Emmaus Catholic Primary School

God, our Father,
You see your children growing up in an uncertain and confusing world.
Help us to preserve their integrity by showing them that your way
give more life than the ways of the world and
that following You is better than chasing after selfish goals.
May your ways be obvious to them in the manner in which we live our lives.
Amen.

THINGS, WE, AS PARENTS SHOULD BE TEACHING OUR CHILDREN

The Baker and the Farmer

Here’s a story about the Baker and the Farmer: A Baker in a little country town bought the butter he used from a nearby Farmer. One day he suspected that the bricks of butter were not full weight, and for several days he weighed them. He was right. They were short weight, and he had the Farmer charged.

At court the judge said to the Farmer, “I presume you have scales?”

“No, Your Honour.”

“Then how do you manage to weigh the butter you sell?” inquired the judge.

The Farmer replied, “That’s easily explained, Your Honour. I have balances and for a weight I use a one kilo bag of flour I buy from the Baker.” – Author Unknown.

Seems like a case of the kettle calling the pot black, but in reality it’s a case of integrity being compromised by both the Baker and the Farmer.

Integrity has been described in a number of ways: It is the compass within each of us; it points us in the direction we need to follow. It is to do the right thing, rather than the popular thing. It is to do with the right thing for the right reason, regardless of who is or isn’t watching. The Baker and the Farmer fell short when measured against the third description.

Unfortunately, our society can run low on integrity when people misuse their position of trust or generate words/actions, when sportspeople fall short on sportsmanship, when people in authority take bribes and allow criminal acts to occur or as people we add value to a story to create a different outcome. As usual, the mainstay of our society is the family and so the family must be the unit in which integrity is taught, nurtured and exemplified. A person by the name of Jackson Brown had this pertinent piece of advice to offer us parents when he said: “Live so that when your children think of fairness, care and integrity, they think of you.”

Anytime we are interacting with our children we are teaching them something. Even when we fail in some aspect of endeavour, we still teach our children through the manner in which we accept our failure and deal with it. No matter what we say, our children know what we mean. Perfect parents do not exist. Normal parents do get annoyed, frustrated and angry. It is better to express genuine feelings even when they are negative. Children do not expect perfect parents but they do expect parents to be honest about their feelings. Likewise, children don’t want us to pretend to know things we don’t; they do expect us to keep our commitments to them; they do expect us to keep a confidence they entrust to us.

Generally, we tend to punish those who confess to wrongdoing. Punishment is an area where parents have to tread carefully with, if we are not careful, we can teach/lead our children to lie and mislead us as they try to protect themselves from punishment; in doing this they can damage their own integrity. If we hold integrity to be more important than strict “law and order” then this will allow for less anxiety over rules and consequences and more room for spontaneous joy and love in our family.

On Tuesday 24 October we held our first Open Night and Performing Arts showcase. What a wonderful evening! I would like to thank the many parents and grandparents who attended the evening to see the wonderful work that had been completed by the children.

It was pleasing to hear many parents and grandparents’ feedback to me on how good the rooms looked along with admiration of some fantastic work.

Many thanks to our incredible staff who prepared their classes and to our wonderful students for their beautiful work.

While work was being displayed in the classrooms, we also had some very talented students performing in the hall either singing, dancing, or playing musical instruments. Many thanks to Mrs Freeman and Focus Music for organising our little Performing Arts Showcase. Thank you kids for your great entertainment.

We look forward to this event becoming a bigger community event in the years ahead.

The focus for our final wellness checkpoint of the year was nutrition. Families received a simple recipe booklet and were encouraged to make some healthy recipes as a family throughout the week. On Tuesday, our students were lucky enough to receive free apples and mandarins for Crunch’n’Sip. These were kindly donated by Benara Fresh and we are so grateful for their support in promoting a nutritious diet for the students in our school. The students enjoyed every last bite!

Ms Kate Cameron

Year 4/5 Teacher

The guns fell silent on the Western Front at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the year 1918 after over four years of warfare. The British and allied armies had driven German invaders back over the previous four months. In November the Germans called for a peace settlement (an armistice or suspension of fighting).

The moment when the guns fell silent and war ceased on the Western Front became associated with the remembrance of those who died in war.

This information was taken from the Australian War Memorial - Origins of Remembrance Day, visit https://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/remembrance-day/traditions for more detailed information.

War over the years has seen massive numbers of people fight for their countries and in turn, the number of people who have died, been injured both physically and mentally is horrendous.

Lest we forget.

This year, Remembrance Day falls on a Saturday so at Emmaus we will acknowledge the day with a service on Monday 13 November at 10:30 am.

With the approach of the end of year, our hard-working P&F are seeking feedback from Emmaus parents in regard to the 2023 P&F planned activities and events throughout the year and recommendations for improvement in the future. We would love to hear from all families so that plans for future P&F initiatives are responsive to community interests and needs. Please complete this short survey by Friday 10 November by clicking https://forms.office.com/r/B0cn5CQYaS

• Alter Server Training (after 9:30 am Mass) @ St Helena of the Holy Cross Parish
• Monday 6 November - Uniform Shop Sales @ Emmaus in the Multi Purpose Room from 8:15 - 9:00 am
• Thursday 9 November - Multicultural Dance & Drama Workshop in the Hall from 3:30 - 4:30 pm
• Monday 13 November - Remembrance Day Service 10:30 am
• Monday 13 November - St Vincent de Paul Christmas hamper appeal commences
• Thursday 16 November - Multicultural Dance & Drama Workshop in the Hall from 3:30 - 4:30 pm
• Friday 17 November - Assembly @ 9:00 am

Our next newsletter will be emailed on Friday 17 November.

God bless!

Sandro Coniglio

Principal