Newsletter-Term 2-Week 10-Thursday, 29th June 2023

Principal's News...

Dear Parents,

As we come to the end of another eventful term, I am very appreciative of the continued professionalism of our school staff and support of our school families. Your engagement in our school activities creates an atmosphere that really fosters a sense of belonging in our children and encourages them to participate more actively in the life of the school. We were blessed with awesome weather for our Athletics Carnival but the day was even more special for the presence and encouragement of so many parents and grandparents. Similarly, our Public Speaking Competition last week was well supported by our parents and grandparents alike.

This term we welcomed a number of new families to our school - I hope you have all settled in well and feel at home in your new school. For the first time in the recent history of our school, we have filled our Kindergarten quota for the following year well before the end of Term 2. This is testament to the reputation of our school in the community.

As always, NAIDOC Week falls on the school holidays. Whilst some schools celebrate before the holidays, we will hold our celebrations in Week 1 next term.

Please remember that our next Parent Forum meeting will be held on Tuesday evening August 1st at 5:30pm in our school library. We will be electing a new Forum President and Secretary and discussing our school's uniform policy and student behaviour policy. We would love to see as many parents as possible at this meeting.

In conclusion this week, I would like to congratulate our Athletics champions and wish them all the very best as they move onto the Zone Competition and beyond.

May you all have a safe and relaxing holiday.

Peace in Christ.

Dan Gubby.

School Calendar-Term 3

Term 3

Pupil Free Day Term 3

Monday, 17th July 2023

Assistant Principal Mission News...

The Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time

This coming weekend's reading is from Matthew 10:37-42 - Jesus outlines the costs and rewards of discipleship.

This Gospel highlights the importance of hospitality. To welcome another in Jesus’ name is to extend hospitality to Jesus himself. In this weekend’s Gospel “Jesus explains the difficulties of discipleship, yet reveals that those who welcome the disciples have also welcomed him”.

A family spirit of hospitality is a sign of faith. When your family gathers together, consider the following… What does it mean to be a good host? What does it mean to be a good guest?

Share your thoughts and ideas about what it means to be a good host or guest with each other. 

Source: https://www.loyolapress.com 

Sacrament of Holy Communion

The Sacrament of Holy Communion will take place on Sunday, 20th August at 11:00am in the Church. This Mass will be followed by morning tea under the tree outside the Church. 

The first family session will take place on Tuesday, 25th July at 5:30pm with the second family session taking place on Tuesday, 8th August at 5:30pm. 

The Sacramental students will participate in a reflection day on Friday, 18th August at Holy Family Catholic Primary School. A Compass Event will be sent to the families of the Sacramental students early Term 3. 

This Sacrament is for students in Year 4 and above who recently completed their Sacrament of Reconciliation. 

If you would like any more information regarding the Sacramental program, please contact Kasey (kasey.miles@lism.catholic.edu.au) or the Parish Office. 

St Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal

We will launch our St Vincent DePaul Winter Appeal early next term. The SRC and Mini Vinnies have been working together in raising awareness and preparing events for our school community to participate in. 

The theme of this year's appeal is older women experiencing homelessness. 

So, what are we as a school going to do? 

• Pyjama Day - will be held on Friday, 28th July. A gold coin donation to wear your PJs to school. Please wear sensible clothing with covered in shoes and a school hat. 
• Donations of warm blankets and warm clothes can be made to the office or the classrooms ready for collection. 

Lost Property

At present, there is a lot of lost property!! Jumpers, hats, glasses cases, lunchboxes…the list goes on. Unfortunately, not a lot of the items have names on them. Over the holidays, could you please ensure names are on all items, especially hats and jumpers and encourage your children to check out lost property to collect any items they may own. 

Light of Jesus Awards

Congratulations to the students who were awarded a Light of Jesus ticket at Assembly this week. We will publish their names in the newsletter - Week 2 Term 3 

Kasey Miles
Assistant Principal Mission

Parish News...

St Francis Xavier Catholic Parish of Ballina

• St Francis Xavier Church-47 Cherry Street, Ballina
• Holy Family Church-94 Ballina Street, Lennox Head 

Parish Mass Times

Learning & Teaching News...

Dear Parents and Families,

What a fantastic term of learning at St Francis Xavier Primary School! 

Our Year 1 students completed a playground design task in which they became engineers to design and produce a park for 4-8 year olds or 9-12- year olds. They used their knowledge of materials and forces, and surveyed children in these age groups to inform their design. Well done mini engineers!

PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION 2023

A big congratulations to all students who participated in the class heats for public speaking. The following five students from each year level competed in the finals in the Hall last Friday 23rd June 2023:

The audience of parents, grandparents, teachers and students were entertained and informed by our finalists in a range of engaging topics. We were laughing, crying and learning from these outstanding speakers. The judges had difficult decisions to make when awarding two winners from each Stage. A big thanks to Ms Miles and Mrs Loadsman for their devotion to this skill. The following students will be going on to the next level of competition in the Coastal Zone Public Speaking Competition Finals on the 10th August 2023 at St Joseph’s in Tweed Heads:

Sports News...

St Francis Xavier Athletics Carnival

On Friday, 16th June, St Francis Xavier held their annual Athletics Carnival at Chickiba Park, East Ballina. We were blessed with fine weather over the duration of the day and conditions were perfect for a fun-filled day. 

The venue was a fantastic location to hold our Carnival with a full length 400m Championship Athletics Track to utilise. Thank you to Ballina Shire Council for preparing the ground prior to our event. The amount of space proved to be invaluable with over 350 students and 14 different activities the students had the opportunity to participate in.

The school spirit on display throughout the day was amazing. The coloured sports house outfits were fantastic and it was great to see so many students having a go at the various events and activities.

A big thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to assist with Timekeeping. Your assistance was greatly appreciated. It was wonderful to see so many parents and grandparents help celebrate this annual school community event. Congratulations to Power who have defended their title as Athletics Carnival House Champions.

The final House Points were as follows:

• 1st Power-956
• 2nd Cole-885
• 3rd Doyle-820
• 4th Murphy-812

Congratulations to the following students who were awarded Age Champions and Runner-Ups:

The Richmond Zone Athletics Carnival will be held at St John's College Woodlawn next Term on Thursday, 27th July. Students who placed in the following disciplines will progress to this next level on the Catholic schools representative pathway. A Compass Event will be sent home in the coming weeks. 

Best Dressed SFX Athletics Carnival

It was amazing to see all of the students embrace their house spirit and put in an amazing effort with their costumes on the day. The teachers certainly had a tough time choosing winners from each class. Well done boys and girls!!

NSW CPS Cross Country

On Tuesday, 13th June, St Francis Xavier had three students, Braxton Whitton, Luke Dogan and Alexandra Dogan, travel down to Horsley Park in Sydney for the NSW Catholic Primary School Cross Country Championships. The top six placegetters progressed to NSW PSSA Cross Country Championships on 21st July at Eastern Creek.

Lismore Diocese had a number of students perform well on the day with many of the Age Division Teams finishing in the top three.

Congratulations to Luke Dogan, finishing second in the 10 years boys and Alexandra Dogan finishing second in the 12 years girls. This was a massive effort considering both of them were unwell on the day. We wish both of them the best of luck at Eastern Creek next month.

Braxton Whitton ran well and finished 34th in an extremely talented field of runners from Catholic Schools across the State. To reach this level of competition is a fantastic achievement. Well done Braxton.

After School Auskick Program

Next Term QLD AFL will be offering an after school Auskick Program for students from Kinder to Year 4 on the St Francis Xavier Ballina school grounds.

The Program will start in Week 5 on Monday, 14th August and run for six weeks. Sessions run for an hour from 3:15pm - 4:15pm. The cost is $80.00 and includes a Gold Coast Suns backpack, AFL ball and much more. Either Click on the link to register or go online to play.afl/auskick to the registration page https://www.playhq.com/afl/register/093371

Paddy Wilde 

Sports Coordinator

Year 5 News...

Year 5 Questacon Competition Winner

Last term, Year Five visited Ballina Library for a Questacon Exhibition. The students were able to enter a competition once all of the problem-solving stations were complete. Congratulations to Domenic who won the competition and received an exciting prize, Grantitrax, which will allow him to experience the power of gravity with an interactive track system!

Year 1 News...

Year 1 Writing

Year 1 has been learning about narrative structure and characterisation in a range of texts. We read The Gruffalo and students individually responded to the story. They were asked to draw their Gruffalo and label it. Then students wrote a simple or compound sentence using noun groups and adverbs to make their writing come to life! 

We are so proud of the writing and illustrations they produced! 

Canteen News...

We Need Volunteers for our School Canteen

Tammy & Kaylene are looking for volunteers for the canteen. If you are able to spare a couple of hours, between 9am and 11:30am, once a month please contact the school office on 66863370 or contact Tammy or Kaylene in the canteen and let them know what day suits you.  

Sushi Specials Term 3

$3.90 each Chicken, Tuna, Avocado or Vegetarian-Sauce 20c each.

Week 3	Tuesday, 1st August
Week 5	Tuesday, 15th August
Week 7	Tuesday, 29th August
Week 9	Tuesday, 12th September

Student Awards...

Congratulations to all of our students who received an award this week.

Japanese Class Awards

                                     Welcome Awards

We welcome the following students and their families to our school community.

STAR Reading Awards

MiniLit Awards

Happy Birthday...

Wishing all our students a wonderful birthday!!

Friday, 30th June  to Thursday, 27th July

Parent Information...

School Fees

Please note that Term 2 School Fees are overdue and payable now. If you have a current payment arrangement with the school office for the 2023 school year, please continue with your payments for that payment arrangement. 

Compass Events-School Excursions/Events

The Compass Event Module is where you receive all the information about an excursion or an event. It will also be where you are required to give consent and make payment. 

The Event Module has replaced the hard copy note that would normally be sent home.  If you receive an event notification or email, this means your child/ren are required to participate in the event. Please do not disregard the notification or email. If you have any questions about an event, please contact the class teacher or the school office.

Parents are required to action the Excursion Event in Compass prior to the due date that is stated in the event, unfortunately if you miss the due date your child/ren may miss out on attending. Event notifications will come via email and Compass notification on your Compass App. 

Student Messages

If you need to contact the school to give your child/children a message regarding a change to arrangements for after school transport, please ensure you phone the school office prior to 1:45pm to ensure the message can be delivered in time. Unless it is an absolute emergency, we are unable to ensure messages can be delivered at such short notice and PLEASE NO EMAILS to notify your child/children of any changes, as we cannot guarantee that the message will be delivered in time to your child.

All after school care arrangements should be relayed to your child/children prior to arriving at school and in the case of infant’s children, the teacher should also be notified of any change to arrangements, particularly in relation to bus travel, by a written note/email.

As you can appreciate the school is a very busy place at home time, so your assistance and consideration in this regard would be greatly appreciated.

Parent Sign In

All parents are reminded that if they are entering the school grounds, for what ever the reason, you MUST sign into the school via the Ipad in the front office or via the QR codes at our gates. There are no exceptions. 

Student Absences

Parents are reminded that if your child/ren are absent from school you must follow the following steps:

• Reply to the text message that is sent via Compass before 3pm, or
• Email the school office on balp@lism.catholic.edu.au

All absences must be received in writing. 

Student Partial Absences

Parents are reminded not to enter a partial attendance note for their child/ren. To be compliant with the attendance SOP, we need to ensure that child safety is maintained as far as possible. Parents are to come to the school office to drop/collect the student. This gives the parent the opportunity to provide the reason for the early departure/late arrival at that time. 

Notification of Extended Leave

All notification of extended leave MUST be submitted prior to the leave commencing. 

Travel outside of the school holiday period is counted as an absence for statistical purposes.  If your child/ren are absent for 10 to 100 days, please ensure that you complete a Form A4 Notification Extended Leave Travel (available at the School Office or click on the link Extended Leave Form).  An absence in this case will be recorded using the Code ‘A’ (Unjustified Leave).

In exceptional circumstances parents may complete a Form A1 Application for Extended Leave-Travel for consideration, explaining why an absence for extended leave is in the best educational interest of the student.  The Principal may accept or decline this application. 

Please note relevant travel documentation such as an e ticket or itinerary (in the case of non-flight bound travel within Australia only) must be attached to these applications.

Please note, a return text message notification will NOT be accepted for Extended Leave. 

Kinder 2024 Information...

Please add these dates to your calendar for the transition program: 

• Wednesday, 6^th September 2023 -8.50am-10.50am-Transition Day 1 – Parent Meeting
• Wednesday, 13^th September 2023-8.50am-10.50am-Transition Day 2
• Wednesday, 18^th October 2023-8.50am-10.50am-Transition Day 3
• Wednesday, 25^th October 2023-8.50am-10.50am-Transition Day 4
• Wednesday, 1^st November 2023-8.50am-10.50am-Transition Day 5
• Wednesday, 8^th November 2023-8.50am-10.50am-Transition Day 6

Further details regarding transition including what children will be required to bring will be sent early next term.

Community News...