Dear Parents and Friends,

This coming Sunday is the Feast of Christ the King. “In 1925 Pope Pius XI decided it was time to throw down the gauntlet to the hostile powers of the world. He established the feast of Christ the King to let the world know where ultimate authority lay. Nearly a century later the religious and secular politics of the world have changed radically, yet we still dare to claim that love conquers all, and none have loved and ever will love like Jesus Christ. This is the power that reaches deep into our hearts and extends to the farthest reaches of the universe. This is the kingdom of Christ, as the preface declares: an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.” (From Break Open the Word.)

Given the many hostile events that continue to take place around the globe, it is important to be people of peace ourselves, to pray for peace and to reflect on and celebrate this feast with faith in the words of the Our Father – “Thy Kingdom Come”.

Classes for 2022 - FINAL NOTICE

The process of allocating children to classes for 2022 has begun. The allocations are based on the following considerations:

• Friendships
• Learning abilities
• Balance of gender
• Behavioural considerations
• Personalities
• Religion – so that a balance of Catholic and non-Catholic children is achieved especially in Sacramental years.

As part of the process of allocating children to classes, the children are given the opportunity to nominate 5 friends with whom they would like to share a class next year. They are guaranteed to have at least one of these friends with them. These nominations are based purely on friendship and not on any other factors and are the child’s decision to make. The ‘Friendship 5’ lists will be completed by the children at a suitable time, in class, during this term.

My firm belief is that teachers are in the best position to decide a child’s placement because they know all the children in their classes and have a view of the ‘big picture’. However, I invite parents to inform me of anything that you feel needs to be considered, for your own child’s well-being or development. I have allowed 3 weeks’ time in which to notify me of your concerns, in writing – there are now only 2 days remaining. After the cut-off date of Friday 19^thNovember, it will not be possible to take further wishes into account.

Information needs to be provided each year as circumstances can change. I will do my best to accommodate your wishes but will not promise anything! Please be aware that requests for particular teachers will NOT be considered.

Messages between Parents and Students

Please be aware that the school has a duty of care for students whilst they are on school grounds and that any messages between parents and students must go via the front office. It is important, for safety reasons, that the school is aware of arrangements for students. Students are not permitted to use their devices whilst on school grounds to message their parents directly nor are they permitted to receive messages directly from parents. To ensure cyber safety, no child is allowed to be on a device (this includes phones) on school grounds without teacher permission. Before and after school, students can use their devices before arriving and after leaving school grounds, such as on the school bus, in the car or on their way as they walk home as long as parental permission has been granted.

Staffing News

The 2022 school year will see us welcome two new members of staff to the school; in addition to Mr Rob Read as previously announced. Following successful panel interviews, Mr Christopher Evans and Mrs Karen Green have been appointed to classroom teaching positions. I’m sure that the community will embrace the new members of staff from the outset and that they will feel part of the Rosary family in no time at all.

Year 6 Graduation

The 2021 Year 6 Graduation will be held on Tuesday 14^th December at the Ainslie Football Club.

We are looking forward to celebrating this year’s Graduation with the Yr 6 students and their parents and hope that the occasion will be remembered with fondness in the years to come.

Candy Canes & Christmas Cards

At this time of the year, children like to give one another candy canes and Christmas cards; which is a lovely thing to do. However, we ask children to place cards into their bags as soon as they receive them so that they don’t become lost and we ask them to take the candy canes home to eat. We inform the children that it is not appropriate to eat candy canes at school for a few reasons:

• Parents provide certain foods and expect that their children will eat these foods and not fill up on ‘other’ things
• Parents need to know what their children are eating
• The school discourages consumption of foods containing high levels of sugar, colourings and preservatives for health reasons
• Some children may have allergies to certain foods
• The wrappers are often hard to peel off the cane, coming away in ‘bits and pieces’ which often don’t find their way to the bin and thus create a litter problem.

I ask that you also speak with your children about these things and ask them to bring candy canes and cards home so that you can see what they have received. Many thanks.

2022 Start of School Date

The 2022 school year will begin on Monday 31^st January for all students, Kindergarten to Year 6. The school day will start at 9.00am for students in Years 1 to 6. Kindergarten students will start at 9.30am on the first day only. Every day following will begin at 9.00am. The day will end at 3.00pm for students who catch a bus and at 3.10pm for all others. Kindergarten students will have a rest day at home for the first 3 Wednesdays of the term before starting full weeks at school in Week 4 (week beginning Monday 21^st February).

Thought for the week:

“It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

                        Acts 20

With so many things and events ‘lost to covid’ this year, we are very excited to announce that we have rescheduled our annual Scholastic Bookweek Bookfair and Dress-up day! We have negotiated for the Bookfair to run from Monday December 6 to Thursday December 9. The Bookfair will be held in the Library. More details about access will be given closer to the time. Many students have asked about if and when we will have our dress-up day; our virtual Bookweek just wasn’t the same!!! So…..we will have our annual dress-up as a book character day on the same Monday the Bookfair starts!

Please think about, or find, a costume that fits a book that can also be brought along to school on the day. We’ll keep reminding you in the coming weeks!!

We have sent out quite a few overdue notes which would have been received this week. We understand that many weeks have lapsed since our students had borrowed them. Please have a search at home and we will look here at school too.

Thank you so much to Sophia Lawson who very generously donated a trunk full of near-new chapter and picture books to our Library. Thank you Sophia - we will be super busy cataloguing your donations in the coming weeks!!

Sandy Vincent and Jodie Dawson

Congratulations to the following students who received a BEST Award:

Harriet Pavier
Ben Brooker
Indiana Balogh
Casey Ryall
Julian Montero
Hannah Scholfield
Eve Andonovski
Blake Butler
Sophie Hannaford
Emily Henderson-Allard
Thomas Attema
Therese Brooker
Isla Lane
Joseph Garreffa

Hayfever season has arrived with the weather being particularly windy and the pollen count high. We have had many children coming to the front office with hayfever symptoms. If your child is prone to hayfever please consider the treatment you would like them to receive. If you would like your child to be given hayfever medication please fill in a Request to Dispense Medication Form and provide the medication to be stored in the First Aid area. Parents will be contacted prior to any medication being administered. On particularly windy days you may like to consider treating your child before they attend school. 

The Request to Dispense Medication Form can be accessed via this link: Request to Dispense Medication and on the school website. 

Unfortunately, there are still a large number of parents that are yet to log in to the Parent Portal. Currently just over half of the accounts have recorded a login.

If you have not already logged in, we ask that all parents log in to the Parent Portal as soon as possible to verify details.

Every parent has been sent an email with their login details. If you did not receive the email, please contact the school.

Login emails have been re-sent today for accounts that have not yet logged in.

Please direct all enquiries regarding the Parent Portal to the front office. office.rosaryps@cg.catholic.edu.au

When logging in, you will be asked to confirm your email and phone number. If they are incorrect, please update them.

You will then be asked to change your password.

Please note that it is recommended to use the desktop version for greater functionality.

Please do not share your login details with anybody. Each parent has their own login which provides them access to their child’s records and their own email and phone numbers only.

Please note that all absences should now be notified via the Parent Portal. You will also need to log in to Parent Portal to view reports at the end of the Term.

Due to current restrictions, there are limited events planned for the following two weeks. Updates will be provided once known if we can proceed with previously postponed events.

• Year 6 Confirmation - Friday 26th November
• Kinder 2022 Orientation - Wednesday 1 December 2021

If your child is absent from school, please submit details of the absence via the Parent Portal. This should be completed within 7 days of the absence.

Please note that Schoolzine absence notifications are no longer functional.

Unexplained absences for your child will be displayed on your homepage when you log in to Parent Portal.

If an unexplained absence appears that you believe to be incorrect, please send an email to the front office for investigation.

It’s a wrap for this year’s Floriade community garden at Rosary

Now that Floriade has concluded, this update covers the close out of the Bee Inspired displays.

A big thanks goes out to the Year 6 Students, teachers and Holy Rosary Catholic Church volunteers who assisted with the Bee displays. I’d also like to thank Olivia and the team from Red Box Design Group for an inspirational design concept. Floriade organisers have provided a certificate of appreciation for our participation in this year’s event, which I’m sharing with you (attached).

Unfortunately during ACT’s Covid-19 lockdown period we couldn’t continue with an ACT for Bees educational presentation for the students but that didn’t stop the public from enjoying the Bee inspired garden beds. While tending to the garden beds over a weekend I was approached by an elderly lady who commented on how beautiful the garden displays were and that “the tulips are a delight to see” on her walk.   On another week, while tending to the Bee at the Church I had a young couple give praise to the flowers from their car window saying “They look amazing. They should be there every year!”

Here is a link to a short drone video taken of the Bees from above of the displays and some pics attached.

What’s on the horizon for the Bees?

From this weekend the garden beds will be taken down and available for sale at a 50% discount. Click here to claim your garden bed. Bulbs will be made available for year 6 students to collect from the school. Some tulip bulbs will also be available for church volunteers to collect as well.

School banking will continue each Thursday until Week 10 of Term 4.

Unfortunately, school banking will not be returning in 2022 due to government restrictions.

Even though the CommBank School Banking program will not be returning after this year, you can continue to make deposits into your child’s Youthsaver account through online transfers or at any CommBank branch. If you need further information please phone 132 221 or visit your local CommBank branch.

The school counsellor, Jessica O'Rourke, is available every Monday and until 1pm on Friday.

You can refer your child for counselling by filling in a referral form available on Catholic Care’s website or follow this link: https://catholiccare.force.com/housing/s/school-referral-form

After you have filled out the referral form you will automatically be sent an email requesting your consent for your child to access the service. In the case of families where parents are separated, consent of both parents is normally required. If this is difficult for you please feel free to discuss with Jessica.

The Rosary Community Council Representatives for 2021 are:

Should you wish to contact the council please email: rosarycouncil@gmail.com

Old Watson High School Oval site.

Consultation on the proposed new inner north play space has just opened.

Transport Canberra and City Services is planning to upgrade the green space adjacent to Canberra Technology Park in Watson to provide a wider range of outdoor recreation opportunities for inner north residents (and visitors) of all ages and abilities. The proposed upgrade will feature a new play space and recreation park.

Residents are invited to help shape the future upgrade by telling us what recreation facilities and play equipment you would like considered. Children can have their say too by submitting a drawing or short story via our online kids’ corner.

For more information visit:

Inner north play space | YourSay ACT

https://yoursayconversations.act.gov.au/inner-north-play-space

Consultation closes Tuesday 14 December 2021.

The school year is divided into four terms. Term dates for the year 2021 are as follows:

Term 1 (9 weeks)     Monday 1 February - Thursday 1 April

Term 2 (10 weeks)   Tuesday 20 April - Friday 25 June (Monday 19 April is a system wide Pupil Free Day)

Term 3 (10 weeks)   Tuesday 13 July - Friday 17 September (Monday 12 July is a system wide Pupil Free Day)

Term 4 (11 weeks)   Tuesday 5 October – Friday 17 December