Week 8 Update

Good afternoon parents,

It has been a lovely last couple of weeks preparing those students who will be receiving Eucharist for this first time this coming weekend. 

The children have been absolutely amazing and have made this time such a joy! 

I am very much looking forward to celebrating this special occasion with our Year 4DEL candidates and their families on Sunday 27th March!

A few quick reminders for Sunday...

Candidates (and families) are to come dressed in their Sunday best - white or light coloured clothing is most appropriate for this occasion as white symbolises that purity and being transformed.

If you are unsure about your child's outfit - please feel free to send through a photo and I can let you know.

• Please make sure that you are seated in your assigned seat by 8.15am. Getting there a few minutes before will allow time for a few photos outside and to get yourselves checked in through the SAFE WA App.
• Please make sure that you are wearing a mask at all times.
• A reminder that there is only room for immediate family in the pews - there is plenty of seating at the back and upstairs. Families are limited to a number of 10, including the candidate.
• You will be invited up as a family to receive the Eucharist with Fr Ian giving it to the candidate first. He will then offer it you, if you do not wish to receive the sacrament, please indicate this by crossing your arms over your chest .
• Your child has been instructed on how to approach the sanctuary when your turn comes, you will move up on to the sanctuary and wait until it is your child's turn.

If you can please make sure that upon arrival you are mindful of noise, this is a joyful occasion of course but we want to maintain the reverent nature of the event.

Similarly, when the time for Eucharist comes, please be mindful of maintaining a silent and reverent manner - we want each child to feel special in this moment!

Steps for Receiving Eucharist:

1. Approach Fr Ian with your right hand cupped underneath your left. Be mindful of not being too close or too far away and your hands are at an appropriate height.
2. Fr Ian will raise the host and say "Body of Christ" to which you will respond "Amen".
3. He will then place the host into your palm, gently place the host into your mouth and make the sign of the cross.
4. If you as a parent wish to receive a blessing, simply approach Fr Ian with your arms across your chest.
5. Once all members have received either Eucharist or a blessing, you will then return to your seat. 
6. You will then kneel down to say a small prayer in silence.

Other reminders for this coming week...

Easter Egg Raffle - As one of the many amazing initiatives of the P&F we are collecting donations of Easter eggs to be used to create baskets to be raffled off! 

If you can please bring these in by the end of next week to allow them to be all put together that would be great!

Please check in with your child to make sure that they brought home raffle tickets for you to purchase - the office has spares if you missed out or would like some more!

World Down Syndrome Day - As a school community we will come together to share this day to celebrate our uniqueness.

Students are asked to wear crazy socks on Monday 21st March and bring a gold coin donation. Thank you for your support of this amazing initiative!

Class Mass - As part of our preparations for Eucharist, we will be gathering as a group on Wednesday to share a small liturgy to wish our candidates the very best for the weekend!

Week 8 Character Strength - Honesty

When you are honest, you speak the truth. You present yourself in a genuine and sincere way, without pretense, and taking responsibility for your feelings and actions.

You are a person of integrity — you are who you say you are — and you act consistently across all areas of your life rather than being one way in the community and a completely different way in your family. 

You are consistently true to yourself.

Honesty allows people to take responsibility for their feelings and behaviours, owning them, and reaping benefits by doing so. 

Award Winner - I would like to congratulate Oscar on being our award winner for this week...a very deserving recipient!

OUR LEARNING - WEEK 7 & 8...

We began working on our character descriptions last week using the notorious Avengers bad guy Thanos...he provided a great number of talking points that we as a class could use to create a description of him!

This week the students will begin writing their own character descriptions for a character of their choice - they will work on these all week and then publish!

In maths we have finalised our unit on measurement and are now moving into looking at odd and even numbers, reading and writing whole numbers and place value. 

In health we are going to look at the next part important element of keeping ourselves healthy which ties perfectly into our Friendology work about being a part of healthy friendships by making sure that we know what we need in a friendship!

In spelling we are looking at the sound below:

fish is most frequently represented by the grapheme f (e.g. fun, after, leaf). 

We usually use ff after short vowel sounds at the end of single-syllable words (e.g. off, puff).

The grapheme ph can represent fish (e.g. phone, graph). Words containing ph for fish usually originate from Greek. 

The grapheme gh represents fish in a small set of words, usually at the end of words (e.g. laugh, enough).

A reminder that all resources can be found on One Note in our Spelling section!

Wishing you all a fantastic week 8, I hope you all stay happy and healthy!

Mrs Delane