St Lawrence & Mary Immaculate Parish Balcatta:

Parish Priest: Fr Emil Ciecierega SDS Assistant Priest: Fr Leonard Macionczyk SDS

Last week at camp I was impressed with the way our Year 6 students

accepted challenges and conquered their fears as they worked together

as a cohesive team.

Today at the Cross Country Carnival I saw students giving 100% effort and

celebrating with their result wherever they came.

I was particularly impressed with a Year 5 student who congratulated an

opponent who had just beaten him on the finishing line.

It was fantastic to see his effort and more importantly his sportsmanship.

It was a true MJR moment.

BOOKWEEK

What a fantastic day yesterday was as we commenced school with our Book Week parade. It was

pleasing to see the effort the students had gone to, to ensure they dress as their book character. The day

concluded with an incursion from Superduper which was an extremely entertaining play about the power

and benefits of books and reading. Thanks to Mrs Archer and Mrs Frenzel for the preparation and

organisation for this wonderful week to celebrate books.

INTERSCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY

Today students from St Lawrence competed in NECPSA Interschool

Cross Country at Yokine Reserve. It was pleasing to see all students’

effort throughout the races. Congratulations to all students at St

Lawrence Primary School as we finished second overall. Well done to

Ivanna Gutierrez, Dylan Condo and Max Millard who came first for

their age groups. Thanks to Mrs Claire Major for co-ordinating this

sporting event.

St Lawrence Primary School 386 Albert Street Balcatta WA

Telephone: 9344 4944 Fax: 9344 5099 Email: admin@stlawbal.wa.edu.au

Home Page: www.stlawbal.wa.edu.au

Newsletter No. 26 23 August 2017

School Vision Statement The vision of St Lawrence Catholic Primary School, Balcatta

is to share the message of God’s love and friendship in a community of learners, developing the full potential of each child.

PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL

Tomorrow our School Choir lead by the talented Mrs Jacki Tucker will be performing at the Catholic

Performing Arts Festival, The choir will perform two songs and we wish the students all the best for their

performance.

P&F SAUSAGE SIZZLE

Well done to our P&F and all parents who assisted last Saturday at the

sausage sizzle at Bunnings Balcatta. I am pleased to announce that the P&F

raised over $2,000 which will greatly benefit the school.

Thanks to all families who supported the P&F Executive throughout the

sausage sizzle.

NAPLAN

Today all Year 3 and Year 5 students will receive their NAPLAN data from 2017. It was pleasing to see

the large growth in learning from our Year 5 students compared with the Year 3 data in 2015. Overall St

Lawrence School performed at or above the National average in 6 of the 10 categories assessed. Over the

last 7 years, St Lawrence School has performed at or above the National average in 54 out of the 70 areas.

The staff is currently reviewing the 2017 data to consider and adapt our academic focus.

FATHERING PROJECT

This event will be held next Wednesday 30 August and will commence at 7.00pm in the school hall. All

dads and granddads attending will hear a talk on testicular cancer followed by an opportunity to talk and

discuss future fathering projects. It would be pleasing to see many dads and granddads at this event.

FATHER’S DAY BREAKFAST

On Friday 1 September, all fathers and grandfathers are welcome to attend our breakfast from 8.00am to

8.45am in the undercroft. This is an opportunity for the school community to say thanks to our wonderful

dads for everything they do. Thanks to our P&F and school canteen that have organised and paid for this

school community building activity. A reminder that breakfast is for the adults only with a sausage sizzle

provided for each student. After the breakfast, children can find a spot in the school, sit with their dads

and read a book together. Hope to see you all on Friday morning.

CAMP Congratulations to all Year 6 students who participated in an excellent camp at Forest Edge Waroona last

week. It was pleasing to see the students push and challenge themselves and display leadership skills in

the variety of activities throughout the camp. Thanks to Miss Anna Brenkley for co-ordinating and

organising this excellent outdoor learning experience. I would like to also thanks Mrs Claire Major and

Mr Ken Tonge for assisting throughout the camp.

With God’s Friendship and Love we Grow

John Rose

Principal

Thursday 24/8: Running Club

Year 4 Excursion

Catholic Performing Arts Festival

Friday 25/8 Year One Assembly

Kindy Excursion

Monday 28/8 Coder Dojo

Year 4 Excursion

Tuesday 29/8 Pre Primary Excursion

Confirmation Parent Meeting

Wednesday 30/8 Fathering Project

FROM THE ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS

CATHOLIC PERFORMING ARTS FESTIVAL On Thursday, our School Choir will be singing at the Vasto Club in Balcatta. Our session begins at

1.00pm. Please come along and support our talented students as they represent our school.

CONFIRMING MEETING On Tuesday 29

August at 7.15pm there will be a parent meeting in the school hall regarding

Confirmation. This is an important step for families whose children will be receiving this sacrament and

we look forward to seeing a representative from every family in attendance. The Confirmation family

workshops will be held on Wednesday 6 September and families may choose to attend the 5.30 or 7.00pm

session.

WOOLWORTHS EARN AND WIN Thank you to the families who have already been contributing to this fundraiser. There is still plenty of

time to collect more stickers. The more stickers we receive the more resources we can purchase for our

school. Thank you for your efforts so far, keep collecting!

ASSEMBLY The Year Ones will be leading our Assembly this on Friday, please come along if you are free.

Mrs Jacki Tucker and Mrs Gabrielle Brennan, Assistant Principals

MERIT AWARD WINNERS

Pre Primary: Amber Cirillo, Giordana Carbone, Sophia Russo, Luca Barbieri

Year One: Makayla Mattioli, Ruby Tamburri, Will Clarke, Gemma Brandwood

Year Two: Noel Malual, Adam Clarke, Anthony Russo, Vince Lubieri

Year Three Chris Cabanayan, Gianluca Di Pietro, Stella Ferolla, Sia Ellie

Year Four: Davilyn Lado, Isabella Orifici, Ivanna Gutierrez, Tahlia Di Pietro

Year Five: Isabel Coniglio, Mario Jelaska, Siyenna Kailis, Sienna Anderson

Year Six: Luc Del Borrello, Alex Hall, Jesse Nyersh, Natalia Raweri

PARISH CHILDREN’S MASS

There will be a Children’s mass this Sunday at 5.30pm. As usual, the parish looks forward to the

participation of the children in reading, singing and taking up of the Offertory.

Parents if you would like your child to read, please contact myself or Mr Rose, who will organise

readings for Prayers of the Faithful. Singers are asked to please arrive by 5.00pm for rehearsal. Thank

you for your continuing co-operation. We look forward to a great mass on Sunday. Toni Mattiaccio

Toni.mattiaccio@cewa.edu.au

CLASS NEWS

PRE KINDY

Last week the children had so much fun at Pre Kindy with the new toys for our Terrific Transport theme.

There is always so much fun that they have outside too!

The children are always happy and cope very well with all our routines. Mrs Fiorenza and I enjoy our

Thursdays with them. Please welcome Mrs Gloria Edwards tomorrow. She has been on Maternity Leave

but has spent many years previously at St Lawrence teaching Pre-Primary and has a great deal of

experience in the early years.

Thanks also to parents for coming on roster as well as supplying and preparing lovely snacks and lunches

for us to eat. We ask that parents come on roster around 12pm for the afternoon session. This allows us

to settle the children in the mornings and get through the busiest part of our day.

We hope it has been nice sharing the Take Home Story Books with your child. Tomorrow is changeover

day so please return the folder and book a new one will be sent home for the next two weeks.

I will see you all on my return in Week 1 Term 4.

Mrs Kaylene Bozich, Pre Kindergarten Teacher

KINDERGARTEN

We have a few busy weeks coming up. We had Book Week this week and it was wonderful to see all the

children dressed up in fabulous costumes. Thanks for joining in.

This Friday is our first excursion to Northlands Shopping Centre to look at the different shops and to post

our letters so keep an eye out for those. The weather looks like it should be good so we will go to Yokine

Play Space afterwards. Look for the photos on Seesaw.

Next Friday, 1st September, we will be celebrating Father's Day. The school has a breakfast before school

and then if dads are able to, we invite you to come into Kindy for a short time so the children can sing

you a song, have a photo with you and give you a little gift. You are welcome to stay for a cuppa if you

have time.

The focus for the next few weeks is 'Transport' starting with Land transport this week followed by Sea

next week. The sounds focus this week is 'h' and 'e'. Next week is 'c' and 'd'.

Mrs Simone Covich, Kindergarten Teacher

PRE PRIMARY

The Pre-Primary students had an amazing week celebrating Book

Week 2017. The children loved dressing up as their favourite

characters and telling their friends about the story. The Pre-

Primary’s also thoroughly enjoyed the Super Duper incursion.

The students have started taking home their first Home Readers.

They have shown so much enthusiasm and love for reading so far.

On Mondays, the students shared their readers with the class and

some students even read their story to their friends.

We are looking forward to our to excursion next Tuesday to the

Dianella Library.

Miss Laura Byrne, Pre Primary Teacher

YEAR ONE

We enjoyed dressing up for Book Week yesterday and had fun being characters from our favourite

books. The Incursion we attended was great and learnt about the importance of reading and how it helps

us use our imagination. We are looking forward to presenting Assembly on Friday morning. Please

remember to practise your parts at home!

Mrs Roselyn Pizzino, Year One Teacher

YEAR TWO

We had so much fun participating in Book Week activities on Tuesday and it was fabulous to see all of

our class members dressed up and getting into the spirit of this great event. During our English time, we

have been learning about the different symbols that Aboriginal artists use to communicate ideas in their

artworks and stories and we have used these symbols to create a story about Arnhem Land and to plan a

painting.

We have been very busy counting and ordering coins in our Maths time and we are looking forward to

creating a shop in our classroom.

A reminder that Thursday is Crazy Hair Day in Year 2, what a terrific

way to celebrate filling up our Sybil Spots!

Mrs Jacki Tucker, Year Two Teacher

CLASS REPS NEWS

MOVIE NIGHT THURSDAY 7 SEPTEMBER

The Class Representatives are organising a movie night for this term. We will be seeing the movie ‘Girls

Trip’ at Warwick Cinemas on Thursday 7 September at 6.30pm. Tickets are only $8.50. This is also

open to mums, family and friends.

If you are interested, please give your money to your class rep by Wednesday 30 August.

KINDERGARTEN

Hi ladies, come join us for a catch up on Friday 1 September at 9.30am at Voyage Kitchen in Sorrento.

Please RSVP to Cilla 0409922317 or Francesca 04038704442 by 25 August. Hope to see you all there.

UNIFORM SHOP NEWS

SUMMER UNIFORM

In Term 4 Years 1 to 6 students return to school in their Summer Uniform. Please consider whether you

need to purchase additional uniform items this term. The Uniform Shop will be closed during the school

holidays.

PRE PRIMARY (YEAR 1, 2018) UNIFORM FITTINGS

Roster for appointments for fittings is in the Pre Primary classroom. Please contact me if you have any

queries. Details have been emailed to the Pre Primary families last week. Please note that NO payment is

required at this stage, only placing the orders.

CLEARANCE SALE

Clearance on SECOND HAND SIZE 6 (ONLY) TRACK JACKETS for $10.00 each. Sale commences

Thursday 24 August until Week 10, Thursday 21September. or until stocks last. No exchanges or

refunds. Opening Hours Wednesday 8.30am - 9.30am and Thursday 2.30pm - 3.30pm

Mrs Angie Miola, Uniform Shop Manager

CANTEEN NEWS

MENU SPECIAL

Order a Mac Cheese, Satay Chicken or Shepherd’s Pie with a Lol for only $5.00.

MENU CHANGE

Please be aware nuggets will not be available on Thursday instead will now be available on a

Wednesday.

Hotdogs will be available on a Thursday and Friday only.

ENTERTAINMENT BOOK

Last chance to order your 2017/18 Entertainment Book!

THANK YOU

To Anita Condo and Mary Mucciarone for your help in the canteen.

iPad RAFFLE: 3 tickets $5, 1 ticket $2. Tickets can be purchased from the Canteen.

Mrs Amanda Xigas, Canteen Manager,

Nancy Donatelli and Christina Russo Canteen Assistants

LIBRARY NEWS

Congratulations to all of our students on the wonderful costumes

they wore to our Book Character Dress Up Day yesterday

morning. They looked amazing and most of the children were

able to confidently say which book character they were. It was

pleasing to see such a great variety of characters and we hope

that activities like this continue to strengthen their love of reading

and an appreciation of how reading books really does let us…….

ESCAPE TO EVERYWHERE!

We were also very privileged to have our local state Member of

Parliament, Mr David Michael,

attend our parade and to also present us with a copy of the picture book, Gary, to add to the library.

A big thank you to our wonderful parents who helped with their children’s costumes and thanks also to

the school staff who looked fabulous in their character costumes.

Our Book Week celebrations continued in the afternoon with our

incursion Superduper. This was a high energy, engaging

performance which focused on some of the Children’s Book

Council Short Listed Picture Books and really made these books

come to life. Our children were totally absorbed in the performance

and were all very keen to participate when called upon; especially

our Year Ones who had front row seats! It provided a perfect ending

to a great day celebrating Australian children’s books.

BOOK CLUB NEWS: Pamphlets for Issue 6 were sent home yesterday. Please return completed order forms and money to class

teachers, or have online orders finalised, by next Tuesday 29th

August.

Mrs Lyn Archer, Teacher Librarian

P&F NEWS

FATHER’S DAY STALL – Thursday 24 August to Friday 25 August

The students will have an opportunity to buy gifts for Father’s Day this week.

The stall will take place on Thursday 24 August to Friday 25 August at 2.00pm

in the Learning Centre.

Thursday: Pre Primary to Year Six

Friday: Kindergarten and children that have not purchased a gift

All gifts will range from $1, $2, $3 or $4.

THANK YOU TO DAVID MICHAEL MLA

We would like to thank Mr David Michael, MLA for

Balcatta, and The WA Government for a grant of

$25,000 that will go towards new playground

equipment.

Our Bunning’s Family Fundraiser held last Saturday 19 August was a huge

success.

We would like to thank all of the families that kindly donated drinks.

A huge thank you to the Donatelli family for kindly donating onions for the

event.

A special thank you goes to the following ladies - Michelle Millard, Tara O’Leary, Fiona Femia,

Chantelle Laurie, Palmira Trimboli, Angie Figliomeni, Maria Lubieri, Melinda Italiano, Rosalinda

Saliszewski, Angela Messina, Iole Germano and Michelle Cirillo for helping on the day.

A big thank you to Mr Rose and Mr Tonge for all your help with setting up and getting us going.

And lastly we would like to thank all the families that came down to Balcatta Bunnings for a sausage

sizzle and a quick hello. With your help we managed to raise a massive $2118 which will go towards

buying resources for the students.

Mrs Anja Mojas (Vice President), P&F Committee

pandf@stlawbal.wa.edu.au

NETBALL NEWS

We had some wonderful weather last Saturday and some fabulous results.

Year 6: The team remains second on the ladder despite a narrow one point loss to Padbury

Catholic. Well done to the girls who did a great job after being away on camp for most of the week.

Year 5: A wonderful win 25-15 against Poynter. Well played team.

Year 4: The team and coach were very excited when they defeated the top team 18-9 in their

division. The joy in their faces was wonderful to see.

Year 3: A narrow loss for our youngest players, but the improvement in these players has been

fantastic.

Finals: Only the 12 and under age group (Year 6 team) and older play finals. Our Year 6 team will

play in the semi-finals on Saturday 2nd September at 11.15am.

Trophy presentation day will be: Sunday 15th

October, 2pm in the school hall.

All players, coaches and managers are expected to attend.

Spring Netball Competition: The season commences Wednesday 11th

October and concludes

Wednesday 29th

November. Registrations will be online once teams have been confirmed.

Game times: Year 2/3 and Year 4: 4.30pm

Year 5 and Year 6: 5.30pm

Cost: Year 2/3/4: Winter Player: $73.00 New: $115.00

Year 5/6: Winter Player: $58.00 New: $100.00

Netball Skills Clinic: WDNA are running an essential skills clinic during the spring netball season on

Monday nights for 10-12 years old (born 2005, 2006 or 2007).

Commences: Monday 16th October and concludes Monday 6th November.

Time: 5.30-7pm

Cost: $50.00 per player

Register at: http://wdna.net.au/home/player-game-information/clinics-courses/

Registration is now open and closes 15th

September. Places are strictly limited, so if keen get in early.

Enjoy the last game of the season.

Mrs Paula Bulich, St Lawrence NC