AGGIES ARTICLES - Term 4 Week 9 - Friday 3 December 2021

In this Sunday’s Gospel John the Baptist challenges us to prepare the way for the Lord coming into our lives. John, by his preaching of repentance and a change of life is “the voice of one crying out in the desert:

“Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth” The quotation, “making straight the paths of the Lord,” means clearing the path of sin, which is the major obstacle preventing the Lord from coming into our lives. The valley here stands for times we don’t follow God.

Lord Jesus Christ,
we wait your Second Coming
as we prepare to celebrate your First Coming at Christmas.
Be near us now as we light the second candle
of our Advent wreath.
As this light grows brighter,
we are reminded that you are already here,
in your Word, in your Church,
in the faces of those in need,
and your love for each other.
You live and reign with the
Father and the Holy spirit,
God, for ever and ever.

Dear Parents and Carers

Week 9 at St Agnes’ certainly has not led to slowing down in any way. Yesterday was an amazing display of student engagement, quality teaching and a whole team approach to ensuring learning needs were met in new and exciting ways. All students and staff were involved in a busy day of “outdoor learning”. Experiences were provided, encouraging creative thinking, teamwork, using natural resources and making the most of outdoor spaces. Our day started with the discovery of a huge egg which was located on the library steps. All students began writing about how they thought the egg landed at St Agnes’ and what may hatch from it. The photos demonstrate the wide variety of activities experienced on the day. Thank you so much to all staff involved in the planning and implementation of activities. Outdoor learning fun was not dampened by the weather.

We particularly appreciate the efforts of Kristie Walker and Claire Thurlow for their inspiration and organisation in reworking the day in light of the wet weather.

The excitement continues as our Kindergarten 2022 visited twice this week for school experience sessions. Seeing their excited faces and enthusiasm for learning and playing make us all look forward to them joining our school community next year. They spent time in learning spaces and made friends with next year's Kinder students and teachers. We look forward to their return next Tuesday for the last time before their start next year.

On Tuesday night Year Six Student Leaders joined for a night of Laser Tag and pizza. This celebration was in thanks for their dedication and service in many ways throughout 2021.

What a wonderful sight to see so many Christmas Hampers packed through the generosity of our wonderful families. Year Six students helped to pack these goodies to ensure some of the less fortunate families in our parish have a brighter Christmas. This is a fantastic initiative enabling us to provide service to others in our community.

Sports Leaders

Congratulations to the following Year Five students who will lead their teams through sporting events and activities in 2022.

FLINDERS

Jasmine Anastas and Noah Joyce

CLARENCE 

Bianca Harrison and Lachlan Walters

BORONIA

London Curtis and Abby Moloney

KENNEDY

Isaac Buttsworth and Mia Hodge

What a fantastic effort for those students who were recognised for receiving 400 Dojos recently. They shared a pizza lunch with Mrs Yarnold on Thursday during the business of outdoor learning:

Emilia Adams, Ariah Adams, Sofia Adamson, Sunday Allison, Baxter Allison, Hiba Anwaar, Arham Anwaar, Georgia Baker, Konnor Bender, Charlotte Bender, Gaurika Bhandari, Noah Blair, Nate Bringans, Parker Brock, Max Browning, Thomas Buckley, Alexander Bushe, Nicholas Bushe, Ardan Byrne, Casey Campbell, Keeley Carle, Georgie Carlton, Charlee Carpenter, Tyler Carpenter, Nathan Cavallaro, Jack Clifton, Amelia Clinch, Mia Cochrane, Jake Collins, Emme Constantine, Emily Cook, Macy Cooper, Ava Costello, Aaron Cotovich, Korbin Cunningham, Armani Daley, Shayla Davis, Benjamin Dietrich, Kalari Donovan, Len Dorahy, John Ducat, Aubree Dunn, Sharni Dunn, Tyson Elkins, Jack Elliott, Maddilyn Elliott, Addison English, Noah English, Scarlett Evans, Maddison Evans, Thomas Everson, Hunter Favaloro, Ethan Favaloro, Jaxson Field, Madelyn Field, Kallan Ford, Arie Ford, Indi Franklin, Henry Fryer, Lola Fuller, Arlow Fuller, Asha Galbraith-Robertson, Lucas Gardiner, Miles Gardiner, Scarlett Gaul, Ruby Hagenbach, Sophia Hardie, Willow Harris, Elle Harris, Mia Henry, Braxton Henson, Arthur Hough, Jack Howard, Logan Howard, Hailey James, Sophie James, Ara Jo, Adam Johnson, Callum Judge, Grace Judge, Saxon Keep, Emily Krizanec, Charlize Leicht, Jett Lindsay, Grace Lombardo, Emily Lonergan, Flynn Lutton, Lukas Martin, Hazel McCarthy, Cruze McDonald, Alexander McGregor, Norah McIntosh, Narz McIntosh, Bella McNeil, Archie Millard, Abby Moloney, Aisha Morris, Rocco Moy, Charlotte Mullen, Stephanie Murray, Hudson Mynott, Flynn Nesbitt, Montana Newell, Cody Newell, Hunter Noble, Joseph O'Brien, Benjamin O'Brien, Liam O'Reilly, Mikayla Orme, Aadi Panchal, Sahara Pauley, Maya Perry, Lachlan Power, Harrison Power, Kitt Quirk, Savannah Ralph, Bella Richards, Dominic Ritchie, Ella Ritchie, Lucas Robinson, Angus Sales, Amelia Sales, Jaxon Seckold, Archie Sherd-Booby, Ally Sines, Felix Sjolund, Nikita Smith, Miles Sonego, Stella Sprague, Lily Stewart, Mia Tait, Amirah Taylor, Pippa Taylor, Sienna Taylor, Storm Taylor, Michael Thompson, Ryder Tiller, Nevaeh Tiller, Banjo Timewell, Charlie Totten, Troy Towers, Piya Varsani, Dhiya Varsani, Janisa Vinod, Enzo Waind, Sophie Wainwright, Rocky Walker, Eliza Wallace, Jeffrey Walsh, Ava Watson, Jaysen Wei, Georgia White, Kade Wilson and Indiana Woods

School Start Times

We have noticed several students are being dropped off early. A reminder to families that supervision for students does not begin until 8:10am with the opening of the gates.

Some of these students have been engaging in unsafe behaviour including playing with handballs and basketballs and playing close to the road.

Centred In Christ and With Love For One Another, St Agnes’ Learners are:

PBS Focus

This week our PBS focus is on being Resilient. How can we use our tools when we are faced with new situations. As we commenced our transitions to our new rooms for 2022 and had our Outdoor Education Day this week’s focus fits in perfectly with our planned end of term events.

Resilience https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwE4MTuCSiM

Next week will be another exciting week as we celebrate on Thursday our final end of term treat day for our winning house. This will be announced to the students at next Monday’s morning assembly. Yesterday, we had our 400 Dojo Pizza lunch celebration. There were 160 students who came and shared a pizza lunch with Mrs Yarnold.

House Cup Winner

This week's House Cup winner is: CLARENCE

Congratulations to the students who have achieved 500 and 600 Dojo’s this week. Due to 2022 class transitions we were unable to recognise these students this morning but we will next week.

600 Dojo Awards:

Swimming Carnival

We are hoping that the weather will be kind to us for our swimming carnival on Monday. We will make a decision about the carnival going ahead on Monday morning and will communicate this through the usual channels.

After considering all of the feedback we received, we have decided to stick to our planned format. This means that there will be fewer competitive events, and more time for the students to participate in non-competitive events. We would like to once again thank the families who reached out to the school, and we will seek further feedback after this carnival.

Spectators are welcome at this event. Anyone hoping to attend the carnival will need to abide by the COVID-19 protocols of the pool. This will include providing proof of double vaccination and maintaining social distancing.

Sport In 2022

Our 2022 sporting calendar is already filling up and Term 1 looks to be action packed. We will be holding our normal Term 1 events, as well as a few makeup events that were postponed due to COVID-19. Hold onto your seats sports fans, its going to be a wild ride. Events include:

Zone Swimming Trials and Zone Swimming Carnival

Our school swimming trials will be held at Wauchope Pool on Friday 11 February 2022. This event is for all students aged 8 and over who would like to represent St Agnes’ in the Hastings Zone Carnival. We have a very short turn around for this, with the Zone Carnival being held on Tuesday 15 February at Macksville. Transport to both of these events will be by bus and will be organised by the school. We will send notes for this event home shortly.

Summer Sports Trials

Children who have put their name down for Tennis will be expected to attend a zone trial this Wednesday 8 December, at the Port Macquarie Tennis club at 3:45pm. Boys trialling for Basketball will be expected to attend the Port Macquarie Indoor Stadium for their trials this Friday 9 December at 4:30pm. Notes for both of these events have gone home. Please inform the school if your child has decided to withdraw from these events. We will also be asking students from Years 4 and 5 to express interest in trialling for Touch Football, Cricket, and Softball. A decision about when these trials will be held has still not been made at zone level.

House Leaders 2022

We congratulate our Year 5 students, who were mentioned in the Leadership Report, who have been elected as house leaders for next year. I look forward to working with you.

We wish them the best of luck for 2022 and look forward to working with them.