Term 1 Week 10 Newsletter 2023

Principal's Message

What a wonderful term of Loving like Jesus, Growing as Friends and Learning for Life at St Finbarr's. Each week seemed to bring something new with sports carnivals, dance showcases, liturgies and sacramental programs, new families joining us, working bees, high quality class work presentations and celebrating success at each school assembly.

A big thank you to our wonderful students and the continued support from families. Finally, well done to the school staff. Each individual gives so much in order to create the safest and most engaging and positive learning environment for the children. We look forward to seeing you all after the Easter break. Wishing everyone a happy and holy Easter season.

Parent Survey: We value your feedback

“Tell them from me”

In the coming weeks we will be inviting students, teachers and parents to provide feedback on their experience of St Finbarr’s using an online survey. The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.

After the holidays we would like to invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in a Learning survey. As we value the role of parents and carers within our school community, we would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at St Finbarr’s.

Last year, after hearing from parents we acted upon this parent feedback by tightening up our planning and communication processes as well as seeking options for adding more days, variety and healthy options for the canteen.

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete and will be available straight after the school holidays. We thank you in anticipation of your support for the survey.

Exciting Canteen Opening Term Two

Our new Cafe will be operating 5 days a week from 8.15 am offering teachers and families an array of fresh food and drinks. 

The head chef will run the kitchen as follows;

• Waste free as possible to begin & a plan to have zero food wastage by the end of the year.
• Be completely Nut free
• No seed oils, preservatives, colours, refined sugar &/or additives.
• No pre-packaged food.
• All packaging will be biopak & 100% compostable
• All suppliers to be local 
• All fruit & Veg will be seasonal, spray free & organic where possible
• All meat will be local, antibiotic free, hormone free & if possible organic and 
• Most importantly, promote healthy eating with the majority of food made on site.

Thanks so much to our parents who have already put their hand up to help make this a successful venture. We are still looking for more parents / carers or grandparents to join the cafe team who can commit weekly, fortnightly or monthly.

Responsibilities and Duties

• Preparing and selling menu items as per the Cafe menu.
• Serving students, staff and parents (as required) during morning drop off & lunch.
• Preparing sandwiches and salads.
• Labelling and sorting lunch bags.
• Toasting sandwiches.
• Packing of hot food.
• Restocking fridges and freezers.
• Making popcorn, jelly cups, veggie sticks and other snacks as required.
• Washing, drying and putting away equipment
• Checking rosters & providing sufficient notice if you are not available for your shift.

Message from Renae:

Hi Team,

Firstly we want to thank the parents who have volunteered their time to help and support the new Cafe initiative ,without you this would not be possible.

We were so pleased in how how quickly people responded and by Friday afternoon we had locked and loaded Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with weekly committed parents which was an amazing turnout.

As you can see from the below roster we are now looking for a few more parents to commit on a Thursday and Friday from 8am to 12:30pm.

If you can assist please contact Renae on 0414 623 714.

As promised please find below the menu for our Term 2 cafe, we are excited to bring the community of St Finnbars nutritious and wholesome food. Ordering will still be through the COMPASS Canteen APP.

Look forward to launching next term!
Jay & Nae

School Community Group
What a fantastic showing with twenty parents coming along last week to our get together. We are very excited about our ideas for the year and are creating a What’s App group for those interested so we can keep in touch with ideas. Please let us know if you would like to be part of the group. The new Canteen and an idea for providing cold filtered water fountains for the students took up most of our conversation last week with a guest speaker from The Catholic Schools Office Parent Assembly and Jay Moricz our new Canteen coordinator.

Helper Wanted
Are you a parent or Grandparent and would like to volunteer to help out at school. We are looking for someone to help maintain the Nature Play area. General weeding and structure safety, maintenance on your own time schedule when needed. If this sounds like you, contact Mr Bleakley. We would love your help. A big thanks to Micka Etheridge for donating tree logs for use in the nature play space.

Nature Play

Year 1 Parent Get Together
It's been great hearing about parents from different year levels organising social outings and building community. Our Year one parents enjoyed a recent lunch out together.

Year 1 Lunch

School Band and Jam session
Today was our final session for the term. It’s been a fantastic journey with more children being inspired by our motivated musicians each week. The band will have some songs to learn over the holidays and we look forward to working with the school choir which Mrs Piccoli and Mrs Hayhoe are coordinating. A huge thank you to our Mums and Dads who have either joined us on stage or managed to get the children to school bright and early each Tuesday.

Our School Band and Choir

Sports Uniform Change of Day
Due to the change in sports activities, next term, Sports Uniform is to be worn on Monday and Thursday in Term Two.

ANZAC Day- Please join us and represent St Finbarr’s
Anzac Day is fast approaching and our preparations for the Day are well in hand. St Finbarr’s has been invited by members of the Byron Bay RSL  Sub-Branch to join in the Anzac Day Service on Tuesday 25 th April, between 10.45 a.m. and 11.15 a.m.

Two of our school representatives will be giving a brief presentation on the Kokoda Track campaign during WW2. All students will be supplied with hand waving flags and we cordially invite all participants to join us in the Services Club for a soft drink on completion of the March and Service. We are asking students to wear their full school uniform and gather at the Main Beach Carpark at 10.30 am.

Class Parents 2023
I want to thank those parents who have put their hands up to be class parents for 2023. Some classes are still requiring nominations for this role. If you are able to help please either contact your child's teacher, of the front office.

Term 1 School Fees Due
Term 1 school fees are now due for completion. Can I ask that all accounts be finalised by the end of the week, Thank you.

Enjoy your holidays, we will see all students for first day of term 2 on Wednesday 26 April.

Yours in Partnership,

Tim Bleakley -Principal

Mission

Confirmation

A number of students celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation in front of their families, staff and parishioners last Tuesday night. It was such a special evening for our candidates who were confirmed by The Most Reverend Gregory Homeming OCD Bishop of Lismore. 

Bishop Reverend Gregory Homeming and Fr David Gilbey  ensured this was a memorable evening with all candidates and their families feeling so welcomed and supported on the night to celebrate this very special part of their faith journey.  

The preparation of Confirmation is a beautiful journey and we thank all members of the Holy Spirit Parish for their prayers for the candidates during this time.

Father David acknowledged everyone who had played a part in preparing our students for their Confirmation. A special thank you goes to the wonderful Pat Higgins and Kathryn Head who year in and year out  take the time to prepare beautiful certificates for each of the candidates, assist the teachers with Children’s Liturgy and are always so welcoming to the families attending the special masses and always being there on the night.  

Mary MacKillop Award

I feel very fortunate to have observed three students over the past few weeks who are so deserving of the Mary MacKillop Award. The Mary MacKillop Award is given to those students who have demonstrated attitudes and behaviour choices based on  St Mary of the Cross' philosophy of

                                              “Never see a need without doing something about it.”

I wish to acknowledge three Year 6 students Archie U, Aaliyah S and Matilda G. Each of these students have displayed maturity, leadership, compassion and assistance when it was required. 

Archie for his maturity and leadership assisting in the canteen during the Cross Country.  Aaliyah for displaying leadership and  compassion helping some of our Kindergarten students negotiate a problem and Matilda for the maturity and leadership she consistently displays each day offering assistance where needed. 

Congratulations and thank you to each of these  wonderful leaders.

Holy Week

This week is Holy Week.

It is the week before Easter Sunday, beginning seven days before on Palm Sunday and ending with Holy Saturday. Easter is not part of Holy Week, but rather the beginning of the Easter season of the Liturgical year.

On  Palm Sunday,  we celebrate the triumphant entry of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, into Jerusalem, riding a donkey. On that day, the people laid palms before Him, a gesture reserved for triumphant leaders. 

The next major event in Holy Week is Holy Thursday. 

On this day, Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with the disciples. We know this feast as the Last Supper. The Last Supper is celebrated at every Mass, and especially on Holy Thursday. Jesus was arrested on the night of Holy Thursday.

The next day is Good Friday, this is the day we commemorate the trial, punishment, and crucifixion of Jesus.

On Holy Saturday, we celebrate the vigil that Christ's followers held for him outside of his tomb, waiting for his resurrection and the only Mass held is an Easter Vigil at sundown on Saturday.

This concludes Holy Week.

The following day is Easter Sunday, the day on which it was discovered the Tomb was empty, and Jesus was resurrected. 

Our students have all been learning about the events of Holy Week throughout their Religious Education lessons for the past few weeks and will celebrate a  Holy Week Liturgy this week on  Holy Thursday in the school hall at 1:10pm. 

Holy Spirit Parish will be celebrating Masses throughout Holy Week at both St Finbarr's Church Byron Bay and St Kevin's Church Bangalow.

Everyone is warmly invited to attend these very special Masses.

Please see below for Mass times.

Term One has been an exciting beginning to 2023. We wish everyone a safe and Holy Easter and look forward to seeing you all in Term 2.

Yours in Partnership,

Mrs Sonya Piccoli

AP Mission & Additional Needs Teacher

Learning & Teaching

A huge thank you to the parents, carers and grandparents who volunteered to help cover books. We had our first book covering morning tea this morning and it was a huge success. We have two more of these sessions this week: Tomorrow and Thursday, all are welcome.  

Dance Fever Showcase

How much fun was yesterday afternoons Dance Showcase!!
It was so wonderful to have so many parents and carers come along and join in the fun. The students have worked so hard all term learning their partner dances and the class routine and it was an amazing celebration of all their learning. 

Yours in Partnership, 
Lauren Magnus
Assistant Principal - Learning and Teaching

Sports News

School Cross Country
Congratulations to all of our competitors who participated in our School Cross Country Carnival. We were blessed with beautiful weather and wonderful attitudes for doing our best.

Well done to all of the Mackillop House team members on their overall win of the Carnival.

Cross Country

A very big thank you to those parents who helped with the pack up and the lunch preparation on the day.

We now wish our team of 48 students the very best when they compete at the Zone Cross Country Carnival, held next term.

Polding Swimming Carnival

Last week, Roley, Ollie, Hugo and Ned travelled to Sydney to compete in the Polding Swimming Trials. The boys exceeded all expectations and will now be back competing in Sydney at the State Finals next week.

Ned: 7th 50m Freestyle

Roley: 2nd 50m Breastroke, 5th 50m Freestyle

Ollie, Hugo, Ned, Roley: 2nd Junior Boys Relay

Congratulations boys, we are very proud of you all. Good luck!

Lisa Clark
Sports Coordinator

Polding Team

Parent Connect

Youth Academy School Holiday Program
DATES: Tuesday April 11th and Thursday April 13th
TIME: 9am - 3pm
LOCATION: Byron Bay Surf Lifesaving Club
BOOKINGS: www.youthacademy.com.au
Many thanks 
Tory Trewhitt  0412 221 389

Byron Bay FC Soccer 

looking for female players 7 to 11 to fill our girls teams!
We have some spaces still available in our all girls miniroos teams for players aged 7-11. Training wednesday afternoon and games on Saturday. Season and registration information available on our website https://www.byronbayfc.com.au/miniroos or contact Kerry on 0499 655 928

Regards,Kerry NorthcottByron Bay Football Club
Byron Bay Memorial Recreation Grounds
: 0499 655 928
e: football@byronbayfc.com.au
w: byronbayfc.com.auf: ByronBayFC
PO Box 1482
BYRON BAY NSW 2481 ABN 26 603 972 241