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

Welcome   Community   Hospitality

As we enter the final weeks of the 2022 school year, there is so much to be grateful for. I am grateful for the staff that I work alongside each day, they really do make St Clare’s the special place that it is! I am grateful for the students, especially our Seniors who are soon to end their chapter with us, I will hold dear the many memories l have shared with them. I am grateful for our parents and wider school community. It really is unique to find such a supportive and involved group of people who all work together with the best interests of our students at the forefront. As we move in the season of Advent, what are you grateful for this year?

Congratulations to the many wonderful staff and children involved in this year’s Mini Fete. We were able to donate a profit of over $1 500 towards Catholic Mission! That is an incredible achievement for our school.

There will be many celebrations happening in the last week of school and I hope that everyone is able to bring their child along to our End of Year BBQ and Christmas Concert. The students have been very busy working on ‘Lights, Camel, Action!’ which is a nativity play with a groovy twist. Join the nativity celebrities as they celebrate Jesus' birth with a dazzling dance show! Many thanks to Mrs Sollitt, Mrs Wall and Jane Henley who have been wonderful in helping to source costumes and the some of the students who have given up many lunch times for rehearsals.

I hope that all of our St Clare’s families enjoy a peaceful break over the Christmas period and I look forward to seeing you back again in 2023.

Sharon Chappel

REPORT CARDS

Semester 2 Report Cards will be uploaded to the Parent Portal by the close of business next Wednesday 30^th Nov.  If you are having any difficulty logging into the Parent Portal, please follow the instructions attached.

BOOKLISTS

2023 Book Lists will be sent home next week.  The lists have also been uploaded to the Parent Portal under Documents – 2023 Lists.

Wishing all St. Clare’s families a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Chris Edwards

School Calendar 2022

SWIMMING CARNIVAL TUCKSHOP

We have had a change of plan regarding the swimming carnival tuckshop being run at the Tully Pool.

All ordering is still to be in by 10am Thursday on the Flexischools App but I will bepreparing the food at our school tuckshop and bringing the bags over to the pool around 11am. We do apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and that we won’t be able to have any over the counter purchases for parents. 

Parents can still purchase on the Flexischools app and will receive their food at 11am or you can purchase food from the Tully Pool canteen.

Any questions please don’t hesitate to let me know.

As the 2022 School Year comes to an end, I would like to thank the parents, any extended family and friends who have helped in the Tuckshop or with baking at home this year.  Every child looks forward to Tuckshop on a Friday and it is made possible by all of you that give up their time to help.

Thank you also to anyone who has helped on Sporting Days, Touch Football carnival that we run the canteen at,  also Pie Drive and the End of Year BBQ. Also thank you to  the P&F executive, John, Paul, Melissa and Kelly for your ongoing support and help.

When school begins, I will once again put a call out to anyone that is wishing to help on a Friday or able to bake from home. I would love to see some new parents help.  To any families leaving the school this year thank you for your help and support in the Tuckshop over the past years.

I hope everyone has a Safe and Merry Christmas

Marie Vipiana

Southern Zone Sports Awards

Congratulations to all of our students who were presented awards at the Southern Zone Sports Awards night last week for their success in sport throughout 2022. St. Clare's is blessed with very talented students and sport is certainly a big part of their schooling. Well done to all of you for an outstanding year in sport.

Billy Slater League Tag

On Friday, our Year 5 and 6 students attended the Billy Slater League Tag competition at Callendar Park. We entered four teams in the competition this year - 1 x girls, 1 x boys and 2 x mixed teams. All of our teams played exceptionally well coming away with some wins, some draws and some losses but most importantly leaving with lots and lots of smiles. There were some top quality league tag skills displayed on the field and exceptional sportsmanship all round. The following students were selected by their coaches for outstanding sportsmanship and a never give up attitude. Congratulations Allie Slattery, Indy Grimaz, Blake Blennerhassett and Benny Langdon.

Thank you to our amazing parents who braved the heat for the day to cheer on our students and a special thanks to Mrs Jenkins, Mr Nona and Alice McNamara for coaching the teams. Thank you also to our parents for assisting with transport. Without your assistance, days like this aren't possible so we are very grateful for your time and generosity. Thank you Catherine, Alice, Tammy, Brendan, Kelly, Carrie, Tegan & Mrs Jenkins.

Kind Regards,

Kate Mason

SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR

Huge THANKYOU to all parents and children who supported our annual School book fair. The School was the recipient of free books from the fair.  Many thanks to the Baston family, Calleja family, Chappel family, Condon family, Grimaz family, Matthew Dore, Chase & Emmett Frumento, Quabba family,  Noonan family, Langdon family, Waters family, Walters family and Mrs J Sollitt for their generous donations of new books for the school library.

I would also like to thank the teachers and the Year 6 students for their help during the fair, which is greatly appreciated.

Happy Reading.

Mrs Borgna.

Term 4, 2022
Week 6

St. Clare’s Way Award

Shiloh, Lexie, Warrick, Billy

Academic Award

Summer, Charlie, Jace, Hudson, Emmett

Social & Emotional Learning Award

Kace, Lauren, Jonah

Term 4, 2022
Week 7
St. Clare’s Way Award

    Nylan, Chase, Christopher, Blake
 
Academic Award  

Oliver, Declan, Aiden

Social & Emotional Learning Award
 

Lachlan

*THOSE WHO ARE COOKING ON THE BBQ IF YOU COULD BE AT THE SCHOOL BY 4.30PM AT THE LATEST TO START COOKING THAT WOULD BE GREAT.

*WE ASK THAT ALL FAMILIES BRING A PLATE TO SHARE FOR DESSERT.

*IF YOU HAVEN’T RSVP AS OF YET CAN YOU PLEASE RETURN YOU NOTE WITH NUMBERS ASAP.

TO MAKE IT EASIER THIS YEAR WE WILL HAVE EFTPOS, YOU CAN STILL PAY BY CASH IF YOU PREFER, BUT THIS JUST GIVES YOU THE OPTION OF BOTH.  PURCHASING OF DRINKS CAN BE DONE WITH FOOD ON THE ONE TRANSACTION OTHERWISE YOU CAN PURCHASE YOUR DRINKS WITH CASH AT THE DRINK TABLE AT ANY TIME.

MENU: END OF YEAR BBQ

Steak Burger   -  $ 5

Sausage on Bread  -   $ 2

Chicken Nuggets and Chips  -   $ 5

Hot Chips   -  $ 3

Softdrink, Poppers and Water  -   $ 2 each

RETURN TO SCHOOL

SCHOOL TIMES -  2023

Thank you to all families who have made their school fee payment.

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.  Any credit balances will be rolled over for 2023.                            

Thank you

HCC Discount Scheme - Tuition Fee only 

The Parent of the card holder is required to come to the school office and complete a new form for 2023 term one fees together with a copy of their card (expiry date has to be after Jan 27th, 2023).

If your expiry date finishes 31 Dec 2022, you are required to come in the school office at the start of first week of school. A new form can be completed with a copy of the new card.

If any new families who are eligible for the Health Care Care/Pension Card discount should ensure they come into the school office to complete a form and give a copy of their card. 

It is important that this form is completed before 2023 term one fees are generated.

Families leaving St Clare's

We farewell the following families (as school parents) and wish them all the best in the future.

Borgna, Briggs, Dore B & I, Duiker, Fauvel, Jenkins, Kerr, Mildenhall, Wilson, Singh B & Churchill R.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT OVER THE PAST YEARS.

St. Clare’s Catholic Women

Bereavement Mass

This is an invitation to all members, parishioners, family and friends to attend the Bereavement Mass at St. Clare’s Church on Sunday 27^th  November at 9am to remember all those who have died. Morning tea will follow.