Mother's Day
Mother’s Day will be celebrated this coming Sunday, a time when we celebrate the special part Mothers and Grandmothers play in all our lives.
‘Mothers are the sweetest gift from God to us’.
There is no way we can ever really thank our Mothers for all they do for us, nevertheless we must make it a habit to keep reminding ourselves of the various sacrifices they make and the abundant and limitless love our Mothers give.
On behalf of the school, I take this opportunity to wish all the Mother’s and Grandma’s of the school a Happy Mother’s Day. I hope you have a very enjoyable and relaxing day and that you receive all of the love and spoils you deserve.
During the week the students have had the wonderful opportunity to visit the ‘Mother’s Day Stall’ and to pick a special gift or two to surprise their mums with. I thank the P&F for organising this and enabling the students to purchase a secret something for this Sunday.
Feast Day
Tuesday 10th May marks the Feast Day for our patron saint, St Damien of Molokai. We will be having a ‘Feast Day’ liturgy to start the day to mark this significant event. Later in the term we will be hosting a fund-raiser event where the money raised will be donated to the parish to support the ‘Leprosy Mission’.
School Closure
A reminder to parents that this Monday 9th May is a pupil free day. The school closure is for staff to engage in a Profession Learning Day focusing on the schools Vision for Learning’ document.
COVID Update
This week has seen the school move to ‘baseline settings’ for COVID-19 safety guidelines. It has been fantastic to see the return of parents into the school and permitted into classrooms where they have been able to view what has been happening in the spaces and assist students in their readiness for school.
Over the weekend correspondence was sent out to families summarising some of the important changes to the COVID-19 guidelines that impact the operations of the school. Catholic Education Western Australia (CEWA) has developed a summary document of these changes for parents, which has been distributed to all families via SEQTA, today, for your information.
With the easing of restrictions, it is expected that positive COVID-19 cases will continue to occur throughout the school, for some time. Whilst schools are not required to report positive cases or contact trace students to parents, I will continue to provide a summary of positive cases each day, not only as a matter of courtesy, but also it may assist parents in needing to conduct a COVID test on their child/children if they feel their child/children have come into contact with a positive case. For this summary to be accurate, I ask that parents continue to report all new positive cases on the school ‘Self Reporting App’, found on the homepage of the school’s website or on the link below:
Congratulations, Indiana!
Today, Indiana Chalwell was inducted as the Junior Mayor at the Mandurah Council Chambers. Indiana was voted into this position by her competing peers and has become the representative for the Mayoral Junior Council for Mandurah.
This is a fantastic achievement for Indiana and we know she will be amazing serving in this esteemed position.
Jackson Chamberlain (Head Boy) will also be joining her on the Junior Council, with their first task being to decide what the focus for the Council will be for the year.
2023 Enrolments
The enrolment period has begun for students beginning in 4-Year-Old Kindergarten for 2023. If you have a child who is eligible to begin 4-Year-Old Kindergarten next year, please ensure you complete and submit an enrolment form to the school office as soon as possible.
Siblings of currently enrolled students need to compete and submit an enrolment form, as well as all 3-Year-Old Kindergarten students wishing to attend St Damien’s CPS next year.
If you have any questions regarding the enrolment process of the school, please contact the office on 9583 2500.
NAPLAN
The NAPLAN assessments begin next week, with students in Years 3 and 5 sitting them from Tuesday May 10 to Friday May 20. All of the assessments, except Year 3 Writing, will be completed online.
If you have any questions or concerns about the upcoming NAPLAN assessments for your child/children in Year 3 or 5, please contact your classroom teacher. We wish all of our Year 3 and 5 students the very best as they complete these assessments.
Congratulations, Alice and Sienna!
Congratulations goes to Alice Mather and Sienna Lemm for the fantastic effort in winning the Mandurah Basketball Association under 13 Girls 3 X 3 basketball tournament during the holidays, held at the MARC. They managed to go through all of their games undefeated, including the grand final. Great work, girls!
Winter Uniform
Over the past fortnight, it has been great to see more students wearing the school winter uniform. Beginning next week, Tuesday 10 May 2022, all students in Years 3 to 6 will be expected to be wearing the full winter uniform.
Please contact the office if you have any questions regarding the purchasing of the School Winter Uniform in readiness for term 2.
PSSA Sport
PSSA sport begins this week for all students in Years 5 and 6. This week they all travel to MCC to play in either football, soccer, netball, hockey or volleyball. All sports commence at 1:15pm and we wish all competing students the best of luck and hope they enjoy the experience.
Principal Awards
Over the past week some students have been sent to my office to receive a Principal’s Award for completing some exceptional work. I congratulate Evie Chalwell, Ava Wilson and Charlie Mann, from Year 4 Blue, for their fantastic efforts in Italian. Well done and keep up the great work!
Parking Plans
As the development of land surrounding the school continues to progress, the school has been working on the provision of a carpark in the south-east corner of the school. This space is currently occupied by void shrubs and bush, behind the oval.
Whilst still in draft form, the carpark is hoping to provide 32 bays for families and staff to use. There is still some work to be done in this space before the approval for the carpark can go ahead, but the hope is that once completed it will assist in the parking for parents and staff in the school.
