Guardian Angels' Newsletter - Term 4 | Week 9

Coming up @ GA

Week 1 - Term 1 2024

Monday 22 January
Uniform Shop open 7:30am-10:30am
STUDENT FREE DAY

Tuesday 23 January
First Day of Term 1

Wednesday 24 January
Tuckshop (orders must be in by 7:45am)

Thursday 25 January
Tuckshop (orders must be in by 7:45am)
Uniform Shop open 1:00pm-4:00pm
Creative Kidz Instrumental Presentation - MC Shed - 2:15pm

Friday 26 January
AUSTRALIA DAY PUBLIC HOLIDAY

Week 2 - Term 1 2024

Monday 29 January
Uniform Shop open 7:30am-10:30am

Tuesday 30 January

Wednesday 31 January
Tuckshop (orders must be in by 7:45am)

Thursday 1 February
Tuckshop (orders must be in by 7:45am)
Uniform Shop open 1:00pm-4:00pm

Friday 2 February
Opening School Mass - MC Shed - 9:00am
Junior/Senior Check-ins

From the Principal

Tomorrow, our school year will draw to a close and we look forward to gathering as a community at our Farewell Assembly at 10:45am. This will be a time to celebrate and give thanks for the past year, to consider the possibilities of the school year that awaits in 2024, and to take time to be grateful for the friendships formed, and for the support and encouragement that we have given and received.

Importantly, as I reminded our Year 6 student leaders at their Thanksgiving liturgy last week, the end of the school year is a time to remember that every accomplishment they have achieved, wouldn’t have been possible if they didn’t make a decision to try. There are many who have been a part of our accomplishments, and these are people who we look up to, who influence and guide us. We all need these people around us; people who love us, who guide us, who give us courage and who challenge us. We need people to help us to be our best; and who, through their example and guidance, help us to know what ‘being our best self ’ looks like!

But it is important to remember that one of these people that each of us should look up to, be proud of, who has courage, who gives and demands respect, who is humble and who challenges us is our self. 

When you celebrate you, it means that you can celebrate:

All that YOU have achieved so far
All that YOU want to be in the time ahead
All the challenges that await YOU
All the excitement of new possibilities that YOU want to experience

Thanks to all in our Guardian Angels’ Community for another fabulous year. I would like to wish you all God’s blessings for the Christmas Season, and I look forward to welcoming you back to school in 2024.

Veronica Tomerini-Smith

Start of Year Arrangements for 2024: Day 1 at Guardian Angels’

To support your child’s transition to Guardian Angels’, children will commence school with a full day on Tuesday 23 January 2024.

Details for the first day are outlined below:

Tuesday 23 January 2024:

• Full day 8:25am – 3:00pm

What to bring:

• School backpack – named with distinguishing keyring
• Munch and Crunch (fruit and/or vegetable snack), lunch and afternoon tea
• School hat and water bottle
• Students in Years 1-6 are to bring their EDSCO book pack (detailed below)
• Students in Years 3-6 are to bring a pencil case containing writing equipment.

What to wear:

• Full uniform including school hat.

Medical alerts and medication at school

If your child has a medical condition (ie asthma, anaphylaxis) and requires the administration of medication at school please ensure that the Medication Administration Request form has been completed, signed and returned to the School Office together with the student’s medication to be administered at school. All medications must be prescribed by a medical practitioner, must be labelled with a pharmacy label, and may also require further written medical advice.

Please contact the School Office if you require a copy of this form.

All medication and completed forms are to be provided to the School Office from 16 January 2024.

Assistant Principal - Administration

Good afternoon lovely families,

We have reached our final newsletter of 2023. This is the time I really love looking back and reflecting on how much our angels have grown throughout the year. Our Preppies have finally started to ‘grow into their school bags’ … the bags often seem bigger than the students at the beginning of the year. The Year 6 students are full of emotions; excited about the next step in their wonderful lives as they begin high school, while at the same time, feeling a little sad at the closing of this wonderful stage of primary school. I love watching the excitement of the Year 2 students who are realising they are moving ‘across the road’ … mind you, I find myself always feeling a little sad at this thought as I miss seeing their faces every single day as they move to the senior campus. Still, it’s a really lovely time of the year to share with your beautiful children.  

Semester Two Reports

On Tuesday afternoon (28 November), your child/ren's 2023 Semester Two Summary of Achievement (reports) was uploaded to the Parent Portal.

Please download, save and/or print a copy of these reports so that you have ready access to them if/when required in the future. Please note that once your student leaves Guardian Angels, you will no longer have access to the Parent Portal, so it is important that you retain a copy for your own records.

Peace-filled Christmas blessings to you all as we prepare to celebrate the joyous season of Christmas. Thank you for your constant support and your willingness to work together as partners with us here at school. This is such a privileged relationship we share with yourselves and your children, and we thank you for trusting them with us.

Merry Christmas everyone … have a safe and happy holiday.  I can’t wait to see most of you again in January.

Nicole Waller

Assistant Principal - Religious Education

St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal

Thank you for all the amazing donations that made our St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal so successful. Your compassion and generosity has ensured that many families in our local community; who may have gone without this Christmas, are able to enjoy the spirit of Christmas.  We also raised over $644 through our free dress day last Friday. Your generosity has shown an immense sense of charity and community spirit with this appeal. Thank you!

Christmas Concert

Thank you to all the staff of Guardian Angels’ for their help in producing a fantastic Christmas Concert. We were able to watch and sing along with the true story of Christmas, all while having a little bit of fun on the way.

Year 6 Graduation

We wish our graduating Year 6 students well as they come to the end of their primary schooling. They have worked extremely hard throughout their primary school years and we wish them all the very best as they start a new adventure. For those families who are finishing their time here at Guardian Angels’, may God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Congratulations to our Award winners for 2023:

Claire Stokes

Claire Runge

St Francis Award

Kate Gear

Erab Sherwin

Munashe Zvandaziva

LIVE the GA Way Awards

Abigail Reeves

Aviana Law

Zali Williams

Jacqueline Dang

Lilly Thomson

Juliet Rojas

End of Year Farewell and Blessing Assembly

On Friday 1 December, we will be celebrating our school year with an Farewell and Blessing Assembly. This will be held in the Shed at 10:45am and we extend a warm invite for all members of our community.  

As we come to the close of another school year, we reflect on everything we have achieved. While there have been some challenges, these have certainly been outweighed by all the positive things that have happened. This prayer provides a moment of contemplation for all the blessing we have received this year.

Lord,

At the end of this school year we give thanks to God;

For all the teaching and learning that has taken place in our school both in and out of the classroom,

For all the talents and gifts that have been shared and the challenges that have been faced,

For the respect and care that has been given,

We give thanks for the friendships that have just begun and for those that have grown,

We give thanks for the community that we are and we ask you, Lord, to bless our students as they end another year of growing and learning.

Bless our families as we take our holidays, may our time together leave us with memories to cherish.

Pour out your love on us that we may return renewed and refreshed to continue our journey together.

Amen

I wish you all a very safe, happy and relaxing Christmas break. I hope your Christmas season is filled with family, laughter and happiness and the new year brings with it many blessings.

God bless and take care,
Rhiannon Cameron

Primary Learning Leader

It has been such a privilege working with our dedicated and hard-working staff and students over the past six months. From meeting with our teachers every three weeks to plan, goal set, moderate and discuss students’ progress to then walk into their learning spaces and see the learning in action through learning walls, student engagement and student voice has been wonderful to observe. The guidance and assistance from our STIE’s and the support from our School Officers is invaluable, as these staff members also play an integral part of the learning journey of our students.

I am very much looking forward to continuing in this role and working with our teachers and their new students next year.

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas and a safe and happy holiday. 

Elisha Thatcher

In other news...

School Fees

A letter regarding 2024 school fees was emailed Thursday 16 November to families. Please check your email inbox to learn more.

It can also be found on our website here: https://www.guardianangelswynnum.qld.edu.au/enrolments/Pages/School-Fees.aspx 

Drop off and pick up zone volunteers

We would love parent helpers in pick up zones in 2024. Pick up zones operate from 8:00am – 8:25am in the morning and from 2:55pm – 3:20pm in the afternoons. It's an easy 25 mins, opening car doors, helping little people in and out of cars.

If you can spare 20-30 minutes once or twice a week please email pwynnum@bne.catholic.edu.au with your preferred day, time and campus. 

A friendly reminder, before commencing your role as a volunteer or other personnel at our school, you are required to complete the online volunteer training. This training needs to be renewed annually and can be found here: https://www.bne.catholic.edu.au/students-parents/student-protection/Pages/Student-Protection-and-Code-of-Conduct-Training-for-Volunteers-and-Other-Personnel.aspx

You will need to download, print and complete your registration form, which is contained within your online training. Return it to the School Office prior to commencing your role.

Containers for Change - Year 6 Stewardship Committee

With your help, and generous recycling donations, the Stewardship Committee raised $366 this year through Containers for Change. Thank you for supporting this Year 6 initiative.

Second-hand Uniform Shop

The second hand uniform shop is open on the first Monday of the month. The next shop open will be in 2024.

Each item is $5. Cash only sales.

Need items outside of shop open times? Please email pwynnum@bne.catholic.edu.au with what you need and one of our amazing parent volunteers will fill this order for you.

From the Tuckshop

Tuckshop Volunteer Roster

Please contact Annalise Olm - aolm@bne.catholic.edu.au - if you are able to volunteer your time in the canteen in 2024.

Before commencing your role as a volunteer or other personnel at our school, you are required to complete the annual online volunteer training. This training needs to be renewed annually and  can be found here: https://www.bne.catholic.edu.au/students-parents/student-protection/Pages/Student-Protection-and-Code-of-Conduct-Training-for-Volunteers-and-Other-Personnel.aspx

You will need to download, print and complete your registration form, which is contained within your online training. Return it to the School Office prior to commencing your role.

From the P&F

Thank you to all the volunteers at this year's School Disco - the event was a great success! We raised approximately $500 and these funds will be used to support the activities of the P&F next year.

The annual plan for the P&F will be presented for discussion at this meeting, so if you want to influence what the P&F does next year - this is the meeting to come to!!

Enrolments

At Guardian Angels' we place particular importance in acknowledging the various gifts and talents each community member is blessed with, as we strive to unite under the theme, ‘We Are One’.

Existing Guardian Angels' Families - sibling Prep 2025 enrolments

Calling all current Guardian Angels' families with sibling enrolments for Prep 2025. Please submit your applications and supporting documentation now.

Applications for Prep 2025 will close 1 April 2024. We are now accepting enrolments for Prep in 2025 and 2026. For further information or interest in upcoming tours please contact Enrolments on 3396 4486 (ext 4) | or by email at pwynnum@bne.catholic.edu.au

From the Parish

Live Nativity Play – Wednesday, 20th December

This year marks the 800th anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi’s original live nativity scene. In keeping with the tradition of St. Francis, Guardian Angels Parish and members of the Neocatechumenal Way will be hosting a Live Nativity Play. There will be music, singing, animals and a live retelling of the Nativity Story. All are welcome to come and join us for this special occasion. Bring your own seating/blanket.

Time: 6:30pm – 7:30pm

Date: Wednesday, 20th December

Location: On the field opposite the Mt. Carmel Centre

5pm Christmas Vigil Mass in the Shed – Sunday, 24^th December

All are welcome to our Christmas celebrations at Guardian Angels Parish. The Children and Families Mass will be at 5pm on Sunday, 24^th December in the MC Shed at Guardian Angels School. Children are invited to come dressed as an angel or a shepherd if they wish. See our Parish website for all of our Christmas celebration times: http://www.guardianangels.org.au/

From the Community



Contact Us

Guardian Angels offers a broad-based inclusive curriculum with a range of opportunities and experiences that foster the growth of the whole student. We pride ourselves on the spirit that can be found in our students, staff and parents.

Visit us on the web at www.guardianangelswynnum.qld.edu.au

Visit us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaswynnum 

For all enquiries please email us at pwynnum@bne.catholic.edu.au

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