Dear St Clare's Community,

This is the last newsletter for 2022. The final weeks of the school year promise to be busy with many events taking place, hopefully I have outlined everything below.

As the year draws to a close it is often a time of reflection for us. I have been thinking about my year recently, once again I am reminded how fortunate I am to be part of such a wonderful school community. I invite you to take the time to say a prayer/affirmation for those in our community that are not as well as they would like to be, who are facing challenges, or who are struggling with the demands of day to day living. It is evident that St. Clare’s is a very caring community from the items coming in for the St. Vinnies hampers. Please continue to send these items in, they are very sincerely appreciated.

We look forward to our swimming carnival this Friday. Thank you to all parents assisting on Friday with carnival jobs. Your assistance allows our day to run smoothly so that our students have a wonderful carnival. I would also like to acknowledge the planning and preparation of our upcoming carnival, and all our sporting events this year, by Kate Mason. Kate has worked extremely hard this year to coordinate sporting opportunities for our students and the level of organisation has been outstanding.

Please ensure students apply sunscreen before coming to school and have some in their bags to reapply. All students need to bring their hats, lunch, or order tuckshop and water bottles for the day (maybe more than one water bottle).

Yr 6 Farewell Liturgy and Dinner Nov 28

Next Monday our Yr 6 students will be farewelled with a Liturgy at 5:30 pm followed by dinner with their parents, Fr Joby and staff.  Please keep our Yr 6 students in your prayers this week as they prepare to complete their primary schooling at St Clare’s and move to High School in 2023.

Awards Assembly Nov 30 & BBQ

Next Wednesday November 30th we will be holding our Awards Assembly at 9am where we will recognise the contribution of students who have served in special roles for our school and the Catholic community.  Thank you to our sponsors for our end of year awards. Your support is much appreciated!

The following will be announced at our Awards Assembly:

• 2023 School Captains and House Captains
• St Clare’s Spirit Award
• St Clare’s Academic Award
• St Clare’s Achievement Progress Award
• St Clare’s Character Awards (Prep – Year 5)
• 2022 House Cup

Parents are warmly welcomed to attend the awards presentations.

Also on Wednesday November 30, the P&F will be organising a BBQ. Families are invited to return to school at 5:00 pm for the BBQ. A huge thank you to the P&F for putting this on for us! This will be followed by a small Christmas Concert by the students and speeches. The night is scheduled as below:

5.00  BBQ starts
5.45  Principal’s Welcome and Speech
6.15 P&F President speech
6.30 Concert
7.15  Year 6 Valedictory Speech (School Captains)
         Year 6 Presentations
7.45  Dessert

Waterslide day Thursday Dec 1

Students are reminded to pack swimmers, sun-shirt, sunscreen and towel next Thursday for the Inflatable Water-slide proudly provided by the P&F to reward our students with some fun for all their great work throughout the school year!  Remember NO jewellery and zips allowed on the water slide. Classes will be rostered to use the slide throughout the day. Please contact your class teacher with any concerns.

End of Year Liturgy Friday Dec 2

We will be having a liturgy on Friday at 11:00am in the church.  From here we will process together out to the grass area near the church to countdown our end of year dismissal. All parents are invited to attend. Students will be dismissed at 12pm.  Anyone who does not have a parent  here at 12pm will be taken to the admin verandah for collection via stop drop and go. 

Week 1 2023

Term 1, 2023 commences for students on Tuesday 24th January. Week One is outlined below:

Monday 23rd - Pupil Free Day
Tuesday 24th - Students return
Wednesday 25th - students on site
Thursday 26th - Australia Day Public Holiday
Friday 27th  - Pupil Free Day - an additional Pupil Free Day has been given by Cairns Catholic Education in order for schools to begin to prepare for the implementation of Mathematics and HPE aligned with Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum.

Building Update

This project for new student toilets, tuckshop upgrade and flexible learning space is expected to go out to tender in the next week. We are hopeful that demolition of current toilets will occur during the holidays, however building will not start until after Term 1 commences. Temporary toilet blocks will be delivered during the holidays and set up. There will be some disruptions to how we access some parts of the school once builders are on site. We will also possibly be without a tuckshop for a period of time and will know more once the project starts.

School Fees

Thank you to all families who have made their school fee payment. Please ensure that fees are finalised prior to the end of the term. If you wish to discuss outstanding fees please contact the office to make an appointment.

For those who pay their fees by direct debit or Bpay we appreciate if payments continue over the holidays to ensure there will be no outstanding fees starting 2023.

On behalf of the staff I wish to thank all the parents for your support throughout 2022. Enjoy your special family gatherings over the holiday period.

Wishing everyone a blessed Advent,

Karran Burzacott
Principal