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Dear Parents and Carers,
I begin by saying a belated Happy Mother’s day to the Mothers, Grandmothers and Mother figures in our community. I hope you enjoyed a relaxing day last Sunday and were well looked after by your families.
I would like to express my deepest thanks to each of you for your support and loyalty to the school, during what has been a challenging time for you and your families. You have been fantastic in supporting your child/ren with their learning during this period. Staff have been magnificent in the way they have adapted to provide a remote learning program in such a short period of time. We all became teachers to work with children and have really missed our daily interactions with them. We have missed their constant energy, humour, laughter and the joy they give each of us. We are very excited to have the students return to us next Monday 18th May. All students are invited to return to school next Monday 18th May.
As we prepare to have the children return to school for face-to-face teaching, it is essential that measures relating to personal hygiene and the health and safety of all members of our community are known and understood.
Below is some clear information on the arrangements and measures based on the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) guidelines, which aim to establish, where reasonably possible, best practice in relation to health and hygiene at schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We hope this will give you confidence in your child’s return to school and assist you in supporting the staff as we welcome students back into classrooms.
Extra hygiene and safety practices in place for when the children return to school:
- Increased cleaning schedules and resources onsite during the school day to wipe down and disinfect high-touch areas, including classrooms and common spaces, in addition to regular daily cleaning.
- Provision of extra hand sanitiser across the school.
- Provision of extra hand soap for children to wash their hands frequently, particularly before and after recess and lunch time.
- Frequent reminders to ensure children are practising good personal hygiene. This means, covering mouths and noses when coughing and sneezing or coughing and sneezing into inner elbow, frequent hand washing, not sharing food or drinks and minimising physical contact.
- Please ensure your child brings a water bottle and pencil case (if they have one) to school each day.
- Our school playground equipment and bubblers will continue to remain closed for the foreseeable future.
- No child is to attend school if they are showing any cold or flu-like symptoms. They must remain at home, and stay away from school until they are no longer showing symptoms or have attended a GP who has instructed that they are fit and safe to return.
- If your child, or family members or other close contacts are tested for COVID-19, your child is not to attend school until the results of those tests are known and are negative. Please advise the school if this situation occurs.
- If your child has a medical condition that places them at greater risk from a return to face-to-face teaching at this time, please contact their teacher so that we can discuss their needs in greater detail and develop an appropriate plan for their circumstances.
- We are attempting to minimise the number of adults coming onto the premises to reduce the possible risk of COVID-19 transmission. Please make appointments ahead of time and if possible, telephone or use email as the preferred method of contact with your child’s teacher or staff member.
- PICK UP AND DROP OFF ARRANGEMENTS - if dropping your child to school by private vehicle, please say goodbye to your child at the front door or the gates (next to the carpark) in the morning. In the afternoons, please park at the Church carpark and wait in your car until the end of day bell has gone. Once the bell has gone teachers will walk the students to the double gate next to the carpark. Please wait outside the gate. There will be markings on the ground to show you where to stand and your child/ren will walk over to you as you reach the front of the line. Strict social distancing measures will be in place, as we want to avoid social clustering.
- At this stage, there will be no assemblies or large gatherings of students for the remainder of this term. An exception to this is any evacuation or emergency procedure that may be required. (Fire alarm etc.)
- If your intention is to keep your child at home please contact their teacher so that we can discuss their needs in greater detail and develop an appropriate learning plan for their circumstances. Online learning will be available for students to complete at home and will be provided through the current platforms (Seesaw and Google Classrooms). Face to face online conferences and daily online check-ins will cease from the 18th May.
- After 18th May, if a situation arises where it is deemed not safe by health authorities for students or staff to be onsite, we will be able to move back to our comprehensive remote learning program as required.
- If you intend to keep your child at home please email the school on the following email address Rachel.Smith@cg.catholic.edu.au
I again thank you for your ongoing support of our school. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you would like any further clarification on any of these matters.
I continue to keep your family and the wider community in my prayers.
God bless.
Rachel Smith
Principal
Enrolment period
Enrolment period began last week and continues until the 22nd May. This is the time to enrol children for high school, primary school and preschool. If you would like to enrol a sibling into Kinder next year please send an email to the Front Office or complete the online enrolment form https://cg.catholic.edu.au/parents/enrolment/ . At this stage there will be no Open days or Open evenings occurring in schools, but I do encourage you to make contact with your prospective schools via email.
Winter Uniform
Just a reminder that when school returns students will be wearing full winter uniform. Please contact the Front Office should you need items from the second hand uniform shops. Attached is copy of the School Uniform Policy.
Late Arrivals
We ask that all students arriving at school after 9am be signed in at the Front Office by a parent or appropriate caregiver. Thank you for your support with this.
Water Bottles
Due to COVID 19 the school water bubblers are currently closed. Could you please ensure your child brings with them a water bottle each day with their name clearly marked on it.
St Vincent de Paul Night Patrol
During this challenging time our friends at St Vincent de Paul are trying their best to continue to provide services to the vulnerable in our community. However due to COVID-19 they have experienced a significant decline in vital winter clothing donations. St Vincent de Paul are still accepting donations and are following quarantine procedures to ensure that these items are safe for distribution. We understand that we had planned our annual St Benedict’s Winter Woollies Day for Term 3, but considering there is a current urgent need for donations we are encouraging all of our St Benedict’s families to do a clean out of their wardrobes to donate unwanted winter clothing. Of course donations of new clothing items are also welcomed. The Night Patrol Van is specifically seeking the following items in adult sizes:
- Jackets
- Gloves
- Sleeping bags
- Blankets
- Beanies
- Socks
- Scarves
These items should be donated directly to St Vincent de Paul Warehouse (32 Buckland St, Mitchell ACT) and on depositing these items you should let the volunteers know that you would like your donations to go specifically to the Night Patrol. Alternatively, you can make a financial donation online https://donate.vinnies.org.au/donation-hub
Thank you for your continued support.
Prayer for the Homeless
Hear our prayer today for all who are homeless this day.
For those sleeping under bridges, on park benches, in doorways or bus stations.
For those who can only find shelter for the night but must wander in the daytime.
For families broken because they could not afford to pay the rent.
For those who have no relatives or friends who can take them in.
For those who have no place to keep possessions that remind them who they are.
For those who are afraid and hopeless.
For those who have been betrayed by our social safety net.
For all these people, we pray that you will provide shelter, security and hope.
We pray for those of us with warm houses and comfortable beds
that we not be lulled into complacency and forgetfulness.
Jesus, help us to see your face in the eyes of every homeless person we meet.
Empower us to work for justice and peace through words and deeds,
and through the political means we have.
Give us open hearts to greet and meet the homeless people in our neighbourhoods.
in your name we pray. Amen.
(Leading in Worship: Prayers https://carolpenner.typepad.com/leadinginworship/prayers-congregational/)
A few important dates to note for this term are:
Enrolment Period - 27th April - 22nd May 2020
24 May Feast Day, Mary Help Of Christians
25 May Sorry Day
27 May Simultaneous Story Time 11.00am
1 June Reconciliation Day - Public Holiday
2 June P& F Meeting 7.00pm
8 June Queens Birthday - Public Holiday
9 June School Board Meeting 6.00pm
9 June Combined School Board and P&F Meeting 6.30pm
9 June P&F Meeting 7.00pm
27 June Semester 1 Reports sent home
2 July End of Term 2
20 July Commencement of Term 3
All Friday afternoon and morning assemblies will be cancelled until further notice.
The following note has gone home this week and will be sent home via Schoolzine App.
- Return to school week 4
School Fees
Thank you to all the families that have asked about school fees. School Fees will be sent home next week, week 4 as per the Catholic Education Directors request.
If you have any questions regarding fees, please do not hesitate to contact Belinda in the Front Office.
100th birthday milestone!
Tessa's GREAT Grandmother turns 100 today!
Tessa and her grandmother have been busy in recent times preparing a 100th birthday card for Tessa's GREAT grandmother, Paola Ceppa, who lives in Melbourne.
Nanna Ceppa was born in Italy in a rural district called Santilario, about 10km from Genoa. She came to Australia by large ship in 1954 with her husband and Tessa's grandmother and siblings. Happy 100th birthday Nanna Ceppa from all at St Benedict's. What a wonderful achievement!
Happy birthday to the children who celebrate their special day this week: Nyx H, Lachlan S and Ava dM.
The school P&F meeting has been postponed until week 6 of this term. We hope to see as many new and familiar faces in our week 6 meeting as possible. W
e hope to move forward planning a number of small events for the remainder of the year.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our normal school clothing pool processes are not in place. If you need uniform, please email the school or contact Mrs McRae with a list of items required. We will endeavour to fill your order and reply to you as soon as possible.
Due to current circumstances all clothes in lost property will be emptied and clothing will be washed and returned to the clothing pool. All other items will be thrown out as charities are not accepting any donations at this time.
PLEASE ENSURE YOUR CHILD/REN'S CLOTHING IS LABELLED WITH THEIR NAME.
The Tuckshop will be closed for the foreseeable future. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. We will let you know when it will be re-opening.
Thank you for your understanding.
St Benedict's Parish
Office Hours: Tuesday to Friday 9am to 12noon
Phone: 62957879
Email: narrabundah@cg.org.au
Web: www.cg.org.au/narrabundah
Parish Team:
Fr Dan Benedetti MGL
Fr Rembert Fernando MGL
Fr Baiju Thomas MGL
Monica Nulley-Valdes (Parish Secretary)
Dear St Benedict’s community,
St Benedict’s Live Stream Masses
Facebook Page: “St Benedict’s Church and Mission Centre Canberra”
Tues, Wed, Thurs 5:30pm
Sat 8am
Sun 10am
Daily Mass from the Archdiocese is available online at https://www.catholicvoice.org.au/mass-online/ .
If you would like to have email updates from St Benedict’s Parish, please contact narrabundah@cg.org.au . Be assured of our prayers for the whole St Benedict’s community at this time. Please keep safe and if anyone would like to contact Father Dan, he is available through the Parish or through the school.
St Benedict, pray for us.
God Bless
Fr Dan Benedetti MGL PP
Parish Priest
St Benedict's Catholic Community Narrabundah ACT
As the ACT Government has just announced that ACT Government Schools will go pupil free from Tuesday 24/03/2020 due to COVID-19, Bellchambers Music School hasfore made the decision not to provide piano lessons at Schools tomorrow in order to allow the classroom teachers optimum time to prepare their class without disruption from music lessons.
We have informed all affected families, and will be in touch with each of them again in the next few days to arrange for the children to have their piano lessons online with their usual teacher and at the same day and time if possible, and their postponed lesson from tomorrow made-up.
This is a time of unprecedented and fast-moving changes any many unknowns for the near future. We at Bellchambers Music School want to assure you that whatever happens, we will be here making music with your school families. Our teachers are committed to providing music lessons to your children.
Depending on the situation with the schools, we will be continuing to offer our school families lessons in Term 2 in the school if they are open, or through the online environment, if they are closed. As with all small businesses, both the admin staff and the teachers at Bellchambers Music School are deeply concerned about the future. We want to be there for you and hope that you will continue to support us as we make music with your students in these very difficult times and into the future.
Many thanks,
Bronwen and Rachel
Bellchambers Music School
62816270
www.bellchambersmusicschool.com.au
Just advising that the opening hours for Savvy Tuggeranong have changed to the following. The below changes to opening times will be taking effect
week commencing 4 May 2020.
Uniform will continue to be available online via https://www.savvyschoolwear.com.au/schoolwear/school and is the preferred method of purchase.
We are still encouraging families to purchase online but would also like to encourage families to call ahead to ensure the store is open and availability of uniform.
Savvy Tuggeranong current opening hours
Monday 11am to 4pm
Tuesday 11am to 4pm
Friday 11am to 4pm
Saturday 10am to 2pm
Sunday Closed
Thanking you and stay safe,
Justin Newcombe
ACT/NSW Account Manager
P: 0499 056 234
E: justinnewcombe@lowessavvy.com.au
Shop 37 Homeworld, Soward Way, Tuggeranong ACT 2900
