Term 1, Week 9 2023

Hello Friends

It’s fair to say that Autumn has made its presence felt this week and the leaves on our trees are just beginning to change colour.

School life has been full over the past couple of weeks and there are still many activities and events to look forward to. Thank you for your support of school events and activities.

Sports Day
I say thanks to all our families who came and supported our Sports Day teams and thanks to our families who were cheering from home and work. The weather was very kind to us and I also extend a thanks to the Parents and Friends Committee for organising the food and beverage vans. Special thanks to Bec’s Bakehouse for donating the doughnuts for Sports Day. We had a fantastic Sports Day 2023 and congratulations to:

St Patrick for winning the Jim Murphy Spirit Cup and St Francis on winning the Sports Day Cup

I also extend a huge congratulations to our Sports Day Captains for leading their teams on the day with valour, vigour, enthusiasm and sportspersonship skills.

• St Therese: Samuel Toll and Atticus Petersen
• St Patrick: Matildah Partridge and Kyah Clark
• St Francis: Jenson Osobase-Kelb and Krisala Gautam

Easter Raffle
We look forward to the Easter Raffle and say a big thank you to everyone for their donations. Thank you to the Parent and Friends group for coordinating the raffle prizes. The Easter Raffle draw will be conducted at 2.50pm on 31 March in the Courtyard - or the Hall if the weather is inclement. You are invited to join us for the draw. See you there.

Holy Week
This extremely important and sacred week in our school year takes place from Monday 3 April. We ask that easter eggs etc are not brought into school for sharing until Tuesday 11 April- after Holy Week. This honours our Holy Week traditions and our Catholic Identity as a Catholic school.

Reception and Year 1 Phonics evening
Reception and Year 1 parents are invited to our Phonics evening on Wednesday 5 April. Please see additional information in the newsletter

Term 1 Conclusion Date
Term 1 concludes on 14 April. We celebrate Crazy Hair Day on the final day of school and students are asked to donate an item of non-perishable food. This will go towards our Care Pantry for those families in our community who need assistance. This is a great way for our school community to help our school community members.

Goodness is about character - integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.

Dennis Prager

Thanks and Blessings
Matt Perry

Congratulations to all our Sports Day participants

1st Place St Francis

2nd Place St Patrick

3rd Place St Therese

Jim Murphy Award

1st Place St Patrick

2nd Place St Therese

3rd Place St Francis

History behind the Jim Murphy Award 

Mr Jim Murphy was a principal at Christ the King School in the 1990s. He was a very charismatic leader and was instrumental in establishing our current school emblem. 

Jim wanted our emblem to be a representation of the thriving school community working in partnership, just like we cannot have a rainbow in our sky consisting of only one colour on its own. A rainbow only appears with a variety of colours blending together. He also believed that it needed to represent the children in our school, hence the rainbow behind the cross on our emblem is a simple crayon drawing.

One of Jim's hopes for our school was to have a space in nature where we could all gather and so the rock amphitheatre was constructed.

Sadly, Jim Murphy passed away in 1997. His wife, Mrs Maureen Murphy unveiled the 'Jim Murphy Memorial' plaque in the amphitheatre. At that time, a "Jim Murphy Memorial Shield' was introduced for 'Team Spirit' (now a trophy) for our annual Sports Day.

In the coming fortnight our church will travel through Holy Week as we prepare for The Easter Triduum. The Easter Triduum is the formal name for the major events over the weekend:

Holy Thursday- Last Supper, Garden of Gethsemane/Arrest
Good Friday- Trial, way of the cross and death of Our Lord
Easter Sunday- Resurrection of Our Lord-

Holy Saturday evening however, is the mass that in a very dramatic way commemorates the Resurrection with prayer, story and fire.

Our students commemorate the journey here at school during the week. They do this through story and actions, culminating with our traditional staging of the Stations of the Cross by our senior students. On Thursday afternoon, after this solemn and moving staging out students and community members leave the silent setting and embark on their long weekend. As we return to school on Tuesday, student re-enter the hall to discover the empty stage and the realisation that Jesus has risen. This prayer service is accompanied with bright songs, clapping and joy. 

All members of the community are invited to experience the Stations of The Cross and those attending are asked to be seated in the Samaritan Hall by 2.30pm.

As a community we will continue the Season of Easter for a full 50 days. We will return the word ALLELUIA to our world and continue Friday prayer as we count down to the end of the season with the Feast of Pentecost.

Please refer to our parish mass times in the attached flier.

I wish all members of our community a safe and joyous Easter Season.

EASTER BUNNY AND EGGS
The commercialisation of Easter has eclipsed our religious observance for many years now. This makes talking about the bunny, chocolate and Jesus a tricky conversation. As a community we wait to share hollow eggs until after the Resurrection of Our Lord. To help explain why we wait our junior classes are using a book “Easter Bunny’s Amazing Day’, to tie the two major aspects together. The basic premise is that EB was around during Holy Week and ended up in the empty tomb. After the resurrection EB spends the future spreading the message of the resurrection by sharing hollow eggs (the hollow tomb). You may enjoy listening to the story with your children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr3wBLI6mxQ

SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION AND FIRST COMMUNION
In the next week each student who completed their Reconciliation preparation in 2022 will receive an enrolment form for the final Sacraments of Initiation- Confirmation and First Communion. These forms can be return to myself or the parish.

If your child prepared in 2021 or while attending a different school and are in Yr5/6, forms can be collected from my office.

Teresa Pascoe

Assistant Principal
(APRIM Assistant Principal Religious Identity and Mission)

PREMIERS READING CHALLENGE
All forms have now been distributed and students can now commence recording their reading. Checking books, ideas and spare forms can be found on the PRC website.https://premiersreadingchallenge.sa.edu.au/

Closing Day 7th July- Last Day of Term 2

CYBERSAFETY

In our ongoing series of informing our community today I have included a page on Password Safety.  I encourage you to have a conversation with your family about safe passwords and the mantra-‘Easy to remember- Hard to guest’.

During the introduction to Password safety in Year 2 the students watch a video about how easy it can be to discover someone’s password. I invite you to watch it and have a conversation with your children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opRMrEfAIiI

Teresa Pascoe
Teacher/Librarian

If you would like to attend our Phonics Parent Information Night an RSVP form will be available on Skoolbag tomorrow.  If you reqiure creche for your children there will also be a creche RSVP.

Our Receptions and Year 1s are currently using the Phonics Program and Year 2s will begin in Term 2.  Please see flyer below with information about the night. 

Please note our Uniform Shop will be closed on Friday 31st of March

With the exclusion of the above date opening hours are

Tuesday afternoons 2.30pm - 3.30pm and Friday mornings 8.30am - 9.30am during school term or order at http://www.belgraviaapparelschools.com/collections/christ-the-king-school