Next week is our last week of school for Term 1.  We finish school on Wednesday at 3.30pm.  Thursday is a professional learning day for the teachers and is a student free day. 

Anzac Day Visit

Yesterday Sgt Timmers R.J. RAAC Army (ret). visited our school and talked about his experience in the army.  He came dressed in his uniform and he explained the different parts of it.  Sgt Timmers showed us how to stand to attention, salute and march.  He helped the students to understand the importance of ANZAC day.  

Trafalgar ANZAC DAY March

On Tuesday April 25th we are inviting all families to join us in marching in our local ANZAC day march.  We are asking students to wear their school uniform and we will walk behind our school flag.  We are meeting at 10.45am outside the pub for a 11am sharp start.  We walk together along Contingent St to the cenotaph outside the RSL.  We hope your family can join us. 

Monday April 3rd is our Easter Carnival at school.  Kinder aged children are encouraged to visit from 3pm to 5pm.  The Easter Carnival will start for the school kids at 3.30pm.  School students will go home as normal, unless their family is present  to attend  the Easter Carnival.  Family tickets are $10 and this entitles students to a free Easter Egg hunt, face painting, dancing and Easter craft activities.  There will be healthy food treats for sale:  Banana Smoothie $2, Berry Smoothie $2, popcorn $2, kabana, cheese and crackers $2, fruit salad with natural yoghurt $2, and celery and carrot sticks with your choice of dip is also $2. 

Easter Story Dramatization

Each year our students tell the Easter Story in a special prayer service in our church.  This year we will present our Easter Story Dramatization on Wednesday April 5th in the church at 2.30pm.  Everyone is welcome to join us.  We will draw the Easter Raffle after our prayer service, at around 3.10pm in the Mary MacKillop room.

Parish Easter Celebrations

Palm Sunday Sat. Trafalgar 7pm 01/04/23

Palm Sunday Sun. Yarragon 10am 02/04/23

Holy Thursday Yarragon 7pm  06/04/23

Good Friday  Trafalgar  3pm  07/04/23

Easter Vigil  Trafalgar  7pm  08/04/23

Easter Sunday  Yarragon  10am 09/04/23

We wish your family a happy, safe and peaceful Easter time.

Trish Mulqueen

Reconciliation

One of the most important things we do each year is to prepare our students for the Sacraments.  There are seven Sacraments (special blessings) in our church: 1. Baptism, 2. Reconciliation, 3. First Holy Communion (Eucharist), 4. Confirmation, 5. Marriage, 6. Holy Orders and 7. Anointing of the Sick.  Presently we are preparing students for Reconciliation.  We congratulate Charlotte Jamieson, Conrad Edwards, Eleanor Steednam, Harry Westbury, Joan Mary, Lachlan Baldassa, Pippa Dilger, Sienna Jamieson, Zara Boyle and Zeke Garratt who received the Sacrament of Reconciliation last night in our church. These students will make a special Chocolate Ripple Cake in the shape of a cross to mark this occasion and will share a special morning tea on Friday at school. We congratulate these students and their families who received  the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Anointing Sacrament

Last week some of our students had the privilege of participating in the Parish Mass of the Anointing.   This is one of our Sacraments and the students were invited to attend.  Twelve senior students elected to participate in the Mass and we sat with the elderly parishioners.  It was a beautiful moving Mass and then afterwards we served the elderly lunch and then of course, we enjoyed a special lunch as well.  Here are some photos of our special day.  Thank you Fr Bernard for including us in this extra special Mass.

Last Tuesday we participated in our school’s athletics carnival at Joe Carmody Track in Newborough.  The students were divided into four house colors and represented their team as they participated in a number of athletic events.  The day started with a whole school warm up to music led by Mia Scalon from’ You and Me’ Fitness Group in Trafalgar.  Then the students participated in running events including hurdles, sprints and 200 m running race.  After this the students rotated around field events including high jump, discuss, and ball games.  Mrs Taryn Maxwell-Garratt  organised the day for the school community.  A fabulous day was had by all.

Easter Raffle
We have some amazing prizes for our Easter Raffle! Thank you to all families who have generously donated Easter items! We have also received some fantastic prizes from local businesses, including:
$50 voucher from Coffee for Life
$25 voucher from Sweet Treats
$30 voucher from Sport 2 Street

We are very thankful to these businesses for their support. We feel very fortunate to be a part of such a generous and helpful community.
Our Easter Raffle prizes will be on display at school.
We will bring the prizes out for the Easter Carnival on Monday afternoon from 3:45pm and will be taking cash sales. If you are able to assist on Monday, even if only for half an hour, please get in touch!
The raffle will be drawn on Wednesday the 5th of April. More tickets have been sent home with students. Please fill them in with your name (or student’s name) and phone number before returning to the office.
The raffle tickets have been added to CDF pay. We strongly prefer and encourage families to please pay for tickets through CDF pay before returning them to school. To assist us in processing tickets, could you please attach a note, or write on an envelope containing the tickets, that they have been paid for via CDF pay.
Good luck everyone!

Weekly Healthy Lunches:
Our weekly healthy lunch day commenced yesterday and will be available every Wednesday from now on. We are excited to be offering a variety of salad rolls from local bakery, Bella’s Bakehouse. They include chicken, ham, egg or meatless. You can order and pay through CDF pay and the rolls will be delivered to students for lunch.

Vice President Role:
We are looking for a member of the school community to fill the role of Vice President. Being a part of Parents and Friends is a great way to get involved, meet other families and help make our school a wonderful place to be! We work in close partnership with the school and have amazing support as a committee. If you would like to have a go, please get in contact with Trish or come along to our next meeting on Tuesday the 9th of May at 3pm. If you would like to come along, but do not wish to take on the Vice President role, we encourage you to please do so. You will always be welcome!

Uniform Shop:
The uniform shop will be open on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm to 3:45pm. It will also be open on the last day of term during and following assembly. We are selling the yellow, short sleeved shirts for a reduced price of $10 until stock runs out. We continue to offer the second hand sales for $5 an item.

Coming up in Term Two:
We are looking forward to offering families the opportunity to get family photos taken on Saturday the 6th of May. Location and details will be provided early in the term.
We will be running a Mother’s Day Stall on Thursday the 11th of May and will be looking for volunteers to help the Stall run smoothly closer to the date.
We have a Pie Drive planned for early June and our weekly Wednesday lunches will carry through all of term 2.

Finally, Parents and Friends would like to wish all families a Happy Easter and hope you enjoy your holiday break!

The Lions Club Public Speaking competition is going to be held on Wednesday July 19th. The competition aims to give students in Grades 3, 4, 5 & 6 the chance to develop their ability to speak in public and improve their self-confidence. Students are to write their speech themselves with support from families. We have 15 students who have prepared a speech and will present it next week.  Families are welcome to join us at 2pm in the Mary MacKillop Room.

The topics are:
Years 3 - 4 "Oh no - you've turned into a Giant!" - One morning you wake up and something has happened, and you are now a giant. Just like the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) in Ronald Dahl's book or the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk! How did this happen? What's it like being a giant? What do you do while you are a giant? Do you stay that way? Tell us your story of being a giant.

Years 5 - 6 - "Strange World Records set in History? - There are many World records held for many things - some strange and wonderful records over the course of history. Choose one and tell us about it. (A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity.

STORYTIME for the toddlers is on a Wednesday morning 9.15 to 9.45am in room 5 (not the Discovery Centre).  Storytime aims to provide families with a great literacy session, as well as having fun singing and dancing together.  All families are welcome, not just school families.  So if you have any friends or neighbors who have a 4 year old child, please invite them.  It is lots of fun AND LEARNING!

The Anglican Church also runs a Storytime for Preschoolers.  Please see the flyer here:

INVITATION TO PARENTS

I would like to invite parents to offer feedback about the ways I have been teaching Japanese. 

This is important for me to develop myself as a teacher and facilitate the best learning for your child. I would like to run a focus group with some parents to get feedback on the ‘scenario practice’ approach to Japanese learning. 

Morning tea chat; Watch a Grade 5 and 6 class on a Wednesday morning 10th May at 9am or the Grade 4 and 5 class at 10am on the same morning, then have some morning tea and a chat at 11-11:30. 

Breakfast chat; As I understand that many parents are not able to come at that time, I would also like to invite a group for a breakfast chat at 8am on Wednesday 10th May. I will talk about the ‘scenario practice’ approach then invite you to share your thoughts.

Please let the school know if you are able to attend.

‘Scenario practice’ is an idea that seems to me to bridge the gap between language learning and using language in different contexts - especially when you don’t have a lot of words or phrases in your repertoire. Below is a picture of one of the scenarios we have worked on using Japanese.

Susan Taylor(Japanese Teacher)

Conveyance allowance private car travel, or Conveyance allowance multimode travel
What is a conveyance allowance? 
The conveyance allowance is a form of financial assistance for parents/carers to transport children to and from school in rural and regional Victoria. In some locations, students are unable to access free school buses. In these instances, students may receive a conveyance allowance to assist with travel costs. Allowances are available for public transport, private car and private bus. 
If you live more than 4.8km from your closest school you can apply for the conveyance allowance. This is a payment towards the cost of transporting your child to school by public transport, car or school bus
Eligibility
An application on behalf of a student may be submitted if the student is:
• a Victorian resident;
• school aged and enrolled (3) three or more days per week at a school; and 
• attending a school/campus located outside the Melbourne metropolitan conveyance boundary
A student who meets the above requirements may be eligible if they: 
• attend their nearest or designated neighbourhood government school/campus appropriate to their year level, at which admission is permissible, or  
• attend their nearest appropriate non-government school/campus appropriate to their year level, at which admission is permissible, and 
• reside 4.8km or more by the shortest practicable route from the campus attended 
Note: Eligibility is assessed when the School completes your child’s application on the Student Conveyance Allowance System (SCAS). If approved, the allowance payable is based on the one-way distance to make the journey to and from school. No private car allowance is payable if the journey to and from school could be made using a public transport service or contract school bus. For further information regarding the Conveyance Allowance Program see: 
https://www2.education.vic.gov.au/pal/conveyance-allowance/policy
*Multi-mode conveyance allowances
Multi-mode conveyance allowance applies when a student uses more than one mode of transport (e.g. private car and public transport) for a journey between home and school. 
If you fall into this criteria, please call the office on 5633 2169 or 5633 1151 to request your application form.  
Parents should submit their completed application form to their child's school for processing.