Principal News
Dear Parents, Staff and Students,
Last Sunday throughout Australia, people paid tribute to all fathers as we celebrated this very special day known as Father’s Day. Fathers are the greatest source of strength for any child. The innocent eyes of a child perceive father as the all-powerful, most knowledgeable, truly affectionate and the most important person in the family. For this great figure in our life that we know as father - it becomes our utmost duty to pay our humblest tribute on the occasion of Father's Day.
Father’s Day gives us an opportunity to recall and affirm the particular gifts that fathers bring to families. This includes our personal fathers, grandfathers, single parent fathers, uncles and important father figures in our lives. There is no ‘right’ way of showing appreciation of one’s father. The important thing is to do it. When expressing thanks to your dad it is a good idea to connect with something specific - a special quality or a specific incident in the past that typifies your father’s care and commitment. People can give presents, but the most important gift is the gift of appreciation. Every father knows that he is human and doesn’t always do things perfectly. He needs to hear from his children that he ‘must have done something right’ - maybe even magnificently!
I was fortunate enough to be blessed by a wonderful father who had a huge influence on my life. I am forever indebted to him for the many sacrifices he made for our family so that we could be where we are today. Whether it is their sense of humour, ability to see the positive side of difficult situations, patience even when they are tired, or their wise words of encouragement and love. I hope that all SSPS dads, granddads and uncles enjoyed a wonderful day. We hope your day was special and filled with many blessings.
Check out our Year 1 students giving thanks to all our SSPS dads on our school Facebook.
2021 Prep students – Transition Morning - Friday 11th September
Tomorrow we will welcome all our 2021 Prep Students for the morning from 8:45a.m. – 10:45a.m.
Parents are welcome to drop their child/children to the gathering space in the Mercy Centre. We ask you to settle your child, sign them in and leave once settled. We will take care of them whilst they spend the morning in the Prep rooms to help familiarise themselves in the school.
Our teachers and support staff are looking forward to meeting the children and welcoming them to our school. A variety of activities have been organised to engage our 2021 Prep students and we can’t wait to show them their ‘new’ school.
Later in Term 4 we will welcome 'new' students in all other Year levels for a transition morning on Wednesday, 2nd December, 2020. New families will be notified of details next Term.
MARY’S BIRTHDAY
On 8 September each year the Church celebrates Our Lady’s birthday. We do not usually celebrate the birthdays of the saints. Instead we celebrate the day they died, because that is the day they were born to eternal life. But the birth of Mary is special. We celebrate her birthday because she came into this world full
of grace and because she is the Mother of Jesus and our heavenly mother.
Why not celebrate Mary’s birthday by spending time as a family and saying a
prayer for each other? There are lots of beautiful ‘Mary’ prayers to share
including the Hail Mary and The Rosary.
Late arrival at school is a genuine problem for students.
During the first ten minutes at school much work is done by teachers to orient students to the day ahead. This time sets your child up for a successful day. Prayers are said, teacher student relationships are strengthed as they check in with each other and important instructions are issued. Important notices, including messages for individual students, regarding music lessons, sporting teams etc are read out. Students who come late to school, miss this precious time and can find themselves in all sorts of trouble for not heeding these instructions.
Some classes spend the first ten minutes of the day drilling number facts, changing reading books or correcting homework. Late arrival at school ruins a student’s day and frustrates teachers. Of course, sometimes things happen and it can't be avoided and teachers have no problem with “one off” occasions. However, repeated
late arrival at school is a serious issue for some students and affects their feelings about the day right from the beginning.
It is a timely reminder that the school day begins at 8.30am. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we have been making allowances for students to be in various areas around the school under supervision before school to ensure that students are dispersed. This has been a positive change for students and teachers. Teachers have commented on the readiness of students to begin their day of learning as they have had the chance to play and move around before school.
Repeated late arrival at school tells children that school is not important, and meeting deadlines is not necessary. Thank you for your support and cooperation in regards to meeting this important requirement of the school day.
REMINDER: SCHOOL BEGINS AT 8.30am!
SCHOOL UNIFORMS
Students are able to transition back into summer uniforms and it is expected that from beginning of Term 4: Tuesday 6th October all students will return to summer uniform.
If wearing the dress, white socks are to be worn with black shoes.
If wearing the shirt and shorts, navy blue socks are to be worn with black shoes.
Comments and Compliments
We are keen to hear from you, what has worked well and what we could/can do differently.
Have you seen something that could make our school better? Have you seen something that is happening around the school or in the classroom that you wish to compliment?
I invite you to email through your comments and compliments to ssps@twb.catholic.edu.au
Thanks everyone for reading.
Madonna