Emmaus Catholic Primary School

Holy Father, God of Love,
You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history
and the sufferings of Our peoples,
and we ask your forgiveness.

We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures.

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son, Jesus
to reconcile the world to you.

We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept, and love one another,
as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better
future for our Nation.

Teach us to respect all cultures.
Teach us to care for our land and waters.
Help us to share justly the resources of this land.
Help us to bring about spiritual and social change,
to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.
Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families,
our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK

Next week we celebrate National Sorry Day beginning on Sunday. We gather to acknowledge the past policies and practices which caused hurt, dispossession and loss of identity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We acknowledge that there needs to be healing between non-Aboriginal people and Aboriginal people. Pope John Paul II in 1986 reminded Australians that “for thousands of years this culture of yours was free to grow without interference by people from other places. You lived your lives in spiritual closeness to the land, with its animals, birds, fishes, waterholes, rivers, hills and mountains. Through your closeness to the land, you touched the sacredness of man’s relationship with God, for the land was the proof of a power in life greater than yourselves.”

The first National Sorry Day was held on 26th May 1998, one year after the Bringing Them Home report was presented to parliament. The Bringing Them Home report was the result of an inquiry into the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and recommended an apology and reparations to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This National Sorry Day, let us all reflect on the need for genuine reconciliation – not just in word, but in deed and in action. Genuine reconciliation requires acknowledgement of the harm done by those enacting past policies, and those who did not act out against these policies, so that healing can reach the whole community.

Today, and every day moving forward, we are invited to take action to make reconciliation a priority to heal relationships and build a future of compassion and respect with Aboriginal people. As we gather, we acknowledge the land on which we meet, recognise, and respect the ongoing relationship and spiritual connection in which this land has always been held and pay our respects to the Traditional Custodians of this land.

COMBINED SCHOOL ADVISORY COUNCIL DINNER

On Tuesday evening, this week, the School Advisory Councils for Holy Cross College, St Helena’s Primary School and Emmaus Catholic Primary School came together for a network dinner.

The dinner this year was held here at Emmaus CPS. These dinners are an annual event for the three schools and are part of the connectedness and close working relationship between our three parish schools. These evenings also give our SAC members a great opportunity to meet each other and begin, (as previously mentioned), a form of networking together. Fr. Bona is also always in attendance at these evenings, and we also had the opportunity to say farewell to Fr. Filipé, who now has joined the St Brigid’s Parish in Midland and is now also the Chaplin for St John of God Hospital in Midland.

CONFIRMATION

Last Sunday the Parish celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation. This was held on Sunday 20 May.

As a school, we would like to congratulate Enzo Sansone in Year 6 who received the Sacrament of Confirmation on Sunday. It was beautiful to see Enzo choose his bisabuela, (great grandmother), as his sponsor. Bisabuela is in Perth for a short time visiting the family from overseas.

UNWELL STUDENTS

As we begin to come into the cold months, I would like to ask and remind all parents and caregivers to keep in mind that if you have an unwell child, please do not send them to school.

Obviously, if your child is unwell at school, we will contact you to come and get them, as is our normal process.

Sending an unwell child to school in turn has an impact on the other students as well as the staff and of course the families at Emmaus CPS. I think that this is one good learning point from COVID. You may recall that during COVID flu numbers were virtually non-existent.

Your consideration and understanding around this matter is very much appreciated.

Regards,

Sandro Coniglio

Last week we held our inaugural Cross Country Carnival and what a morning it was! In the lead up to our carnival, students learnt about how to stay mentally strong and have positive mindset when your body is doing something hard. The level of determination and courage that every student displayed was outstanding. It is always a day that makes everyone watching proud, to see how the students take a challenging day and each have individual success with different goals. From our smallest runners in Pre Primary, to our biggest runners in Year 6, it was a fantastic morning full of encouragement and cheering. Well done to everyone that ran and congratulations to Koort (Red) who will be the first winning faction engraved on our Cross Country Shield.

Congratulations to our champions and runners-up from our senior classes:

Year 3 Champion Girl: Chloe Jacques

Year 3 Champion Boy: Charlie Thompson

Year 3 Runner-up Girl: Ruby Jacques

Year 3 Runner-up Boy: Adom Okyere

Year 4 Champion Girl: Violet Grundy

Year 4 Champion Boy: Setto John

Year 4 Runner-up Girl: Poppy Saulsman

Year 4 Runner-up Boy: Lucas Sansone

Year 5 Champion Girl: Angelina Filic

Year 5 Champion Boy: Donny McConnell

Year 5 Runner-up Girl: Nevaeh Pietersen

Year 5 Runner-up Boy: Rylann Oliver

Year 6 Champion Girl: Ivory Oliver

Year 6 Champion Boy: Enzo Sansone

Year 6 Runner-up Girl: Jasleen Kaur

Year 6 Runner-up Boy: Gabriel Green

An extra round of applause to Mrs Bol for organizing the event. Good luck to all runners representing Emmaus CPS in the interschool Cross Country today!

At last Friday’s assembly, a guest visitor, Mr Jim DiCarlo, was invited to inform the students about the wonderful work that ‘Wheelchairs for Kids’ does for children around the world. Wheelchairs for Kids is a volunteer-based organisation that designs, builds and delivers wheelchairs to children living with disabilities that affect their mobility.

Emmaus Catholic Primary School is committing to supporting Wheelchairs for kids. All gold coin donations for our upcoming PYJAMA DAY in Week 9 will be given generously to this organisation.

The Year 4 class were invited to join in the ‘La Sallian Experience’ on Tuesday. Students had a super- fun day engaging in activities typical of the high school setting. Of particular interest was the Science experience and Cooking session. Thank you to La Salle College for welcoming our Year 4 students.

It was National Simultaneous Storytime on Wednesday and student from across the school listened to the picture book ‘Bowerbird Blues’ by Aura Parker. There were many creative in-class activities undertaken to complement the book experience, including nest-making and bird-making origami tasks. Two copies of the book are available for borrowing from the school library.

Thank you to all parents who registered for the URStrong Language of Friendship Workshop and attended this online with their children. It is great to see such support of the students from families, in building and maintaining strong and healthy friendships.

You’ll agree that Dana presented many useful tips, language and tools for helping your child deal with friendship challenges. Parents who missed the live session, a recording will be available soon (with Punjabi subtitles too). If you would like to learn more about these important elements, be sure to view the recording:

• Friend-o-metre

• Friendship Fires vs Mean on Purpose
• Friendship Facts
• Bullying (and what it isn’t)
• Friend-o-cycle
• Talking it out
• The Art of Apologising
• Quick Comebacks
• Circles and Horseshoes

The Friendology Curriculum is used by teachers across Year 1 – 6 to teach the tools and language explicitly to students. The impact on students confidence and competence in working through relationship issues is greater when our parents are onboard as well. Ask your child about the URStrong tools they’ve learnt about in class!

The Year 1 to 6 students have been working hard on becoming Friendship Ninjas this year, remembering the Four Friendship Facts, recognising the difference between Friendship Fires and Mean-On-Purpose behaviours, and using the Talk-It-Out strategy when they experience a friendship fire.

On Thursday 23rd May, we celebrated Friendship Ninja Day with ninja outfits, decorating of ninja headbands, and a martial arts incursion for the Pre-Primary to Year 6 classes.

This term and next term our early childhood classes will begin the Kimochis program as part of their Health & Wellbeing learning. ‘Kimochi’ means ‘feeling’ in Japanese. This program aligns with the Western Australian Curriculum and aims to equip students with the skills to recognise and manage emotions, set positive goals, demonstrate caring for others, establish positive relationships, make responsible decisions and handle interpersonal situations effectively.

The Pre-Primary students would like to introduce Lovey Dove. Lovey Dove is the Kimochis character who helps students develop generosity, thoughtfulness, pride, gratitude and hopefulness. She is an excellent teacher of responsibility, respectfulness, resilience, compassion and kindness.

You might like to ask your Kindy or Pre-Primary child about Lovey Dove, the emotions she comes with and even the little friend she keeps under her wing! Check out the Home Links for some ideas of ways you can use Lovey Dove’s feelings at home.

Charlotte Jade has been warmly welcomed into the arms of Mrs and Mr Turner. While Mrs Turner hardly had a ‘bump’ little Charlotte fills the arms (and hearts) of the Turner family. Take a look at the cutie that she is! Congratulations to Katherine, Mark and Margot Turner.

Interviews for 2025 places are commencing next week! If you have a younger child to enrol for 3K or 4K in 2025, lodge an Application for Admission form without delay! Places are limited and applications and enquiries are being received daily - do not miss out!

The on-site uniform shop will be open again on Thursday, 6 June from 2:30 - 3:30 pm. Please head to the Library to make any purchases.

Kindly we remind parents to please label ALL uniform items with your child's name. Lost jumpers and hats are on the rise and we often cannot return clothing items to the owner without their name on it.

Be sure to have your child signed up for the 2024 Premier's Reading Challenge. Students are encouraged to read at least 12 books over four months which can include comics, short stories, novels, magazines, lyrics, etc. Not only will those who complete the challenge receive a certificate from the Premier, but they are also eligible to win over 110 assorted prizes. Register via the website: https://www.premiersreadingchallenge.wa.edu.au/

A reminder to all parents that if you have not yet signed up to, or activated your SEQTA Engage account, you will not be able to access your child's mid year report (email was sent some weeks ago to new families and non-activated families). Should you be experiencing difficulty, our network and IT Manager, Steve Duncan, is available to assist on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.

Please see the flyer attached for the current P&F news.

The next P&F Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 4 June at 6pm (staff room). All parents are welcome!

Our Pyjama day is scheduled for Week 9. Please note change of date for Kindy to Year 6 to Tuesday 11th June. 3K (Pre-Kindy) PJ day remains on Thursday 13th June. All proceeds to 'Wheelchairs For Kids.'

Our Containers For Change bins have recently been emptied and the monies derived will be added to purchasing classroom games. Should you have plastic, glass, waxed board or aluminium containers that are collected for this scheme, please bring them into our green bins at the front of the hall.

• Mon 27- Fri 31 May - National Reconciliation Week
• Thurs 30 May - Sacred Saints Indigenous Carnival (selected Yr 4 students and Year 5/6 students)
• Fri 31 May - Staff PD (Pupil Free Day)
• Mon 3 June - WA Day Public Holiday
• Tues 4 June - P&F Meeting (staff room) at 6pm
• Thurs 6 June - Reconciliation Retreat (Year 3) at Emmaus CPS
• Thurs 6 June - Uniform Shop Open 2:30 - 3:30pm
• Thurs 6 June - Reconciliation Rehearsal 4pm or 6pm at Holy Cross Parish (Year 3)

*Please see below the most up-to-date version of our Term 2 Calendar for reference.

Our next newsletter will be distributed on Friday 7 June.

God bless.

Sandro Coniglio

Principal