St Francis Xavier Primary School

Ben Doyle Principal

I M P O R T A N T D A T E S

Thurs 12th Swimming Carnival Yrs 4 - 6

Fri 13th

National Ride2School Day Yr 4 Reconciliation Liturgy @ 9am Assembly @ 2:20pm@11:30am

Mon 16th

Harmony Week Prayer Service @ 1.20pm

Tues 17th P & F Meeting @ 7pm

Dear Parents and Caregivers St Francis Xavier receives income from three sources. Federal and State funding are the two major sources of income, contributing almost 90% of the total school income. Government support enables school fees, the other source of income, to remain as affordable as possible to families of St Francis Xavier School. In addition to Government income, school fees also enable St Francis Xavier to offer a diverse range of learning experiences, programs and maintain facilities. Families would have recently received their fee statement for 2020. I wish to stress that any family who is experiencing financial difficulties should contact the office to discuss their options. As a school we strongly believe that fees should not be a detractor for families and students wanting a Catholic Education. This has been emphasised and supported by the work of the school board over the past four years. School booklists and uniform adjustments have reduced the associated costs to families attending St Francis Xavier. The sibling discount for children attending Nagle Catholic College was also another St Francis Xavier Board initiative aimed at supporting families. As too the decision by the School Board to cap or have minimal fee increases over the past four years. I reiterate, if any families are experiencing difficulties, please contact the office to discuss what support may be required. I thank you for your ongoing support of the school and look forward to our journey ahead.

God bless

From the Principal’s Desk…

10 March 2020 Volume 3

Murray Gardiner Assistant Principal R.E.

Page 2 Discipleship News

Ash Wednesday Mass On Wednesday 26th February the students from Pre-primary to year 6 attended Mass to celebrate Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Church’s season of Lent, a time of 40 days preparation for Easter.

During the Mass, students, staff and parents in attendance were marked with a cross of ashes on their foreheads. The ashes were made by burning the student’s Lenten promises they wrote down and presented on Shrove Tuesday. The cross of ashes is a sign of penance and reminds us that we are not perfect but are sorry for our sins.

During his Homily Fr Tam spoke about the need to renew ourselves during the season of Lent and prepare for Jesus rising at Easter. We do this through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

World Day of Prayer Last Friday the students and staff of St Francis joined with communities all around the world to celebrate World Day of Prayer.

World Day of Prayer is led by women around the world coming together to pray for peace and justice for all people. This year the host country was Zimbabwe, with the theme, “Rise! Take Your Mat and Walk.”

The theme is a call to action, not to wait for others to do things for us, but to go out and seek what we want to achieve. To go and act in love, peace and reconciliation, living the word of Jesus.

The people of Zimbabwe, especially women and those with disability, have lived through years of Government turmoil, which has resulted in great poverty and hardship. But now they are starting to stand up for themselves and working to improve their lives, by putting programs in place to be self-sufficient.

Congratulations to:

Skye McBride 3C

This week we are focussing on:

RESPECT

Learning News Page 3

Hand Washing It's hard not to feel anxious when you read the latest headlines on coronavirus. COVID-19 spreads from person to person via droplets of infected fluid. These are passed on via touch, direct hand to hand contact or from contaminated surfaces, or when someone standing close to an infected person breathes in droplets that have been coughed or sneezed into the air.

Experts say spending time focusing on hand hygiene can help you reduce your risk of picking up coronavirus, as well as any other number of infectious diseases. In its advice on protective measures for COVID-19, the World Health Organisation has handwashing at the top of the list. We are proactively promoting to both our staff and students:

• Frequent washing of hands with soap and water before and after eating, after toilet visits and after handling animals

• Frequent use of alcohol-based hand sanitiser throughout the day

• Coughing or sneezing into a tissue or into the crook of your arm, not your hand

• Avoiding hand to mouth contact

• Avoiding physical contact with others if you or they are unwell

Help us to keep our students healthy.

National Ride2School Day Join more than 350,000 students across the nation who will ride, walk, scoot and skate to school on Friday 13 March 2020. National Ride2School Day is the perfect opportunity to kick-start new healthy habits and promote the many benefits of active travel.

Ride2School is a nationwide program designed to support schools to encourage, empower and enable more students to get physically active on their journey to school.

We encourage all students and their families to leave the car at home and give riding, walking, scooting or skating to school a go. Let’s reverse the trends.

Judi Hollands Assistant Principal Curriculum

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new

dream. C.S.Lewis

Debbie Boxall Librarian

Check out our Library catalogue

https://bit.ly/39psA5V

Page 4 Library News

Talented Young Writer’s Workshop

Our Year 6 students got to meet author Dianne Wolfer last week as part of the Talented Young Writer’s Programme. Dianne lives on the south coast of Western Australia where she writes books for teenagers and younger readers.

When she isn’t at her desk, Dianne loves reading, travelling and walking on the beach. Dianne recently completed PhD research into Animal Characters in Children’s Literature. Her latest books include The Dog with Seven Names, In The Lamplight, The Shark Caller & Nanna’s Button Tin.

Helpers Needed We always appreciate parent help for covering, stamping and shelving books. If you are interested in assisting for an hour or two, please contact the library directly or leave your name and contact details at the front office.

Library News Page 5

Author and Illustrator Workshop Next Tuesday, 17th March, the year 4, 5 and 6 students are fortunate enough to be part of an all day literature workshop on how to create a book from the ground up.

Award winning author, Phil Kettle, who has written over 190 books including TOOCOOL, BILLY KOOL, BOYZ RULE and GIRLZ ROCK will guide the students through how to plan a story…getting ideas, story settings, character development and so on…

Award winning illustrator, Marc McBride has illustrated over 200 books including Emily Rodda’s best selling Deltora Quest series. Marc will draw and paint, getting ideas from the students, as he explains colour theory, light, shadows, shape, line and texture. The final painting will be proudly put on display at St Francis Xavier.

The students also have the opportunity to purchase a book which they can take at the end of the workshop. The cost of the book is $10, half of which goes back to the school. If your child/ren would like to purchase a book they need to bring $10 into admin by Monday, 16th March.

Page 6

P & F News

Introducing the Executive Committee for the P&F for

2020.

Liz Mc Bride, Mandy Jones and Julie Hogben

The Future of SFX P&F In 2020 the P&F will cease to exist in its current format and will move from being an unincorporated body, to now becoming incorporated, as part of St Francis Xavier Primary School. We will continue to work with our Principal, Ben Doyle, to help foster a community spirit, promote our school values and assist in ways in which benefits the Staff, Parents and Children of our School. We meet on the 3rd Tuesday of every month during the normal school year in the school library. Parents or guardians of a child attending or enrolled at St Francis are welcome to attend. We have our 1st meeting on Tuesday the 17th of March at 7pm, we hope to see some new faces there.

Class News

Page 7

Class 4P

Merit Awards Presented 6th March

PPA

Lauren Boyle Zaleigh Slater

PPD Alice Kuser Rocco Tomlinson

1J

Liam Marwood Rose Vollmer

1R Austin Lance Ivy Pethick

2C

William Royce Molly Whitehouse

2W

Lacey Lowe Kaden Jeffery

3C Isla Wyatt

Beejay Johnson-Kishere

3H Lachlan Boynton Dior Potiuch

4P

Saxon Browne Liliana Wass Coen Main

4V

Autumn Anderson Kaiden Thorne

5P

JoJo Baynes Shyla Morris

5S Zak Sellar Lacie Slater

6D

Alfie O’Neill Bridget Parker

6R Tali Weaver Aislinn Tarasek

School Fees School fee statements were emailed home in week 3. If for some reason you did not receive yours, please let the office know. Payment was due on the 4th March unless a payment plan has been made. Fees can be paid at the front office, BPay, Direct Debit or Centrepay If you have a Centrelink Concession card or Health Care card, you may be eligible for the Catholic Education Tuition Discounts. Please bring your card into the office to apply for this discount. In 2019 we introduced the Kindy to Year 12 sibling discount for any children with siblings at Nagle Catholic College. If eligible you will receive $100 family discount off your fees and a further $100 off your fees from Nagle Catholic College. To apply, please go to the link on our website at: https://www.sfx.wa.edu.au/enrolment.html Please remember that if you experience financial difficulties, to contact the office as financial support is available. Lenten Reflection at the Catholic Centre – Youth Room between 5 – 6 PM. Interactive and Multimedia based workshops which can help us in making this Lent a Fruitful one.

Parish News

Page 8 Finance News

Community News

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Page 9

Community News

Page 10