St Kieran Newsletter Term 4, Week 6 - 21st November 2024

Principal's Message

PRAYER FOR CONFIRMATION CANDIDATES 

Lord,  
You send out Your Spirit to touch the hearts of all people,  
so that they may believe in You and in Jesus whom You sent.  
Look kindly on all candidates for Confirmation as they listen to Your voice.  
Open their hearts to Your Spirit and bring to fulfilment the good work that You have begun in them.  
As we prepare these children for Confirmation,  
make each of us an instrument of Your love.  
Teach us to appreciate what is holy in others,  
and to be patient with what we do not understand.  
Deepen our faith in the Gospel and help us to pass it on by our example.  
We pray that You will continue to guide us and sustain us. 
Through Christ our Lord. 
Amen.  

Confirmation is not simply a minor event that occurred in our life many years ago. Confirmation makes firm the gifts of the Spirit we first received at Baptism. This new character of Confirmation binds us more closely to Christ and as we become more active in promoting our own lives, we promote Christ through the decisions we make and the way we live our lives.  

The Holy Spirit is embedded within us as it was in Jesus. We can’t really see the Spirit anymore than we can see the air around us. But we can feel the air, the wind blowing, and we can see its effects as it stirs the limbs of trees and moves loose leaves across the ground. So, too, we can feel the Spirit in our lives as we are moved to love God and others, to care for our family, friends and neighbours, to offer forgiveness genuinely and sincerely whether or not forgiveness is sought.  

In our parent role, we have responsibility not only for the physical and intellectual welfare of our children but their spiritual welfare as well. None of us lives in isolation, particularly our children, who yearn for the company of their peers and are subjected to its various influences. Peer influence and the social influence of our materialistic society provide many challenges to our children and the concept of living a Christian lifestyle can be easily over run.  

If we are in the habit of calling on the Gifts of the Spirit within us – wisdom, understanding, fortitude, counsel – to assist us in our life’s challenges, we can encourage our children to do likewise. Instead of the Holy Spirit being the focus for one day of our life, the Holy Spirit becomes our life companion, always available, never judgemental, always a living act of God’s love in our life.  

Our children share or have had passed onto them, many of our physical and intellectual attributes; they are united to us in all aspects of their existence. In much the same way they share with us the same Spirit given fully to all of us through Confirmation. This enables us to be linked to our children in body, mind and Spirit.  

We keep all those children making the Sacrament of Confirmation on the weekend in our prayers and wish you all of God's blessing as you undertake this sacrament. 

I hope you have had a great week. 

Take care and stay safe. 

Daine Burnett 
Principal 
daine.burnett@cewa.edu.au 

Calendar

A reminder to all families to continue to check the school calendar on our website for dates and events that are coming up during the term. We conclude the school year on Friday 6th December for all students. 

School Advisory Council 2025

Thank you to all the members of our school community that attended the Annual General Meeting on Thursday night. This is a great time to recap the year and listen to the reports from Kieran Connect, School Advisory Chair, Treasurer and Principal. Congratulations to the below people who will form the School Advisory Council in 2025. We look forward to working with you all and thank you for giving your time so freely to our committee. 

I would also like to acknowledge our departing member Claire Dyson who has been an asset to our School Advisory Council and have assisted to lead many initiatives at the school. We thank you for your wonderful service to our school community. We welcome Adam and Kiara onto the council and look forward to working with you in 2025. Thank you. 

Information regarding the Annual Community Meeting will be uploaded on the school website for the community to refer to. However with the strong support of the School Advisory Council, we have managed to keep tuition fees the same for 2025. 

Kieran Connect 2025

Kieran Connect have been very active this year and has made lots of progress during the year with even more events planned in 2025. We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful group of people assist us with events at the school and provide even more opportunities to our community. The Kieran Connect email is kieranconnect@stkieran.wa.edu.au  

School Term and Professional Development Dates 2025

The school administration office will re-open on Thursday 23rd January 2025 at 8am. 

All staff will return to school on Monday the 3rd February. Students will return for the first day of school for 2025 on Wednesday 5th February. 

Term Dates 2025 

Term 1 - Wednesday 5 February (Monday 3 February for staff) to Friday 11 April. 
Term 2 - Monday 28 April to Friday 4 July. 
Term 3 - Monday 21 July to Friday 26 September. 
Term 4 - Monday 13 October to Friday 12 December (Friday 19 December for staff). 

Staff Professional Development Days

Please note while these dates been set aside for 2025, there maybe circumstances that require us to adjust these during the year to cater for system and educational initiatives. The dates for 2025 are:


Contact Details - Parents

It is imperative that parents and families update the school when your personal details change during the year. If you change you email address or mobile phone please ensure that the school administration is contacted so we can update these details for communication purposes. 

School Fees

A reminder to all families that school fees are now due and that if for any reason you are falling behind you need to make an appointment with the school principal to address these concerns and the payments required. 

Enrolments 2025

We have a very limited number of positions available across the school in a variety of year levels. Please contact the administration office for further information. 

3 Year Old Kindy 2025 - Monday and Tuesday

We are currently undertaking enrolments and conducting interviews for 3 Year Old Kindy 2025. We have had an overwhelming response to our extra day and will in 2025 offer 2 days Monday and Tuesday for this program. Please make sure that you let your family and friends know and if you have a sibling please ensure that you have completed an enrolment form. There are very few spaces for 2025 remaining so please make this a priority for your family. Please contact the office if you require more information or refer to our school website. 

Kindy Enrolments 2026

We are now accepting Kindy Enrolment's for Kindy 2026. Please don’t leave this until the last minute as this year we have many families including siblings who we could not accommodate for an enrolment. Please submit your application and make sure you have your children enrolled at the right time - if in doubt please contact the school office. 

Students Leaving St Kieran

Can you please let the school know as soon as possible if your children are moving on from St Kieran in 2024. We currently have families on our waitlists and would like to accommodate as many people as possible. Please note a terms notice should be given in order to not be charged any subsequent fees. 

Carols in the Quad

Date: Thursday 28/11/24 
Time: 6:30pm Sharp
Where: St Kieran Basketball Courts 

Once again this year we will have our Carol's in the Quad.  Last year was a great success and we would like to see a repeat of that this year with many new songs and some old ones too.  There will be more information to follow over the next week.  We all look forward to seeing you on the night.

Please see below regarding the stage layout for the concert.

Swimming Lessons

Our school swimming lessons started on Monday 18th November for the next 2 weeks, Mr Taylor has sent out emails regarding the information required for these lessons. Please make sure that all your children's items are clearly labelled and that they have been practising changing and packing away their clothes. 

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask. 

Playing After School

Children must be under the supervision of their parents and not on the playground equipment before or after school, this includes playing with balls on the courts. We please ask that after you have collected your child at the end of the day to leave the school grounds promptly. All playground equipment is out of bounds and we encourage you to take your children to Grenville Oval if you would like to catch up with other parents for a chat while your children have a play. 

Can you please ensure that family members or friends that are picking up your children are made aware of this as well.  

Uniform 2025

Just a reminder to all parents to not leave purchasing new uniforms until late in January as JFE get very busy. We have made a slight adjustment to our uniforms, now adding females navy shorts to our guidelines for 2025. The JFE showroom is open: 

• Monday 8-4pm 
• Tuesday 8-4pm 
• Wednesday 8-4pm 
• Thursday 8-4pm 
• Friday 8-1.30pm 

JFE 
Unit 1/85 Guthrie Street  
Osborne Park. 

Parents of children going in to Pre-Primary 2025 need to ensure that their children are in sports uniform. Parents of children going in to Year 1 2025 need to ensure that their children are in full academic uniform.  Shoes, while we have been tolerant of these with the cost of living and pressures on families the correct shoes must be worn in 2025.  I would ask all parents to refer to the Uniform Policy on our school website. https://stkierancps.schoolzineplus.com/_file/media/2012/school_uniform_guidelines_2024.pdf 

Mobile Phones and Smart Watches

If for any reason your child must have a mobile phone at school, you are asked to complete the Mobile Phone Form requesting permission. If permission is granted the mobile phone will be given to administration at the start of the day and collected at the end of each teaching day. At no time will mobile phones be permitted outside this.  

Smart Watches or other wearable devices can be worn to school; however, we ask parents to turn off any features that allow the watch to be used for anything other than telling the time while at school. If a student is using it for any other reason, then it is exactly like a Mobile Phone and it MUST be handed in to the front office. 

Please click on the link below for more information on our Mobile Phone Usage Guideline. This is also located on the school website for further reference if required. https://stkierancps.schoolzineplus.com/_file/media/1353/mobile_phone_usage_guidelines_students.pdf 

St Joseph’s Chapel - St Kieran Parish

We will build a chapel for St Joseph and child Jesus on the opposite side of the church, where Mary (Annunziata) Chapel is. The statue of St Joseph is being carved now overseas. We encourage the parishioners to help us in this next addition to our beautiful church. If you would like to donate some money for the statue of St Joseph or the stain glass and renovation of the room, you can talk to Fr. Wilson or Judith. 

Sacrament of Confirmation

Our Year 6 students have been preparing for their Sacrament of Confirmation, a significant milestone where they commit to their faith as individuals. This past week, the student candidates and their parents participated in the Sacrament of Confirmation Parent and Child Workshops to deepen their understanding of the Sacrament.  

On Friday, 15 November, Bishop Don Sproxton will meet with the Year 6 students as part of their preparation. 

Sacrament of Confirmation Masses: 
6B - Saturday, November 23 at 5:00 pm 
6W - Sunday, November 24 at 10:30 am 
Both Masses will be conducted at St Kieran Parish. 

ySafe Parents Resources

As a part of our partnership with ySafe, we have received our very own Online Safety Hub. The Online Safety Hub provides a rich source of information for you to help you manage cyber safety in the home, including engaging blogs, articles, guides and resources.  The Online Safety Hub can be accessed using the link below. 

https://stkieran.onlinesafetyhub.com.au/ 

Procedure to Deal with Incidents

Unfortunately at times during the school day there are incidents that may arise that require intervention or follow up by either the staff or by parents. To assist with this process the procedure is located on the website, it may give you some strategies to work through during these times of heightening emotions. The one element to remember is that mistakes can be made and as a catholic school we forgive and reconcile and move forward together. 

https://stkierancps.schoolzineplus.com/_file/media/1351/dispute_complaint_resolution_procedure.pdf 

Dogs on School Grounds

Can I please remind all parents and family members that dogs are not permitted on the school site or at any of the school functions. We would ask that this followed as requested. 

St Kieran Parish - Nativity Play - Christmas Eve

Keyed Up Music 2025

Holiday Programs at Stirling Leisure

CONFIRMED Temporary closure of Cape Street Tuesday 26 & Wed 27 November