No 9. Term 2 Week 5, 25th May 2022

Principal's News

Next Friday June 3, we will celebrate our patron saint's feast day. 

St Kevin is a somewhat mysterious figure. Bearing in mind that he lived in the sixth century, so you might excuse us for not knowing precisely where the facts about him end and the myths begin. It is said that Kevin was born in 498 and died in 618, giving him a respectable innings of 120 years.

St Kevin lived as a hermit in a cave in a place called Glendalough in Ireland. A hermit might seem like an unusual patron for a busy school, but there was something about Kevin’s personality that attracted people and created community. Before long, his cave became the hub of a monastery.

Many of the stories about St Kevin suggest that he had a deep relationship with the natural world. For example, one legend is that the loneliness of a hermit’s life was alleviated when ‘the branches and leaves of the trees sometimes sang sweet songs to him.’   

Another is the celebrated tale of St Kevin and the blackbird. One day, Kevin was praying with his arms outstretched in his cell in the monastery. The cell was so small that his right arm had to poke out through the window. There was no such luxury as glass in those days. As he was praying, a blackbird came and nestled in his hand. Then the blackbird started to build a nest. When the nest was complete, the blackbird laid an egg. It seems that Kevin was a man who, when talking with the Lord, was not easily distracted.

Once Kevin realised that the nest and egg were in his hand, he decided not to move until the egg had hatched and the fledgling had flown away. He didn’t want to risk breaking the egg.

One of the great things about legends is that simple stories are never that simple. This one works on several levels. A good deal of Celtic spirituality is about finding love in hard places; it is about both blood and stone. So here we have St Kevin, in his austere cell, undertaking something which is both painful and difficult. But the real focus of the story is a small chick, a fragile creature for which the saint feels great tenderness. The story is not really about endurance; it is about nurture and the pain that may involve.

That's why St Kevin is the perfect patron for a school. Any Christian community needs to stand with its arms wide open, accepting with reverence whatever God brings its way, holding firm to protect its vulnerable members. Just as we do and will continue to do with our students no matter the challenges that come our way.

I wish you all a happy Feast Day for next Friday and pray that we may all continue to find inspiration and spiritual guidance from our patron, St. Kevin.

God bless.

Jason Micallef,
Principal

St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

Every year our school supports various charities. At this time of year, we support the work of the St Vincent de Paul Society. 

Next week our Social Justice Leaders will be raising funds for the St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal. 

They will be raising money as well as food item donations. The leaders will be selling school beanies and scarves to raise funds which will be donated to St Vincent de Paul WINTER APPEAL. Every purchase of either a beanie or scarf will result in $2 from the sale of each item being donated to St Vincent de Paul. Please come and support the children's stall!!!!!

In addition, classrooms will also be collecting food items to donate. 

Please see our school facebook page and calendar for more information. The children will also hear a special message from the leaders as part of this week's Video Assembly. 

Thanking you for your generous support in advance. 

5/6 Physical Sciences

School Concert Help Needed

District AFL Champions!!!

St. Kevin's continues to excel in District School Sports! A mix of boys and girls from year 5/6 competed in the annual AFL Gala competition against almost a dozen other schools from the local area. They emerged undefeated and were awarded the District Championship for 2022. Once again, we could not be prouder of our students who consistently compete with skill, perseverance and more importantly with dignity and honour. Well done St. Kevin's!

St Kevin's Athletics Day - NEW DATE

We have a new date for our annual St Kevin's Athletics for Grades 3 to 6 on Thursday 9th June. 

This event will happen at Casey Fields, and if for any reason we are unable to make that happen, some form of athletics will happen at school on this day.  Please have the children come in their sport uniform.

Come and join the Parish celebrations!

Families are invited to celebrate Feast Day with our Parish community 5th of June. Mass will be celebrated at 11:00am, followed by Lunch in the school hall. 

An invitation from Fr. Des

Dear Parents,

Our Parish Renewal Programme invites all parishioners to reflect on what it means to be a member of our St Kevin’s Parish community.  We ARE the Church in our area and we will consider the key themes of FAITH and COMMUNITY and how we will work together to secure our FUTURE.                                                                                                         

Last weekend was all about our PARISH and our FAITH. We were invited to reflect on the importance of faith in our life.  Is our faith the foundation of who we are?  Does it drive the way we choose to live our life?                                                                                                                                                        

We were also invited to re-affirm the importance of Sunday Mass – how we come together as a community to celebrate our faith.  The Eucharist is something much bigger than ourselves – it is not a private or anonymous experience. The communal celebration of the Eucharist on Sundays gives us the spiritual nourishment to live our lives as true disciples of Jesus. Finally, we were invited to commit to growing in faith – to take the opportunity to learn and develop a mature understanding of our faith.                                                                                                                                              

Next weekend we will celebrate the role of our parish as a community – as an authentic community where people are welcomed, known and loved, a place of care, support and outreach – with a clear mission to live the values of the Gospel.  This means that we all have a responsibility to use our gifts and talents for the benefit of others – making our time available to be involved in one of our many groups and ministries.  We all have a contribution to make – so we ask you to have a look at the “Groups & Ministries” list which you will receive with the next newsletter to see what best suits you.                      

At Masses next weekend we will hear from members of the Parish Leadership team who will talk about the impact our faith and our parish have made in their lives and how important it is for us all to make our contributions to parish life.

The Leadership Team for the Renewal Programme and I, encourage you to be involved in the Programme as it unfolds over the next few weeks – read the materials, listen to our speakers, reflect on the themes and discuss them with family, friends and fellow parishioners.  The parish website and Facebook Page will be updated as the programme progresses - so please visit regularly!

With this message, we also give you an invitation to attend our Parish Information Meeting on Tuesday 31 May at 7.30pm in the Hall at St Kevin’s, when we will look at our achievements as a Parish and our plans for the future. There will also be opportunity for questions and we will finish with a cuppa. So please come along and be part of it!

Let’s make this Programme a wonderful time of personal and community renewal for our parish! 

Fr. Des

Fathering Project

We’d like to tell you about an exciting new organisation we are working with called The Fathering Project. 

The Fathering Project is an evidence-based organisation that aims to promote positive fathering behaviours and fathers’ engagement with their infants, preschool, primary school and adolescent-aged children.

It's not only about dads.  Stronger families and communities mean brighter futures for our children.

The Fathering Project positively impacts fathering behaviour and fathers’ engagement with children through evidence-rich programs and resources that engage, equip and support fathers, families, schools, employers and community organisations.

We have some exciting events in the planning stage and can't wait to share them with you, and would love for St Kevin’s fathers, step-fathers, father figures, uncles, older siblings,  significant others in your child's life, to come and join us for some up and coming events. Stay tuned!

If you are interesting in learning more about the program here is the website:

https://thefatheringproject.org/about-us/

Upschool Videos

Two more Upschool by St. Kevin's videos ave been published this week on our Facebook Page. In case you missed them, here they are for your viewing pleasure.

In the first of these two clips, Ms McLeod shares with us information about how to have a restorative conversation with your child.

In the second clip, Mrs de Reus talks about how to support students to develop early counting skills.

National Consistent Collection of Data

Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). The NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD guidelines (2019).

Information provided about students to the Australian Government for the NCCD includes:

• year of schooling
• category of disability: physical, cognitive, sensory or social/emotional
• level of adjustment provided: support provided within quality differentiated teaching practice, supplementary, substantial or extensive.

This information assists schools to:

• formally recognise the supports and adjustments provided to students with disability in schools
• consider how they can strengthen the support of students with disability in schools
• develop shared practices so that they can review their learning programs in order to improve educational outcomes for students with disability.

The NCCD provides state and federal governments with the information they need to plan more broadly for the support of students with disability.

The NCCD will have no direct impact on your child and your child will not be involved in any testing process. The school will provide data to the Australian Government in such a way that no individual student will be able to be identified – the privacy and confidentiality of all students is ensured. All information is protected by privacy laws that regulate the collection, storage and disclosure of personal information. To find out more about these matters, please refer to the Australian Government’s Privacy Policy 

Further information about the NCCD can be found on the NCCD Portal.

If you have any questions about the NCCD, please contact us in the office.

Child Safety Standards

The Child Safe Standards commenced in Victoria in January 2016. Changes are being made to make our Standards even stronger.

These changes will commence on 1 July 2022. The eleven new Standards will replace Victoria’s current seven standards and principles.

With this in mind some of our policies and procedures will be changing over the coming weeks. Please see the school website for the most up to date information. Policies are also available in print form from the School Office.

Interzone Chess Tournament

Last week, students from Year 3-6 represented our school in the first Interzone Chess Tournament for the year. Jordan from 5/6CR had this to say about the experience:

"Chess was a really fun opportunity I got to go to. I was really glad that the teachers had picked me to play in the chess interzone tournament. When we got there we saw some familiar faces from last year. Everyone there was friendly and had made lots of new friends. Tim, the host, explained what the day was going to be like and little by little we started to play our chess games for the competition. Everyone was so focused on finding strategies to WIN! All of our chess players from our school did an outstanding job playing chess either though some lost it was ok. We/I had an amazing day full of strategy and finger moving! - Jordan 5/6CR

NAPLAN

We congratulate our Year 3 and Year 5 students on their participation in NAPLAN assessments which were held over the past couple of weeks.  Our children demonstrated positive learning behaviours in the way that they focussed and persisted throughout the various tasks they were given.  The assessments administered included Writing, Reading Comprehension, Conventions of Language and Numeracy.

Hampton Park Library News

Every child in Hampton Park is eligible for a library card!!

Hampton Park Library is currently running a promotion offering children a special "Sid The Sloth" library card and bag when they sign up to the library as well as the chance to be in the running for a $250 Gumbuya World or Toymate voucher. Simply visit the library at 26 Stuart Ave, Hampton Park and sign up!