We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of our

lands, Australia. We acknowledge the Wiradjuri

Nation as the traditional custodians of these lands we

now call Bathurst, and we pay our respects to their

Elders

MASS TIMES

Cathedral/Assumption Mass Times

Saturday 5pm

Cathedral

Sunday 8 am Assumption – no music

Sunday 10 am Cathedral – Children’s Liturgy or

Family Mass

Sunday 6 pm Assumption Church

St Philomena’s is A Child-Safe

Child-friendly School. St Philomena’s is A Child-Safe Child-Friendly

School.

Child-safe means taking active measures to keep

children and young people safe from physical, sexual

or emotional abuse.

Child-friendly means creating a trusting environment

that values, respect and welcome children and young

people. This means children and young people feel

confident to raise any problem or concern and know

they will be listened to. If you are aware of a family experiencing difficulty please

approach the School Executive (Principal, Assistant

Principal, REC, Parish Priest) or email this address:

bthstpastoralcare@bth.catholic.edu

Welcome back for 2016. I welcome new families to

St Phil’s and encourage everyone to be active

members in the school and feel the loving hand of

our school community. Our focus on child-centred

Catholic education as reiterated in our school vision

statement is at the core of what we do here at St

Philomena’s.

‘St Philomena’s is committed to high quality

catholic education in a loving family orientated

community environment’

Class times have changed slightly and I urge you to

take note of the following schedule:

Morning Bell - 8.55am

Fruit Break - 5 minutes during the Morning Session

Lunch 11.05 - 11.25am

Recess 1.40 – 2.00pm

End of Day 3.05pm

We ask parents to ensure that children are on time

for school so that they are present when class begins

St Philomena’s Primary School

Newsletter Lloyds Road (PO Box 2031) “Live Justly, Lovingly, Faithfully BATHURST NSW 2795 in Christ” Phone: 02 6331 1198 Fax: 02 6332 3976

Email: stphilsbathurst@bth.catholic.edu.au Term 1 Week 2

Web: www.stphilsbathurst.catholic.edu.au 3rd February 2016 Principal: Mr James Farr

Term 1

Week 2 06.02.16 11.30am Opening School Mass Week 3 08.02.16 9.15am Big Steps for Tiny Feet and

School Captain Photos. 10.02.15 10am Ash Wednesday Mass

10.02.15 7pm P & F Meeting .

Week 4

16.02.15 Eastern Regional Swimming

Carnival

Staffing 2016

School Chaplain – Fr Owen Gibbons

Acting Principal - Mrs Louise Davies

Acting Assistant Principal - Mrs Letitia Mutton

Religious Education Coordinator - Mrs Jenny Bray

Kindergarten – Mrs Jenny Bray & Mr Jacob Parslow.

Mrs Kelli Hotham – Teacher Assistant

Year One - Mrs Anne Murdoch

Mrs Toni Clancey - Teacher Assistant

Year Two - Mrs Sallie Delaney.

Mrs Diane Dwyer - Teacher Assistant

Year Three - Mr Shane Hanley.

Mrs Kate Simm - Teacher Assistant

Year Four - Ms Jo Bestwick

Mrs Sharon Weber – Teacher Assistant

Year Five - Mrs Maree Smith.

Mrs Sharon McHugh - Teacher Assistant

Year Six - Mrs Letitia Mutton & Mrs Kate Holden

Support Teacher - Mrs Kelly Farr

Release Teacher - Mr Jacob Parslow

Primary Music Release - Miss Kate Holden

Infants Music - Mrs Sue Fish

Library - Mrs Louise Davies

Office Assistants - Mrs Sheree Ashcroft & Mrs

Sharon McHugh

Canteen Coordinator - Mrs Colleen Holding

Groundsmen - Mr Brian Keogh

Cleaner - Mr Shane Woolfe

School Leaders – 2016

Tomorrow after our opening school Mass we will

induct our leaders for this year.

School Captains: Kate Muir & Jackson Windsor

Vice Captains: Menzi White & Ruben Martin-Clark

Sport House Captains

Chifley: Charlotte Steele & Sebastian Johns

Evans: Lilly Cope & Noah Constable

Macquarie: Layla Rumball & Clayton Chatfield

Mitchell: Mia Dopper & Tyler Baillie

Student Representative Council:

President: Bill Bremner

Secretary: Grace Baldwin

Treasurer: Charlie Fitzpatrick

Publicity Officers: Jacinta Casey & Jesse Limon

Environmental Officers: Tiah Wright-Jones

Mini Vinnies

President: Stella Hall

Secretary: Bonnie-Jean Goodfellow

Treasurer: Seth Hazzard

Publicity Officers: Matilda Rosevear

LLW@S Committee

President: Jonathon Tzanellis

Secretary: Toby Thompson

Treasurer: Brody Gibbons

WH & S Committee

President: Kyle Berry

Secretary: Jaxon Hyde

Treasurer: Edie Smithers

Term One Class SRC:

Year One: Charlotte Casavalls & Billy O’Hara

Year Two: Tahlani Chatfield & Will Mutton

Year Three: Laura Martin-Clark & Nicholas Newman

Year Four: Scarlett Hall & Ethan Moxon

Year Five: Maisy Hazzard & Baxter Fitzgerald

Student Verification Forms Student Verification Forms have been sent home.

Please update information and return by 4th February,

so we can correctly calculate fees and update

emergency contacts.

School Fees Term 1 school fee account will be sent home to all

families in the coming weeks. Accompanying the

account will be a letter outlining CEO School Fee

Agreement and our 2016 Fee Schedule.

Comments on Social Networks

Social media plays an important part in our daily lives

however the CEO would like to make parents aware of

their rights and responsibilities when commenting on

the school processes and staff.

Social media can be a positive form of communication

for students and parents.

However, some concerns have

arisen recently where a parent

used Facebook to make critical

remarks about a member of staff,

another parent and a student.

Our school has always encouraged parents to make

contact with the Principal where there are problems

and conflicts involving disciplinary actions taken by

the Principal or a member of staff.

Inappropriate comments on Facebook have the

potential to defame an individual without them being

aware of the critical remarks that have been posted.

This medium also has the potential to inflame

situations in the public domain because comments can

be traced and downloaded.

In serious cases, we should all be aware that

individuals defamed can make a civil claim for

defamation of character through the legal process.

Taking an issue to a social networking site instead of

discussing it with the principal or teacher involved can

also damage a school’s reputation. These actions are

unhelpful in resolving problems, can breach trust and

privacy and jeopardise enrolment.

The enrolment contract in our schools in the Diocese

of Bathurst stipulates the need for the school and

parents to work together co-operatively. The values

implicit in this approach, especially in a catholic

school, cannot be achieved by indirect critical

comments of teachers and other parents and students

in the social media.

Uniform

Please remember to ensure your

child wears a hat each day, as there

is a ‘No Hat, No Play’ Policy in

place.

Girls

Girls are reminded to wear ribbons and flat hair bands

in maroon, pink or white and royal blue on sport days.

Jewellery should be limited to a watch or bangle and a

small cross. For safety reasons we prefer girls to wear

gold or silver studs.

Boys

Hair should be collar length and patterned haircuts

should be left for the holidays.

If boys do have an earring this should be removed

before coming to school.

These uniform rules are in place for your child’s safety

and reduction of children being caught up in fashion

competitions. It has been noted that some of our girls

are wearing royal blue sport skirts or skorts – these

are not part of our school sport uniform.

Payment Envelope Included with today newsletter is an envelope to use

when sending in payments into school (excluding

canteen lunch orders). Please write your child’s

name, class and what the payment is for and return the

envelope to your child’s class teacher.

Sharing Food St Phil’s is a safe food school and as such we do not

allow children to share food. This rule helps prevent

children with allergies accidentally eating food, which

may cause anaphylaxis shock. Please advise your

children not to share their food. Some children are

buying their friends food from the canteen, which is

against the school rules too. The canteen cannot

monitor children with allergies and their food if others

buy it for them.

Birthday Cakes and Celebrations

It is the custom at our school to acknowledge each

child’s special day with a blessing and a voucher

to the canteen at morning assembly. It is policy at

our school for children who celebrate their

birthday with their friends and wish to give out

party invitations for an after school celebration to:

Invite all children in the class

Invite only the boys in the class

Invite only the girls in the class We ask that parent to assist us in this area as children

are then not upset when an invitation has not been

given.

If you choose to bring a cake to school, for your child

to share with their classmates, it is preferred that

individual cupcakes be sent in and not an actual cake.

Library Library will be held on a Monday for all classes.

Please remember to bring a waterproof bag to library

each week.

Book Club Issue 1 will be sent home next Monday.

We are going cashless for book club orders so please

follow the “Loop’ instructions when ordering for your

child online. http://www.scholastic.com.au/schools/bookclub/loopinfo.asp

Road Safety

To ensure the continuing safety of our children,

especially throughout the 3.05 to 3.20pm period which

is extremely busy, we ask parents to remember:

To not enter the afternoon pick up zone

until the teachers are on duty

Staff supervision commences at 8.30am

and concludes at 3.30pm, daily.

Not to do a u-turn in a school zone at

any time

That teachers will assist your

children into cars of an

afternoon but it is the ultimate

responsibility of each parent to

ensure that your child is harnessed

correctly before moving back into traffic

Park on the opposite side of the road if

you are collecting children from outside

the Year 3 classroom and to use the

School Crossing Guard to ensure road

safety at all times.

Not to walk across Staff Car Parks

PAPERLESS Newsletter… A hard copy of the

newsletter was sent home to Kinder & new

families to the school today. From next week’s

newsletter - Term 1, Week 3 – the newsletter will

be paperless for our school Newsletter!

The School Newsletter is only available through

our school app or website

www.stphilsbathurst.catholic.edu.au

St Philomena’s School – Skoolbag iPhone and

Android App.

I would really like to encourage more parents to

download our school app.

To install it, just search for our school name

"St Philomena's School" in either the Apple

App Store, or Google Play Store or call into the

front office and see Mrs Ashcroft. Don’t forget

to allow notifications through your phones

settings.

Link for further information -

http://www.skoolbag.com.au/index.php

‘A little bit of mercy makes the world less cold

and more just’ - Pope Francis Wishing you a wonderful week!

Mrs Louise Davies

Acting Principal

Welcome back to school for a new year of learning.

Our Opening School Mass is tomorrow, Thursday 4th

February at 11:30am in the gym. Please come along to

pray for our year, induct our new Captains and meet

the many new faces in the school. Please stay for a

piece of cake and cup of tea after Mass.

Next Wednesday 10th February we will celebrate our

Ash Wednesday Mass at 10am in the gym. Please join

us to mark the beginning of Lent and our journey

towards Easter.

Shrove Tuesday is the day before Ash Wednesday and

the Yr 1 and Yr 5 classes will be holding a pancake

stall. Please send your child with some money to

partake in the delicious cooking. All money raised will

go towards Caritas and Project Compassion.

The dates for the Sacraments this year are:

Yr 6 Confirmation: 15th May at 8am in the

Assumption Church.

Yr 3 First Eucharist: 28th August at 10am

in the Cathedral.

Yr 2 Penance: 21st November at 7pm in the

Cathedral.

Please note these dates on your calendar.

Sr Alice will be running Conversations with Catholics

again this year. A note has gone out to all Kinder

families and new school students to the school. If you

did not receive a note and would like to learn more

about the Catholic faith, please let me know so I can

give you the appropriate information. The meetings

will be at 9am on Thursday mornings. You do not have

to be a Catholic to come along to these meetings, Sr

Alice is trying to share knowledge and make you feel

more comfortable with the practise of our faith.

Swimming Carnival

On Monday we held our annual Swimming Carnival at

the Bathurst Aquatic Centre. The day was a very

successful day with every student displaying great

sportsmanship and support for their team. The day had

more of an emphasis on participation rather than

results and on team support rather than individual

performances, making the day a very special

community event.

Presentation of ribbons will take place this Fridays

morning assembly. A list of placegetters will be

published in next week’s newsletter.

P&F Meeting

P&F meetings are held every second Tuesday of the

month, at 7pm, in the St Philomena’s School Computer

Room.

Meeting Next TUESDAY 9th

FEBRUARY

CANTEEN

Mondays and Fridays, please contact Colleen if

you are about to help out!!!

Open: Monday, Wednesday (snacks only NO

LUNCH ORDERS), and Friday

Closed: Tuesday & Thursday

Term 1 – Roster and Volunteer sheet attached.

Friday5th February Monday 8th February

Jacquie Baldwin

NEWSLETTER EMAIL – If you would like to be

included in our school mailing list and have the

newsletter emailed to you, please send your email

address to s.ashcroft@bth.catholic.edu.au

The school newsletter is also available online -

www.stphilsbathurst.catholic.edu.au

Other notices Harmonikos Music

would like to thank

St Philomena’s

Primary School for

their continued support of the school band. Band

practice is held on Tuesday mornings from 8:20am to

9:00am. Group lessons are available on Fridays

during lunch. Please contact Harmonikos Music on

6332 9146 if you’d like more information.

Welcome back to all parents and families. Don't forget

to look up "Cathedral Parish, Bathurst" on facebook (or

use the link below) to stay up to date with information in

the Cathedral Parish. For new families and parents,

there will be new parishioner events coming up soon

and it's a great way to meet new families in the parish.

The Parish Pastoral Council wishes you all a happy and

productive Term 1.

https://www.facebook.com/Cathedral-Parish-Bathurst-

1598011833811554/

PRIVATE TUTORING

For children aged 6-13 years

Literacy & Numeracy skills,

homework and assignments

Before/after school and weekends

$25/half-hour

20+ years teaching experience

Cathy O’Shea

0427 974 711 or 6332 4143