I was reading some quotes on the weekend and I have pasted one here that resonated with me –

“We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Saint Mother Teresa

This seems to fit our school motto beautifully.  As this will be an extremely hectic term I will be challenging the children, staff, parents and myself to find where we might be able to apply this quote to our lives.

School Fete – 15 Days to Go
A massive shout out for things that we desperately need over the next 15 days to help make our fete a success.

• All your Raffle tickets sold.  This is an expectation this year that every family will sell one book.
• More white elephant items and books for these two important stalls
• Plants donations for our Plant Stall
• Volunteers for any store, please contact sjvfete@gmail.com 

Staffing 2020
As many of our community might know, just prior to the end of term 3, we held interviews for positions at our school in 2020.  The panel was made up of Fr Michael, Nina De Rosa, Bec McMahon our SCC Chair and myself.  All decision regarding positions were made and agreed to by the panel.

Therefore, I would like to announce and congratulate the following teachers who will be joining the SJV staff next year.

Laura Matchett    (Permanent Position)

Wayne Young       (Permanent Position)

Gabrielle Brewer   (Temporary Position)

Leia Mackenzie     (Temporary Position - Part time sharing with Leah Malpas)

Another exciting announcement is that SJV's kinder teacher for next year will be Sharee Thomas. Mrs Stilling has loved Kindergarten but believed that professionally after 4 years it was time to move to another grade.

Year 6 Graduation 2019
This year our Graduation Mass and Leadership Candle ceremony will be held at 12:15pm on the 12^th December and is open to the entire community.  This is the first time we have had both these ceremonies at the same time and it will be great to have the Year 6 children hand over the mantle of leadership to Yr. 5 at this mass and Year 5 pass on the role of Heart Leader to Year 4.This will provide the children and families who have shared the seven-year journey with Yr. 6 to celebrate this very special time with them, including acknowledging some students who will be receiving some special awards. The graduation dinner will be held in the school hall later that evening.

Because graduation will be upon us soon, we are calling for Yr. 5 parents to be part of a committee to prepare the hall and make it a special occasion for the graduating class of 2019.  Fortunately, much of the vital areas have been organised with the caterer tentatively booked and the graduation cake being ordered.  This leaves the organisation of seating, making the hall look special and liaising with someone to run the disco as some areas that still need to be finalised. 

An online form will go out to parents of Year 5 today or early next week to ask for support. Remembering many hands make light work. I am hoping we get a great roll up of volunteers to form the committee.

Catholic Schools Netball Carnival
Good luck to all of our children who will be participating in this Saturday’s Catholic Schools Netball Carnival. This will be the final time that this carnival will be held, bringing to an end an event that dates back to the 1970’s. I hope the children and parents have a great time and I will see you all there.  Please make sure you child is sun safe tomorrow as we may not have a shade structure there.

Late news – A big thanks to Steph Myers who has taken a shade structure, much appreciated!

Prayers
Could we please keep the Sydlarczuk family in our prayers as the two girls lost their great grandmother and Neil his grandmother.  It is always a difficult time when families lose loved ones. 

New Counsellor
As I announced last term, Jessica our school counsellor resigned and has been replaced by Kerry Marshall for Term 4.  Kerry has been the counsellor for St Mary Mackillop this year and we welcome her onto our staff.

Kinder Orientation – Current Kindergarten Parents
Kinder Orientation will be on next week from 9:30-11:15.  If your child is currently in Kindergarten it would be great to see you at this event towards the end of the session.  This means that you can mingle with our new parents, very much like what happened last year when you attended this session yourselves.   I also believe that kinder parents are on our SJV Events Calendar to help with a small morning tea for our new parents.

I know Mrs Thomas is looking forward to see all the 2020 Kindergarten children on this very exciting day.

SCC Request
The SCC are considering the development and implementation of a Community Skills Directory. This directory would list businesses and other resources that are available within our school community who could be engaged by both the school and our families.

If you would like to nominate your business or yourself please contact sjvcommunitycouncil@gmail.com 

SCC Nominations 2019 for 2020
A call out parents who would like to take a role in helping our school grow and develop for the future. If you would like to be on our parent representative body that helps with decision making please send an email to office.sjv@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Have a great week.

Peter Rodda

Principal