Dear Parents, Carers, Staff and Students,

Last Thursday we had the opportunity to celebrate our St Anthony’s Feast Day with a beautiful Mass. In the absence of Fr Peter who is visiting his homeland of Vietnam, Fr Paul gave so generously of his time to celebrate the Mass. As a Catholic community, this is one of the greatest gifts we can give our children, the gift of attending Mass and celebrating  the blessed Eucharist. It is always so pleasing to hear visitors to our school community speak so impressively about the reverence and prayerfulness of the students. As I said to Fr Paul “you wouldn’t experience a more catholic gathering …” whilst the sound of Mass was occurring in the school hall, outside the smell of sausages provided us all with a level of anticipation.

The feast day activities on Thursday reminded us all of the joy of belonging to such an inclusive and supportive community. I would like to acknowledge the support of the parent community who set up and organised the cooking of the sausage sizzle for the students. This is a lovely tradition that the students look forward to.

This weekend we come together as a Parish community to pray for and celebrate with our students in Year Three and other children within the St Anthony’s Parish community, who are making their First Holy Communion. Mass times will be Saturday 22 June at the Vigil 5:00pm and Sunday 23 June at 9:30am. Everyone is most welcome.

The word communion means to be united with; Catholics believe that in Holy Communion we are united in a special way with Jesus Christ. During this week I invite you to take a moment to pray for our First Holy Communicants:

Lord Jesus,

Bless the children coming forward to receive Holy Communion for the first time. May it be an initial step into a life-long love of the Eucharist.

Give them a hunger for this sacred food so that they turn to you for comfort, guidance, and wisdom as they grow into full discipleship.

Thank you for their innocence and goodness.

May their hands, extended in anticipation of your Body and Blood, inspire all of us to cherish this sacred sacrament.

Amen.

Take Care

Mr Justin Devlin

Principal

Our Semester One (Terms One & Two) written reports for this year are able to be assessed via the Compass Parent Portal for students in years One to Six on Friday 21 June from 9:00am. There is also an opportunity to book in an interview time to see your child’s class teacher via the compass portal, to discuss their progress. Interviews will occur in Week Nine and we would strongly encourage each parent to take the time to have an interview to discuss the progress of your child’s learning. The only reports that will be printed will be for our Year Five students who may need them for High School applications.

For Kindergarten there is no written report. The Kindergarten teachers will provide the opportunity for parents to have an interview regarding your child’s progress.

A letter regarding Semester One reports will be sent home via the compass portal, on Thursday out-lining in greater detail the context of our school reports.

Listed below are some important dates for Term 2.

Grade Mass 

Year 1 will celebrate Mass on Friday 21 June at 9:30 am in Picton Church.

Assembly

Our next school assembly will be led by Kindergarten on Friday 28 June at 2.15 pm

AWARDS

Congratulations to the following students who will receive an award at assembly on Friday 28 June for being a great learner and wonderful community member.

I would like to extend a very warm welcome to Khloe Sutton (Yr5R) and her faimily to St Anthony's. We hope Khole enjoyed her first day and wish her all the best for her time here. 

Congratulations to all the students who received the St Anthony's Feast Day Awards for their Service to do good for others.

The word "alopecia" means hair loss. Alopecia Areata is an auto-immune disease that results in hair loss on the scalp and body. It can range from small, individual patches to total loss of hair on the bady. Alopecia most commonly presents during childhood and there is currently no cure.

Laticia Moutos (Yr4B) is raising money as well as cutting her own hair and donating it to the Alopecia Foundation where it will be made into a wig for kids  with Alopecia. Your donation can make a differance, for as little as

• $5- $25 will help with classroom discussion resources and support groups.
• $400 will help a family purchase a wig for their child.
• $500 helps towards finding a cure.

If you would like to support Laticia to reach her goal please click on the link below

Congratulations to Emily Axiak (Yr3) who has been selected to represent NSW at the 2019 Australian Artistic Roller Skating Championships. The Championships are being held in Queensland from 29 June - 5 July. We wish Emily all the very best.

Congratulations to Elissabeth McGuire (Yr6) who came 15th in the MacKillop Cross Country Trials and 1st with a 'Personal Best' in the Diocese under 12 year girls. This is a great achievement and well done.

The Vinnies Sleepout provides an opportunity to highlight the great tragedy of homelessness and its impact of this on the well-being of over 250 000 Australians including over 15 000 children under the age of 12. 

This year Ken Bryant has registered as the CEDoW representative in the Wollongong Vinnies Sleepout. Ken will be representing all staff within our educational community.

If you would like to donate to this wonderful cause please click on the link below.