Emmaus Catholic Primary School

Dear Parents and Care Givers

A big welcome back to you all!

I hope you have all had a wonderful time with your children throughout the holidays. Visiting the classrooms and listening to the children’s holidays stories, it sounds like they had a great break.

This term promises to be a very busy one and no doubt we will be at the end of term before we know it. Within that time, we ask that you continue to support our school in whatever way possible.

On Wednesday 26 April, we held a special ANZAC Day service here at the school. It was encouraging to see a few parents and grandparents in attendance. Our Year 4 and 5 students led our service reverently. We also welcomed ex-servicemen, Mr Gildare and Mr Dickinson from the Bassendean RSL to address the students. We will also aim to have a focus area in the school for future ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day services.

The Hail Mary

Hail, Mary, full of grace,

the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

WHY IS MAY THE MONTH OF MARY?

The tradition of dedicating the month of May to Mary, came about in the 13th century. Some say it was created to replace various pagan cults. A key reason is the fact that this month is the time when the northern hemisphere spring is at the height of its beauty.

The link between Mary and the month of May became popular among the members of the Jesuit Order and from there it spread to the rest of the Church. The practice of honouring Mary during the month of May has been especially promoted by the Popes.

Devotion to Mary is an important part of the Catholic identity. As our mother, she is an example of a committed “Yes” to the will of God. Because of our devotion to her, many people ask her for help in the most difficult moments of their life as any child does with their mother.

On Friday 12 May, we will be celebrating our mums! This is one of the special days in the year, (possibly second to Father’s Day!), that we get to celebrate our wonderful mothers and grandmothers.

We will commence the day with a breakfast at 8:10 am and follow this with a special Liturgy starting at 9:00 am.

We look forward seeing as many of our mums at our celebrations on Friday 12 May.

As of week 4, Monday 15 May, all students in Year 1 – 5 should attend school in full winter uniform. If you were unable to take advantage of our uniform shop supplier, JFE being on site three times during week 2, you can visit them at: Unit 1/85 Guthrie Street, Osborne Park 6017. They can be contacted by phone on 9204 1701 or you can visit their website www.jfe.net.au and enter our school code: 9641 to order items online. JFE are open from 8:00 am - 4:00 pm Monday to Thursday and 8:00 am to 2:00 pm on Fridays.

The winter uniform consists of the following:

Boys

Formal

• Navy trouser (or shorts as per preference)
• School white button up shirt
• School navy socks
• School navy jumper or cardigan
• School tie (not available yet, if ordered will be sent to the school)

Girls

Formal

• Winter culotte skirt or navy trouser
• School white button up shirt
• School white socks (or navy if wearing trouser)
• School navy jumper or cardigan
• School tie (not available yet, if ordered will be sent to the school)

Sport (Boys & Girls)

As per summer uniform

• School Sport track jacket
• School Sport track pant (optional - students can wear skort or shorts)

The school tie is not available at the moment, you can place your order and they will be delivered to the school as soon as they are available. We will advise when they have arrived.

Any back orders placed on Friday 5 May will be delivered to the school on Monday.

Remember you can order items online and they can be delivered to the school.

Our combined Quiz Night with Holy Cross College, St Helena’s Catholic Primary School and St Helena of the Holy Cross Parish is just around the corner. On Friday 19 May, this family event (children welcome to attend) commences at 6:00 pm and concludes at approximately 8:30 pm.

I encourage all our parents to please come along and enjoy the evening. Please see further details in this newsletter on how to book tickets.

Lessons commenced on Thursday 4 May! It was great to see a number of children experiencing our external music program. It was also wonderful to see Mrs Freeman, our Music Teacher working in conjunction with the Focus Music staff – all to support our students!

Today is the first day of book borrowing from our library! Our students visited the library with their classmates to borrow a book of choice to take home and read.

Our sincere thanks to the many, many people who have put in so much work in getting our library ready:

• The parents and extended family members who have covered books both in the library and at home, you have spent many, many hours of your own time to benefit our students and we truly appreciate your assistance!
• To the small band of volunteers who have worked in libraries at other schools and so willingly answered our SOS, we absolutely treasure your expertise and hours you have spent on the admin side of setting up our library.
• To the lovely ladies at Scholastic, we appreciate the effort you put in last year in helping us!
• To Mrs Fanderlinden, our 3K & 4K Education Assistant who works in our Library on a Friday, we truly thank you for everything you have done to date in book covering, library admin, rearranging furniture etc!
• To Mrs Hackner, our amazing Assistant Principal who has worked so hard in coordinating our volunteers, she spent an amazing amount of time ordering books and furniture, covering books, moving items and cleaning - your work has not gone unnoticed - thank you!
• There is still work to do but what a team effort to get to this point!

Do you have a younger child who is due to commence school in 2024? Have you enrolled them yet? If you have not yet lodged an Application for Admission form, please do so without delay. We have commenced enrolment interviews for places for Pre-Kindy (3 year old), Kindy (4 year old) and all other year groups. To avoid disappointment in possibly missing out on a place, please contact our Administration Officer for an Application for Admission form and schedule an enrolment interview as soon as possible!

A reminder to parents of children in our Pre-Kindy class that current enrolment in 3K does not automatically transfer to 4K enrolment in 2024. Parents need to re-enrol for our Kindy (4 year old) program. Please speak to our Administration Officer if you wish for your child to continue their educational journey here at Emmaus CPS!

On Wednesday 3 May, Mrs Hackner and I attended the launch of CARERS COLLECTIVE at Holy Cross College. The Carers Collective is a supportive network group of parents and carers with lived experience of navigating life with children with additional needs and/or challenging and complex behaviours. This is a fantastic initiative for parents who need this support to come together in a safe and caring space. Please see the flyer attached to this newsletter if you would like to know more about Carers Collective.

The current Book Club catalogue was distributed to classes last week (week 1) and the last day for book orders for this catalogue will be Thursday 11 May.

The Parents & Friends (P&F) Committee are searching for individual class representatives. This is a role that can be carried out individually or with a partner. The role of class representative is to be a liaison between the P&F and the parents within your child’s class.

I encourage you all to please think about supporting our hard-working P&F executive, in this role. If you would like to be involved, please contact our Administration Officer.

We will be collecting used containers to help our school to save containers from waste, whilst at the same time helping to raise funds for our school through Containers for Change.

Containers for Change is a state-wide recycling scheme that enables charities and community groups who participate in the scheme to fundraise for their cause. We have chosen to do this in collaboration with Ability WA, who have provided our School with a Containers for Change Bin on the school grounds. We will be donating 25% of our profits back to Ability WA.

Look out for containers with the 10c mark. Every eligible container collected is worth 10 cents, which can really add up! Please save these containers and deposit in the allocated bin at school- we kindly ask for all lids be removed prior to placing in the bin.

Tell all your friends and family and get them on board with our Containers for Change Mission. Our member ID is: C11021771 which they can use at any depot, should they not choose to deposit their containers in the school bin.

Thanks very much for your help (and containers)!

Emmaus Catholic Primary School P&F

PandF.emmaus@gmail.com

• Tuesday 9 May - Year 2 & 3 Excursion to Brownes Dairy
• Tuesday 9 May – Community Health Nurse Screening for 4K
• Friday 12 May – Mother’s Day Breakfast (8:10 am) & Liturgy (9:00 am)
• Sunday 14 May – Mother’s Day!
• Monday 15 May – Commence wearing winter uniform.
• Tuesday 16 May – P&F Committee meeting 6:00 pm
• Thursday 18 May – Ascension Day Liturgy (Year 4/5)
• Friday 19 May – Quiz Night at Holy Cross College

Have a great week ahead.

God bless!

Sandro Coniglio

Principal