program, students will continue to build their knowledge of sound patterns and how to segment and blend sounds to read and write words. During our phonics sessions, the students also practise their letter formations as well as building words and swapping sounds in and out to create new words. They practise holding words in their head and sounding them out before writing them during dictation activities.

Reading
The students will be learning about the features of Non-fiction texts and how authors provide us with information in a different way e.g. captions, charts, glossaries, index page, etc. Students will also continue to focus on inferencing or understanding implied information in texts. This involves drawing conclusions based on evidence that is not directly stated in the text. 

Writing
In writing, we will be continuing to develop an opinion and justifying why to form a persuasive piece of writing. We will be taking our students back to basics by focusing on sentence structure, handwriting and using punctuation. Students will also be learning to create information reports and will present these reports to the class. 

Maths
During Term 3, students will be building on our knowledge of multiplication and division strategies to help us solve a range of problems and discuss which are the most efficient strategies to use. We will also link our Geography unit with location, transformation and length as we begin to look at maps. 

Geography
This term our Inquiry will focus on Geography. The students will develop their knowledge of differing places in the world and their geological features. We will begin to understand how our human impact affects our environment.

Religion
During our Religion Inquiry this term, students are learning that everyone is invited to become members of the Church community that shares God’s love. They learn about local communities and important liturgical celebrations such as the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the Feast of Mary Mackillop. 

Phonics
Through the Sounds Write program, students will continue to build their knowledge of sound patterns and how to segment and blend sounds to read and write words. During our phonics sessions, the students also practise their letter formations as well as building words and swapping sounds in and out to create new words. They practise holding words in their head and sounding them out before writing them during dictation activities.

Reading
The students will be learning about the features of Non-fiction texts and how authors provide us with information in a different way e.g. captions, charts, glossaries, index page, etc. Students will also continue to focus on inferencing or understanding implied information in texts. This involves drawing conclusions based on evidence that is not directly stated in the text. We will also revisit our learning about author’s craft and how authors carefully choose the vocabulary they use to interest the reader. 

Writing
In writing, we will be taking our students back to basics by focusing on sentence structure, handwriting and using punctuation. Students will also be learning to create information reports and will present these reports to the class. They will be using their knowledge of how authors use words to create interest and suspense to create their own poems. 

Maths
During Term 3, students will be focusing on continuing their learning on addition and learning how this links with subtraction. Later in the term we will also move on to multiplication strategies. Students will use a variety of strategies to solve problems and discuss which are the most efficient strategies to use. 

We will also link our Geography unit with location and transformation, length and area as we begin to look at maps and directions. Students will be using our Bee Bots (robots) to create their own paths and follow directions using the correct language. 

Geography
This term our Inquiry will focus on Geography. The students will develop their knowledge of differing places in the world and their geological features. We will begin to understand how our human impact affects our environment.

Religion
During our Religion Inquiry this term, students are learning that everyone is invited to become members of the Church community that shares God’s love. They learn about local communities and important liturgical celebrations such as the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and the Feast of Mary Mackillop.