Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,

The Feast of Saint Augustine
Today is the Feast of St Augustine, patron of our parish, and we began the day with a lovely prayer service in his honour, hosted by the SRC. St Augustine was a great thinker and theologian of the early church. He wrote prolifically, and there are many well-known and often quoted lines attributed to him, including the following reflections on helping others:

"What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like."

"Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.”


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


Father’s Day Prayer Service
This Sunday is Father’s Day; I pray that all of the fathers, grandfathers and other men who are special in the lives of our children have a truly blessed day. This Friday, at 9am, Kinder Gold will be hosting our Father’s Day prayer service in the PAC. All families, but especially dads and other significant male role-models, are warmly invited to attend.

Father’s Day Raffle
Many thanks to the Mt Carmel School Community Council for organising our Father’s Day raffle. There are seven great prizes (details of all prizes can be found on the flyer further in this newsletter), and winners will be announced at the conclusion of this Friday’s Father’s Day prayer service. Ticket sales will close tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon at 5pm, so get in quick if you don’t yet have your tickets: https://www.raffletix.com.au/?ref=hcw3t.

Book Week
Book Week is always an exciting time at our school, and this year was no exception! Congratulations and sincere thanks to Mrs Broers and Mrs Patmore for the many hours of work that have gone into preparing for Book Week, and well done to all staff and students for their terrific book displays that helped to magically transform our Library. The parade on Wednesday was tremendous fun; it’s always entertaining to see everyone’s creative costume ideas. Special thanks to Nat Wren, Katie Davis, Matt Doyle, Jim Hollingsworth and Georgina Shannon for their help preparing and serving our sausage sizzle lunch.


Irish and Celtic Music Festival Children’s Workshops
On 14-15 September, as part of the Yass Irish and Celtic Music Festival, Mt Carmel will be hosting the Junior Fleadh. 

Fleadh (pronounced flah) is a Celtic word that means festival, and it is a chance for students who are interested in Irish music to come and join in free instrumental and dance workshops, culminating in a concert to showcase what the children have learned; all experience levels are welcome. More information and an RSVP link can be found further in this newsletter.


Family Resources and Upcoming Events
There are a number of events, webinars and programs that families may be interested in over the coming weeks:


Anita Heiss Reads Bidhi Galing – Wednesday 4 September, 7pm – 7.30pm
Indigenous Literacy Day is held on the first Wednesday of September and is an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Stories, Cultures and Languages (find out more here: (https://www.indigenousliteracyfoundation.org.au/ild). To celebrate this year, the Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Committee has organised a wonderful online evening event open to all Catholic School families. See the flyer further in this newsletter for more information.


‘A Bluey Perspective’ – Wednesday 11 September
Families are invited to attend a free event with Bluey creator Joe Brumm at Merici College on Wednesday 11 September.
The event aims to bring families together to listen to Joe talk about why he thinks Bluey has been such a success and the important role parents play in their child’s learning and development.
There is an option for live streaming for parents and carers who are unable to attend in person. See the flyer further in this newsletter for more information.


'Breaking Point, with Dr Justin Coulson’ – Wednesday 11 September from 7.00pm – 8.00pm
Join Dr Justin Coulson, Australia’s leading parenting expert, as he unpacks the mental health crisis enveloping our kids. He’ll cover:

• The root causes behind the deteriorating state of mental health, and who (or what) is responsible
• The tools you need to reverse this trend for your children
• Science-backed, relationship-focused strategies to remedy school refusal
• Realistic approaches for managing screen time in a way that protects your child’s wellbeing without completely alienating them from their peers
• Creating margin in your home and family life to protect and promote mental wellness

To register click here.


Partners in Parenting: Education (PiP-Ed)
Pip-Ed is a new, updated version of the award-winning, evidence-based parenting program, ‘Partners in Parenting’, offered to parents and carers of teenagers aged 12-18 who are refusing school due to anxiety or depression, reside in Australia, are fluent in English and have regular internet access. The program is not recommended as a sole source of support for young people experiencing school refusal. 
Although all parents are able to take part, the program content is not tailored for parents of teenagers living with Autism Spectrum Disorder or intellectual disability.
Go to

https://pip-ed.web.app/ for further information.


Kairos
Next week Jan Harvey will be Acting Principal while I am on leave, participating in the Kairos prison ministry program in the Goulburn Correctional Centre.

Kairos Prison Ministry Australia is an interdenominational Christian ministry reaching out to incarcerated individuals, their families and those who work with them to bring sustainable meaning and hope in the place of loneliness, isolation and despair.  Kairos is building Christian Community in response to the challenge issued by Jesus:  “I was in prison and you visited me” (Matthew 25:36) to share with inmates and their families the unconditional love of God. 

During the course, there will be a 24-hour prayer vigil being run, and if you have 30 minutes to give, there is a prayer roster that can be found at the following link:

https://signup.com/go/ixGASuf

If you have any friends or relatives overseas who may be able to help with the overnight times, please feel free to share the invitation. 

The impact on the participating inmates of knowing that so many people are thinking of and praying for them is significant.

SPIN Pyjama Day
This Friday, 30 August, students are encouraged to wear their pyjamas to school to support the SPIN Foundation to help those within out community with medical expenses. Please bring a gold coin donation in return for wearing your pyjamas. 

 

May God’s peace be in your families, 

Michael Green
Principal

Religious Education in the Classroom
Welcome to Week 6! Year 3 students have been learning about the decalogue and the beatitudes. During my visit to 3 Green and 3 Red I asked a few students how the beatitudes guide their daily life and below are their answers:

Alan: I pray to God and I help people when they are hurt.

Hudson: I help people on the playground.

Cody: I use some of them and I always help people who are sad.

Delilah: I am kind and passionate about treating people with respect. I stand up for what is right.

Connie: I treat others the way I want to be treated.

Ollie: I pray to God for guidance and I feel peaceful when I make the sign of the cross.

Adalyn: It is important to love everyone.

Lachlan: I ask people if they need help and I will help them.

Religious Life of Mt Carmel School

Feast of St. Augustine Prayer Service - Thank you to Mrs Harvey and the Student Representative Council for preparing and leading a beautiful prayer service to celebrate the feast day of our parish, St. Augustine. St. Augustine teaches us that no matter how far you may stray from God’s love, God will always take you back. 

Father’s Day Prayer Service
On Friday 30 August, K Gold will lead a prayer service to celebrate Father’s Day in the PAC at 9am. Parents and the wider community are invited to attend.

Prayer

God our Father,
Help us to know of our salvation in your love poured out in Christ your Son.
Just as you have reserved a place for us at your heavenly table,
May there always be a place in our heart and so a chair at our table for those most in need
We ask this prayer through Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Mt Carmel’s Mini Vinnies News
Wear your Happy Colour Fundraiser 2024
Mini Vinnies is running a fundraiser on Friday 6 September to support our local Yass Rural Australians for Refugees (YRAR) group raise money to sponsor a refugee family to travel to Australia to live in Goulburn. The mufti day theme is colour because colour makes us feel happy. We want the refugee family to feel happy when they move to Goulburn. Mt Carmel School students are invited to show their support by wearing their favourite colour and donate a gold coin. 

St Augustine’s Parish New

Sacraments of Confirmation 2024
Sunday 22 September, 10.30am, St Augustine's Church

Please pray for the children as they prepare for their Confirmation

Alicia Hardy
Ava Leighton
Chase Collins
Darcy Bell
Fletcher Douglas
Harry Donoghue
Isabella Dunstan
Isabelle Pidgeon
Jack Butt
Josephine Streatfeild
Lucy Miller
Natalia O’Connor
Olivia Scanlon
Phoenix Streatfeild
Sophia Da Deppo
Zali Lenon
Zoe Seselja

The next one is on Sunday 1 September 2024. All children are invited to be part of the activities centred around the particular weekend’s Gospel. 

Parish Mass
Click on this link for further details http://staug-yass.org.au/wp/sacraments/. 

Enjoy your week!
Eva Karakotas
Religious Education Coordinator

Hail Mary, full of Grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Luke 1:26-28

Canberra Goulburn Athletics Carnival
Congratulations to all the Mt Carmel students who represented Northern Region at the Canberra Goulburn athletics carnival at the AIS yesterday. A big thank you to Mrs Glover who volunteered her time to assist at the carnival and toiled away late into the afternoon. Congratulations to the following students who will now represent Canberra Goulburn at the MacKillop Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park on 25th September: Reese Flynn, Archie Gooley, Henry Gooley, Jack Maher and Alan McRae.

Northern Region Athletics Senior Girl Age Champion
Congratulations to Reese Flynn who was awarded the NR Athletics Senior Girl Age Champion. Well done Reese, this is a wonderful achievement. 

Todd Woodbridge Cup
The Todd Woodbridge Cup is a primary school team tennis competition for Stage 2 (years 3&4) and Stage 3 (years 5&6) students that uses modified equipment, numeric scoring, and mixed gender teams. Events are designed to be fun and inclusive, meaning it is not just for experienced tennis players. Anyone who wants to give tennis a go is encouraged to come and have a go. 

Stage 2 competed at the Todd Woodbridge Cup today, and Stage 3 will compete on the 13th September. 

If you would like to nominate your child for the event, please use the links below.

Year 5/6 Todd Woodbridge Cup

*We only have 7 entries for the 5/6 event at present, not enough for a team. If you are interested, please register ASAP.

Gecko Sport
Gecko Sport will be running a 4 week fundamental movement program with our infants classes every Friday from Week 6-10. We are looking forward to all the fun and games we will have with the Gecko Sport team!

Ted Dunstan
Sports Coordinator

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge
Congratulations to the following students who have recently completed the 2024 NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge.

Charlotte Aksenov
Abigail Morris
Sophie Aksenov
Zoe Di Sisto
Elisabeth Morris
Olivia Aksenov
Abby Hillman
Jack Butt
Ekaterina Mulcair

The NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge has now concluded. Congratulations to all students who completed the challenge in 2024. All certificates will be presented in Term 4.

Thank You
Thank you to Amber Maher for a donation of books to the library. Your generosity is appreciated.

CBCA Book Week 2024
Visiting Illustrator
On Monday, we were visited by artist/illustrator, Judy Watson. The students enjoyed an interactive session, learning about Judy’s books and creating some characters through guided drawing activities.

Story Time
On Tuesday, we had story time with Mrs Allan. The students listened to Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson.

Book Parade
The Book Parade was a great celebration! It was lovely to see so many visitors to the school enjoying a joy-filled community event. Many thanks to the students and their families for preparing such magical book week costumes. Thank you to Mr Green for leading the event.

K-2 Photo Gallery

3-6 Photo Gallery

Teacher's Photo Gallery

BBQ Volunteers
As mentioned, the Book Parade was a lovely celebration. Such events are not possible without the help from members of our school community.

Special thanks to Emma McEvoy, Nat Wren, Katie Davis, Matt Doyle, Jim Hollingsworth and Georgina Shannon for their help preparing our sausage sizzle lunch.

Year 5 Book Week Dance
Well done to the Year 5 students for such an entertaining dance performance at the parade! Thank you to Ms Grace, Mrs Field and Mrs Luckie for working with the students and helping them to perfect their performance.

Magic Show
On Thursday, students were entertained by a variety of tricks at the Magic Show. Congratulations to all the budding magicians who prepared and shared their clever tricks. Thank you to Mrs Goode for helping with supervision in the PAC.

Make a Wand
Making a wand was a popular way for students to finish our Book Week celebrations. Thank you to Mrs Green and Mrs Allan for lending a helping hand.

Book Week Displays
The students enjoyed visiting the library to see the displays. Thank you to the students and staff for the thought, time and effort that went into creating the displays for us all to enjoy. It was nice to have so many visitors to the library on Wednesday. Thank you for showing your support.

Thank you
I would like to thank all the wonderful staff of Mt Carmel for their support and participation in our Book Week activities and events. In particular, I would like to thank our Library Assistant, Lynne Patmore for the many hours of work she devoted to making the library displays and the Book Week celebrations so successful.

Kind regards,
Natalie Broers
Teacher Librarian

Congratulations to the recipients of the Week 4 Mt Carmel Awards.
These awards were handed out last Friday, 23 August, at morning assembly.

K Blue Harper Vukojevic Lincoln Goode	K Gold Ivie Denny Luca Davis
1 Green Aurora Irwin Claire Kundolam Edward Dryburgh	1 Red Ava O'Mara Ryan Tome
2 Blue Adelaide Honan Benedicta Barker	2 Gold Ethan Kim Nicholas Da Deppo
3 Green Zoey Watson Makaila Hooper	3 Red Mikayla Clements Alan McRae Sebastian Dawes
4 Blue Josh Salzke George Douglas	4 Gold Gracie Lyons Rowan Kelly-Clark
5 Green Alayla Dorris Abby Hillman Hugh McPherson	5 Red Zara McEvoy Magnus Felizardo
6 Blue Lucy Miller Amber Watson Bob O'Brien Jackson Shelton	6 Gold Lola Finnigan Sofia Da Deppo Blake Foster Archer Regan

Congratulations to the recipients of the Week 5 Mt Carmel Awards.
These awards will be handed out this Friday, 30 August, at morning assembly.

K Blue Ruby Holt Amelia Berekoven	K Gold Mia Smith Charlotte Aksenov
1 Green Scarlett Klemmer Jayden Regan Christopher Privett	1 Red Billie Taylor Sophie Gannon Willem Kunneke
2 Blue Samuel Logue Harrison Cunynghame	2 Gold Zachary Pholi Noah Hamilton
3 Green Eddy Finnigan Asher Gorman	3 Red Delilah Inglis Archie Gooley Hudson Mackay
4 Blue Madeline Caldow Logan Johnson	4 Gold Ivy Howarth Aria Hodgson Zoey Mitchell Edward Shannon
5 Green Beau Jones Dylan O'Reilly	5 Red Lily Butt Zoe Leahy Spencer Crocker
6 Blue Alicia Hardy Jordan Mackay	6 Gold Ellie Carroll Jessica Davis Juliette Glover Rory Welsh

Lucy Miller represented our school admirably at the Rostrum Public Speaking Semi Final on Thursday, 15 August at Margaret Hendry School in Taylor. Congratulations Lucy on an incredible performance. 

Last Friday, our talented students proudly represented our school at the Northern Region Public Speaking Competition held at St. Mary’s in Crookwell. Their dedication and confidence shone brightly as they delivered their speeches on a variety of thought-provoking topics.

We are incredibly proud of their achievements and the way in which they represented our school in public speaking. A special thank you to parents for their unwavering support and encouragement.

Well done to all participants for their hard work and outstanding performances!

Jade Rayner 

Are you planning to have a Spring Clean over the next few weeks? Art Club has started up again this term each Tuesday at lunchtime and we would love it if you have any spare items you are no longer using to be donated to our Art Room. We have created a list of items below that would be really helpful. Thank you so much in advance! 

Any type of art or craft supply

• 
  aluminum foil
• Christmas paper
• coloured paper
• small boxes
• odd saucers/cups
• paint shirts  
• old silk flowers
• fabric
• wax paper
• glad wrap                      
• small paper                     
• sponges
• buttons
• craft jewels
• thread/needles
• craft wire
• newspaper                       
• cardboard rolls
• knitting wool                                                                  
• wallpaper              
• cookie cutters
• plastic storage bags (zip-lock style)
• plastic containers with lids (butter/margarine/chinese containers)
• beads
• sea shells
• ribbons
• egg cartons

Kind Regards
Mrs Harvey & Ms Grace

If you would like order from Issue 6, orders need to be placed by this Thursday, 5th September.

 Please note that the front office is no longer able to accept cash/order forms for Book Club Orders. All orders must be placed via Loop. 

To view Issue 6, click on the image below.

To order from this issue, you will need an account on Loop.

To access Loop, please click below.

Unfortunatley, Playgroyoup will not be held tomorrow, Thursday 29 August.
Playgroup will return in Week 7, on THursday 5 September. 

Support our school by purchasing tickets in our amazing Father's Day Raffle.

All proceeds will go towards the shade sail for the infants sandpit. Great prizes on offer. Share the link with your family and friends!

Click here to purchase your tickets!

Raffle drawn just before Father's Day - buy a ticket to win the perfect gift!

As part of the National Day Against Bullying and Violence that was celebrated in Week 4, parents can view the following information at the link below. 

https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/contact-us/need-help-now

The Southern Tablelands Group of the Country Women's Association of NSW, are awarding 15 Year 7 Educational Grants for 2025. If any current Year 6 student would like to apply for the 2025 Educational Grant, please collect the application form from the front office. 

Applicants must submit a letter addressing the selection criteria along with a letter from Mr Green supporting their application.

Applications close 11 October 2024.

Has your child ever thought about playing guitar?
Spaces are now avalable for 2024. Fill in the below form and drop back to the office to secure your place with Den.