LUMEN CHRISTI CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL 35 Williams Avenue CHURCHILL VIC 3842 PHONE: (03) 51222231 FAX: (03) 51223511 Contacts: Principal: Mr. Dave Cooper e: principal@churchill.catholic.edu.au w: www.churchill.catholic.edu.au p: PO Box 78 Churchill 3842 NEWSLETTER: Term 1, Week 4 Dear Family and Friends, Last week we began the Church season of Lent, which is the time from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. These forty days (we don t count the Sundays) give reference to the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert being tempted and challenged. Like most scripture stories the numbers are more symbolic than fact, with another 40 day reference in the story of Noah and the Great Flood. This Lent we think about the times that we have expereinced a wilderness moment in our lives, times when we have been challenged or lonely. We should use the opportunity of Lent to reach out to others who may be experiencing wilderness moments in their life at the moment, be they our family and close friends, others in our community or even strangers in other parts of the world. As adults we can teach and inspire our children to reach out to others, with small donations to Project Compassion a perfect example of how we can make a difference to others. This week, as well as next week, I have been at a number of meetings either with the Catholic Education Office or the University of Melbourne. It has been encouraging to receive positive feedback about what we have achieved and our plans for moving forward. I thank the staff, parents, community and of course our terrific students for all they contribute to Lumen Christi. Our school song talks about building the kingdom and at Lumen Christi I am lucky to be surrounded by kingdom-builders. Hopefully parents have had the opportunity to download/update our School App. Thanks to those families who have started using the Absentee Form feature to let the school know your child is away, or to give us prior notice of family holidays etc. We appreciate your support in assisting us as we have to implement tighter processes about attendance. As things get busier in homes and schools can I again encourage everyone to make note of important dates and events that are coming up in the school calendar. Yours, Dave Cooper 1
TERM 1 CALENDAR OF EVENTS Please monitor the newsletter and website each week for additions & modifications Event Day Date Time Week 4 No Mass this week Thursday 22/2 N/A Eucharist Workshop 1 - candidates and parent School Library Thursday 22/2 7pm Assembly Friday 23/2 2pm Week 5 Sporting Schools: Melbourne Victory (Years 2-6) Monday 26/2 various Playgroup Wednesday 28/2 9am-11am Prep Rest Day Wednesday 28/2 No School Class Mass: Years Prep, 1 and 5/6 Thursday 1/3 9am Assembly Friday 2/3 2pm Week 6 Playgroup Wednesday 7/3 9am-11am Prep Rest Day Wednesday 7/3 No School Andrew Chinn Music Day Thursday 8/3 9am No Mass due to Andrew Chinn Concert Thursday 8/3 Eucharist Workshop 2 - candidates and parent school library Thursday 8/3 7pm Lumen Christi Athletics Day Friday 9/3 TBC Week 7 LABOUR DAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY Monday 12/3 No school Preps start school FULL TIME Tuesday 13/3 8.35am Proposed Parent-Teacher Interviews Tuesday 13/3 TBC Playgroup Wednesday 14/3 9am-11am Proposed Parent-Teacher Interviews Wednesday 14/3 TBC Class Mass: Years 2/3 and 3/4 Eucharist practice after Mass Thursday 15/3 9am Casual Clothes Day - Bring an egg donation Friday 16/3 Assembly Friday 16/3 2pm 2
Celebration of First Communion Lumen Christi Church Churchill Sunday 18/3 9am Week 8 Playgroup Wednesday 21/3 9am-11am No Mass due to Athletics Thursday 22/3 Yinnar District Athletics (P-6) Thursday 22/3 TBC Assembly Friday 23/3 2pm Week 9 End of Term School Picnic Tuesday 27/3 TBC Playgroup Wednesday 28/3 9am-11am Easter Pageant (instead of Mass) Thursday 29/3 9am Term 1 Finishes Thursday 29/3 12.30pm FURTHER EVENTS Please check out the school website and App for events and details STUDENT AWARDS Week 3 Prep Sophia Alice 1 Leilani Blake.B 2/3 Jack Oliver 3/4 Ava J Tyler 5/6 Italian Ellie Sienna Raffle Winner Ryan TIMETABLE UPDATE: Sports Uniform Year Prep Year 1 Year 2/3 Year 3/4 Year 5/6 DAY 1 THURSDAY WEDNESDAY MONDAY THURSDAY MONDAY DAY 2 FRIDAY FRIDAY THURSDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY #Note#: Year 2 to 6 - During weeks 3,4 & 5 have Melbourne Victory Soccer Clinics so will wear Sports Uniform 3
Coles - Sport for Schools Lumen Christi would love your support - Please ask your family, friends, neighbours and work colleagues to start collecting for our school. The collection bin is in the office foyer for vouchers to be dropped into. LIBRARY NEWS Library classes began this week. All grades will be coming to Library on Tuesdays except for Grade 2/3 who will come on Thursdays. Please make sure that children s library books are returned the following week, even if they would like to borrow the same books again. I would encourage all children to borrow library books and for you to share them with your children at home. Turn off the TV and computer screens half an hour before bedtime and read with your children or give them that time to read for themselves! Scholastic Bookclub I will be sending Bookclub order forms out next week. Note that you can no longer order over the phone. Online ordering through a new process called LOOP is now available. The instructions for this process can be found on the school website or scholastic.com.au/loop or downloading the Scholastic Australia app. You are still able to send order forms and cash back to school as well as LOOP online payments. It is important that when ordering through LOOP that you order by the date stamped on the order form because if it is past this date you will incur a postage fee of $4.99 for your item to be delivered to your home, not school. Also, when ordering please order LIBRARY option rather than CLASS option as all orders will come to the library. Thanks. FROM THE OFFICE Fees & Levies: A reminder that curriculum levies are due and payable by Wednesday 28 th February. Please note Curriculum levies are not part of a direct debit agreement. Technology Levy (Gr 2-6) is also due by 28th February. Both Acceptable Use of Techology Agreement forms and payment must be returned before your child will be issued with laptop. Grade Prep to One children must also return the Technology Agreement form to allow them access to classroom computers. If you have questions about your Fees Statement please call past the Office and see Mrs.Thomas. 4
PARISH NEWS Our Parish Vision Statement: To reflect the light of Christ to all people Contacts : Fr.Siju Xavier PARISH PRIEST and Fr.Edwin Ogbuka ASSISTANT PRIEST 5134 2849 Weekend Masses : Saturday 6pm, Sunday 9am. We welcome all families to attend! Sadly we will be saying goodbye to Fr.Siju at the end of this month. The Bishop has transferred a number of priests due to the retirement of a priest, with Fr.Siju being moved to Maffra while we will welcome Fr. James Fernandez as our new Parish Priest. Fr. James is currently at Narre Warren after previously being in Traralgon. ANDREW CHINN CONCERT On Thursday 8 March, Australian religious songwriter and singer, Andrew Chinn, will be visiting our school to share his songs with our children. Andrew s songs, such as These Hands, Rainbow and An African Blessing are used in classrooms and liturgies around Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada. Parents/parishioners are warmly invited to be a part of the concert. There is no charge for adults. The concert will take place in the Eco-Centre at 2pm. We look forward to seeing you there. Student payment for this event will be taken from the Excursion levy. Sacraments: FIRST COMMUNION Information about the First Communion program was distributed to Grade 4 students last week. First Communion will be celebrated on Sunday 18 March at 9am Mass in Churchill. The first workshop for the Eucharist program will be TONIGHT, Thursday 22 February at 7pm in the School Library. Please see Mrs. Leviston or Mr Cooper if you have any questions or concerns. HEALTHY TOGETHER Congratulations to all the walkers last week we had a terrific turnout, with the Year 1 Class declared the Most Active with the highest percentage of walkers on the day. In regards to walking to school, last year the school made contact with Latrobe City expressing our interest in reinstating the school crossing on McDonald Way. This year they have asked VicRoads to conduct an audit of the site and the traffic volume. You may have noticed the traffic counters on the road. It will be interesting to see the outcome of our request. FAMILY BREAKFAST : It was pleasing to see a number of our families enjoying a Family Breakfast this morning. Thank you to Woolies for providing the fruit for the fruit sticks and for the parents, students and staff who helped with the setting up and cleaning up. Our next Family Breakfast will be to celebrate Mothers Day and will be held on Thursday 10 May. It will be followed by Mass at 9am. SCHOOL PICNIC AND WALK: On Tuesday 27 March the School Community will celebrate the end of Term One with a picnic at the Boolarra Rail Park. The event will involve a walk along the rail trail commencing at Boolarra for the junior students and from Darlimurla for the older students. The walk is part of our Healthy Together drive to increase the activity of our students and build the fitness level and enjoyment they receive from being involved in physical activities with their peers. Parents who volunteer as helpers for the day require a Working With Children Check. 5
ART All grades have Art on Wednesdays. Could all children please bring an art smock, an old t-shirt or short sleeved button shirt for messy art work. This needs to be labelled clearly. I would recommend not purchasing plastic smocks as these become very hot, particularly in the summer months. Looking forward to seeing our children s beautiful art work on display around the school soon. SPORTS NEWS SPORTING SPORTS: Our current coaching program is being offered by Melbourne Victory FC for our Years 2 to 6 classes. PARENTS & FRIENDS EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST TO HELP Last week a flyer went to all families asking if they were in a position to help with any of the variety of activities the Parents and Friends coordinate during the year. Replies have come in thank you!! We are hoping for more people to put their hands up so don t forget to send them back via your child/ren to the School Office. ICYPOLE SALES Icypoles are on sale every lunch time 50c each. This is during Terms One and Four. UNIFORMS The Uniform Shop is now only open on a needs basis. Please contact Jen on MB: 0417788077 to arrange a mutually suitable time if you would like to have a look through or purchase an item. Cash or cheque sales only (chqs payable to Lumen Christi Parents and Friends). 6
COMMUNITY CORNER If your community group would like to contribute please contact Mr.Cooper SUPPAUT Latrobe Region Parent/Family Support group for those who have kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) For more info or enquiries about the group phone Louise Varsaci 0414540296 or email varsaci@aussiebb.com.au or ask Mr.Cooper CHURCHILL HOCKEY CLUB Churchill Hockey Club is now looking for new recruits! All ages. All LVHA games played at Federation University Synthetic Hockey Field. Training starts Thursday nights from March. Juniors: Under 7 s to Under 17 s 5pm to 6pm. Seniors 6pm start. Games are played Friday nights and Saturdays. Reasonable fees and uniforms supplied. Phone 0409665331,0411137870 or 0438221293 for more information. ALL-ABILITY SPORTS All-ability sports are about fun and participation for EVERYONE! The local All-ability groups are parent-run and driven, so cater directly to the needs of kids with special needs in the local area. During the sessions a variety of games and activities are played to learn and develop new skills. Activities are modified so that everyone can have a go! Participants can also benefit socially by making new friends and feeling part of a team. We currently run three sporting programs locally: Term 1 Tennis at Pax Hill Tennis Club Term 2 & 3 Footy at West end Junior Football Club Term 4 Cricket at Traralgon West Cricket Club. Any further queries phone Louise Varsaci 0414540296 or email varsaci@aussiebb.com.au or via the facebook group All ability sports, Latrobe Valley or ask Mr.Cooper 7