LENT
This week marks the beginning of Lent, a special time in the Church’s year, where we spend time contemplating on life’s blessings and preparing for Holy Week.

Most Rev Bishop Brian G Mascord DD, Diocese of Wollongong, describes Lent as:

 “A time of renewal in faith, hope and love so that we can enter more fully into the celebration of the Sacred Triduum of our Lord’s last supper, his suffering and death on the cross, and his glorious resurrection.”

Pope Francis tweeted this following quote about Lent in 2016.

Pope Francis encourages us to take time to reflect on our lives and think about how we can help others. He asks us to be mindful of how our actions can impact others.

LENTEN APPEAL- PROJECT COMPASSION

Today, students from the Year 6 Mission Team, Mrs Mitchell and I, travelled to St Benedict’s Catholic College, Oran Park, to the launch of Project Compassion.

Project Compassion is Caritas Australia's annual Lenten fundraising and awareness-raising appeal. Millions of Australians come together in solidarity with the world's poor to help end poverty, promote justice and uphold dignity. The Year 6 Mission Team will showcase the Project Compassion Lenten Appeal to our school, next week.

In today’s liturgy, St Benedict’s student Isabella, spoke to the congregation:

The ‘common good’ is one of the reasons why we gather today as one community to celebrate the launch of Caritas Australia’s Project Compassion appeal. Through Project Compassion, we are asked to acknowledge that we are all members of the one human family, all equally worthy of love, mercy and respect.

Project Compassion 2020 takes the theme of Global Community – GO FURTHER TOGETHER as we collectively aim to support the other to thrive in a union of love and compassion. And let’s do this together!

 As students in our Catholic schools of the Wollongong Diocese, we believe in the “two feet of justice”. Project Compassion provides us with the opportunity to support others, to meet their immediate and most basic needs. To have empathy for them and to GO FURTHER TOGETHER to support them.

ASH WEDNESDAY MESSAGE FROM BISHOP BRIAN MASCORD

In early January, I wrote to the faithful of the Diocese, at a time when many within our Diocesan communities were still fighting the bushfires or trying to come to terms with the feelings of loss and grief associated with the bushfires.

Since that time, I have had the opportunity to visit a number of communities through our Diocese in the Shoalhaven, Wingecarribee and Wollondilly regions, seeing the destruction firsthand.

Importantly, these trips gave me the chance to simply be with, pray with and listen to the many stories from shocked, impacted, overwhelmed and brave people. There have been incredible outpourings of support for the communities impacted by these fires. I continue to be heartened by the stories of unity and generosity that continue to bring people together in the aftermath of the fires, from within the impacted communities, from our diocesan agencies, our parishes and wider communities who have sought to generously donate money, time, goods and services to help those impacted and to help communities rebuild.

As a way of continuing to prayerfully show solidarity with each other, I have given each parish a package of ashes, collected from areas representing the regions ravaged by fire. I have blessed them and invite you to add them to the ashes of your own community, to be used in your Ash Wednesday celebrations. I trust that they will be as always, a powerful symbol of the start of our Lenten journey, but particularly this year, a powerful symbol of our journeying with others in our Diocese, especially those amongst us in the recovery phase.

These combined ashes are a significant and powerful symbol for us as a Diocese, as we begin our Lenten journey, in solidarity with those impacted by the bushfires.

ASH WEDNESDAY AT ST MICHAEL’S SCHOOL MITTAGONG
Tomorrow, we will be having an Ash Wednesday Liturgy for our students with Fr Sean. At this liturgy, the special combined Diocesan ashes will be given, to the students and staff as part of the liturgy. A special reminder that we are all part of Gods family.

A LENTEN PRAYER

We Pray
Jesus, you call us to a new way of being.
Clothe us with kindness and humility.
Help us to reach out to those who are in distress
and to pay special attention to those without a voice.
Soften our hearts so that we may love others,
and help us to turn our gaze towards you.
We ask this through the one
who brought us life through his sacrifice.
Amen.

Next week is Catholic Schools Week, a week where we celebrate the great things that are happening in our Catholic Schools across Australia and especially in our Diocese of Wollongong. The theme this year is "Embracing our Future Together". During the week we will be discussing with the students what does this message mean for us? Further details about Catholic Schools Week will be in our newsletter next week.   A great way to celebrate the start of Catholic Schools Week as a community, is our school Cross Country on Monday. Further details regarding the Cross Country can be found in our sport section of this newsletter. 

MEET AND GREET
Thank you to those parents and carers who attended our 2020 Meet and Greet meetings. This is a great opportunity for you to meet your child/children’s class teacher and learn about the various activities planned for their class. If you were unable to attend on the night, can you contact your child’s class teacher for their class information document.

SWIMMING CARNIVAL
Last Friday, we held the Swimming Carnival Presentation during our School Assembly. Congratulations to those who received ribbons for places in the 36 events.

Great sportsmanship and team work were very evident throughout our carnival and I wish to congratulate our participants, our helpers and our staff for a great carnival.

Ribbons for the first, second and third fastest times were given in each overall event.  The results are listed in this newsletter.

Thank you very much to:

Mrs Anderson for her organisation of the Swimming Carnival and organisation of students eligible to attend the Western Region Diocesan Carnival on Tuesday 3^rd March; Mrs Berrell for organising the medals and trophies and Mr Tuckwell who organised the presentation.

P&F MEETING
A reminder that there will be a P&F Meeting in the school library at 1:40pm this Friday to assist in organising the P&F fundraising events and activities for this year. Please come along and show your support of this wonderful organisation. Your children greatly benefit from the fundraising of the P&F as shown by the following items that the P&F were able to purchase for us last year.

THANK YOU 
You may have seen a new smiling face in our school during this term. This lovely man is Mr Don Spencer. From time to time, I need to attend Principal meetings either at the Catholic Education Office in Wollongong or at other schools and Mr Spencer kindly comes to our school to assist whilst I am away. Thank you to Don, for his great support this week.  

Thank you to our parents for your continued support of our school.

Best wishes,
Mrs Katrina West
Principal

Listed below are some important school dates.  The school calendar is updated regularly and can be accessed via the school website and Compass parent portal.

Term 1 2020

• • Wednesday 26^th Feb – Ash Wednesday Liturgy
  • Monday 2^nd – 6^th March – Catholic Schools Week
  • Friday 6^th March – World Day of Prayer
  • Thursday 19^th March – St Joseph’s Day Mass 9.30am
  • Friday 20^th March – Year 6 visit The Abbey
  • Thursday 9^th April – Holy Thursday
  • Friday 10^th April – Good Friday

ASH WEDNESDAY
This year Students will be attending a Liturgy for Ash Wednesday in the school Hall. If you wish to receive Ashes, two Masses will held at St Thomas Aquinas Church at Bowral. There will be a school service for STA and parishioners (all welcome to attend) at 12pm and another Mass service at 7pm at St Thomas Aquinas Church.

If you would like more information on Lenten obligations please visit https://www.ccsh.org.au/lent

Abbey House Visit
Over the last 20 years, it has been a tradition for the children from Year 6 to visit Abbey House Nursing Home. We usually visit twice each term participating in a Communion Service and spending some time with the residents.   Last Friday was Year 6 first visit to Abbey house. A very big thank you to all the support we have received from the parents in Year 6 who have kindly volunteered their time to drive students to Abbey House. Year 6 look forward to our many visits over the coming year.

Parish News

Catholic Enrichment - The Parish Catholic Enrichment course will resume 4th March, 2020 at 7:15 p.m in the Parish Hall. The first topic: “ Word made flesh, true bread of heaven (Mystery of the Liturgy and Eucharist).”

Scripture Study – The next gathering of the Parish Scripture Study will be on Tuesday 18^th February at 7p.m in the Parish hall. Discussion will be on Chapter 5 of St Matthew’s Gospel – Jesus’ first sermon.

All welcome to attend…….

Parish Fundraising To help fund our parish projects for this year (and beyond) eg. Awnings outside both churches, a “MEGA RAFFLE” is being launched this weekend.  First prize is a HONDA JAZZ, valued at over $20,000 (supplied by Southern Highlands Motor Group).  Tickets on sale from now, $10.00 per ticket. Tickets can be purchased after Mass, via https://www.raffletix.com.au/ccsh or at the Parish Office.  The raffle will be drawn at the Trivia Night on 30 October, 2020.

Reconciliation is held on Saturday morning at St Thomas Aquinas church, Bowral at 9:30 a.m

Rebecca Mitchell
REC

SWIMMING CARNIVAL
Congratulations to all of the children who participated in events during the St Michael’s Swimming Carnival recently. Last week at the Friday Assembly we presented ribbons for the first, second and third fastest times in each overall event. The following students received special awards for their achievements on the day:

Junior girl Age Champion:   Ruby Francis            Junior girl runner-up:   Cianna Tasker

Junior boy Age Champion:   Brennan Barry         Junior boy runner-up:   William Frank

11 yrs girl Age Champion:   Breanna Tully           11 yrs girl runner-up:   Imogen Goodfellow

11 yrs boy Age Champion:   Rylan Barry             11 yrs boy runner-up:   Patrick Cornwell

Senior girl Age Champion:   Kiara Wills               Senior girl runner-up:   Jane Yap

Senior boy Age Champion:  Dallas Tasker           Senior boy runner-up:   Mitchell King

For each major sporting carnival we also choose two students to recognise for their cooperation, participation, encouragement of others, enthusiasm and spirit displayed on the day. This year the two recipients of the Encouragement Award were Ava Lamour and Darcy Reid.

The overall point score was won by the Jellore House (Yellow).

Thank you very much to Mrs Anderson for her organisation of the Swimming Carnival and organisation of students eligible to attend the Western Region Diocesan Carnival on Tuesday 3^rd March.

CROSS COUNTRY
This year’s Cross Country Carnival will be held on Monday 2nd March at Alexandra Square Park (the park across the road from the school).  Children will be walking to the park. 

The carnival will commence at approximately 9.30am.

Children will need to wear their full school sports uniform including their school hat and will need to bring lunch, afternoon tea, drinks (including plenty of water) and sunscreen.

Helpers will be needed on the day to assist with the races - If you are able to support the day, please fill in and return the helper's note.  

Parent Action final reminder – CEDoW Photo and Internet Permissions
Final reminder to return the 2 forms 'Consent Form to use student's image and work' and the 'Responsible Use of Technology' form to give permission to publish students photos/work and agree to internet rules.

If forms are not returned by Monay 2nd March 2020 students will be marked as not having photo permission and limited use of Ipad’s and technology.

HEADLICE

Once again head lice are on the move.   Head lice are very common so there is no need to be alarmed, however they should be treated quickly to prevent them from spreading.

We are asking that all parents examine their child’s hair and look for the following signs:

• Persistent scratching, particularly behind the ears and the nape of the neck accompanied by a red rash.
• Tiny silver white eggs at the base of the hair shaft.
• Small pale brown lice. You may wish to use a magnifying glass and a fine tooth comb under strong light to help identify lice.

Head lice can be treated quickly and effectively by following the following steps: 

1. Visit your local Pharmacy to purchase the latest specialist head lice treatment and apply according to the directions on the pack.
2. Wash out the treatment and use a fine tooth comb to remove the dead lice and eggs.
3. Repeat the treatment in 7 – 10 days if lice are still present or eggs are found within 1cm of the scalp.

Head lice can happen to anyone:  It doesn’t matter whether your hair is curly or straight, long or short, blond or brunette.  And contrary to popular belief lice prefer clean hair.

As an added precaution we suggest that girls with long hair have it tied back.

Thank you for your co-operation.  

Happy Birthday to the following students who celebrated a birthday this week:

William F and Amelia M

Venue: Mittagong RSL – Bessemer Street

Date : Saturday 29^th February    

Times : 4pm to 6.00pm

Cost : $5.00

Please note all money raised goes back to the children in the Southern Highlands community.