Gospel: Matthew 5: 13 - 16

Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if salt becomes tasteless, what can make it salty again? It is good for nothing, and can only be thrown out to be trampled underfoot by men.

‘You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine in the sight of men, so that, seeing your good works, they may give the praise to your Father in heaven.’

 Thank you to

• It was remiss of me not to thank Sara, Kate, Alyce and Ashleigh for giving up their time so freely before school returned to open up the uniform shop. Each of these ladies are volunteers and the uniform shop does not function without people who are prepared to give up their time. This has enabled all families to have the convenience of ordering and purchasing. Great job ladies.
• The group of parents who went through the Trash and Treasure materials in the shed and tidied, sorted and disposed of anything unsellable. This was an enormous job and many hands made light work.

Congratulations

To the Cimbora family on welcoming baby Anna in early January. We all look forward to meeting her. 

Welcome Picnic

Tomorrow afternoon, we will have our first welcome picnic in 3 years. Our last two were impacted by COVID and rain. The aim is to have old parents meet new parents in a relaxed social setting. We are aiming for a 5:30pm – 7:30pm timeslot. I know that there are some families with Friday afternoon sport, apologies. It is basically a BYO everything event. We are aiming to have ice blocks for students. With potentially a large number of people on site, please make sure that you are also supervising your children during play.

Parent/Carer Information Night

As communicated via Compass, this will be held this coming Tuesday evening, February 7. Your child’s teacher will be sharing a great deal of information. There will also be time for year level specific questions. It would be helpful if you send these questions through before the evening so that answers can be prepared.

Parent/Carer Meetings with Teachers

Between Wednesday February 8 and Tuesday February 14 you will be able to make an appointment with your child’s teacher. These will be held in your child’s classroom. The teachers received significant handover notes from the 2022 teachers. However, these meetings are a time for you to share vital information about your child in relation to strengths and needs. It’s also a time to share any other information you might have. You will receive information about booking a time shortly.

Hours of Supervision

Teacher’s are on playground duty between 8:30am and 3:20pm. If you need to drop your child earlier, then the safest option is to book them into Before school care. If you need to pick them up after 3:20pm, then the same rule applies. If there is a one off where you may be running slightly late, please contact the Primary office.

Communication to Students

A reminder that all communication with students during school time, should come via the Primary office. Students are not allowed to access their phones between the hours of 8:30am and 3:20pm.

School Car Park

Can I please appeal to you to make sure that you are being hyper vigilant of who is around you and that you slow down when both entering and departing the car park. If someone other than you does drop off or pick up, can you please pass on this message. There is absolutely no reason to travel any faster than 10kms per hour in spaces where children are.

St Jude’s IT Initiative

We have received the charging towers, device covers and 250 iPads for K to 3 students. After much consultation with a variety of stakeholders, we have decided to go with the version 9 iPads. Below is a comparison table of these devices. The main reason behind this decision is that Version 10 does not have a head phone port, so we would need to have an extension going into the USB slot. These devices are quite small and could be easily misplaced. There was an option of asking parents to provide head phones with blue tooth capability, however, I believe we have asked enough. The other issue with version 10 is its compatibility to CE systems. As the cost of the Version 9 is slightly cheaper, we are looking into reducing the allocated fee for families of students in K to 3. We will let you know how this will work.

Imaging for iPads is currently occurring, with our Year 3 students the first to receive their iPads. There has been a slight delay in the arrival of the laptops. As mentioned in previous correspondence, they are Dell 3110 (8GB RAM, 64 GB storage). We are aiming to gather together a frequently asked questions document for circulation, after the Parent Information Night. Please share any questions you may have with your child’s teacher, or email me directly.

Comparison of gen 9 vs 10 iPads:

Warm regards

The Fete Committee have commenced planning and are looking for volunteers to run each of the stalls; which includes everything from information, food and drinks to arts and crafts. If this is too much of a commitment we will also need people to help set up and pack down on the day. Please reach out to stjudespsfete@gmail.com to let us know if you can help.

ELC NEWS

Happy Birthday to Jude M, Lylah D, Oscar N, Aidan S, Zara A, Lucas R, Narain S, Elizabeth B and Adelaide F

A very warm welcome to all of our new and returning ELC families.  The first week of preschool is an exciting time for children and families.  The children have been exploring their new environment whilst getting to know one another and their teachers.  Thank you for having your children so well prepared for Preschool and for a positive first week.  We look forward to the year ahead. 

Emails

The teachers sent emails to all families last week with information about your child’s class. If you have not received this email please notify the ELC so you can be added to the distribution list. You may also need to check your junk/spam folder and mark the email as a trusted source.

St Jude’s Welcome Picnic

This Friday 3 February there will be a Welcome Picnic for St Jude's families from 5:30pm -7:30pm at the primary school oval. ELC families are very welcome. Bring a picnic and get to know some of the other St Jude's families. 

Parent Information Night

Please come along to our ELC Parent Information Night next Tuesday 7 February at 5:30pm. We will go over all the frequently asked questions to help you get a better idea of how our ELC runs. 

Welcome to the 2023 school year.  Mulleygrubs Café operates Wednesday to Friday for Lunch and Recess. Orders can be placed for lunch and counter service operates at both breaks.

 Just a couple of canteen updates for 2023:

• Qkr! is the best (and most effective) way to place orders for lunch orders. Keep an eye on the 'Mulleygrubs Special' section, for specials – the current ‘Summer Special’ is a Cold Milo.
• Cash orders can still be bought in and need to be dropped to the canteen by 9am.
• From now on, there is no need for paper bags to be purchased with lunch orders, these have been incorporated into main lunch items. 
• Please remind your children if they have a stamp on their paper bag, they need to bring their bag to the Canteen at their allocated time to collect their frozen or special items. 
• When using Qkr! for the first time this year please make sure your child's class is up to date. 

The Canteen relies on volunteer parents, carers, and grandparents to be able to function effectively. Volunteers for an hour or two are welcome, whether to help with food preparation, processing orders or counter sales. Children love to see Mum or Dad or grandparents helping in the canteen. 

If you are interested in volunteering, please send me an email or the school front office.

Welcome to Term 1 St Jude's Families and Friends! 

Thank you to all the families who have been in touch and who have purchased uniforms in the past few weeks leading up to our return to school. Your support and patience has been much appreciated!

Thank you also to our volunteers who continue to work hard to pack new orders, make exchanges, and fill requests for secondhand items. 

For new (and not so new) families to St Jude's - orders for new items can be placed via Qkr! and these will be picked, packed and delivered to your child's class. 

For any secondhand items, please email: uniform.stjudes@gmail.com  with the items you need and sizes you need. Do not make payment until we have replied to let you know what we can supply and how much is owed. 

FINALLY - GOOD NEWS! The uniform shop will be open for in-person sales, exchanges and questions THIS FRIDAY 3 February and NEXT FRIDAY 10 February from 8:45am - 9:30am. Put this in your diary! We also have EFTPOS available on site now, for speedy purchasing without needing to access Qkr!

The Mulleyduds Team

Congratulations

In the holidays Blaise played in the Australian Futsal Championships held in Penrith. After playing a phenomenal game with the ACT U10 boys. Blaise and his team took home the title! Well done Blaise!

Save the date 

Swimming Carnival - Thursday 9 March. 

Athletics Carnival - Thursday 30 March.

More information to follow. 

Welcome to another school year! I hope that all children have settled into their new classes and routines. A very big welcome to new families to the school. Please feel free to reach out to other parents and the Community Council email if you have any questions about life at St Jude’s! There is a wealth of knowledge out there and we are here to help.

It has been a busy start to the year. Many thanks to all those working in the background in the weeks leading up to the start of school. I wanted to highlight some important upcoming events.

3 February 5.30pm  - Welcome Picnic. Bring a picnic rug, some dinner and come down to the oval to catch up with friends and make some new ones!

Week 3 (date to be confirmed) - Community Council AGM (followed by General Meeting). This will be held in the library with an online option for the General Meeting. A number of positions will be made vacant at the AGM, please consider volunteering. It is a wonderful way to contribute to the school and meet some amazing people. Feel free to email me if you have any questions about the Community Council.

18 March – St Jude’s Fete. Preparations are racing ahead, so keep an eye out for ways in which you can assist!

Finally, a form will be circulated in the near future calling for canteen and general volunteers. Every little bit helps, so if you have anything from a spare hour to a spare day, please let us know.

Many thanks.