The school is in full swing now and students and staff have settled in well. Most programs are up and running and learning is progressing well.  On Monday we held the Opening School Mass. It was wonderful to have a number of parents join us for this occasion and to have Father Renoir, back from his holiday, celebrating the Mass.

Reminder that supervision at school starts at 8.30am

You are reminded that school supervision starts at 8.30am when a teacher calls students into the quad area. Students who wait outside the gates with their parent or guardian prior to 8.30am are not supervised.  This is a concern and places the students and school at risk. Some students walk or ride to school and some parents and carers may not actually know their students arrive this early.

Please talk to your child if this may be the case and I ask that you do not drop and leave your child at school before 8.30am.  Thank you.   

Afternoon Pick Up Time - recommend you stagger your pick up time

Just a reminder that the school car park is busy in the afternoons at the 3.10pm pick up time.  Please be patient and respectful in the car park.  Our school car park system does work well compared to most schools, it takes just a few minutes to get in and out at peak times. 

Students are supervised from 3.10pm until 3.30pm. So, if staggering your pick up time suits your routine, arriving a bit later might help avoid the afternoon rush.

Some people may also not be aware that for safety reasons our car park is designed as FACE/DRIVE FORWARD ONLY.  Please do not reverse in or out of the car parks in the courts area.  The only exception is the spaces parallel to the hall where cars park nose in and have to reverse out.    

Also, if you can be mindful of not arriving at school too early in the afternoons. The courts area does need to be available for school classes to play sport and use this area after lunch.  Please do not arrive before 2.45pm to park in the courts area, this should allow any lessons to be completed.  Thank you.   

2025 Rosary Community Council Executive

This week we held our first Rosary Community Council meeting for 2025. We have 8 parent representatives, 3 staff and Fr Renoir on the executive. The roles of each person are listed below.  Please feel free to familiarise yourself with these names and talk to your representatives throughout the year as they represent the school community.  There will be an open meeting later in the year where any member of our community can attend. We are always interested in feedback from our parents and carers. There will be more information to follow about our roles and initiatives in 2025.   

Additional Extracurricular Activities

There are a number of extracurricular activities offered by external qualified teachers and experts.  During the day there is music tuition and dance club. Before and after school activities include foreign language classes, art and craft, STEM, and chess. 

Fees are payable for these activities. For more information please contact the front office. 

Thank you again for supporting your child in their great start to the school year.

John O'Brien

Acting Principal

This past Monday (17^th of February) it was wonderful to be joined by parents and members of the Holy Rosary Parish to join the school in celebrating our Opening School Mass. It was great to hear our children join in the wonderful singing, led by our Acting Principal John O’Brien. We are fortunate to have him share his talents on the guitar to enhance our school worship!

Fr Renoir delivered an excellent homily on how we can follow Jesus' command to love each other. He called the students to think about how we show love to each other at school, at home and when we are out with our friends. He also encouraged us to pray for each other, and assured us that the school, its families and staff are in his prayers every day!

Thursday the 20th is also World Day of Social Justice where we join with the whole United Nations in working towards a more just future. This is a critical opportunity for us to put a key tenant of the Holy Catholic Church into action; preferential options for the poor. As Catholics, we are called to follow the example Jesus gave us, always looking out for the least, the last and the lost.

The World Day of Social Justice was proclaimed by the UN in 2007 and seeks to promote efforts to eradicate poverty, help people reach full employment in decent work, and bring about gender equality. Here in Australia, it is often easy to forget how lucky we are, so I encourage you to learn more about UN programmes across the world.

I would also call on all members of the Rosary School community to keep the Holy Father, Pope Francis, in your prayers. His Holiness has been unwell recently and has been staying in hospital in Rome. We join Catholics around the world in praying for his return to good health, and to continue to lead our global Church.

I hope that you and all your family have a wonderful week!

Kind regards,

Christopher Evans

Religious Education Coordinator (Acting)

Important Dates coming up:

Year 6 Mass - Friday Week 3 - (21st Feb)

Reconciliation Formation Evening - (27th Feb, at 18:15)

Ash Wednesday Mass - Wednesday Week 5 (5th March at 10:00)

Kinder Liturgy (in Classrooms) - Friday Week 6 (14th March)

A PRAYER FOR JUSTICE IN THE WORLD

Loving God, we are all part of your one creation
and it is your  desire that we be gathered together as one family.

Fill our hearts with the fire of your love
and with a firm commitment to bringing about greater justice for all beings.

By sharing the many gifts you give us,
may we do our part to ensure equality for all our brothers and sisters throughout the world.

With a growing awareness of our common home and of the one web of life in which we live, may we see fresh possibilities for responding each day with compassion and courage.

May there be an end to division, strife and war.
May we renew our efforts to pray, advocate and work for an end to all forms of exploitation, injustice and suffering.

We ask this especially on this World Day of Social Justice in the name of Jesus our Brother and Friend.

Amen.

• Year 6 Mass - Friday 21st February - 10.00am Holy Rosary Church
• Kinder Rest Day / Assessment Day - Wednesday 26th February
• Reconciliation Formation Evening - Thursday 27th February - 6.15pm Holy Rosary Church
• Parent / Teacher Conversations - Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th March
• Year 6 Camp - Wednesday 5th - Friday 7th March - Berry Sport and Recreation Centre 
• Ash Wednesday Mass - Wednesday 5th March - 10.00am Holy Rosary Church

Whole Day Absences

If your child is absent from school for a whole day or longer, please submit details of the absence via the Parent Portal. This should be completed within 7 days of the absence.  There is no need to adjust times for whole day absences.

If your child will only be absent for a partial day, the absence will be recorded as your child is signed in or out via the kiosk at the front office. You do not need to add an early pick up or late drop off via the Parent Portal.

Unexplained absences for your child will be displayed on your homepage when you log in to Parent Portal.

If an unexplained absence appears that you believe to be incorrect, please send an email to the front office for investigation.

Access to the clothing pool will now be as follows:

Monday - Friday - Before and after school only

Thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers who maintain the space for our community.

Please note: All donations of preloved uniforms (in good wearable condition) are welcome at the front office.

There are many extracurricular activities available onsite for our Rosary Students.  Please note all of these activities attract a fee and are delivered by external providers.  Please see the timetable below for details:

• French Lessons - Wednesday 8.00am - 9.00am (beginner) from week 2
• Italian Lessons - Friday 8:00am - 9:00am (beginner) 
• Action Tae Kwon-Do - Monday 6.30pm Children class / 7:30pm Adult class
• Chess Club - Tuesday 3.10pm - 4.30pm (Weeks 1-10)
• Zanshin Martial Arts - Tuesday 6.30pm Junior class / 7:30pm Senior class
• Artkids - Thursday 3.10pm - 5.00pm
• Musicorp (various instruments) / Piano Lessons - Friday 8:20am and during class time throughout the day
• Block Crafters - Tuesday and Wednesday from Week 2 - 3.15pm - 5.00pm Coding and Robotics After School Programme for interested students aged 8-12 years 
• Dance Club - PLAY - The Dance Agency - Wednesdays at Lunchtime from Weeks 2-9 - Kinder to Year 4

Please contact the school if you require further information.

Hello lovely Rosary Primary School families! My name is Sarah Foley and I have been part of the MaryMeadCatholiccare Student and Family Counselling team since 2006.

I am a registered Psychologist with a passion for working with children, young people and their families. I have previously worked in marketing, community based aged care, crisis counselling and the homelessness sector.

In my school counselling work -I provide short term client centred support to children and their families drawing from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Strengths based, Mindfulness and Trauma Informed approaches in a developmental context. For more complex issues I also provide referrals and information/parent consultation. I am at Rosary all day Mondays and Tuesdays during each school term.

How to make an appointment.

If you have concerns about your child’s wellbeing and would like to access School Counselling, please talk to your child’s Class Teacher or the Principal (John O’Brien for term 1) for further information about the online registration process.

Parent consent for counselling continues to be required for all primary school students and will be sought and provided via email as part of the online registration process. Where parents are separated, we require the written consent of both parents. Once the referral has been received by myself- School Counsellor- I will make contact with parents on my next day at Rosary to further discuss the referral.

More about School counselling/how to access school counselling at Rosary Primary School.

As part of the pastoral care program for students at Rosary, students have access to a Student and Family Counselling service provided by MaryMeadCatholicCare Canberra & Goulburn (MCCG). MCCG are contracted by the CEO to provide a counselling service to students and their families on site. There is no fee to access this service. The service offers short term counselling support (roughly up to six sessions per referral issue) to children and their families – the counsellor can also provide referrals for more complex issues requiring intensive or long term therapy/support.

The role of the counsellor is to focus on the emotional, social and educational well-being of the students. Counsellors welcome contact with students having difficulty with some part of their life, the problem does not have to be a big one. It is better to seek help sooner rather than later. Some typical concerns that counsellors work with include: anger, anxiety, behavioural problems, low mood, family changes/separation, grief and loss, learning and educational challenges, parenting challenges, peer and other social relationships, school avoidance, stress and study skills. As well as individual sessions with students, counsellors can run groups, consult with parents and teachers and make referrals to other services and supports. 

Student and Family Counsellors subscribe to a set of professional ethics that include duty of care and respect for the individual rights to privacy and confidentiality. The counsellors’ obligation is to ensure the safety, well-being and confidentiality of the student they are working with. All counsellors are mandated to report any disclosure or sign of abuse (including self-harm) or neglect to Child Protection Services. Outside of our mandated requirements, all counselling sessions are confidential and the details will not be discussed with other parties unless written consent is given by the client.

I look forward to working with you and the school throughout 2025!

Sarah Foley- is onsite at Rosary Mondays and Tuesdays during term.

Email; Sarah.foley@mccg.org.au (Please be aware I may not reply to emails until my scheduled days at this school).

Rosary Netball Club is now calling all children interested in playing in the 2025 winter Net Set Go Saturday morning netball competition. 

We are aiming to fill 4 teams across grades 1 to 6. As places may be limited depending on how children nominate, please send an email to rosarynetball@gmail.com advising of your child’s interest as soon as possible and no later than Friday 21 February. 

Games start the first week back in Term 2, and will run till September (with a break over the July school holidays). 

Each team will need a coach and a manager and we ask parents to consider taking on this role for their child’s team. If you are keen to be involved. please let us know. 

Finally, the Rosary Netball Club is run solely by volunteers and we are in desperate need of more help. Without parent volunteers, the club cannot operate. If you are at all interested in finding out more about what we do and how you can help, please email us at rosarynetball@gmail.com

Thank you! See you on the court!