St Lawrence & Mary Immaculate Parish Balcatta:

Parish Priest: Fr Emil Ciecierega SDS Assistant Priest: Fr Adam Babinski SDS

By tradition, the Catholic Church dedicates each month of the year

to a certain devotion. In November, it is the Holy Souls, those

faithful Christians who have died and gone before us.

Praying for the dead, especially for those we have known, is a

requirement of Christian charity. Our own prayers and sacrifices

can be offered up to relieve their suffering.

Let us all pray:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God,

rest in peace.

Amen.

Dear Parents & Friends

I have great pleasure in sharing that Miss Kathleen Tranquille has been appointed as our new Assistant

Principal for 2020. Kathleen has been the Assistant Principal at Good Shepherd and St Kieran and thus

brings a wealth of experience and expertise. I look forward to seeing Kathleen at the helm of our

lovely school in 2020 along with Mrs Gabrielle Brennan and myself.

A reminder next week is Wellness Week. Please take this week to focus on your own and your

family’s general wellness. No homework is given and I request to keep meetings with staff to a

minimum as I encourage all staff to also focus on their own personal wellness. Spend time with your

families, visiting grandma or grandpa, making healthy meal choices, no screen or digital devices

during the evening. Go for bike rides, extend family walks, a swim…anything to keep you active and

with your families.

My other focus is that I strongly ask you all to complete the climate surveys that children and staff

have already completed. The following information provide the link and explanations required to

complete the surveys. The data gathered will be used to review our schools climate and culture and

help us plan for our future. I encourage you all to take the few minutes to complete the surveys.

St Lawrence Primary School 386 Albert Street Balcatta WA

Telephone: 9344 4944 Fax: 9344 5099 Email: admin@stlawbal.wa.edu.au

Home Page: www.stlawbal.wa.edu.au

Newsletter No. 35 6 November 2019

School Vision Statement The vision of St Lawrence Catholic Primary School, Balcatta

is to share the message of God’s love and friendship in a community of learners, developing the full potential of each child.

Copy of the survey is also an attachment to the newsletter.

God bless each and every one of you.

Sheldon Carey, M Ed, B Ed, Grad Dip

Principal

PASTORAL CARE Congratulations to the Martin family on the birth of their newborn Miles Elias

Martin, new baby brother to Sophia (Kindy).

Our prayers and thoughts are with the Raschella family on the sad passing of their

nonno to Chiara (Kindy).

H Here are 5 tips to help improve your family's wellness:

1. Cook with your kids

Instead of picking up dinner on the way home or popping something frozen into the microwave or oven,

consider gathering up the whole crew to help make dinner at least once per week.

2. Family night

Designate one night a week as "family night" and plan to do an activity together. One idea is to play a board

game as a family.

3. Hold regular family meetings

Children like to be part of the decision-making process. Weekly family meetings can allow even young children

to help plan meals, determine who will do what chores, what activities the family will engage in, and the

establishment of family rules and consequences.

4. Open those scrapbooks or photo albums

If you already have family albums, take time to review them. Bonding over shared memories and experiences

can be a great stress reliever and allows each member of the family to see how much they have grown over

the years.

5. Volunteer

Find opportunities in your neighborhood or city and volunteer as a family. Clean up a stretch of beach or

highway, help build a home, serve a meal at a homeless shelter, plant trees—there are no shortages of ways

you can help.

To respond to the PaCS at St Lawrence Primary School in 2019, Parents go to

www.NSIPartnerships.com.au and enter the code SLPS19P in the Start Questionnaire field.

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS

SWIMMING FORMS

Thank you to all families who have returned their swimming forms.

If you have not yet done so, please hand your completed enrolment

form and bus permission slip to your child's classroom teacher.

Mrs Armstrong has spare forms in the office should you need them.

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM DAY

All students will be participating in Outdoor Classroom Day on

Friday 15 November. We are very keen for donations of items

that may be used for construction such as boxes of all sizes

including packing boxes, fridge boxes, shoe boxes, cereal boxes

etc, egg cartons, paper towel rolls, yoghurt tubs.

Also items that may be used for tinkering such as old computer keyboards, clocks or other electronic

devices. Please leave donations in the designated space in our Learning Centre. All donations will be

gratefully appreciated and enjoyed by our students in their creative, outdoor pursuits.

Thank you.

WELLNESS WEEK

Week Five will be Wellness Week at St Lawrence. With the prevalence of mental health issues

affecting many of our young people, it is important to teach our children to take time out to relax and

enjoy leisure time particularly time away from screens. Go for a walk or a swim, visit a family member

or maybe have a meal out together with your loved ones.

The Year Twos will be leading our Assembly on Friday. This will be followed by a blessing

for our new learning spaces. Everyone is very welcome.

The Year Four and Year Five students will lead us in a Remembrance Service on Monday at

11am in the undercroft.

The Year Three students will have their class liturgy on Thursday 14 November at 8.50 in the

Year Three classroom. All families are warmly invited.

SOCIAL MEDIA Follow us on our social media pages:

www.facebook.com Twitter @ stlawbal

Mrs Jacki Tucker &

Mrs Gabrielle Brennan

Assistant Principals

MERIT AWARD WINNERS Pre Primary: Alessandro I, Talia F

Year One: Kayla B, Julian G, Valentina DT, Onjelle K, Carmelo A, Jordan T

Year Two: Isabel B, Marcus C, Alessio P

Year Three: Taylor M, Bailey S, Jacob J

Year Four: Joshua M, Dominic G

Year Five: Dean K, Stella F, Paul F

Year Six: Antonio F, Massimo S

PARISH CHILDREN’S LITURGY

Thank you to all who participated in the children’s mass on Sunday 27th October especially to Mrs

Jacki Tucker for playing and encouraging children to participate in the reading and the singing. I hear

the singing and reading was great! Please note the following dates: End of year party for the children

will be after the children’s mass on the 25th November (the final one) and the children’s Nativity Mass

on Christmas Eve at 6pm.

Thank you again for your constant support and allowing your children to liven up our Sunday

celebrations.

Mrs Toni Mattiaccio toni.mattiaccio@cewa.edu.au

CLASS NEWS

PRE KINDY

We completed our focus of ALL ABOUT FUN this week – and we have had lots of fun with all our

activities.

Tomorrow is Outdoor Education Day which will be celebrated by the whole school next Friday. The

Pre Kindy will be completing a very special outdoor project tomorrow. We will post photos on

Seesaw so you can share in what we did.

Next week we begin our final focus for the year – CHRISTMAS! During the final weeks of Pre

Kindy we will be talking about the magical time of Christmas. Our plan is to highlight the very special

time that this is celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus.

Mrs Kaylene Bozich, Pre Kindy Teacher

KINDERGARTEN

We are so proud of the children’s learning this year! It is great to see the

improvement in the children writing their names. Keep going and remember to use

a capital then all lower case letters.

Just a reminder that the children can access a website program called Reading Eggs

throughout the year. Username and password details were handed out at the start of

the year and I encourage all parents to take advantage of this great resource for

your children.

Last week we celebrated all things rainbow as we have been

learning about the weather. We made rainbow coloured fairy

bread, healthy rainbow fruit kebabs for morning tea, painted and

coloured in rainbows. We even turned our painted rainbow into a

wind.

This week we began our focus on ‘Under the Sea’. The children

are very excited in our upcoming excursion to Hillary’s Boat

Harbour. The information including the permission slip need to

be returned by this Friday please. This week we will be focussing

on the letter/sounds ‘Vv’ and ‘Kk’ and next week ‘Zz’ and ‘Yy’.

It is also important, now that the weather is warming, to

remember to apply sunscreen before arriving at school.

Mrs Rachel Wake, Kindergarten Teacher

PRE PRIMARY

Time is flying by. The children have been practicing for our Class Liturgy and have made me so

proud. Thank you for all your support, helping the children practice their reading parts. The Liturgy

was lovely and the children sang beautifully! It was wonderful to have so many parents and

grandparents attend and stay for our little morning tea. The children were so happy and excited to have

you all join us.

In Religion this week, we have looked at different communities in which we belong, including our

family, school, neighbourhood and Church community. We have discussed how we show love and

care for others by the way in which we lovingly behave in communities.

In Mathematics, we will be discussing how we can collect information, display this information and

answer simple questions about the data. Eg. Which is the most popular pet to have. In Literacy, we

have been reading the Rainbow Fish and learnt that it is important to share. We have had a lot of

discussions about what makes a good friend.

Our Cicerello’s excursion is fast approaching. I will send out permission slips next week.

Mrs Tania Preston, Pre Primary Teacher

YEAR ONE

We have been working on reading for meaning in our reading groups. Please check the children’s

homework books as I have sent home a copy of some questions to use with your child before, during

and after reading their home readers. Thank you for your continued support with morning reading.

There has been a change of date for the Year One Liturgy. It will now be held on Wednesday the 20th

November.

Mrs Gloria Edwards, Year One Teacher

YEAR TWO

The Year Twos are very excited about our Assembly on Friday. A reminder that children are to wear

their costume to school and may remain in their costume for the day. Please send in a change of

clothes should their costumes not be suitable to wear for the whole day and remember to pack a hat.

Thanks for your support.

We have been learning about division this week

during our Maths lessons and we have enjoyed

playing games where we share materials into

equal groups. I am really pleased with the

language that our classmates are using to talk

about their learning and to express what they

know about the four different operations of

addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

During our Art lessons, we have been making

secondary colours and the children have created

all kinds of interesting shades and hues through

their experimenting. Some of our artworks are on

display in and around our classroom.

We have a big week ahead with Wellness Week, our excursion to Scitech and Outdoor Classroom Day

in Week Five. Lots of terrific learning coming our way!

Mrs Jacki Tucker, Year Two Teacher

In class we have been learning about what can be recycled. It turns out you can only put hard, clean plastics in

the recycling. Please only put hard plastic in the recycling bin. Before you put used cans and bottles in the

recycling you need to wash them first. Remember: paper, cardboard, aluminium cans, glass and hard plastics

can only go in the recycling bin. We made a film about recycling, you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/0cEvuhMPYAY

Chiara, Theo and Madeline, Year 4

We have been learning about protecting our environment and our native animals. We found out fishing line is

killing dolphins. We want everyone to stop leaving their fishing line on the beach or in the river. When it gets

stuck on a rock, don’t just leave it there, cut it off and put it in the bin when you get home. We made a video to

share our message, you can watch it here: https://youtu.be/5FhXqRzsqeE

Joshua F, Josh M, Julian, Year 4

CLASS REPRESENTATIVE NEWS

YEAR ONE & YEAR THREE

Please join us for a joint catchup for Year 1 & Year 3 families.

Date: Sunday 8th December from 11am at Trigg beach play area - Clarko Reserve.

An email, and by messenger, has been sent out to advise each class.

Looking forward to seeing you all there. RSVP Sarah Sabatino 0401 679 403 with any queries.

YEAR FOUR DINNER

Please join us Mums for a final end of year dinner on November 15th at 7pm. Please rsvp to Leah

before the 10th November via the messenger chat or 0419960663.

Note: Venue has been changed. New venue to be confirmed.

UNIFORM SHOP NEWS

STUDENTS COMMENCING YEAR 1, 2020

Parents, please note that orders placed for your child's uniform are packed and ready for collection.

Full payment is required at this time. Uniform Shop accepts eftpos, cash or cheque.

STUDENTS COMMENCING PRE-PRIMARY, 2020 Students are required to wear a compulsory school uniform in Pre-Primary.

Please ensure that a Uniform order is placed ASAP. An email was sent to Kindy parents with all the

details.

The Pre Primary Uniform order will then be packed ready for payment and collection by the end of

November.

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Wednesday 8.30 am to 9.30am and Thursday 2.30pm to 3.30pm

Mrs Angie Miola, Uniform Shop Manager

P&F NEWS

Quiz Night – last minute ticket sales!

Invite family and friends and come along and have

some fun.

Food and drink for sale, and also lots of fantastic prizes

to be won.

Cash only; no card options available.

We look forward to seeing you all there on Friday.

Mrs Penny Godfrey, P&F President and Executive

CANTEEN NEWS

Thank you to my helpers last week Millie N and Claire C. Your help is much appreciated!

We still need helpers for 15, 21 & 22 November and Wednesday 4 December. If you are able to help,

please come and see me. Thank you.

Donations – Christmas Raffle

We are asking if anyone has any items they would like to donate to the canteen for

our Christmas Raffle. Please come and see me.

Next Wednesday 13th November is Sushi day.

Orders must be in by this Friday. Thank you.

Recess Specials

This Friday for recess we will have the following recess items for sale - stuffed spud $1, stir fry

noodles $1, choc chip muffins $1, Mac n cheese $1, ham and cheese wraps and brownies 50c.

Pre Primary students enjoying

visiting the canteen.

St Lawrence Canteen Staff