Guardian Angels' Newsletter Term 4 Week 1 2024

Coming Up

Week 2

Monday 7 October
King's Birthday Public Holiday 

Tuesday 8 October
Run Club, 8.05am
P&F meeting 6.30pm

Wednesday 9 October
Tuckshop Open (order must be in by 7.30am)

Thursday 10 October
Tuckshop Open (order must be in by 7.30am)
Uniform Shop Open, 1.00pm - 4.00pm

Friday 11 October
Tuckshop Open (order must be in by 7.30am)
Swimming Lessons Years 1 & 2

Week 3

Monday 14 October
Uniform Shop Open, 7.30am - 10.30am

Tuesday 15 October
Uniform Shop Open, 7.30am - 10.30am
Run Club, 8.05am
Prep Orientation for students commencing in 2025

Wednesday 16 October
Tuckshop Open (order must be in by 7.30am)
Assembly 1.50pm

Thursday 17 October
Tuckshop Open (order must be in by 7.30am)
Uniform Shop Open, 1.00pm - 4.00pm
Principal Tour 9.00am

Friday 18 October
Tuckshop Open (order must be in by 7.30am)
Swimming Lessons Years 1 & 2
First Contact Excursion Year 4

From the Principal

A warm welcome back to everyone in our Guardian Angels’ community as we commence our final term of the 2024 school year.   At the start of term, we all return refreshed and ready to go after a well-deserved break.  The first few days of term provide a great opportunity to renew our connection to friends and the school community.  It also provides a time to celebrate all that has been achieved over the past three terms as we look towards the end of the school year.  

Celebrating Guardian Angels’ Day

What a fantastic way to start the term by celebrating Guardian Angels Day! Our school community came together in a day that was filled with joy, prayer, and a sense of unity as we showcased LIVE the GA Way.

From the beautiful liturgy to the engaging activities, it was a day to remember. The students’ enthusiasm and participation truly embodied the spirit of our school. We are grateful for the support and involvement of our families, which made the celebration even more special.

Prep Orientation and Transition Day

In the coming weeks, our 2025 Prep Transition program will commence with two ‘mini-transition’ days prior to our whole school ‘meet the teacher’ day.  These days are aimed to introduce our Preps and their families to the great learning opportunities offered at GA and the many everyday activities that make us such a great school community. We look forward to having our 2025 Prep students and their parents join us over the coming weeks for our transition days, and to being a part of their learning journey in the future.

As we begin the final term for the 2024 school year together, let us pray that all in our school community continue to seek God in all people, places and events.  God of new beginnings, may this school term continue to bring us closer to you and to each other.  Amen

From the Assistant Principal Administration

Good afternoon lovely families,

I hope you are all well and were able to enjoy some time together as a family over the past couple of weeks. It is difficult to believe that we are in the homestretch of this school year. There are so many things happening this term; it is always busy but very exciting. I always encourage our beautiful students to really engage and enjoy this final term with their classmates and teachers.

ATTENDANCE AT SCHOOL

We love having our angels here at school with us!

I am sure you all realise how important CONSISTENT AND PUNCTUAL ATTENDANCE is for each one of our beautiful students.

Attendance at school can have a significant impact on:

1) STUDENT PROGRESS and ACHIEVEMENT

2) WELLBEING and ENGAGEMENT at school and

3) FUTURE SUCCESS IN WORK AND LIFE.

To optimize educational outcomes for EVERY STUDENT, regular school attendance must be prioritized. This means that students arrive at school on time every day and remain at school for duration of the school day.

Research confirms that regular student attendance matters.

Missing school for just 2 days a month amounts to 4 weeks of lost learning every year. That’s potentially a WHOLE YEAR of lost learning from Prep to Year 10! And this is just as relevant if we were to calculate the hours/minutes students miss when they arrive to school late or leave school early.

Poor attendance, inconsistent patterns of attendance, arriving to school late (after the first bell) and leaving school early (before the final bell) can have long lasting impacts on student learning and their overall engagement at school. This is important from as early as Prep and continues throughout their formal schooling years.

We absolutely understand that at times, students need to attend important appointments or of course, are unwell. In these cases, we would always ask that appointments are made during the school day only when necessary and that our little ones remain at home if they are unwell so that they can rest and recover.

We believe this is so important for each of our angels here at Guardian Angels and our focus as a whole school community should be unified and clear so that their years here at Guardian Angels prove to be a successful foundation for each student as they continue to grow into wonderful teenagers and adults.

Let’s work together to ensure our students can optimize every opportunity that attending school can provide  (especially this school that loves them all so much).

We will continue to prioritize consistent student attendance here at Guardian Angels as it is such an important contributing factor to our students’:

• academic progress and achievement,
• ability to engage in educational and social opportunities provided in our school environment and
• student wellbeing.

BOOKLISTS FOR 2025

In the coming weeks you will receive communication regarding the purchase of book packs for the 2025 school year. Our book packs are supplied by Edsco who have worked in partnership with Guardian Angels for many years to provide cost effective supplies and convenient services for our families. Keep an eye out for the communication regarding book pack purchasing for 2025.

Parents of Prep 2025 students will not receive instructions to purchase book packs as these are automatically purchased for you by the school. These packs are added to your Term One 2025 school fees and are delivered directly to school.

LEARN TO SWIM PROGRAM (Years 1 & 2 only)

Parents of students in Years 1 & 2 have received an email communication and a parent slip for the Learn to Swim Program that commences next week (Friday 11 October). Please be sure to read this communication and return the permission slip promptly.

DROP OFF and PICK UP ZONES         

Whilst most of our parents/carers are utilising our Drop Off and Pick Up Zones appropriately (thank you), there are still a number of parents/carers who were still not doing so towards the end of Term Three and beginning Term Four.

To aid efficiency, it is really helpful when students’ surnames are clearly displayed in the windscreen. Please place your family name sign on the dashboard on the front left hand side of your vehicle. If you require a family name sign, please contact the office and they will kindly assist you.

Please be sure that you are familiar with the expectations of these areas in the school that serve to make life as easy as possible for you and, most importantly, keep our beautiful kids safe and sound.

We facilitated a number of concerns from residents in Pine Street who were understandably upset that Guardian Angels’ parents were parking in front of their driveways, blocking access to their own homes. This absolutely cannot happen. Residents should always be able to access their properties. It may be useful to delay your arrival at the pick up zone by 10 minutes.

Please approach the zones from the correct area (not cutting around corners, jumping queues etc) as this causes understandable frustration for those parents who wait patiently for their turn to enter the zone from the correct areas. It is also important that parents/carers inform any person who is responsible for using the zones of our expectations in these areas eg grandparents, friends, day carers etc

Some important things to note:

• All cars are to approach the Drop Off/Pick Up Zones from the identified areas please:

GA Campus … along Akonna Street from Cedar Street NOT Pine Street (please do NOT cut the corner from Pine Street to enter Akonna Street Drop Off/Pick Up Zone)

MC Campus … along Pine Street approaching from Tingal Road.

• Please do not park/wait in front of residents’ driveways. They should be able to access in/out of their properties at any time, and we need to be respectful of this.

• ALL students are to exit vehicles from the KURB SIDE ONLY. Under no circumstances should a student be exiting a vehicle from the road side of the car.

• School bags must be in the car with the students: NOT stored in the back of the car/boot. We will not allow boots to be opened whilst in the zones.

• No drivers (or other passengers) are to get out of the car in the Drop Off/Pick Up Zones please. If your child cannot exit or enter a vehicle independently, the best option is for you to park your car and walk your child into school.

• Please do NOT USE THE CHURCH CAR PARK, or anywhere in CHESTNUT STREET or BAY TERRACE as a Drop Off and/or Pick Up Area. Any student found waiting in these areas will be redirected to an assigned (and supervised) zone.

• Any student who remains in the Pick Up Zone from 3:20pm, will be taken to the respective campus office where they will remain safely with staff until they are collected. Adults who collect students from the offices past this time, will be required to record this collection with our office staff.

Thank you for your kind understanding in this matter. It is really important that ALL families are following the expectations of areas such as Drop Off and Pick Up Zones in and around our school. This makes this service as efficient as possible and of course, helps to support the safety of our students … nothing is more important than that!!!

May I also remind everyone that school opens for students at 8:05am and no earlier. Of course the exceptions to this are those families who are utilizing OSHC (Outside School Hours Care) by booking their child/ren into this service. It is concerning to see students dropped at school, often outside locked school gates and left to wait there on their own until the gates open and the school is supervised from 8:05am.

Blessings to you all for the coming weeks

Nicole Waller

From the Assistant Principal Religious Education

Welcome to Term 4. I hope that you all had a wonderful and relaxing break.  We are looking forward to another busy term, with plenty of learning and fun to be had!

GA Day

This week we celebrate the feast day of St Francis on the 4th October and Guardian Angels’ Feast Day on the 2nd of October, we had GA Day on Thursday the 3^rd of October.

To mark both feast days we had a whole day of activities to celebrate.  We began the day with a school liturgy at 9am in the shed, followed by a classroom activity.  The students then enjoyed rotational activities in the middle session focusing on LIVE and buddy reading for the last session.  There was a sausage sizzle and ice-block for the students on the day, thanks to our amazing P and F.  It was a great day had by all.

St Francis of Assisi

We celebrate the feast of St Francis of Assisi, on Friday the 4th October. We recognise this special feast day as it reminds us of our Franciscan tradition. Like Jesus, St Francis lived a life devoted to peace.  In his words and actions, St Francis led others in search of peace in their lives.  His message to us today is for us to be Jesus’ instruments of peace in the world.  As we celebrate the feast of St. Francis of Assisi it is important to remember that although St Francis was born into a wealthy family, he gave up all he had to follow Jesus. St. Francis chose to be very poor, so he could focus on living like Jesus. St. Francis focused on who people were, rather than what they had. Let us pray together today that we too learn to do the same.

To acknowledge this day you may wish to pray with an icon of St Francis.  Lectio Divina is a popular prayer. Simply follow these easy steps.

1. Find a place where you can be quiet, comfortable and attentive
2. Ready – still comfortably and focus on your breathing
3. Read – take time to look at the icon, see “more”
4. Read and reflect – what is the icon calling you to be? What do you hear?
5. Read and respond – journal your thoughts or say a prayer
6. Read and rest – let the icon rest in your heart
7. Be – be with your thoughts. Give time for this to happen

October – Month of the Rosary

October is the month dedicated to the Rosary. The Rosary (in its fullness) is a prayer of devotion to Mary. The Rosary is composed of different Marian prayers with the main one being the Hail Mary. It also consists of recognition of 20 mysteries put into 4 different categories; the Glorious Mysteries, Sorrowful mysteries, Joyful mysteries and Luminous mysteries. I encourage to have a look at the link below to read more about this most beautiful and important prayer.

http://www.catholicity.com/prayer/rosary.html

Class Mass Timetable – Term 4

This term we will be having our Prep and Year 5/6 Green Class Mass that was postponed from last term.  We hope you can join us

Important Dates

Please save the date for these upcoming school events.  We look forward to sharing these wonderful occasions with you.

• All Saints’ Day Mass – 1^st November – 9am – Shed
• SVDP Christmas Appeal Launch – at whole school assembly – Week 7
• Remembrance Day – Monday 11^th November – 10am – Memorial Garden
• Volunteer Celebration Breakfast – Tuesday 19^th November – 7.30am – GA Hall
• Year 6 Graduation – Thursday 21^st November – 5.30pm – Liturgy – Church
• Year 6 Gradation Celebration – Thursday 21^st November – 6.30pm – Wynnum Manly Leagues Club (Year 6 only)
• End of Year Mass – Monday 2^nd December – 9am – Shed
• Nativity Play – led by Prep Blue – Monday 2^nd December 2pm – Shed
• End of Year Celebration – Friday 6^th December – 11.15am – Shed
• Christmas Concert – Wednesday 4^th December – 6.00pm - Shed

God bless and take care,

Rhiannon

From the Primary Learning Leader

Dear Parents,

Welcome to Term 4 and what a busy term it will be! It has been lovely visiting our learning spaces and already seeing some wonderful work taking place.

I look forward to working with our dedicated and hardworking teachers again this term to continue supporting our students to move their learning forward. 

This year’s ICAS results are now available. Please find instructions below on how to access your child’s ICAS results.

HOW PARENTS AND STUDENTS CAN FIND THEIR TAP-ID AND PIN TO ACCESS THEIR RESULTS

Students that have sat ICAS at your school before can find their TAP-ID and PIN on the back of a previous years' certificate.

Students that have lost their previous ICAS certificate or sat ICAS at your school for the first time this year, can request it via our TAP-ID and PIN request form here.

Once we have received the student’s ICAS certificates I will notify you as we will present these at an Assembly.

 All of our students should be so proud of their wonderful achievements.

If you are having difficulty accessing the link, please email me.

Kind Regards,

Elisha Thatcher

Student Medication & Medicinal Care

At Guardian Angels, students receive care & respect from a trained first aid officer, always ensuring their well-being and safety.  We greatly value parent & carer cooperation to ensure efficient & safe records for students.   

The steps below are strictly followed for students who require medications/medicinal care during school hours.   Please do not hesitate to contact the school if you have any concerns or questions, we welcome the opportunity to discuss the process with you.   

Long Term Care
Example:  Anaphylaxis & Asthma

1. Doctors Letter or Doctors Health Care Management Plan
2. Medication Administration Request Form (see below)
3. Medication labelled with student full name, dosage & time. 

Short Term Care
Examples:  Creams, Eye Drops, Antibiotics, Nurofen.  

1. Medication Administration Request Form (see below)
2. Medication labelled with student full name, dosage & time.  

Paracetamol

1. Authority to Administer Paracetamol Form (see below)
2. Paracetamol labelled with student full name, dosage & time. 

3. 
   It is imperative that the forms above are completed carefully & in full.

4. We are unable to accept forms that are incomplete or with errors.    
   The information provided must match the medical label exactly.
   Students are prohibited from having medications, creams, eye drops in their bags.   
   Any dosage adjustments require a new form with matching labelled medication.
   A small amount of Paracetamol is held at school for emergencies only.   
   Emergencies for Paracetamol does not include cold & flu.
   New authority forms are required each year with meds onsite having a yearly expiry date if possible.
   Example: Epipens that don’t expire until the end of December 2024.
   Parents are responsible to keep track of expiring medications & arrange replacements prior to the expiry date.  

Student Awards

Congratulations to the following students, who received a LIVE the GA Way Award at assembly.

These students demonstrate the LIVE the GA Way in all they do and say:

Connah C, Anurett T, Aylah H, Rigby T, Oliver S, Gensis B, Rosie G, Tate B, Thea H, Luella D, Remy E, Cruz MC, Lyra GB, Liam S, Mia T, Walker M, Frankie L, Hunter L, Ashton R, Marnie M, Archer S, Mohkam S, Ante K, Gurman M, Zane S, Fletcher O, Hunter B, Natalie K, Estay W, Mara I, Colm K.

BCE Connect App - Logging Absences

For your convenience, below is a short video demonstrating how to lodge both full and partial day absences.
Please lodge all absences using the BCE Connect App.        

BCE Connect/Parent Portal New Version

P&F Meeting

Tuesday 8^th October at 6:30pm.  All are welcome, please access via this TEAMS Link.  

Join conversation (microsoft.com)

Bookclub Volunteer

Community News

Brisbane City Council Libraries Gold Star Reading Club

The Gold Star Reading Club will kick off in Council libraries across the city on Saturday 5 October 2024.

There are four great reasons for children to get involved in the 2024 Gold Star Reading Club.

1. Membership to the Gold Star Reading Club is FREE!
2. The Gold Star Reading Club can help children improve their reading and literacy skills.
3. Children will be rewarded for their reading efforts with a medallion and a certificate of achievement.
4. It’s FUN! Children will have fun sharing their reading experiences with family and friends.

This is a great opportunity for parents to share in their children’s reading achievements.

To register your child for the Gold Star Reading Club, simply visit brisbane.qld.gov.au/libraries or your local library to complete a registration form from 5 October 2024.

For more information about the Gold Star Reading Club, visit your local library or call Council on 3403 8888.