Dear Parents and Carers

Mary Mackillop’s anniversary of canonization occurs this week on the 17th October. She was an Australian religious sister who founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. The Josephites established a number of schools and welfare institutions focusing on providing an education for the rural poor. One of her mottos is “Never see a need without doing something about it”. Mary Mackillop is also known as St Mary of the Cross and she is the first Australian to be recognised by the Catholic Church as a saint.

Welcome back for Term 4. We hope that everyone had the opportunity to rest, relax and enjoy the holidays with family and friends. Well done to students and families on the transition to the summer uniform for this term. The way a student wears their uniform should demonstrate pride in themselves, their families and their school. Uniform guidelines can be found on the school website at this link.

Congratulations to our Tournament of Minds (TOMs) Teams. The STEM and Arts Teams both made the state finals on 19th September with the Arts Team also qualifying for the TOMs International Finals to be held in Darwin at the end of October. Both teams have done very well and the students demonstrated amazing collaboration and problem solving skills. Thank you to families for your support, Mrs Hales for leading the program and Ms Markwell, Mrs Bennett and Mrs McGinley for assisting. Congratulations also to the Space Mission 2040 Teams where our Year 1 Team were finalists, Year 4 Team were Runners-Up, and our Year 3 Team Winners.

It has been pleasing to walk around classrooms and see the high expectations that are set for our students. Having high expectations of students sets them up for success and helps them to build a better perception of what they can achieve. A student’s own perception of their abilities and whether they believe they can achieve something is a strong indicator that they actually will. When home and school are in partnership in setting high expectations for each individual child, the effect of this is greater still.

Students at Whitford Catholic Primary School are very well mannered and take genuine interest in the wellbeing of their classmates. We always hear ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and students are often asking each other how they are and extending this courtesy to parents, carers and staff. In a society where everyone is on a mission, patience is diminished and where we have forgotten the calm we talked about in recent times, this is very pleasing to see. Students watch adults when they interact with each other. This includes at school, at home and how the significant adults in their lives treat other adults like friends, family, acquaintances and others that they might meet in their daily activities such as volunteers, retail attendants and service providers. Students learn how they should be with other people from what they see you do. Well done on setting a great example!

Next Wednesday morning, we will celebrate O’Connor feast day with a Year 1-6 mass. O’Connor is one of our factions and is named after the first principal of Whitford Catholic Primary School, Sister Mary O’Connor. Sister Mary and her sister, Catherine were born at Mount Hawthorn hospital in 1937. They were the first twins to be born there. She was born first and she was named after her father’s sister in Ireland, Mary. Her mother was a very joyous, happy and lovely person. She didn’t know she was having twins, but she prayed to Saint Margaret Mary when she was having them so that they would be healthy. They grew up in Mount Hawthorn and attended St Mary’s school which is now called Aranmore College. She was taught by the Sisters of Mercy who were a great influence on her life. Her parents were very involved in parish and school life and so she grew up understanding the importance of community. Before she became a nun, she worked in a drapery store (a bit like Spotlight) and she enjoyed her time working in the community. When she finished high school, she followed her cousin into the Order of the Sisters of Mercy and her sister Catherine joined the convent as well. She worked at many different Catholic schools around Perth and in the southwest of Western Australia. She enjoyed working with children and eventually, because of her skills, was asked to become a principal and her first school was Whitford Catholic Primary School. Throughout her life, Jesus’ mother Mary has been a great source of strength and inspiration to Sr Mary.

Class lists will be formed in the final few weeks of school with preparation for this commencing shortly. The process of constructing class lists includes significant professional discussion and planning between staff members to create and determine class lists that have a balance of academic ability, are close to even in number, consider gender balance, social, emotional and behavioral needs of students, which students work well with particular students, and which don’t work well together.

Each child will be asked to nominate six students that they would like to be in class with for the following school year assuring them that they will have at least one of these students in their class.

The following are rarely valid requests and generally will not be considered:

a) Requests for a particular teacher b) Requests for a child to be in a class with a particular student. At times, we get conflicting requests where a parent would like their child to be in the same class as a particular student and the other child’s parent has requested that the two children be separated. There are also occasions where parent requests conflict with who the child has requested they would like to be in class with.

Valid requests/insights: a) Separating or keeping twins together. b) Providing the school with insight into relationship issues a child may have with another student.

A reminder that school supervision is provided for students from Year 1 to Year 6 before school from 8.10am and after school until 3.20pm. If arriving at school before 8.30am, children are requested to sit in the central courtyard area until teacher supervision commences. Please

ensure students are not on-site unsupervised outside of these times unless participating in an organised activity. Students involved in organised activities are to be supervised by parents if they fall outside of supervision times. Parents with children in Kindergarten are required to accompany their child to the classroom in the morning from 8.30am and collect their child from the class teacher at the end of the school day. Students in Pre-Primary are required to be brought to the classroom from 8.30am and collected in the afternoon. Alternatively, they may use the drive through on Barradine Way from 8.30am. All school play equipment is out of bounds before and after school. Little Buckets provides before and after school care services on site. Their details are available on our school website at this link.

Our calendar can be found on the school website under WCPS Families/Calendar or at this link. Please check this regularly for upcoming events.

Please keep students in Year 3, who are making the Sacrament of Reconciliation this term, in your prayers as they make their commitment at one of the weekend masses.

The WCPS Family Mass will occur this Saturday 17th October and all families are encouraged and welcome to attend.

We wish all our students, families and staff a successful and enjoyable Term 4!

Best wishes and God Bless