All students are invited to wear green and their favourite boots (or runners if you don’t own a pair of boots!) and bring a gold coin donation. All raised funds will be donated to Caritas’ Project Compassion and the Country Education Foundation. Caritas Australia's Project Compassion invites us to Unite Against Poverty and take action to make a lasting difference. The Country Education Foundation promotes and enables equal access to further education and career opportunities for rural and regional youth irrespective of background, circumstances or location through community-based encouragement and financial assistance for higher educational opportunities, with some of our past students being fortunate enough to benefit.  

The day will begin with a Prayer Assembly in the PAC, hosted by 5GREEN and Ms Grace. We are also going to host a St Patrick’s Day Disco for all our students. We will dance some Irish jigs and enjoy some Irish bands. Thank you to our SRC for organising this event for our students. The SRC will be selling food, drinks, St Patrick’s Day tattoo stickers and glow stick bands at the disco. All items for sale will be either 50c or $1 - K-2 will have the option to attend at recess and the 3-6 Disco will be at lunch. 

Canteen Re-opening
I’m very pleased to announce that, following a selection process, Jess Regan has been appointed as Mt Carmel’s new Canteen Manager. The canteen will be open for lunch orders only this Thursday and then recess and lunch orders on Friday with a limited menu. The Canteen will resume normal operation (recess and lunch orders) from next week.

A tradition of the Catholic Church, linked to Lenten fasting, is to not eat meat on Fridays during Lent. Consequently, our school canteen will have a modified menu until Easter, with cheese and mac and fish burgers available on Fridays in place of meat products.

Pancake Breakfast
Last Tuesday, our Pancake Breakfast was a great success, and I thank all the teachers and student leaders who came to school early to help prepare and serve breakfast. The Pancake Race was proudly run by our Student Representative Council after Recess, with the winners being Hartigan House for a second year in a row – Congratulations!

Ash Wednesday
Last week we celebrated Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the start of the season of Lent – a time of prayer, almsgiving and fasting in preparation for the celebration of Easter. Ash Wednesday comes from the ancient Jewish tradition of penance and fasting. The practice includes the wearing of ashes on the forehead. The ashes symbolise the dust from which God made us and to which we will all, one day, return. We began our school day with a prayer assembly, led reverently by Mrs Karakotas, Mrs Goode and 3RED, and students received ashes on their foreheads as a symbol of humility and penance.

Project Compassion, Caritas Australia’s annual Lenten appeal has begun and we encourage each family to contribute to this appeal via the Project Compassion Box that your child has taken home. Many will be familiar with the idea of giving something up for Lent; however, this is also a time of reflection of where we can listen to God’s word and follow his call through our loving actions. Lent is the perfect time to commit ourselves to a positive action for the good of others.

Save the Date - Colour Run!
Our Community Council Team is organising a Colour Run Fundraiser! It will take place on the last day of Term 1 - Thursday 10 April. Please register your child using the following link: https://www.schoolfunrun.com.au/. Additional Information can be found further in the Newsletter. 

NAPLAN
The annual National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN)  started today for our Year 3 and Year 5 students with their Writing test. Tomorrow it will be Reading with Conventions of Language on Friday. Due to our St Patrick’s Day Celebrations on Monday, the Numeracy test will be postponed until Tuesday, 18 March.

There will be an opportunity for students who are away to sit catch-up tests; please email jan.harvey@cg.catholic.edu.au if your child is absent and you would still like them to complete NAPLAN.

Friendology
We have started Friendology this year which includes a free parent membership https://urstrong.com/ with lots of amazing resources to support your child. This week we are learning about What is a Friendship Fire?: In this podcast interview, learn all about why friendship skills are important and how we’re supporting kids through URSTRONG’s Friendology curriculum to put out their Friendship Fires.


May God’s peace be in your families during our Jubilee Year of Hope

Jan Harvey
Assistant Principal