31 May 2024

FROM THE PRINCIPAL

Thank you parents and carers for your support of the mid-week staff development day on Thursday. Proclaim Day is a diocesan schools event with speakers travelling from the North to the South,  presenting in each of our four regions: Tweed, Richmond, Clarence and Hastings.  It’s always a special day with school staff (600 at our Clarence event!)  reconnecting with our reason for being. Our amazing speakers were  Professor Maeve Heagney from the Australian Catholic University and Roby from Emanuel City Mission in Brisbane. Inspiring.

The Walk Worthy of God Leadership Star was presented to Edie McCrimmon at today’s Assembly. Edie’s teachers said that she is always kind and helps anyone in need.

We’re coming to the end of National Reconciliation Week and I’m wondering if there are parents or grandparents who would be interested in coming together to develop a Reconciliation Action Plan for our school community. There are some incredible resources available to support this process. Leave your name with the school office or look out for that special Principal tap on the shoulder!

Congratulations Blue House and all of our sporting champions who were presented with awards at Assembly this week.   All photos and details further down in the newsletter.  

Warm regards,
Liz

UPCOMING EVENTS

Term 2

• Monday 10th June - Public Holiday - King's Birthday
• Friday 14th June - Year 1-2 Choir Performance at The Link
• Thursday 20th June - Wildfire band visit K-6
• Monday 24th June - MHOC inaugural Rubik's Cube tournament
• Friday 28th June - 3-6 Choir Performance at The Link
• Monday 1st July - NAIDOC Week commences
• Friday 5th July - Term awards
• Friday 5th July - Semester 1 Reports go home
• Friday 5th July - Last day Term 2

Term 3

• Monday 22nd July - Staff Development Day (pupil-free day)
• Tuesday 23rd July - Term 3 commences for students
• Friday 26th July - Grandparents’ Day - save the date!

WHAT'S THE BUZZ?

Threads of Hope

Today, our Year 6 Environment Committee launched their latest project called Threads of Hope where they sell pre-loved clothes to raise money for the St Mary’s Learning Centre in Cambodia. This fantastic initiative not only supports education for children in need but also helps reduce waste by keeping clothes out of landfill.

Students are collecting clean, ironed clothing that still has plenty of life left in them. If you would like to donate some clothes, please bring them along to our assembly next Friday. All items are $2, so bring your change if you would like to make some purchases.

GRIP Student Leadership

Our Captains, Vice Captains and Sport Captains attended the GRIP Leadership Conference with students from other local schools. They covered topics such as:

• How Everybody Can Step Forward and Lead
• The Sacrifices of a Student Leader
• Stepping Forward with New Ideas
• The Extra Steps- Doing the Things that Leaders Often Forget

Our MHOC leaders were all in agreement that it was an excellent opportunity to reflect on leadership and apply it to the important role they have here at school. 

Grandparents’ Day - Save the Date

Our annual Grandparents Day will be held this year on Friday 26th July.

LOVING LEARNING

Mary Help of Christians Feast Day Digital Artworks

On our Feast Day last Friday, students created digital artworks of Mary on their ipads, showing incredible creativity and skill. The students were able to capture Mary’s kindness and grace, using colour and intricate details. Take a look at their talents below.

Reconciliation Week Commitments

Year 6 students have been reflecting on National Reconciliation Week. Emily shared her beautiful reflection as part of our reconciliation prayer at Assembly this morning.

FROM THE MISSION DESK

Kinder and Year 6 Class Mass

On Tuesday, our Year 6 leaders and their Kinder buddies celebrated Mass with Fr Joy. During the Homily, Fr Joy explained that it is important to have a humble and open heart to understand God’s love. The children filled the church with prayer and song.  What a beautiful celebration. 

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Pete’s Place Presentation

Today we had the pleasure of having Gai Newman at our school assembly. Gai is the Team Leader at Pete’s Place Engagement Hub in Coffs Harbour. Her staff do an amazing job at running the drop-in service for people experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness.

The Mary Help of Christians Community Forum along with our Mini Vinnies students had the pleasure of presenting Gai with a cheque of $400. This money was raised from the school Easter Raffle last term. We know that the money will be very helpful for Gai and her team.

Mini Vinnies Socks and Jocks Drive

Today, Mini Vinnies launched the MHOC Socks and Jocks appeal. Gai Newman, Team Leader at Pete’s Place told us that their socks and jocks donations are at their lowest ever…oh no! There will be donation buckets in each classroom space from next Monday. All donations of new socks and jocks will be gratefully accepted. 

What’s Been happening in Religious Education in Year 2?

This term, Year 2 has been exploring the Unit 'Images of God'. This week we listened to the story in Genesis about how we are all created in God's image. Students shared examples of times they have witnessed God in the actions of themselves and others. They then created a digital self portrait.

CSYMI Visit

It was lovely to have Ashlinn back on Tuesday to run the MHOC CSYMI (Catholic Schools Youth Ministry International) lunch club. Students had a great time discussing why we put our trust and faith in God. They discussed the story of Jesus calling Peter to walk on water (Matthew 14:22-33) highlighting that when Peter finally put all of his trust in Jesus he was able to come to Jesus.

Term 2 Class Masses

All parents are welcome to attend our weekly Tuesday Mass at 9:30am. These class Masses are held at MHOC Church Sawtell. Please see the timetable below for Term 2.

Tuesday 4th June - Year 2

Tuesday 11th June - Year 1

Tuesday 18th June - Year 5

Tuesday 25th June - Year 4

MHOC SCHOOL COMMUNITY FORUM

Pre-Loved Uniforms

We have a large amount of size 10, 12 & 14 size girls coullets and boys shorts & shirts.  If you would like to place an order, please click here.

MHOC Reading Night

Join us for a family reading adventure including a pizza dinner from Rej's Old Skool Pizza.

Click here to register.

Bunnings Cake Stall Save the Date

Speaking of fundraising… Sunday 23rd June has been locked in for our next Bunnings Cake stall. We raised close to $1K at the last one so thank you to all of the bakers and sellers. If you are able to help out, please complete this form.

Bingo

The rostered teams for the next few weeks' Bingo are:

• Thursday 6th June - team no. 3 (Catherine's team)
• Thursday 13th June - team no. 4 (Donna's team)

SPORT NEWS

Rugby Union News

Big news on the Rugby Union front with two of our Year 6 boys, Lucas Townsend & Kaiden Doust being selected to attend the Polding Rugby Union Trials in Grafton last Friday. Reports from coaches were that both boys showed great determination, skill and sportsmanship for the duration of the long day. 

Huge congratulations goes to Kaiden Doust for being selected in the Polding team to attend the Polding carnival later in the year. What an amazing achievement! 

Athletics Carnival

The long awaited results of the Athletics Carnival were announced today at our assembly. The results were pretty close this year with the top 2 houses being split by only 12 points! Maybe these results were swayed by how many good sport awards were cashed in by people showing brilliant sportsmanship.

Enough waiting! The winning house is…BLUE HOUSE! 

Congratulations to the winning house and to all of our students who put themselves out there and gave their best on the day. Another shout out goes to our sports captains who always give their best to the students on the day and who were nothing short of fantastic helpers and leaders. 

We also took time at assembly to celebrate the following athletes who excelled across multiple events on the day to earn themselves the title of age champion! What a huge achievement for these students, Congratulations superstars! 

• Juniors - Sonny Diacono & Frankie Barreto Gunn
• 11 Years - River Griggs & Layla Verbruggen
• Seniors - Lachlan Forrest & Ruby Culverwell/Piper O’Sullivan (tie)
  

Paul Kelly Cup

Monday’s Paul Kelly Cup was a day filled with sunshine and good times! With most of our students completely new to the game, we entered 3 mixed teams in the hopes of giving them a real taste of what AFL looks like. The teachers reported that our students all got fully involved, improved over the day, showed amazing sportsmanship and had a ball! It is always awesome to see so many students keen to try something new and get out of their comfort zone. Thank you so much to Mr Murphy, Mrs Glover and Mr Cahill for putting their hands up to organise, manage and support the teams on the day. These things don’t just happen so we appreciate all their efforts in bringing this day to fruition. 

If your child attended this day and wishes to sign up to play AFL (or didn’t attend but is interested) please contact Mrs Bennett who can direct your inquiry to local clubs who are open to taking players.

HABITS OF MINDS AWARDS

Term 2, Week 5

CANTEEN NEWS

Canteen Red Day - POSTPONED

Please note:  our Red Day has been postponed.  

Canteen Roster

Monday 3rd June
Kath Rallings

Tuesday 4th June

Wednesday 5th June

Thursday 6th June - RED DAY POSTPONED
Deb Ponciano Maciel

Friday 7th June
Nichole Brookes

Parent and grandparent volunteers are always needed and welcome. Please phone the school, complete this form or email sawp-canteen@lism.catholic.edu.au if you can spare some time in the canteen.

LIBRARY WHISPERS

We’re very excited to be having an author visit to Mary Help of Christians. Lee Constable is a writer and TV presenter with a focus on science, technology, society, climate crisis, justice and sustainability. Her books are full of useful advice and information as well as fun activities and projects they can do. I was delighted to have both the Education Ministers and the Environment Ministers collaborating with making posters for the event.

OSHC

Week 5 has been super fun for the OSHC community. We have continued our focus on children's requests and areas of interest. This week, it included outdoor games such as cricket and totem tennis, lots of creative crafts, board games and making play dough ! As always we welcome ideas and feedback on our programmed activities. We are super excited to announce our Vacation Care program for the coming July school holidays will be released next week !! We have lots of exciting activities planned and will be taking bookings in the coming weeks.

Jemma

NEWS FROM OUR PARISH

This week, we introduced some new faces to our group. Marja Jacobsen is the new Youth and Sacrament Co-ordinator for our parish and will be working with Carolyn to learn the ropes of her new role. Welcome Marja!  Michelle has now joined our team of volunteers who help out with afternoon tea each week. Thanks Michelle.

This week the group was very energetic (not athletics carnival fatigue this week!) with running games and lots of conversation. There were some strange noises coming from the group as they played Bible Trivia with animal sounds for buzzers.

Feast Day Celebrations

A great morning was had by all who attended. The weather was perfect and the company even better. Here are a few photos.

Sacraments for Children

Preparation for Confirmation will begin for children in Group 24 with parent sessions this coming week.

 Wednesday 5th June at 6pm OR  Saturday 8th June at 9am in the Parish meeting room.

Parents have been emailed the details of dates and a link to the form for parent sessions next week.

Please contact Carolyn at the parish office if you have any questions or email pastoral@sawtellcatholicchurch.com.au

Baptism

The Sacrament of Baptism is available to those requesting it. Please ring Jennifer at the Parish Office (66583544) or talk to Amber Biddle, Liz Watts or Margaret Ryan at school if you have any questions.  Alternatively, if you wish to register for Baptism, there is now the option of an  online request form .

Parish Website , E-bulletin & Facebook Page

For all the latest news from our parish, check out the Parish website or subscribe to our  new e-bulletin which can be sent directly to your inbox each week. Why not sign up today by entering your details in the sign up box on the Homepage or Contact page of the website!

And don’t forget to check out our FaceBook page

Carolyn Tumminello
Pastoral Associate

COMMUNITY NEWS