Dear Parents and Carers,

A special welcome back to families of students working at home and at school. The Easter student vacation was a very different one for all of us. Easter Sunday was a quieter gathering for the majority of us and the usual linking with extended family and friends was absent in most situations. Besides the commercial celebration of Easter Sunday characterised by the giving of Easter eggs and chocolate in its many forms, Easter Sunday is the celebration of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. It marks the end of Holy Week, the end of Lent, the last day of the Easter Triduum (Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday), and is the beginning of the Easter season of the liturgical year. As we know from the Gospels, Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day following his crucifixion on Good Friday. His resurrection marks the triumph of good over evil, sin and death. Easter Sunday signalled a new start for the followers of Jesus.

In many ways, Australia’s battle and triumph with COVID-19 is similar to aspects of the Easter story. Through many personal sacrifices, Australians have managed to create a new way of doing things. We have certainly embraced the opportunity for a new start. The social distancing directive has been successful and the emphasis on cleanliness is ensuring that all of us will rise above this pandemic. We are not through this pandemic yet, but we are winning the battle.

At St Michael’s Nowra, we are providing remote learning for students who are learning from home and for students whose parents work during the school day and have no other option for care at home. There are a number of students who also physically attend school due to special circumstances. We do respectfully ask non-working parents to continue to keep the students at home unless there are special circumstances that have been discussed with the Principal. The Premier of NSW is still supporting this official directive for the first two weeks of Term 2. All schools in NSW are preparing for transitioning all students to return to school in a strategic way from Week 3. For the majority of students, this will be for one full day only in week 3 and social distancing measures will be in place. I will be sharing aspects of our plan with parents tomorrow, Friday 1 May 2020.

All Catholic schools are currently accepting enrolments for the 2021 school year. Our enrolments for Kindergarten 2021 are looking healthy and our classes will fill quickly. If you, family or friends have school age children, I recommend that an enrolment package is completed as soon as possible. Our first round of interviews will occur on Saturday 16th May 2020. Similarly, the Year 7 enrolment process for St John’s Nowra is in full swing and our present Year 6 students will need to complete the enrolment applications as soon as possible. The Principal, Mrs Hogan, told me yesterday that the applications are very strong for 2021. Our Year 6 cohort usually account for half of the Year 7 students.

I encourage parents to continue to do your best with the remote learning situation. Do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or the school if you are experiencing any problems with the online delivery of learning. This has been a huge learning experience for teachers and families around the world. I would like to congratulate and thank our teachers and entire staff for the magnificent work they have been doing to provide learning support for our students during this time of uncertainty and worry. As we begin to increase our student numbers from Week 3, there will be a number of social distancing requirements that we will be asking students and families to observe. They will be temporary measures, but important ones.

Yours in Faith and Virtue,

Mr Christopher Paton

Happy Easter. Hopefully all our families enjoyed Easter- the most important time of the Church’s liturgical year. The wonderful celebration of Easter lasts for fifty days ending on Pentecost Sunday.

The following resource has been developed to help support remote learning and student engagement with their faith. Pray School has been developed as a resource to particularly support Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students and has been creatively imagined and developed by Tim Hart, Education Officer, Spiritual Formation. The first resources that have been shared are storytelling episodes focusing on Holy Week. I encourage you to watch these episodes on Palm Sunday, The Last Supper and Good Friday with your children. 

The direct link for children to access the Pray School website is:

https://sites.google.com/dow.catholic.edu.au/pray-school/home

This is an excellent resource developed by the Diocese of Wollongong. Further episodes focusing on Easter will be available in the coming weeks. 

Alleluia, Alleluia!

Jesus is alive

Jesus is risen.

Alleluia!

Martine Mathieson 

Religious Education Coordinator

The health, safety and wellbeing of our communities and our people remains our highest priority. Due to the ongoing uncertainty surrounding coronavirus, the School Banking program will remain on hold. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you informed with any updates including how we will be managing Dollarmite tokens for students. 

In the meantime, here are some handy online resources for parents who wish to maintain momentum with their child’s financial education: 

• Start Smart: these resources have been created to improve children’s money management skills, and is aligned to the Australian Curriculum and the National Consumer Financial Literacy Framework. 
• The Beanstalk: offers videos and fun activities for children to learn about money.