St Monica's Primary North Parramatta Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

After another 11am press conference, it’s easy to feel deflated. I haven’t seen my parents or my son in months.  I may not see them for a long time yet.  I worry that I’m not doing enough, doing too much, not doing it properly.  But then I stop.  And I remember that I am doing enough.  That I am enough.  

And so are you.  

We hope that our Fabulous Friday Funday was an opportunity for you and your family to turn off the devices and enjoy the sunshine and each other, without having zooms and other tasks to distract you from what’s really important.

The Cosmic Dancer

I sometimes forget
that I was created for Joy.
My mind is too busy.
My Heart is too heavy
for me to remember
that I have been
called to dance
the Sacred dance of life.

I was created to smile
To Love
To be lifted up
And to lift others up.

O’ Sacred One
Untangle my feet
from all that ensnares.
Free my soul.
That we might
Dance
and that our dancing
might be contagious.

~Hafiz

Stay safe ?

Lisa Crampton
Principal

St Monica’s FIAT (Faith In Action Team) warmly invites our school community to join us in a liturgy dedicated to St Monica on Monday 23rd August at 2:00pm. The zoom link is on the school's Google Calendar.

On Friday we will be joining together again as a community for the Feast Day of St Monica and will be led in prayer by Fr Ephraim with a Liturgy that will begin at 11:30am.

More details will follow about our Friday celebrations. 

Catherine Shaw
FIAT Leader

Date:                Thursday 26th August

Time:               6:30 pm

Facilitators:    Madeline Patrick (St Monica’s Wellbeing Counsellor)

                         Mitch Huie (Leading Counsellor St Agnes Catholic High School)

The link for the Zoom session will be available on the Google Calendar.

We would like to invite you to join us for a presentation and discussion on “Parenting in a Pandemic”.

Topics addressed will be:

• Realistic expectations

• Our need for community and connection

• Understanding specific aspects of lockdown which contribute to poor mental health

• How can we best help our kids and ourselves?

  Madeline Patrick 
  St Monica’s Wellbeing Counsellor

Mrs Samantha D'Silva's last day at St Monica's will be next Friday 27 August when she will go on Maternity Leave.   We wish Mrs D'Silva and her husband Jason all the best as they await the birth of their baby and look forward to hearing their happy news.

Year 1 will be taught by Mrs Loretta Farrelly and Ms Kellee Bagnall until the end of Term 3. 

Starting Term 4, we welcome Miss Jaimie Frost to the St Monica’s staff.  Miss Frost is currently completing her final university placement in Stage 3.  

Next week (August 21st - 27th) is the official CBCA Book Week. 

The students at St Monica’s will get the opportunity to participate in many virtual activities in their learning experiences, which their teachers will share with them via their weekly schedule or through Google Classroom.

As a whole school community - we will be celebrating Book Week  when we are all back together in Term 4 Week 7 (November 15th - 19th). 

We have an author visit, a book character dress up parade, a live performance of an adapted book and lots of other exciting activities for our students to look forward to and enjoy!

Mrs Rita Davino
Library Assistant / Teacher Assistant

We will be celebrating all of the dads, grandads and father figures in our community on Monday 6th September at 2pm (online).

Due to the current restrictions, unfortunately we will not be able to offer Fathers' Day gifts for purchase this year.

St Monica’s Sacraments 

stmonicasacraments@gmail.com

Registrations are open for children who have received the sacrament of Baptism and are in year 3 or above.

Please send an email to Shanika Joseph at  stmonicasacraments@gmail.com for details and a copy of the registration form. 

Thank you to the parents who have already registered by completing the form and sending it back with a scanned copy of the baptism certificate.

Please register by the 23rd of August to facilitate preparation of lesson material and delivery of same via post to families in time for Parent Meeting with Father Lam via Zoom.    

Fruit and vegetables for family health.

Vegetables and fruit are a handy snack food and are easily carried to work or school. Include them in everyone’s meals and snacks for a healthy, well-balanced diet.

Some suggestions include:

• Keep snack-size fruit and vegetable portions easily accessible in your fridge.
• Keep fresh fruit on the bench or table.
• Add fruit and vegetables to your favourite family recipes or as additions to your usual menus.
• Use the colour and texture of a variety of fruit and vegetables to add interest to your meals.
• Think up new ways to serve fruits and vegetables.

Some simple ways to serve fruits and vegetables include:

• fruit and vegetable salads
• vegetable or meat-and-vegetable stir-fries
• raw fruit and vegetables
• vegetable soups
• snack pack, stewed or canned fruits or dried fruits.

(BetterhealthChannel)

This week’s recipe makes a great lunchbox addition or snack – simple, yet delicious!

Sweetcorn fritters

• ​¾ cup standard flour 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• ½ tsp salt
• Black pepper                
• 1 egg, beaten
• 440g can cream-style corn
• 2 Tbsps oil
  
  Method

Notes: You could add in a few other little things if you fancied them like cheese or shredded spinach.

Recipe credit: edmondscooking.co.nz

Ms Kellee Bagnall
Teacher

PLEASE READ

Dear Parents and Carers,

Please see NSW Health and CEDP guidelines below for students returning to school after an illness (NB: these guidelines have not changed):

• Students must not attend school if they are unwell.  This includes even minor flu symptoms.
• Students must return a negative COVID-19 test result and be symptom free before returning to school.
• Schools must sight the negative COVID-19 test result prior to allowing students to return to school.

If you are unwilling to allow your child to undertake a COVID-19 test or provide the school with a negative COVID-19 test result, the student is to be excluded from school for a 10-day period.  Additionally, the student must by symptom free for at least 3 days before returning to school.

SYMPTOMS OF COVID-19 (as per the Government Health Guidelines)

Symptoms of COVID-19 can range from mild illness to pneumonia. Some people will recover easily, and others may get very sick very quickly.
People with coronavirus may experience symptoms such as:

• fever
• respiratory symptoms
  • coughing
  • sore throat
  • shortness of breath.

Other symptoms can include:
runny nose, acute blocked nose (congestion), headache, muscle or joint pains, nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, loss of sense of smell, altered sense of taste, loss of appetite and fatigue.

To stop the spread of COVID-19 people with even mild symptoms of respiratory infection should get tested. 

Thank you for your cooperation in ensuring the safety of all students and staff at St Monica's.

We wish to advise that there are vacancies available in some grades. 

Enrolment applications may be downloaded from our school website

You may contact the school office on 8832 4100  or by email stmonicasnparra@parra.catholic.edu.au for more information.

Parents are advised that our Welcomeasy service has been postponed due to the current Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.   The service will resume once school returns. 

The Welcomeasy Team

 Menu

Thank you to those parents who have downloaded the Qkr! app.  

To ensure payments are processed correctly, we request that you please update your child's profile.  A profile needs to be created for each child. 

Please check that you have correctly entered your CHILD'S NAME and CLASS.  If you are unsure what class your child is in, please contact the office.

There are a number of payment options available on the app.

• Enrolment Deposit - only to be used for NEW students to the school.
• Library Book Replacement Cost - only for parents who receive a letter from Mrs Davino requesting payment for library books.

Please do not use these two payment options unless you have been requested to. 

Instructions to download the Qkr! app can be found here.

Thank you.

To keep informed of upcoming events, parents may subscribe to the School Google calendar.  The Google calendar will be the primary source of information about school dates in the future.

Go to our School Website and scroll to the bottom of the calendar.

Click  “subscribe" near Parent Calendar.

Skoolbag is the school’s primary avenue for immediate communication with parents.

Skoolbag is a communication app which all parents are strongly advised to install on their smartphones, ipads etc. 

Please ensure you have this app downloaded so that you do not miss any important messages.   

Remember to subscribe to your child's class group! 

Once you open the St Monica's Skoolbag app - Select Groups - then add your child's class.      You may add/remove class groups as required.