St Lawrence & Mary Immaculate Parish Balcatta:

Parish Priest: Fr Emil Ciecierega SDS Assistant Priest: Fr Adam Babinski SDS

Dear Parents and Friends

As our new semester begins, perhaps it is time to think about tending the winter garden in preparation

for spring. The following reflection may be helpful…

THE GARDEN OF OUR DAILY LIVING:

PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:

1. Peace of mind

2. Peace of heart

3. Peace of soul

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:

1. Squash gossip

2. Squash indifference

3. Squash grumbling

4. Squash selfishness

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:

1. Lettuce be faithful

2. Lettuce be kind

3. Lettuce be patient

4. Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:

1. Turnip for meetings

2. Turnip for service

3. Turnip to help one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:

1. Thyme for each other

2. Thyme for family

3. Thyme for friends

WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE.

THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN.

BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.

St Lawrence Primary School 386 Albert Street Balcatta WA

Telephone: 9344 4944 Fax: 9344 5099 Email: admin@stlawbal.wa.edu.au

Home Page: www.stlawbal.wa.edu.au

Newsletter No. 21 24 July 2019

School Vision Statement The vision of St Lawrence Catholic Primary School, Balcatta

is to share the message of God’s love and friendship in a community of learners, developing the full potential of each child.

Inspiring Christ-Centre Leaders Next week, Mrs Jacki Tucker, Mrs Gabrielle Brennan and myself will be at the Leaders Forum for

2019. All Catholic Primary and Secondary School Leadership Teams must attend. This is a great

opportunity for school Leadership Teams to grow and develop together. One of the added item is our

own school being highlighted for all the work we are doing on visionary. A great opportunity to

showcase St Lawrence Primary School. We will also attend the Catholic Primary Principals

Conference on Tuesday.

Catholic Schools of Excellence You read a lot about the different parenting styles these days and how they impact strongly upon our

children; the helicopter parent, the lawn mower parenting style and laissez-faire style, to name but a

few. I’m not sure if there is a totally right way to parenting but I am certain there are a significant

number of things we can do as parents to support and encourage our children, to set them up for

success and not failure, to build resilience and independence. Equally there exists much data to

articulate the many down falls and hidden learning agendas associated with certain styles of parenting.

I take this quote from an article I read recently:

“We have to be willing to let our children struggle and fail and make mistakes without always

rushing in to protect them or fix the problem. We also have to be careful not to give the

contradictory message that mistakes are OK, except when they count.”

“Why Wrong Is Not Always Bad” by Alina Tugend in Education Week, May 18, 2011

Way too often I see parents overcompensating for a child’s mistakes, making excuses, or trying to

right every wrong a child makes. These efforts are often done with good and caring intentions,

however they can be very unproductive for the child. We must allow our children to make mistakes, to

seek to self-correct, to know that making a mistake is not the end of the known world. That we learn

from our mistakes and can use them as springboards to greater learning. Children need to be given the

opportunities to correct their own problems from time to time, to learn how to self-correct and to learn

that it’s ok to make mistakes. Give our children a safe environment, a place where mistakes are

accepted as part of progress and learning. The same applies to problem solving, children must develop

and learn appropriate problem solving skills. Not allowing our children the opportunity to attempt to

solve their own problems before we step in and solve them is very damaging to the appropriate

development of successful problem solving strategies that are essential in adult life.

At our recent professional development day one of our topics was learning experiences we can offer

for our parents. One of the options included the need to develop and enhance parental understanding of

school reports, including comments and grading. One of the key items included developing the

understanding that receiving a “C” grade and maintaining that grade throughout the year is in fact

expected progress. If a child receives a C grade in first semester and then a C grade in second semester

then they have maintained expected progress. It is still a C grade, however work and expectation have

continued to be met and these standards have increased accordingly. These outcomes have changed

since First Semester and the student has grown and meet the expectations. This is the expected growth.

Maintaining the C grade therefore is a very good outcome and shows growth from First Semester to

Second Semester. If students have achieved this we should be very satisfied that they have maintained,

grown, enhanced and developed at the expected rates and achievement levels.

Catholic Pastoral Communities As we return to school I take this opportunity to remind all of the importance of sleep.

Sleep. Sleep is the secret weapon of cognitive success. Across a range of activities, involving not just

language but mathematics, logic problems and spatial reasoning, sleep has been shown to enhance our

brain power. That’s why we are told to ‘sleep on it’ when we have a problem. The solution is often

obvious in the morning.

Young people need much more sleep than adults for the health of their bodies and their minds.

Prioritise your sleep and your happy brain will help you get a lot more done, and done well. Ensure

your children have an abundance of sleep to organise their minds and you are all but guaranteed a great

term ahead. Acknowledgement: The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, a book by neuroscientist Daniel Levitin reported on

by Laura Vanderkam.

I strongly encourage all parents to ensure your children have the adequate hours of sleep to support

their learning at school. Tired children simply do not learn as well as rested children. Set sleep times,

patterns and processes are required. E.g. go to bed at the same time every night, start by brushing teeth,

preparing school bag and uniform for the next day. Try to read to your children every night, it really

does improve a child’s reading if parents read to them at home regularly. Once children are in a pattern

it is much easier to follow the routines and attain the correct amount of sleep.

Accessible, Affordable and Sustainable During the school holidays a number of maintenance works were carried out including the following:

1. Completion of internal midyear cleaning.

2. Replanting of garden beds.

3. Mulching.

4. Polishing of floors.

5. Steam cleaning carpets.

6. Restocking of the fish tanks.

7. Tidying up around Staff Car Park area

The maintenance and upkeep of the school comes under the functions of the School Board and I thank

the Board for their diligent support in maintaining our school. I also sincerely thank Ken for all his

outstanding efforts to ensure St Lawrence looks as good as she always does! Well done Ken.

“As we infuse technology further into students' lives, we must hold tight to the fact that personal

relationships, face-to-face interactions, and quiet reflection will always be essential to a happy

life—and that the convenience and excitement of technology should enhance—but never

outweigh—the value of authentic human experiences.” Jennifer Waldvogel in Educational Leadership February 2019

God bless each and every one of you.

Sheldon Carey. M Ed, B Ed, Grad Dip

Principal

PASTORAL CARE Our prayers and thoughts are with the Staff and School

Community of St Jerome’s Primary School Munster, on

the sad passing of their Assistant Principal Angie

Letizia. May her dear soul rest in peace.

Congratulations to the Nobile family on the

safe arrival of beautiful Trinity and Quinn,

twin sisters to Persephone (Kindy) and

Aurora (Pre Primary).

Learning at Home Tips:

Home reading should always be an enjoyable learning experience and not

seen as a task.

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS

WELCOME BACK

Welcome back to Term 3. We hope everyone had a restful and enjoyable mid-year break. We have had

a smooth start to Term 3, with students settling back quickly into their classroom routines.

BISHOPS’ RELIGIOUS LITERACY ASSESSMENT

At the request of the Western Australian Bishops, our students in Year 3 and Year 5 along with

students in Catholic schools across Australia will take part in the Bishops’ Religious Literacy

Assessments this term.

Practice Test

Bishops’ Religious

Literacy Assessment

Year 3 Thursday 1st August Thursday 8th August

Year 5 Wednesday 31st July

Wednesday 7th August

FIRST EUCHARIST

The First Eucharist family workshops will be held today at 5.00pm and

6.30pm in the Learning Centre. The students will also participate in a retreat

day on Tuesday 30 July. We wish the communicants all the best in

receiving this Sacrament and pray that these students’ faith and relationship

with Jesus continues to grow.

First Eucharist Masses: Saturday 3 August at 6pm and Sunday 4 August at

8.30am.

HAVING A GROWTH MINDSET At St Lawrence, we want our students to understand that it is okay to struggle at times and that some

of their best learning is done when they find things hard. We praise effort and persistence rather than

simply praising success. Here are some of the traits of a growth mindset that we try to encourage:

Never giving up, learning from mistakes, enjoying challenges, even when the work may be difficult.

You can help develop a growth mindset at home by doing the following: Praise the amount of effort

your child is putting into things, rather than how clever they are.

Encourage them not to give up, even if they are

finding something difficult and encourage your child

to try something new and challenging.

Mr Jacki Tucker and Mrs Gabrielle Brennan

CLASS NEWS

PRE KINDY

We are back! Term 3 promises to be exciting with our first four weeks looking at Sensational Shapes.

Hopefully everyone had a terrific two week break and is ready to come back to some wonderful happy

times at Pre Kindy. Welcome to our parents who are going to join us for the afternoons on roster.

How very exciting!

Our meeting about our Take Home Story Books is next Thursday 26th July and will be in the Library

at 2pm just prior to pick up. You will receive a pack – information as well as your child’s first book to

share with you.

Mrs Kaylene Bozich, Pre Kindy Teacher

KINDERGARTEN

Welcome back to Term Three! The children were all so

excited to share all of the wonderful things they got up to in

the holidays. I hope everyone enjoyed the break and feel

ready for a fun filled term of learning in Kindy!

We will begin our focus ‘We are different; we are the same’,

Teaching young children about diversity in our ever

changing world. We will expand on this by focusing on

different countries that the children in our classrooms or

extended family are originally from. I would love to have

different parents come in during the morning or afternoon

sessions to talk to the children about the country they were

born, if different to Australia. Please email me if you are

interested. It doesn’t have to be anything too formal, you

could even read a story about your country and explain some

of the things that are different to life in Australia.

The letter sounds we are learning this week are 'Ss’ and 'Aa'.

Next week is 'Tt' and ' Pp'. Hope everyone has a great week!

Mrs Rachel Wake, Kindergarten Teacher

PRE PRIMARY

Welcome back to Term 3! I hope you all had a restful holiday. This term we are learning about

Australian animals and will listen to wonderful stories such as Wombat Stew and Possum Magic. In

Numeracy, we will continue to focus on counting to further develop our number sense. We will also be

making interesting patterns and discovering ways to measure objects by length, weight and

capacity! Over the next few weeks, we will be talking about our families in Religion, including how

Jesus belonged to a family.

This Friday we will be ‘100 days smarter!’ We will be celebrating our 100th day of school by

participating in many fun activities. We will also investigate how we can count to 100 in many

different ways including skip counting in twos, fives and tens. We are all so excited and can’t wait for

Friday.

We welcome Mrs Mattioli to our classroom this week and next week while Mrs Baker is away and

hope that she enjoys her time in Pre Primary.

Finally, we were so excited to hear the wonderful news that Aurora now has three beautiful little

sisters with the arrival of her new twin sisters during the holidays! Congratulations to the Nobile

family on the safe arrival of beautiful Trinity and Quinn, we can’t wait to meet them!

Please drop me an email if you have any concerns or questions. Looking forward to the term ahead!

Mrs Tania Preston, Pre Primary Teacher

YEAR ONE

Welcome back to Term 3 . I hope everyone had time to relax and spend time together over the

holidays. The children are settling back into the Year One routines and are working hard. It is good to

see they did lots of reading over the holidays thank you for your support with this.

Term 3 will be a busy one with St Lawrence Day, Bookweek, and our assembly. We are looking

forward to a great term of learning.

Mrs Gloria Edwards, Year One Teacher

YEAR TWO A big welcome back to all our families. It was

wonderful to hear about the adventures that our

students had over their break and they have

returned ready and excited to learn.

We started our week using QR codes to explore

the features of Australian coins. During our

discussions, many of our classmates were

interested to learn more about currencies from

different countries. If you have any coins or

notes that you are willing to display in our

room, please pop them into a snap lock bag and

send them in for the children to view.

We also enjoyed using our imaginations to think

about what a bunyip might look like after

reading A Bunyip In the Billabong.

As part our of St Lawrence Day celebrations on

Friday 9th August our class will be running a

crazy hair stall. I would be grateful if each

family could donate one can of coloured

hairspray and if parents could volunteer 15

minutes of their time to help run the stall. All funds raised go towards the Kora Childcare Centre which is run

by Sister Chitra who was chaplain at St Lawrence for many years.

Mrs Bozich, Mrs Nyersh, Mrs Staltari and I are looking forward to a fabulous term ahead.

Mrs Jacki Tucker, Year Two Teacher

YEAR THREE

Welcome back to a very wintery start to Term 3! I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing break over the

holidays and the children are ready for this exciting new semester ahead. This semester, Mrs Zenkina

will be teaching Music to our class on Mondays. To begin this term we are focusing on multiplication

and division in Mathematics and we will be working on solving word problems. During our English

lessons we are learning the structure of informative texts and writing well-structured informational

reports. As we are beginning our STEM project and children will need to start collecting materials

from home that will help them construct their floating house at school. On 8th August the children will

be participating in the Bishops Religious Literacy Assessment, this will test the children’s

understanding of Religious concepts covered throughout their school life.

The Year 3 students will be running a chocolate coin toss stall and a jelly cup stall for the St Lawrence

Day Fete. In preparation for the fete which will be held on Friday 9th August, could the children please

bring to school a 200g block of chocolate (nut free) and a packet of jelly crystals. If you could please

send these items in as soon as possible that would be greatly appreciated! On St Lawrence Day I would

like to request several parent helpers to help with the stalls. If you are available please let me know.

Miss Kathleen Tranquille, Year Three Teacher

YEAR FOUR The Year 4 students have hit the ground running! We have been working hard completing assessments. We have

also started our class novel, ‘The Invention of Hugo Cabret’. In the mornings we will be completing times tables

challenges, any parents able to help would be greatly appreciated. A reminder that tonight are the Family

Workshops for First Holy Communion. They will take place in the Learning Centre. The students are looking

forward to their retreat day next Tuesday. They may wear free dress on this day.

Miss Anna Brenkley, Year Four Teacher

YEAR FIVE Welcome back to Term 3! It was wonderful to see the children return yesterday, refreshed and ready for a busy

term of learning. The highlight for the term will be the Zoo Camp which takes place on the 26th and 27th of

September. More information will be provided closer to the date. We also have Cross Country, St Lawrence

Feast Day (the Year Fives will be leading the whole school mass), Book Week, Father’s Day breakfast and the

St Lawrence Athletics Carnival all happening this term. In class we will be looking at North and South America

during Geography. In Science we will continue to look at Biological Sciences and in Mathematics we will

focus on fractions and decimals. Our class novel this term will be Blueback by Tim Winton.

Have a great week.

Mrs Roselyn Pizzino, Year Five Teacher

YEAR ONE CLASS REPRESENTATIVE NEWS

Please note that the Year One Night out Saturday July 27 has been postponed.

Thank you to those who responded. Will advise at a later date of a future event.

Parents are reminder to please check the Lost Property

Box at the entrance of the Learning Centre. There are an

amazing amount of school uniform items belonging to students!

If these items are not collected, they will be given to the Uniform Shop

to sell as second hand goods. Thank you.

SPORTS NEWS

St Lawrence Cross Country Carnival

The St Lawrence Inter-Faction Cross Country Carnival is due to take place this Thursday 25th July.

All students in Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be expected to participate in the event. The focus is on the sense

of achievement that the child will feel that comes with the knowledge that they have produced their

own personal best. They will all be encouraged to demonstrate their perseverance and determination to

complete the distance. As the Year 2 class are also super keen, I have decided to include them in the

Carnival this year. Participation will be totally optional for these students.

The factions will be competing for the St Lawrence Cross Country Trophy and all students who

complete the distance will win points for their faction. The points your child achieves could make all

the difference to their team!!

Where possible it would be great to see parents supporting and encouraging the students. The

programme for the afternoon is listed below

Year Group Distance Start Time

2 1000m 1.40pm

3 1200m 1.50pm

4 1200m 2.00pm

5 1500m 2.10pm

6 1500m 2.30pm

Inter School Cross Country Carnival

This year this event is scheduled to take place at Yokine Reserve on Wednesday 28th August. Four

boys and four girls from Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 (32 in total) will be selected to represent St Lawrence on

this day. The other schools participating are St Denis, Majella, Our Lady of Lourdes and St Gerard’s.

Obviously the results from our Inter-Faction Cross Country event will play an important part in the

selection process, however, we are aware that some students may not be present on that day or may be

sick or injured and deserve to be considered for the team. With this in mind no decisions on the team

will be made on Thursday 25th July.

Thank you for your continued support

Mrs Claire Major, Physical Education Teacher

UNIFORM SHOP NEWS

Welcome back to Term 3 in full Winter Uniform. Please make sure correct uniform is worn at all

times.

SPORTS CARNIVAL

The St Lawrence Faction Sports Carnival will be held on Friday 20th September 2019. Training will

commence soon for students in Pre-Primary to Year 6. Our sports teacher, Mrs Major will advise

students when to commence wearing faction t-shirts on their sports days.

Please note that faction t-shirts are compulsory and must be purchased from school uniform shop.

Cost of faction t-shirts are $12.00 in colors RED, GOLD, BLUE and GREEN. Sizes 4 to 16 are

available for purchase. Faction T-Shirt will also be required to worn on carnival day. Thank You.

Please note that students in gold faction should not be wearing their yellow St Lawrence Sports Shirt.

On training days Gold faction t-shirt is required.

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Wednesday 8.30am to 9.30am & Thursday 2.30pm to 3.30pm Mrs Angie Miola, Uniform Shop Manager

P&F NEWS

Welcome back to all our wonderful families,

I hope you’ve had a fun and restful break and are

ready for a busy third term.

ST LAWRENCE FEAST DAY FRIDAY 9 AUGUST

The P&F will once again will be putting on lunch for the St Lawrence Feast Day on Friday the 9th of

August. The children will each receive a burger and juice box, and any family members and siblings

who comes along will also get a free burger.

Lunch Order Flyer

A flyer with lunch order has been distributed today to the eldest child in each family. We ask that you

fill in the catering section and return the form to the canteen, front office or lunch basket as soon as

possible. Thank you for your continued support.

Mrs Penny Godfrey, P&F President and Executive

CANTEEN NEWS

Welcome back to term 3 everyone.

Please see below roster for this term - if you

can help please contact me, even if it’s not

your year group’s week.

Helpers required for Thursdays and Fridays:

Week 1 - year 2

Week 2 - year 1

Week 3 - year 6

Week 4 - year 5

Week 5 - year 4

Week 6 - year 3

Week 7 - year 2

Week 8 - year 1

Week 9 - year 6

Week 10 - year 5

There will also be helpers required for the school’s Feast Day, Father’s Day Brekkie and Sports

Carnival. We would really appreciate your help on these days. Thank you for your support.

Special Treats

Birthday Brownies and Icy poles are available for $15 for the class. For this term only vanilla cupcakes

for the class - $20

Christina Russo, Canteen Manager

Frances Caccamo and Antonella Crupi, Assistants