Newsletter 16 August 2024

Principal's Message

Friday 16 August 2024- Term 3 Week 4

Dear Parents and Carers,

It was wonderful to see so many children from St Augustine’s receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation by Bishop Greg last week. There was excitement mixed with nerves as the children lined up outside the Church for their special moment in their faith journey. They were so proud and loved the support of their sponsors and family. A huge thanks to Mrs Woods, Mrs Machatsch and the staff who have prepared the children so well. 

Preparation for our musical ‘A Hint of Snow White’ is progressing well and excitement is building for the first night on Tuesday 10 September. There are over one hundred Year 5 and 6 students taking part in everything from singing, acting, backstage help, AV and stage direction. I challenge anyone to take on such a task - it is truly an epic organisational and creative endeavour and can only be achieved with talented and dedicated staff. Thanks to them all. There are limited tickets for sale and they are sold on a ‘first in’ basis - see the COMPASS message for details. 

We are celebrating the feast day of St Augustine in a few ways this year. Firstly, on Wednesday 28 August we will be celebrating with a whole school Mass and activities on his life in class. On Friday 30th August we will continue with the celebration with a Rugby game against Mary Help of Christians (pride and domestic harmony is on the line!) and the Colourthon in the afternoon. As it is a special day for dads the following Sunday we will also have Father’s Day breakfast, followed by a liturgy and the Learning Journey. Anyone can come to any or all of these events, not just dads. It will be a very big day for kids and staff but should be so much fun.

Just a reminder about use of the Church carpark before and after school. There has been some damage to parent and staff cars due to doors being flung open and denting panels. Please remind your kids and if you can stay away from the entry to the Chapel it would be appreciated as elderly parishioners need access to this space.    

Don’t forget the annual Book Week parade is being held on Wednesday 21 August. It should be a lot of fun and everyone is invited to come along to be part of the joy. 

Grace and peace,

Peter Watts

Principal

Faith and Mission News

Sacrament of Confirmation

Feast of the Assumption

Today our school joined parishioners in celebration of the Eucharist (Mass) for the Feast of the Assumption or our Blessed Virgin Mother. As Catholics, we believe that Mary was assumed into heaven, body and soul. One of God’s great miracles to show how special our spiritual mother is.

We look forward to celebrating St Augustine’s Feast Day (28 August) and Father’s Day (30 August) with you in a few weeks.

Naomi Loader - Assistant Principal Mission
Maria Woods - Leader of School Evangelisation

Pastoral Care & Wellbeing

Many of our students enjoy working and exploring in the online world, and we really want a safe environment for them. The pamphlet below has some useful tips for parents to navigate the online world with their children - including setting boundaries!

K-2 Parent Storytelling 2024

Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal

A huge thank you to our school community for generously supporting the Mini Vinnies Jumper Drive! Leon Walsh and John Cullen from St Vincent de Paul Coffs Harbour were extremely grateful for our school's support with the jumper donations shared between St Vincent de Paul and Pete's Place.

There are still two great ways to help if you can:

Great Cohort Coin Challenge: Cohorts are collecting silver coins for the Great Cohort Coin Challenge. Please help by clearing out your spare change to donate and help your child win the movie and popcorn afternoon. 

100 Club raffle: Buy a number in the 100 Club raffle to win a beautiful handmade quilted blanket donated by one of our Parishioners. The numbers will be $5.00 each, sold during August and at the Father's Day breakfast and drawn after the Colourthon.
Thank You

Mini Vinnies

Father's Day Celebrations & Father's Day Stall

Father's Day Celebrations, Friday 30 August 2024

Dear Fathers and Father-like figures in our lives,

You are invited to celebrate Fathers' Day at St Augustine’s School on Friday, 30 August 2024. We will begin with breakfast (sausage sanga) and cuppa supplied by the school from 7:30-8:30 am, followed by a whole school liturgy at 9am and Learning Journeys at 9:45am. 

The breakfast BBQ will be outside the canteen area, the liturgy will be in our top undercover area and the learning journeys will be in the classrooms. 

For catering and organisational purposes, we ask you to indicate your attendance on the google form here.

Mini Vinnies are currently selling tickets for a Father’s Day Raffle (before school each morning) and remaining tickets will be on sale on Friday 30 August during the Father's Day Breakfast. There are 3 prizes to be won. Simply select your ‘lucky’ number on the Father’s Day Raffle Board for $5 each (CASH ONLY PLEASE). The winners will be drawn after the Colourthon on Friday 30 August. All funds raised will go towards the SVDP Winter Appeal.

For those Fathers who can stay after breakfast for the Liturgy and/or Learning Journeys, you are most welcome to join in and play with your child/ren from 8:30-8:50 am or visit the LARC and read or sit and chat until the liturgy begins. 

Please see the attached for more information about the day's events, timings and details.

The students will have the opportunity to purchase a gift for you from the Parent Forum Father's Day Stall which will be on Thursday 29 August (gifts are $5 each).

We can’t wait to celebrate this special day with you.

Colour-Thon 2024

On Friday, 30 August, we will hold our annual Colour-Thon. Each student will be encouraged to walk as many laps of our school oval as possible in approximately an hour and a half, raising funds for our St Augustine's Parent Forum. There will be colour, music, and lots of fun! Weekly and overall fundraising prizes will be awarded to the highest fundraisers.  

Each student will create an online sponsorship page, allowing them to collect sponsors via Chuffed.org. Students will join their class team, and each week, prizes will be awarded to the class that raised the most money. 

The overall highest fundraiser will win an amazing SPENDING SPREE valued at $300. Prizes will also be awarded to the next five highest fundraisers across the school and the best-dressed group or individual in each cohort.

The instructions attached outline how you create your child's online fundraising page linked to the St Augustine's 2024 Colour-Thon chuffed.org page. Use this link to get started.  

https://chuffed.org/project/111513/signup

Once students have created their online page, they can collect sponsorship by sharing their individual link with family and friends. In sponsoring a student in our Colour-Thon, you directly support our Parent Forum, which uses the funds raised to improve facilities at St Augustine's.

Any student or family who requires technical assistance to set up their online page shouldn't hesitate to contact the school for support.

LARC NEWS

As the Olympics came to an end last weekend, our Olympic Relay Reading Challenge also finished.

Congratulations to the top 10 readers in our school. The top 5 students came to the LARC to receive their prizes. Thanks to all the students who participated.

Book Week

Book Week is coming soon! We will be celebrating Book Week on Wednesday 21 August (Week 5) with a parade at 9.10am. All students are invited to dress up as a character from a book. Please don’t spend any money on your costume, use items you already have at home or get creative and use some cardboard and paints etc to create a costume. You do not need to have the book that you are from. 

The theme for Book Week 2024 is.

Snow White Musical - Ticket Information

'A Hint of Snow White' Musical Ticket Sales Information

Dear Parents and Carers,
As advertised, the tickets for 'A Hint of Snow White' Musical will go on sale online on Tuesday 20 August, at 6pm. We are incredibly excited to bring this musical to the stage and are proud to have over 100 students from Years 5 and 6 participating. 

Each class has been allocated a matinee performance to attend during school time. 

Tickets to the following performances will be on sale via a Sticky Tickets link on Tuesday 20 August at 6pm:

• Evening performances (6:30pm start): Tuesday 10 September, Wednesday 11 September and Thursday 12 September 

• Matinee performance (12 noon start): Thursday 12 September 

Tickets are $18 per adult and $8 per child.

On Tuesday 20 August, we will send an email with a link to our musical on Sticky Tickets, and the tickets will become available to purchase at 6pm on Tuesday evening.

 We appreciate the time and effort required to prepare for a musical and thank our dedicated students, staff and families in advance for what we are sure will be amazing performances.

Sport News

SPORT CALENDAR 2024

Clarence Zone Netball and Football Knockouts

Our netball and football teams competed at the Clarence Zone Netball and Football Knockouts last week in Yamba. 

Congratulations to our Netball team who were the winners on the day and will now progress to the Lismore Diocesan Netball Knockout held in Grafton later in the term. 

It was also fantastic to see our SAPS Girl’s Football side take the field in a new girl’s competition for the Zone. Well done girls! 

NSW PSSA Touch Football

Congratulations to Tillie Reibelt who attended the NSW PSSA Touch Football Championships in Wollongong last week.  Tillie's team finished 7th place overall in a very strong field. What an incredible achievement! Well done Tillie!

SAPS Rugby Union Finals 

The junior rugby union competition draws to a close today. In what will be a very exciting evening, our U12’s, U11’s and U10’s will all feature in the grand final match held at Leisure Park tonight. Our U9’s and U8’s will also play their final matches and are sure to entertain the crowds. We would like to sincerely thank all of the coaches and managers for volunteering countless hours to our teams. 

TERM 3 Fee Reminder

CANTEEN NEWS

Canteen Roster

Week beginning 19 August 

• Monday -  C Williams 
• Tuesday -   M & M Black 
• Wednesday - C Jones
• Thursday - J Murphy, D Kelly 
• Friday -  W McLean, K Cochran, Hana

Week beginning  26 August 

• Monday - B Rae
• Tuesday - M & M Black
• Wednesday - B Symons
• Thursday - 
• Friday - W McLean, L Lawler, C Williams 

Notices