NEWSLETTER Term 3 Issue 7 August 25th 2016

St. Monica’s Primary School 20 Robinson Street Moonee Ponds 3039

Phone (03) 9375 1132 www.stmonicasmp.catholic.edu.au

Parish Priest: Rev. Fr. Anthony Feeney Principal: Mr. Peter Moore

Parish Office: Phone 9370 5035

Mass Times: Saturday 6:30pm (Vigil), Sunday 8:00am, 9:15am in Italian, 10:30am and 5:30pm

OSHP Number 0412 616 491

Faith

Hope

Love

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Children,

Tomorrow we celebrate the Feast Day of our

Patron, St. Monica. We will celebrate with a

whole school Mass at 9:15am. All families are

invited to join us.

Monica was the mother of St. Augustine. Her

prayers are attributed as the source of her

wayward son’s transformation, not only into a

man of faith, but an illustrious leader in our

Church.

The wooden statue of St. Monica in our church is

a stunning reminder of her role in St. Augustine’s

upbringing. I also like the icon we have in the

Administration building, as it shows Monica in

her traditional Berber costume, surrounded by

children. Occasionally it’s good to see her

without her Son, for she is a Saint in her own

right and a source of strength for mothers

everywhere.

We will continue to celebrate St. Monica’s Day

with a live performance from the band

Un-Limited. The band will perform at 12:15pm

in the Senior Yard. Fingers crossed the weather will be kind to us.

To coincide with our celebrations, the Parents’ Association have arranged a Special Food Day

tomorrow of hot yummy jam donuts!

Regards,

Peter Moore

Principal

From Fr. Tony

This coming weekend, besides our celebrating the Feast of our Parish Patron,

St. Monica, we are celebrating with the Universal Catholic Church the 2016 World Day of Migrants

and Refugees for which Pope Francis has chose the theme “Migrants and Refugees Challenge Us. The

Response of the Gospel of Mercy”.

As we read the few words of Pope Francis below, it is important that we do not forget that our Patron

Saint, St. Monica was herself a refugee from physical abuse and a certain amount of Religious

persecution as are many Migrant sand Refugees today.

“ In our time, migration is growing worldwide. Refugees and people fleeing from their homes challenge

individuals and communities, and their traditional ways of life; at times they upset the cultural and

social horizons which they encounter. Increasingly, the victims of violence and poverty, leaving their

homelands, are exploited by human traffickers during their journey, towards the dream of a better

future. If they survive the abuses and hardships of the journey, they then have to face latent suspicions

and fear. In the end, they frequently encounter a lack of clear and practical policies regulating the

acceptance of migrants and providing for short or long term programmes of integration respectful of

the rights and duties of all. Today, more than in the past, the Gospel of mercy troubles our consciences,

prevents us from taking the suffering of others for granted, and points out way of responding which,

grounded in the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, find practical expression in works of

spiritual and corporal mercy.”

Let us pray for all those many migrants and refugee men, women and children seeking the opportunity

to enjoy the peace and freedom we can so often take for granted.

Fr. Tony

70 Reasons to

Celebrate Fr Tony is about to turn 70 and we invite Parishioners to

join him in the Symons Centre on Sunday 11th September

from 2pm to 5pm for finger food and drinks to wish him

Happy Birthday.

DATE : SUNDAY 11TH SEPT 2016

TIME : 2PM TO 5PM

VENUE : SYMONS CENTRE

We will be having Finger Foods —followed by cake and

coffee , which will run over the 3 hours

BYO : ALCOHOL AND SOFT DRINKS please (tea and

coffee will be provided )

RSVP before Friday 2nd Sept so that we can give

numbers to caterers

RSVP to either the parish office on 93705035 or email

mooneeponds@cam.org.au or the school office ph.

93751132 or email mstricki@stmonicasmp.catholic.edu.au

Look forward to seeing you there !!

Note : No actual gifts please , A ‘Wishing Well ‘ will be

there on the day for personal cards and donations to go

toward the purchase of a Parish Gift to Fr Tony

Let Your Light Shine No-one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all

in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and

give glory to God in heaven. Mt. 5:15-16

Alanna Haynes (6B) won the

award for Most Improved Player

for the East Keilor Football

Club Under 15 girls team at

presentation day yesterday.

Well done Alanna!

Congratulations to Maddy

Moody (4P) and Sophie Kukuljan

(2D) who competed at

State Team Finals for gymnastics

last Sunday. You are now looking

at the Under 12's Level 3

Victorian Champions.

Well done girls you should be

very proud!!

Teachers who love teaching … teach students to love learning! Here are some examples of passionate ‘teaching and learning' at St Monica's this week!

Something Special!

Wow! The Year 1 students sent some

letters and drawings to the well known

Australian author, Alison Lester. To

their surprise and excitement, they

received this beautiful card and

book! Have you read any of her

books? I like ‘Are we there yet?’ and

‘Noni the Pony’ - How about you?

2028!!!

I found this poster on display in the Year 4 shared space! It got me

thinking!!!! Year 4 students would be approximately 22 years old

…….mmmmm I wonder if we retrieve this newsletter out of archives 12

years from now if we recognise any names! Dream, believe, achieve!

Scrub the Decks!

Do you recognise the location of this photograph? The Year 4 students

have been captured here …...reinacting life on a famous ship! Maybe

catch up with a Year 4 friend or buddy and ask them to tell you all about

it!

Book Responses!

‘Independent Reading Investigations’ are

part of the English framework here at

SMPS. Pictured here are two students who

chose to make a mask that represents a character from the book they are

currently reading! Can you recognise these books and the characters?

Eucharist Workshops

The Year 3 students participated in their

Eucharist Workshops during the week, as

the card in the picture asks …….as a

community let us pray for the Year 3

students as they prepare to receive the

Sacrament of Eucharist.

School Production!

I heard the song ‘Crocodile Rock’ coming

from the hall! The Year 5 students were

practising their moves for the upcoming

School Production! It is going to be a great

show!

There is excitement in the air in the Senior School with auditions complete and roles finalised.

Children with a speaking role have received their scripts and it would be greatly appreciated if you

could assist your child with learning their lines. The dance rehearsals are in full swing and the

children’s enthusiasm is infectious. A note about costumes and base costumes will be out shortly.

Some children will receive specific permission slips that will need to be signed and returned to

school by next week. If these are not returned promptly it will affect the rehearsal schedule.

It is imperative at this time that we call upon parent helpers to assist us with making and sewing

costumes. If you are not particularly creative, we can assign tasks for you that may require cutting

and gluing. We are also seeking donations of fabric and any other materials that may assist us.

Please contact Wendy Synan 0423 622 542 or contact Rosa Leone via the school office.

BOOK PARADE!

How many Wally’s can you find?

Key Dates

August 2016 Friday 26th Assembly 2C

St Monica’s Mass

Hot Jam Donut Special Food Day!

Sunday 28th Foundation Family Mass

Wednesday 31st Year 5—Night at the Museum

September 2016 Thursday 1st District Athletics Trials

Buddy Mass 2D and 4P

Year 6 Parent’s Dinner

Friday 2nd Father’s Day Stall

Assembly hosted by 6B (Years 3 - 6)

Father’s Day BBQ 5.00pm

Saturday 3rd St Monica’s VS St Vincent’s Father’s Day Football Match

Sunday 4th Father’s Day

Monday 5th Mark Inglis visit - Years 3 – 6

Tuesday 6th Parents’ Association Meeting 7.30pm

Wednesday 7th GATEWays

Year 5 - Incursion ‘The Colonial Show’

Thursday 8th Buddy Mass 3L and 5G

GATEWays

Friday 9th Whole School Awards Assembly and Music Students Performance

Friday 16th Last Day of Term 3 (1:30pm finish)

October 2016 Monday 3rd School Closure Day Monday 31st Report Writing Day - no students at school

November 2016 Tuesday 1st Melbourne Cup Day

Monday 21st School Closure Day

Tuckshop

Reminder - all lunches need to be ordered via QkR.

Week Beginning 22nd August

Friday 26th Terri Ryan, Emma O’Connell, Kim Murphy, Natalie Storey

Week Beginning 29th August

Tuesday 30th Lynn Garvey, Renae McElligott, Natalie Morello

Wednesday 31st Linda Mantello - VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED

Thursday 1st Silv Pane, Vivian Scarpino, Carol Mourdoukoutas, Michelle McMenamin

Friday 2nd Julie Bibby, Kim Murphy - VOLUNTEERS REQUIRED

Week Beginning 5th September

Tuesday 6th Vicki Barresi, Sonya Coleman, Christel Mason

Wednesday 7th Melissa Khoury, Lisa Saunders, Laureen Hornibrook

Thursday 8th Franca Abbenante, Tracey Perkins, Abygaile Cukuvac

Friday 9th Sandra Gaunt, Julie Wibrow, Kim Murphy

If you are unable to work on your rostered day would you please arrange a swap. Alternatively please

contact the office.

Dates For the Calender

Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

1

District Athletics

Trials

Buddy Mass 2D

& 4P

Year 6 Parent’s

Dinner

2

Fathers Day

Stall

Assembly (3-6)

Fathers Day

BBQ 5pm

3

St Monica’s Vs

St Vincent’s

Fathers Footy

Match

4

Fathers

Day

September 2016

5 6

Athletics

Parent’s Asso-

ciation Meet-

ing 7:30pm

7

Gateways

Yr 5 Incursion

Year 2 Parent’s

Function

(Dinner)

8

Buddy Mass 3L

& 5G

9

Yr 3 Parent’s

Dinner

Whole School

Assembly

10

Yr 3 Receive

Communion

Medals at

Weekend Mass

Year 1

Parent’s Func-

tion (Ladies @

the Races)

11Yr 3 Receive

Communion

Medals at

Weekend Mass

August 2016 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

26

Assembly 2C

St Monica’s Mass

Hot Jam

Donut Special

Food Day!

27

28

Foundation

Family Mass

29 30 31

Year 5 ‘Night

at the

Museum’’

12 13 14

Year 5 Camp

15

Year 5 Camp

Year 5 Parent’s

Function

Buddy Mass 1C

16

Year 5 Camp

Last Day of

Term 3!

1:30pm Finish

17 18

UPDATES

Look at the number of books read by students at St. Monica’s for the Premiers Reading Challenge so far!

Can you answer the following questions?

From the chart above can you determine the number of books that have been read in total?

What % of this total number of books have been read by each year level?

These totals do not include the many books that have been read in classrooms and over the P.A by Year 6

children, while students eat their lunch. These titles and many more still need to be uploaded onto the

system.

Imagine the interesting vocabulary and amazing concepts that children would have encountered

while reading these books!

I wonder how many books will have been read by Friday 2nd September, 2016 when we finish the

challenge at St Monica’s.

Happy reading!

Trish Bremner Literacy Coordinator

Year Level Number of books

read

Year Level Number of books

read

Foundation 621 Year 4 423

Year 1 376 Year 5 178

Year 2 943 Year 6 156

Year 3 241

With Luke This week we will be looking at controversies in the AFL this year. The biggest one of maybe all time

continued this year and that was the Essendon drug saga. Twelve players have been banned for twelve

months and are not allowed to be involved with sport at all including Essendon great Dustin Fletcher who

is not allowed onto the ground during the quarter time breaks when his kids play football. The saga took

place in 2013 when Essendon where caught

taking illegal substances. The players could

have said they were guilty and would have

received a 4 week ban from Australian

Sports Anti-doping authority (ASADA). The

players decided not to take that offer

because they believed they were innocent.

The AFL put some penalties in place which

were a loss of draft picks and bans to

Stephen Dank and James Hird. The

Bombers finished 9th even though they were

meant to finish 7th and play finals. Then in

early 2015 ASADA held a court hearing

which the Bombers won and were found not guilty. ASADA decided not to appeal through the AFL

system as they didn’t think they would get a fair hearing, but it didn’t end there. The World Anti-doping

Authority (WADA) decided to appeal and early this year WADA won causing all the players involved to

be banned. Essendon sports scientist Stephen Dank got a life sports ban from ASADA which means he

cannot work in sport any more. Still many more things are to play out. The Bombers have appealed and its

outcome will impact Jobe Watson’s Brownlow, which he won in 2012 and was the year they took the

illegal substances.

Another controversy was the courting of Ling Jong by Collingwood. During the season Collingwood

confirmed their interest in Ling Jong, who plays for the Bulldogs. Collingwood asked Ling if he would like

to tour Collingwood’s training facilities, which Ling agreed to. This made a lot of people angry because

you never see players during the season touring other team’s facilities. Luke Beverage was very angry

when he heard the news that Ling Jong had toured Collingwood’s facilities because it’s ok to tour other

teams facilities after the season but not during the season and Nathan Buckley said that he wouldn’t want

one of their players touring other teams’ facilities even

though he let a player from another club tour his facilities.

The controversy we are about to look at happened this

weekend which was a Port Adelaide fan throwing a banana at

Adelaide star Eddie Betts after he kicked a fantastic goal. The

Port fan threw a banana at Eddie Betts and made a racist

comment. During our game we have had a lot of amazing

indigenous players but with that we have a lot had a lot of

racist comments. During an interview Patrick Dangerfield

said he had spoken to Eddie Betts’ parents and they said it

didn’t bother Eddie because that’s something he has just had

to live with which means we have had too many racist

comments in our game towards indigenous players.

This year we have had some shockers from the Match Review Panel including Tom Hawkins who gave a

small punch to Phil Davis and got a one week suspension. Each weekend we see all sorts of melees and all

sorts of punches and players getting off, so the question is, why did they decide this time to give Tom

Hawkins a suspension?

This week’s game will be the last game for the season for these two teams as neither team can make

finals. The game is between traditional rivals Essendon and Carlton. This season has been a long season

for Bombers fans with most of their senior players being unable to play because of the WADA bans.

Carlton however has improved after winning the wooden spoon and have gone from 4 wins to 7 wins and

are sitting in 14th place. The two teams have played some classic games including a game when Carlton

great Stephen Kernahan had a shot from the boundary line after the siren to win the game and the only

score he needed to get was a point and he kicked it out on the full and it was a high scoring draw. The

other classic game the two teams have played in was the 1999 preliminary final. Essendon had finished on

top of the ladder at the end of the year and went into this game as clear favourites, the game was a close

one. Carlton were up by two points with a minute to go and Dean Wallis of Essendon was streaming

through the middle of the ground when Fraser Brown made a match saving tackle which won Carlton the

game. When the two teams run out on Sunday there will be no love lost even though the game means

nothing for the two sides. They just want to finish the season on a high.

JUNIOR

PRODUCTION:

Wednesday 16th

NOVEMBER

At 6.00pm at

St. Monica’s

SENIOR PRODUCTION: OCTOBER 25th TUESDAY

NIGHT AT THE CLOCK TOWER CENTRE

CALLING ALL: Grade 6 and 5 FOOTBALLERS

COACH: Vince Leone (Julius’ Dad), who Coached many of you at AUSKICK

GAME DAY: 3rd September

TRAINING: 9-10am Saturday 13th, 20th & 27th August and 4-5pm Sunday 14th, 21st &

28th August

TRAINING LOCATION: Walter St Reserve, Ascot Vale

RSVP: SMS/Text Vince confirming your attendance (ph. 0421 054 140)

2016 BATTLE OF THE SAINTS

St Monica’s vs St Vincent’s

OSHClub News Before School / After School Care Program

Next Week’s Activities…

Program Update

Dear parents and families,

The September Holiday Program is now open for bookings. Check out all the exciting excursions

and incursions that we have planned along with fun filled theme days. Remember excursion

days can fill up fast so get in quick to avoid disappointment. Check it out now online now at osh-

club.com.au

–Jyoti

***Important Reminder***: Please remember to book in for Before and/or After School Care if

you know in advance. It helps us to ensure we have enough staff rostered on, and also for

catering purposes.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YOU CAN GET YOUR KIDS TENNIS LESSONS DONE WHILST THEY ARE AT AFTER-

CARE!

ST. Monica’s Tennis Club

Contact – Steve Riley – Club Professional

0403 433 750 or steve@rileytennis.com.au

BOOK IN FOR A FREE HOTSHOTS TENNIS LESSON Just inform your OSHClub Co-ordinator about

your tennis lesson (day & time)

OSHCLUB DROPS OFF AND PICKS UP KIDS FOR THEIR TENNIS LESSONS!!!

(Children must be booked into After Care session to be dropped off and picked up.)

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Before Care

Activities

- Paper Airplane

Dragon

- Detective

- Free Box Con-

struction

- Gaga Ball

- Rainbow Paper

Experiment

- Octopus

- Father’s Day

Cards

- Silent Ball

- Father’s Day

Coupon Books

- Fruit Salad

Game

After Care

Activities

- Cooking – Rice

Paper Rolls

- Soccer

- Painting

- Tennis

- Father’s Day

Photo Frames

- Down Ball

- Monster Craft

- Everybody’s

IT!

- Father’s Day

Tie Cards

- NetBall

Parent Information

OSHC program phone: 0412 616 491

Coordinator: Jyoti

Assistants: Leonie, Judy, Ceyda, Shannon, Christine, Rosanna

OSHClub Head Office: 03 85649000

All families must be enrolled to attend the program, remember this is Free!! Please create an

account online at www.oshclub.com.au all bookings and cancellations can also be managed

via your online account. For on the day bookings please contact the Coordinator direct at the

program.