No 6. End of Term 1 Special Edition, 8th April 2022

Principal's News

What an eventful term we have had!  After two years of anything but “normal” I feel that for many of our students, this term has been as close to normal as we have been able to get.  This means that a very close to full St. Kevin's experience has been available for all to enjoy.   I have loved observing our students find their groove in the hurly burly of co-curricular activities such as swimming, interschool sports, choir, debating club, ride 2 school day, open-water learning experience, house colours day… no wonder everyone is ready for a holiday!

There is so much more that can be said about Term 1, but for now I’d like to thank all parents and carers for your support as we all navigated the COVID requirements together.

We have been informed that all students and staff will need to continue with twice weekly rapid antigen testing for the first four weeks of Term 2. Tests will be distributed to students once the school receives them at the beginning of the new term. Also, I am pleased to say that the school will receive a further delivery of even more air purifiers which will be rolled out to classrooms and other learning spaces.  As a school we will be strongly recommending the wearing of masks indoors during the cooler months, but understand that this is an individual decision.

Finally, as we move into the most sacred time in the Christian calendar may you and your family have a blessed Easter.  We continue to keep the people of Ukraine in our prayers and hope for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

Jason Micallef,

Principal

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”  And the little children did come to Jesus to meet Him in the Sacrament of First Reconciliation on Wednesday evening. In a beautiful liturgical celebration the year 3 students encountered God’s love and mercy in this sacred Sacrament. Congratulations to the students and thank you to their teachers and families who worked together o prepare them for the occasion and thankyou to all those in our community who offered their prayers in support.

Congratulations Mrs Smith!

We were excited to hear the joyous news that Mrs Smith and her husband have welcomed little Violet Lily into their family. Arriving a little earlier than expected Violet was clearly very keen to begin her life as part of her beautiful family. 

Holy Week Liturgies

A special tradition of ours at St. Kevin's is for the Preps, Juniors, Middle and Senior students host a liturgy for the rest of the school and their parents. Each of the liturgies acknowledges the key events of Holy Week; Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday and then concludes when we return in term 2 with a celebration of Jesus' Ressurection.

As we are unable to gather as a community still, our students hosted these liturgies as a virtual experience that the rest of the school watched in their classes and now, we would like to share them with you. Of-course, the Easter liturgy which wil be hosted by the Year 3/4 students will be shared in the first week of next term.

Pandemic Update

Term 1 Impact Summary

Since the start of this schol year, we have had 65 identified cases of Covid19. 12 of those have been staff. There are several staff, for whom the illness has continued to impact negatively on their health and has resulted in extended periods of time off or reduced hours as they recover. Thankfully, we have been able to cover most classes with existing staff members as replacement teachers are very hard to come by these days. God willing, we will be able to welcome those recovering staff members back at the beginning of term 2. 

What to expect in Term 2

I am pleased to say that we will be receiving even more Air Purifiers from the state government in the coming weeks. This will be a welcome boost to our capacity to ensure our classrooms have adequate air filtration systems once the weather becomes too cold to have windows and doors open. We have just recently had the existing air purifier filters cleaned and distributed supplies of masks cleaning products to all the classes. For the first four weeks of term two, we will also be providing families with more RATS to continue tohe twice per week surveillance testing.

Cyber Safety Information Night

Parents from across the school in all year levels are invited to attend this very important event to learn how we can ckeep kids safe online.

Use this link register for this FREE webinar:

www.bit.ly/4may2022

Once you register (with an email address and name), you will be emailed a link to the webinar.

You will also receive a reminder email on the afternoon of the webinar as well as 15min before start time. The following day, you will receive a link to access a replay. Therefore we recommend even if parents are unable to attend the live webinar, you register to ensure you can access the replay.

School Performance

We are so excited to let you know that in term 3, we will be shining a light on all our students who will perform in our first full scale, live musical production for some time. We have booked a theatre close by, the script is written and our main character roles have been selected.

Congratulations to the following students who recently auditioned and were selected to play key roles in the play: 

• Victoria Le (LN)
• Jayden Thomson (LN)
• Madison Aquino (DR)
• Dekbai Liet (DR)
• Pragun Kaur (SP)
• Achilles Guevarra (SP)
• Roxana Pasikku Hennedige (MB)
• Sebastian Figura (BU)

Two narrators were also chosen: Ava Dizon (SP) and Jasmine-Louise Tuivaiti (LN)

Parent help invited!

We will be looking to invite parents to get involved wth various parts of the performance s we get closer to the day, but in the meantime we are seeking parents support to help us understadn or share with us any information that will help us showcase the many cultures and traditions that make up our amzing community.

If you can offer your advice on things like costumes, dance or music in particular, we would love to hear from you. Especially for the following nations: Indigenous Australians, India, the nations of South America and Africa, Germany, Indonesia, Mauritius, Samoa, Italy, Phillipines and Greece.

Please make contact with Mrs Szabo, if you can help out in any way or offer some suggestions. rszabo@skhamptonpark.catholic.edu.au  

Parents & Friends Association

We've had some fantastic helpers ensuring that the uniform stall, Easter raffle, Hot Cross Buns fundraiser and book club were all able to occur this term. A massive thank you to our helpers: Natalie, Carla, Rozanne, Lydia, Koreti, Nancy, Caryn, Jatinder, Audine, Jo, Geraldine and Ania.

Congratulations to the winners of our Easter Raffle which was drawn today: