At the Transfiguration, Father, You showed

Jesus in glory, a glimpse of what His disciples

would see in His risen life.

Bless us in our humanity,

with an awareness of Your presence,

leading us to share in Your divine life

even in our daily struggle.

Help us to deepen

our knowledge of the Law and the Prophets,

channels of Your grace throughout history,

and signposts for our journey.
 

Amen.

Dear Friends,

This week we celebrate two important feast days as follows:

(1) Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, our Parish Feast Day. The North Woden Parish of the Transfiguration was established in 1994. It was created from the amalgamation of the two former parishes of Holy Trinity,Curtin and Ss Peter and Paul, Garran. Today at school we have celebrated with a prayer liturgy, (at three different times, to spread out our numbers in the hall). Today also marks the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima tragedy. 

(2) This Saturday, 8 August is the Feast of Australia’s own, St Mary of the Cross MacKillop.  Mass will be celebrated at 9.30am at Holy Trinity Church to commemorate this feast of national significance.

Our Annual Improvement Plan 2020

This year we continue to focus on three key areas as discussed at our information night earlier in the year:

• Improve student outcomes through the effective evidencing of learning
• Empower students to be actively engaged in learning
• Increase student agency to foster life-long learners

Currently, our staff professional learning community (PLC) are looking at the differing ways we can effectively evidence learning and how this data is used to further develop student's individual needs. By the end of this week, you should receive your child/ren's learning goal/s for the term, where they have identified a specific area needing growth and development. You will find these goals on Seesaw. 

Annual Satisfaction Survey

We come to that time of the year again, where an annual satisfaction survey of parents, students and staff will be conducted on behalf of all Catholic schools in the Diocese. The surveys are designed to gather feedback from parents, staff and students about our school and will be used to inform school improvement. Responses are confidential and individuals can not be identified. 

The surveys will be launched via email on Friday 7 August 2020 (tomorrow)using the email addresses supplied to the school. Please inform the school next week if you do not receive this link and we can then update your email details and organise a link to the survey for you.

As part of our annual Improvement Plan mentioned above, we actually use some questions in the survey as markers to see if we are achieving goals.  Thus, the survey is very important data for us to see how we are tracking with our strategic planning and where we need to further develop in specific areas of the school with future planning. 

THANK YOU

A big thank you to the O'Connell family, especially Kate (5/6), Mark Bauer and Michael Kane who have spent considerable amount of time revamping our basketball boards.  This group spent a few hours last weekend installing these, after the O'Connells spent time building and painting the new boards. Thank you all so much- I know our students really appreciate this effort. 

COVID Update

We will continue with the current restrictions at school that has been implemented at the beginning of this term.  Once gain I thank you for your cooperation and understanding around this. It is so wonderful to continue to have all our students here at school safely, however I am now beginning to really miss our whole community, watching parents chatting outside the Kindergarten classrooms, or seeing their faces beaming at their child's assembly.  What I do know though is that we are still incredibly lucky to be living in the ACT and so my focus continues to be about gratitude and appreciation, a positive choice I have made.  This is summed up beautifully in a book I have just finished reading with this quote:

"I wake up every day grateful for everything I have in my life.  I get to wake up every day and do a job I love. I get to be challenged to push myself in many ways on many levels, and I am always learning, always moving forward. There is no point in dwelling on what might or could have been.  The past has happened and cannot be changed; it can only be accepted.  Life is much simpler and much happier when you always look at what you can do, not what you can't.  (Jo Boaler) 

With every best wish for a holy and peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families,

Philippa

Feast of Transfiguration

Today we celebrated our Parish Feast Day; The Feast of the Transfiguration of The Lord.

26 years ago, the Parishes of Holy Trinity Curtin, and Saints Peter and Paul Garran amalgamated to create the Transfiguration Parish, North Woden.

Although we were not able to gather with Saints Peter and Paul or as a whole school, we still gathered in small groups to participate in a Prayer Celebration lead by our Year 6 Christian Outreach Leadership Team. Today we acknowledged the unity of our parish, its strong faith, generous acts of service and dedication to being followers of Jesus, just as those present at the original Transfiguration were. 

To continue to build our relationship with Saint Peter and Paul, each class has created an artwork to exchange with thier buddy class at Garran and participated in a MS Teams call!

Global School Partners

Last Friday we started our fundraising for Evelan Heikma, our partner school in Kenya.

Thank you for your enthusiam and contribution, as a school we raised over $2300! Which is amazing. Congratualtions to 5/6G who created the biggest heart and 1W who raised the most money. Both classes will enjoy a uniform free day!

Sacrament of Confirmation

Many of our Year 6 students and their families have begun the journey towards Confirmation. We all join in praying for them as they prepare for the Sacrament to be held at the end of this term.

Youth Group

Last Sunday was the first Transfiguration Parish Youth Group. Our Parish Youth Ministers Grace and Maddie did a wonderful job sharing faith, fun, and food with the Year 5 and 6 students from our parish. The Youth Group will meet on the first Sunday of every month in the Parish Center at Holy Trinity.

Mass Has Returned, and Children’s Liturgy is on this Weekend!

Due to the recent easing of restrictions, Fr John is now celebrating Masses once again. All Mass times will remain the same, but due to social distancing measures, all Masses will be celebrated at Holy Trinity, Curtin for the time being. There is a limit of 100 people that can attend each Mass, and the Parish will accept booking online (Trybooking.com, search Transfiguration Parish), or click here or via a phone call to the office. This Sunday at the 9:30 am Mass there will also be children’s liturgy in the parish centre. All children are welcome to attend

Maintaining strong family traditions

Strong families develop their own traditions and rituals that define them and bind members together. Birthdays, Christmas, Diwali, bar mitzvahs, and Ramadan are some traditions and rituals that families enjoy. They are the coat hooks upon which we hang our family memories. By definition, they are permanent and not set aside when life gets busy.

Rituals can be as simple as a parent saying to a child ‘I love you’ each day as they go to school,  a weekly game of cricket or another sport, or the bedtime-story routine that so many children love. The permanence and uniqueness of rituals give them their significance.

My own family, for example, has developed a very strong food culture that is shown through the traditions and rituals that we maintain. A meal takes time and effort to prepare and there’s an expectation that everyone contributes in some way. When the children were young the contribution was in preparation, table-setting or post meal clean up. The tradition of contribution continues as a new generation of children visit and do their bit to assist. Like most traditions this mealtime ritual was nurtured as a result of past parental experiences and gradually became refined over time to reflect our own family’s unique identity.

Develop traditions early

Family traditions are best developed when children are pre-school or primary school aged. Parent approval is important so kids will generally comply when enjoyable family traditions engender a relaxed, calm atmosphere. Adolescents are likely to challenge many of their family’s traditions and rituals, which is often difficult for parents to encounter. It helps to establish the traditions that are negotiable and those that are non-negotiable so you can approach adolescent challenges with some flexibility.

Defend them fiercely

When a child tells you that ‘everyone at school is allowed to do….” you can reply by saying, “In our we family we do it this way.” Leaning against family tradition in this way gives you a strength to resist children’s pester power. Family traditions and rituals need to be fiercely defended by parents.

Make family meals non-negotiable

This writer recommends that shared mealtimes should be non-negotiable in families. It’s no coincidence that countries with strong food cultures are also known for their strong family cultures. Shared mealtimes build connection, are great tools for developing children’s manners and respectful actions. They’ve also been linked to the maintenance of good mental health in children and young people, presumably due to the opportunity it provides parents to stay in touch with their children.

Healthy families are built around traditions and rituals. It’s useful to approach the concept of family traditions with a mix of firmness to insist that children adhere to family rituals but also flexibility to accommodate growing independence as children move into the next stage of development.

(Source: Parentingideas.com.au)

The Fete Committee has reviewed our safety obligations under current COVID19 restrictions and determined that we are unlikely to be able to hold a traditional school fete in March next year.

However, in place of this event, we are excited to announce that we will host a special 'kids-only' fete day at school on Friday 11th December. We will attempt to replicate all the fun of our normal fete with games, food and rides but limit attendance to HT students. This will also be a lovely opportunity to spend time with our departing Yr6 students before the end of the school year.

We will keep you updated as our plans develop and we will announce the 'kids-only' fete day to the students at a short school assembly on Friday 7th August.

Hats, Hats, Hats

Our SunSmart policy states that all children and staff are required to wear hats when outside from August to April each year. Please ensure your child has their clearly labelled hat with them each day. From tomorrow students' who do not have their hat will need to play under the shade cloth. 

FAMILY PHOTOS 

Due to Covid Restrictions, family photos will be taken in three different times during the main photo day on Tuesday 11th August. Only families who have prepaid for photos will be photographed. Please note AdvanceLife payment system for family photos closes at midnight on 10th August. 

If your children are having a family photo they will be asked to all gather on the steps of morning assembly area as they arrive at school on Tuesday. A teacher will direct them into the hall as required. 

Session 1: 8.40-9.10am 

Session 2: 11.10-11.40

Session 3: 1.40-2.10pm 

As per our current SAFE COVID procedures, parents are not permitted to be in the school.

TERM 3, WEEK 4 - WED 12 AUG

Team Leader: Geoff Wynn, Ben Bryant, Georgina Papoutsi, Nicole Maple, Beth Hinds

Reminder:  Could team leaders please ensure the ELC is vacuumed, as well as the main building and annexe.   Just the carpeted areas, as the bathrooms are done by the cleaners.