Dear Parents and Carers

"There is a close link between the hope of a people and harmony between the generations.  The joy of children makes their parents' hearts leap and opens up the future.  children are the joy of the family and of society" Pope Francis

At St John Vianney's, the focus is always our children and what we can do to make their educational journey a positive experience.  We can only do this with parents help.  Thank you to all our mums, dads, grandparents and helpers who work with the school to make sure our students are the best that they can be.

Canteen - CLOSED TOMORROW

I have just finished talking with our Canteen Manager who believes that the change of lunch times that started this week has had a huge impact on the canteen's ability to get all lunch orders out on time.  I have attached our current roster to this newsletter and as it stands, there are hardly any gaps, thanks to parents placing their hands up and offering to help.

The need now is to have people place themselves on certain days as "back-up" volunteers, who can help if called upon.  You may never be called.

If a parent cannot make a session, then the 'back-up' volunteer will be the first person they try to fill the gap.  We are hoping that this new system will make the canteen's role an easier one.

Year 5 Parents - Graduation Help Needed

Karen Wilder has volunteered to be the event coordinator for the Year 6 Graduation.  This will be a slightly different Graduation with Covid 19 Rules applying, such as seated dining with no indoor canapes and all meals being served directly to tables.  Karen has already organised many areas - catering, disco, invitations.  There is still however a great need for volunteers, especially on the night as more servers will be needed this year due to the Covid 19 restrictions.  I have listed areas below that will still need completing and Karen would like to assemble a team to have a Grad meeting next week.  Could you please contact her using the email address below.  An email to Year 5 parents will also be sent out on Monday for those who might miss this week's Newsletter.

•  Help on the night - Servers will be needed
• Logistics - Table pick up etc
• Courtyard clean up (Whipper snipper, garden beds etc.)
• Hall set-up
• Seating plan
• Lolly Bar design
• Photo Booth organisation

Karen's email is s.k.wilder@bigpond.com 

School Fees

A reminder that if your family circumstances have changed either due to Covid 19 or for some other unrelated reason then you should make an appointment to see me in regard to fee concession or fee relief.  As a small school, we treat all our families as individuals and know that circumstances change.  Please do not wait until you are under enormous stress, make an appointment to see me if needed.

Next Level Writing Competition Winners

Congratulations to Kaelan (Yr.5) and Alyssa (Yr.6) who won an Archdiocesan competition. Kaelan and Alyssa were the winners from our school and their writing is going to be published in an anthology with the winners from the other schools.  The school will get a copy of the anthology for our library and Alyssa and Kaelan will get a copy each.  Well done SJV!

Classroom Contacts for 2021 needed.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank the parents who placed their hand up this year to be Classroom Contacts.  Unfortunately, because of the pandemic, there was not much happening in the way of events in 2020.

A Class Contact role can include:

• Welcoming new families to our school after being notified of their arrival by the front office.
• Organising help for a family in need.
• Organising a student event like hot chocolate and afternoon play or soccer after school for their grade level.

These type of fun activities need not be large or often.  One event a semester is enough to enhance our wonderful community and keep parents in contact with each other, something very much need for everyone after this year.  If you can help in this area for 2021, it would be very much appreciated.

Covid Guidelines

Whilst it seems that Australia is managing the pandemic now what is occurring in Europe and America with their second waves reminds us that we need to be vigilant in handwashing, sanitising, social distancing and following guidelines.  As such, I would like to thank our community for social distancing after school to help keep our community safe.

School Mega Raffle - Now available on Qkr!

Sometimes parents and teachers prefer to buy raffle books for themselves.  To make this easier, we have now placed a raffle book purchase on Qkr!. After paying on the App, you can then send in your raffle book that has been marked with - 'Paid on Qkr'!. We are hoping that this 'tap and go' feature will make things easier for our parents.

Stay safe and God bless.

Peter Rodda

Principal 

With Sharee Thomas 

All Saints Sunday

Saints are sometimes regarded as ‘Catholic superheroes’. Stories of miraculous and remarkable deeds abound, though more in the vein of conversions and cures than speeding bullets and tall buildings. But to get caught up on the Saints of the stained glass windows is to overlook the vast majority of saints. You see, a saint is anybody whose soul is in heaven. The Church celebrates a certain number of Saints whose lives provide a glimpse of God for the rest of the Church. But there are many, many more saints whose glimpse of God was only ever experienced by their family, friends and those with whom they worked. The feast of ALL Saints is an opportunity to remember and reflect on the lives of those saints who’ve been known and loved by just a few and whose sphere of influence was such that they will never be recognised as Saints by the universal Church.

This Sunday's gospel, the Beatitudes, from the Sermon on the Mount describes perfectly those ‘lower case s’ saints we celebrate in this feast day. The Beatitudes are sometimes referred to in parallel with the Ten Commandments. However, the Beatitudes are not ‘rules’ or ‘instructions’ for life as the Commandments are. They are more in line with a strategy that today we would call ‘positive reinforcement’. They celebrate those who respond to God’s call through particular attitudes towards life and towards others. Jesus presents them to the disciples and the crowd as images to inspire imitation. They’re not hard and fast rules for life, but attitudes for life; the Be-Attitudes, so to speak. Those who live with these attitudes in this life are to be celebrated – ‘Happy are you’ – for they will be saints. They will be welcomed into communion with God in heaven.

 (Gospel Reflection by Greg Sunter)

MISSION MONTH- SIDE SHOW ALLEY

October every year is World Mission Month. During this time we are asked by the Church, and in conjunction with Catholic Mission, to  ‘Sock it to Poverty’ and reach out to give life.

This year our focus is Cambodia and The Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang, in Northwest Cambodia, who have been assisting people with disabilities for over 20 years. Bishop Enrique “Kike” Figaredo founded initiatives like the Arrupe Centre in 2001 to specifically help children with disabilities to access education, healthcare, and employment opportunities.

On Wednesday in the afternoon, our Year 6 students will be running our annual ‘Side Show Alley’ with lots of stalls and fun things to do in order to raise some much needed funds for the people of Cambodia.

Please remind your children to bring in their loose change (5c, 10c, 20c and 50c pieces) so they can participate in the fun.

Have a great week!

Our media Moguls this week - Dom and James interviewed the wonderful Mrs Mullamphy for this week's "Meet the Staff Member" 

Hello Mrs Mullamphy can you tell us a bit about yourself please.

What is your favourite sport/sports team? That would be AFL and I am a Geelong supporter

Do you have a favourite band? I enjoy listening to Bach baroque and Savage Garden

What are some of your hobbies? I love to garden, read, playing board games with my beautiful children and I love to act in musicals

Do you have any pets? No pets

What is your favourite food? I really love lollies and ice-cream because they taste yummy

Where did you go to primary school and what subject did you enjoy the most? I went to 6 primary schools in Canberra, Texas, Sale & Stockton. My favourite subject was maths and art. 
Interesting Mrs Mullamphy we thought your favourite subject would have been music? Back in those days, music wasn't taught however we did singing 

Why did you become a teacher? I hated school. Because of my experience at school, I wanted to make it better for other children

What inspires you and why? Nature, literature, people and God

Give us a joke!

I don't have a favourite joke as such but, I do like and have a laugh at tall stories

SJV Tuckshop is open Wednesday & Friday.  Orders can be made online via Qkr!  A copy of the Menu and Qkr! instructions can be found on the Tuckshop Webpage.

NEW TUCKSHOP HOURS ARE FROM 11:OOAM TO 1:30PM
Please remember to bring your WWVP card with you.

Tuckshop Volunteers Needed

What's coming up and when:

Working Bee - ELC will be holding a working bee on Sunday 9 August from 10-12.  If you have a spare hour or two we would appreciate your assistance in tidying up our garden and outside space.  Jobs include spreading bark, weeding, tidying storage sheds and organising resources.  Please bring gardening tools such as shovels, wheel burrows and any other tools that could help.

Emails - If you did not receive an email from gabrielle.stitt@cg.catholic.edu.au on 28th July please drop in to the ELC office or email the email address that you would like added.

Spare Jumpers - If you are requiring a spare ELC jumper, please drop into the ELC office with a gold coin between 9:10-2:50 as we have some second hand jumpers looking for a new home.

Allergy Action plan and Medication updates - If your child’s medical requirements have changed please let the ELC office know ASAP.

Little Book Swap - Thank you to Mrs M for organising and the Orders family for donating the mini library that is located near the main entrance of the ELC.  If you have a book that you would like to share with our local community, please place it inside the Little Book Swap. Why not sit down and enjoy a book?

Unwell children - All unwell children need to stay home. 

Covid adjustments - As always the health and safety of children comes first. We will continue all adjustments that we have made due to Covid until further notice.  We miss having you inside our environment!  The team are looking at possible ways of how we can share our environment with you in the coming weeks.  From the family reflection sheets, we note that families prefer current drop off process.

ELC Fees - Thank you to families who have resumed normal fee payment. A friendly reminder that fees for weeks 3 and 4 are due - Friday 31 July. As always, if you have any queries about your account or if you are experiencing difficulties due to Covid-19, please get in touch with the ELC office as soon as possible.