St Monica's Primary North Parramatta Newsletter

Dear Parents and Carers,

Thank you to those parents who attended or watched our Parent Information Session on Assessment and Reporting last week.  We are very pleased to be offering an opportunity to meet with your child/ren’s teacher/s early next term via zoom to discuss their learning, which is an important component of our flexible reporting strategy this semester.  

Our TTFM data tells us that 62% of parents have met with their child/ren’s teacher at least twice already this year.  Unfortunately, 10% of parents reported that they had not attended any meetings about their child’s learning.  We strongly encourage you to take up the opportunity to meet and discuss your child’s strengths and next steps with learning.  We will be sharing the booking information in Week 1 next term and meetings will be held during Weeks 2 and 3.

We anticipate that the second stage of the refurbishment will be completed by the end of Week 3 next term, which means Stages 2 and 3 will be able to move to their new learning spaces when face-to-face learning returns (hopefully) in November.  The spaces are looking fantastic and we can’t wait for you to see them!

Have a fabulous, well-deserved holiday.  We are looking forward to returning to online learning in Term 4 with only a few weeks to go until we get to see everyone onsite, in a safe way.

Stay safe ?

Lisa Crampton
Principal

A reminder that Term 3 will conclude on Friday 17 September (Week 10).

Online Home Learning lessons will resume for Term 4 on Tuesday 5 October. 

We wish all our students, staff and families an enjoyable holiday break.

Parents are advised that our next Staff Development Day will be held on Friday 22 October 2021. 

Please note that there will be NO SCHOOL on this day and NO ONSITE SUPERVISION as staff will be attending Professional Learning.

• Booking request forms will be distributed from COSHC 2 weeks prior to this day (Friday 8th October). 
• With the current circumstances, if we receive less than 10 bookings for Pupil Free Day, our service will be reviewed by management, and we may not operate as a Pupil Free Day (this is only a possibility if booking requests by parents are not essential). 
• At this stage, parents of children who are usually booked in for Before and/or After school care on a Friday are not being charged for Term 3 fees if they do not attend. 
• Families are welcome to contact COSHC directly for any questions or concerns;:

• COSHC email: stmparramatta@cdpsl.org.au 
• COSHC number: 0429 990 179

Parents are advised that NAPLAN results for students in Year 3 and Year 5 will be EMAILED to both parents in the coming weeks.  Hard copies of the report will be distributed when students come back to school.  

Parents of students in Year 5 are advised to please keep this report in a safe place as you will require this report as part of your child's enrolment application for High School.

This week, Mr Tim from Captivate is running a fun and imaginative 5 part Improvised Story Time project, using creative ideas and suggestions provided by our SMNP students!

The videos are being posted each night on Facebook and Skoolbag (Monday 13th -Friday 17th September).

Stay tuned each night this week to hear our exciting story!

These videos will be shared each morning in your Google Classroom!

Mrs Rita Davino
Library Assistant / Teacher Assistant

A huge thank you to Mr Andrew Levins for assisting with our online School Disco last Friday 10 September. 

Our School Community is very grateful to you for giving up your time to assist us and for playing some great music for us all to dance to!

We all had lots of fun!

We pray especially for our school community, families and friends who have been directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Please keep these families and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Dear Parents and Carers, 

The Self Care Calendar has lots of ideas, activities and incentives to help you and your families this September.

Mrs Madeline Patrick
Wellbeing Counsellor

Self Care Calendar

Congratulations to the following students who received End of Term Awards at this week's Assembly for Being Safe,  Being a Learner, Being Respectful and the St Monica's Award for Perseverance!

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 a Scholastic Book Fair, an author visit, a book character dress up parade and a performance of an adapted book for our students to look forward to and enjoy!

Mrs Rita Davino
Library Assistant / Teacher Assistant

Did you know our school has an elibrary with links to many online reading resources such as audiobooks, SORA, The Premier’s Reading Challenge, Book Week events and much much more?!

Discover it via this link: https://ceop.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_GB/1894

Mrs Rita Davino
Library Assistant 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends:

• Adults and children should reduce their intake of sugar to less than 10% of their total daily energy intake. On average, this equals about 12 teaspoons (50 grams) of sugar per day for an adult. This include all added sugars, as well as the naturally-occurring sugars in honey, fruit juices, syrups and fruit-juice concentrates.
• Reducing your intake to less than 5% of total energy intake (6 teaspoons or 25g) would provide even more health benefits. Read the nutrition panel on the food label. If the total sugar exceeds 15g of sugar per 100g of the food, check the list of ingredients to see if any added sugars are high on the list.

Healthy Banana Bread

·         ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or extra-virgin olive oil or high quality vegetable oil

·         ½ cup honey or maple syrup

·         2 eggs

·         1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 ½ medium or 2 large bananas)

·         ¼ cup milk of choice or water

·         1 teaspoon baking soda (NOT baking powder; they aren’t the same!)

·         1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·         ½ teaspoon salt

·         ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more to swirl on top

·         1 ¾ cups white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour

·         Totally optional: ½ cup mix-ins like chopped walnuts or pecans, chocolate chips, raisins, chopped dried fruit, fresh banana slices…

 Method:

1.    Preheat oven to 165 degrees Celsius and grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.

2.    In a large bowl, beat the oil and honey together with a whisk. Add the eggs and beat well, then whisk in the mashed bananas and milk. (If your coconut oil solidifies on contact with cold ingredients, simply let the bowl rest in a warm place for a few minutes, like on top of your stove, or warm it for about 10 seconds in the microwave.)

3.    Add the baking soda, vanilla, salt and cinnamon, and whisk to blend. Lastly, switch to a big spoon and stir in the flour, just until combined. Some lumps are ok! If you’re adding any additional mix-ins, gently fold them in now.

4.    Pour the batter into your greased loaf pan and sprinkle lightly with cinnamon. If you’d like a pretty swirled effect, run the tip of a knife across the batter in a zig-zag pattern.

5.    Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean (typically, if I haven’t added any mix-ins, my bread is done at 55 minutes; if I have added mix-ins, it needs closer to 60 minutes). Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for at least 10 minutes. You may need to run a butter knife around the edges to loosen the bread from the pan. Carefully transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool before slicing.

Notes:
OIL OPTIONS: I love coconut oil here. I used unrefined coconut oil and can hardly taste it in the final product. Olive oil might lend an herbal note to the muffins, if you’re into that (I tested with California Olive Ranch’s “Everyday” variety and couldn’t even taste it). Vegetable oil has a neutral flavour, but the average vegetable/canola oil is highly processed, so I recommend using cold-pressed sunflower oil or grapeseed oil if possible.
FLOUR ALTERNATIVES: In place of the whole wheat flour, you can use an equal amount of all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, or gluten-free all-purpose flour blend. Or, substitute 2 ½ cups oat flour.

Recipe credit: cookieandcake.com

Ms Kellee Bagnall
Teacher

Monday 27 and Wednesday 29 September and Friday 1 October

For children up to 12 years

Visit Australia’s oldest Parliament via ZOOM this school holidays for free fun, educational activities for children and families.

We have three sessions over three days planned including storytelling, a virtual guided tour through the chambers and a special cultural session with Mirri Mirri.

Link for bookings: Free Family Fun with the Parliament of NSW – Parliament of New South Wales  

We also have a school holiday colouring-in competition. There will be four lucky winners and the prize is a Parliament of NSW Gift Box filled with goodies, valued at $100. 

The link to the competition is https://education.parliament.nsw.gov.au/school-holiday-fun-colouring-in-competition/

Click on this flyer for more information.

Belinda Murray,   Families and Children

Free HCA Craft Packs

Child and Family Online Workshops

The Hills Community Aid and Information Service Inc.

Phone: 02 9639 8620      Office hours 9.30am – 3.00pm 

Fax: 02 9686 3100                 www.hca.org.au

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.