Term 4 Week 4 - Thursday 7 November 2024

Principal's Message

This week’s Gospel

Mark 12: 41-44

And Jesus sitting over against the treasury, beheld how the people cast money into the treasury, and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. And calling his disciples together, he saith to them: Amen I say to you, this poor widow hath cast in more than all they who have cast into the treasury. For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want cast in all she had, even her whole living.

Kindergarten Orientation

It was wonderful to welcome our 2025 Kindergarten students to St Jude’s this morning. The children spent time in classrooms involved in a number of fun activities. Whilst the parents and carers spent time in the hall in a meet and greet information session. Topics covered during this session included, school readiness, emotional regulation, Community Council, school uniform and Camp Australia. A big thank you to Karen Leighton, Kerrin Henderson, Katrina Howden, Renee McKee and to our current kindergarten teachers, Cathleen Feerick, Zoe Tsiouris and Brigitta van Reesch for organising and facilitating. We look forward to seeing the students back at St Jude’s on One up day.

Parent requests for 2025 classes

Next week, we will begin allocating students into their class groupings for 2025. This is quite a complicated process which involves ensuring that they have a friend in their new class as well as making sure that academic and social needs are evenly spread across the year level. If you have a request, please forward it to me cameron.reed@cg.catholic.edu.au as soon as possible, preferably by Monday November 18. Only requests in writing to myself will be considered. There is plenty of movement of staff across the system, as a result, staffing will probably not be finalised until just before One Up Day, so please do not put in a request for a particular teacher.

50th Anniversary in 2025

As a result of a recent planning meeting, we are looking at the following four focus areas:

• Celebration Mass – Tentative date is 15 May 2025 whole school mass and Community Mass 19 May 2025 which coincides with the first day of school at St Jude's 50 years ago. 
• Open School Event – A celebration which would include a family picnic, guest speakers, school tours by current students and much much more. Tentative date is around November 8
• 50th Anniversary Year Book – We will begin collecting photos, stories etc. More information to come in relation to where we would like that to be sent
• 50th Anniversary Memorabilia – Exploration of appropriate options is currently underway and will be available for purchase by all.

Once dates have been finalised, we will communicate these through both a dedicated Facebook page, school and parish newsletter, school electronic sign, messages to all other Catholic Schools in our Archdiocese. We would love to have a huge crowd gather for our Open School Event, so feel free to spread the word.

League Tag and Netball Gala Days

Last week we had a large number of students involved in the League Tag day. All students had plenty of opportunity to display their skills with significant rotations occurring throughout each game. Thank you to Nicole, Megan and Luke (St Jude’s Staff) as well as the large number of parents who assisted by looking after teams. Coming up shortly are a couple of Netball gala days, please make sure that if you would like your child to be involved, that you have completed the registration on Compass within the required timeframe. Organisers need numbers, to be able to create draws and we like to make sure that teams have neither too many or too few players to enable maximum participation. Thank you to all parents who have offered to assist with this.

As always, thank you for your ongoing support

Cameron

Important Dates

Birthdays

School News

Remembrance Day Liturgy

On Monday November the 11, Year 3 students will host a special liturgy to commemorate Remembrance Day. The event will take place at the entrance of St. Jude’s, next to the flag pole.

Please note that the front car park will be closed briefly between 10:00am - 11:00am. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time.

School Fees 

As we are coming to the end of the year please ensure your fees are paid in full. School Fees are due by Friday 8 November. If you have a direct debit please make sure your final payment is by Friday 13 December. 

If you are having difficulties meeting your commitments please contact the office. 

Mini Missions Fete - Tuesday 12 November
In Week 5, Year 6 will hold our annual Mini Missions Fete which will raise funds for the Mwamba Academy in Kenya to help build classrooms, supply clean water and schooling necessities. This year the Mini Missions fete will be cashless. Students will use a 'helping hand' to purchase items from the stalls, which need to be purchased through Qkr! before 12 noon on Monday 11 November. The fingers can then be ripped off and used at each stall. There is no limit to the number of ‘Helping Hands’ purchased for each child. There will be no refunds provided on helping hands at the end of the Missions Fete. We are looking forward to the wonderful stalls that Year 6 have planned!

Musical: Show In Tents

The video of the musical “Show In Tents” will be ready from Week 5. Families wishing to own a copy of the musical should provide a USB with a 32GB capacity or larger. Please place the USB into a plastic zip lock bag with your child’s name and class clearly marked. Please ensure the USB is empty as all contents of the USB will be erased. The video is very large, approximately 18 GB in size. The video will not be available for download. The USB with the video will be returned via your child as soon as possible from Week 5. Please look for it in their schoolbag. Thank you.

RE News

We warmly invite you to mark Remembrance day with us by the flagpoles on Monday at 10.30am. 

St Vincents de Paul Christmas Appeal

We generously ask that you contribute the following items for the Vinnie's Christmas appeal. Our efforts with the Winter Appeal are still being spoken of. 

Collection will be made at our thanks giving Mass on the 12 of December. 

https://www.canva.com/design/DAGTsEDxJ-o/M3Tak3woMZk7aXiFHHuerQ/edit?utm_content=DAGTsEDxJ-o&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Sacramental update

Is your child eligible for a sacrament? In the Parish of Our Lady of the Annunciation sacraments are completed in Years 3, 4 and 6. Reconiliation registration is now open! Click this link to find out more including 2025 dates.  

Library News

Term 4 Week 4

Reminder– There are only 2 more weeks of borrowing books from the Library for this year so please encourage your children to remember to bring their Library books & bags each week.

This term in Library,

Kinders are finding out more about Uluru as a special place and sacred site for Aboriginal people

Year 1 are looking at our local area – Canberra – with a focus this week on Ngunnawal stories from the area this week.

Year 2 are checking out the difference between literal / inferred meaning s in texts this week.

Year 3 are discussing lifecycles of living things, currently plants, but moving on soon to animal life cycles.

Year 4 are gaining a better understanding of figurative language used in writing, especially poetry. (alliteration, onomatopoeia, similes & metaphors, personification etc)

Year 5 are finding out more about refugees in Australia, their experiences and their contributions to our society.

Year 6 are working on biographies of famous Australians, of either Aboriginal or Asian background

Happy reading! Mrs C

Sports News

The Raiders League Tag event was a fantastic success. The day was filled with excitement, teamwork and most importantly, the strong spirit of St. Jude's.

Our players truly embodied sportsmanship, consistently shaking hands with opponents after each game and cheering on their teammates. Other teams took note and complemented our players on their outstanding display of sportsmanship.

A huge thank you to our parent helpers (John, Eve, Alison. Julie) and an ex St Jude’s student (Connah) who made this event possible. Your support and enthusiasm greatly contributed to the day’s success, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

We look forward to more events like this that foster community and camaraderie among our students.

Netball Gala Days

Upcoming Netball Gala Days for Year 3-6 students. Year 3 and 4 Thursday 14 November at Arawang Netball Courts and Year 5 and 6 Thursday 21 November at Deakin Netball Courts. Nomination and payment ($5) are via Compass. Nominations close for Year 3 and 4 on Monday 11^ November and Year 5 and 6 Monday 18 November. The Gala Days are open to boys and girls. We are also in need of parent helpers to coach and referee. Please indicate in Compass if you can help out. Unfortunately late nominations cannot be taken.

Mulleyduds Uniform Shop

Uniform shop will be open 2:45pm- 3:15pm Friday 1 November 

For second hand requests please email to: uniform.stjudes@gmail.com. Please include your child’s name and classroom for us to deliver to. **Please do not make payment for secondhand items, until we reply to your request confirming stock is available.

Mulleygrubs Cafe News

Community Council

Trivia Night

Thank you to all that attended the trivia night. It was such an enjoyable evening. Congratulations to the winning table and a very big thanks to Pete and Andrew for running the evening, you always make it so much fun. A special thanks to Mr Kaltner for making a dash back to school to help with some technical difficulties!

Fete Information Session – 14 November

We will be holding a fete information session on Thursday 14 November, 6pm online and in the School Library. The QR code below will take you to the Team Meetings on the day. Everyone is welcome to come along to voice ideas or just listen to what exciting things are being planned.

We are still looking for a couple of volunteers to run the Plant Stall and the Chip on a Stick Stall. Let us know if you are interested.

We have already received enquiries about plant and trash and treasure drop off times. We are currently working on a storage plan and will circulate the drop off details when this is finalised.

Many thanks,

Gemma Cabot

Stjudes.scc@gmail.com

Camp Australia