Po Box 27

Clifton 4361

Ph: (07) 46973366

Fax: (07) 46973067

Email: clifton@twb.catholic.edu.au

07 February , 2013

Dear Parents and Friends We have had a mixed start to the year with a number of students stranded on farms or outly-ing towns with no way to get to school. We now have most of the school population back and the serious job of teaching and learning is taking place. I have passed on the school community’s sincere condolences to Miss Nystrom on the pass-ing away of her grandfather last weekend. May he rest in peace. Our school participated in the CD Swimming Carnival yesterday and achieved most pleasing results. Well done to the children. I have included a separate page in the newsletter for Tuckshop Prices this week, for parents to place on their Fridge as well as a separate page for reply slips. Please return slips for Tuckshop Helpers and the Chip Van Helpers as soon as possible. A special thank you to Mrs Tania Jeffcoat-Altena for the great organisation of last week-end’s Sausage Sizzle at Bunnings..

SCHOOL FEES: School Fees for Term 1 have been sent home this week with the due date for the payment of Term 1 Fees being, Wednesday 27th February, 2013. Fees/ levies are compulsory unless negotiated. I would ask that any parents who would like to discuss any matters to do with the payment of school fees to make an appointment to see me. Confidentiality is assured. Agreed arrangements do not carry over from year to year. If at any stage the payment of fees becomes a problem please do not hesitate to see me.

Prep Evening - Monday 11 February 2013 at 6pm New Prep parents are invited to the classroom to gain information on how to assist your child at home with reading and learning sight words for homework. During the evening we will also explain the requirements of the Australian Curriculum as it pertains to the Prep year. The Information Evening will only take one hour . Any further information on the routines and organisation of the classroom will take place at the “Meet & Greet” on Friday, 22 February 2013.

MEDICAL ALERT CHANGES: We have a number of children enrolled who have special medical alerts. If your child has a need for a medical alert notice at school and/or your details have changed, please up-date these changes in writing and leave these details at the school office.

SCHOOL OFFICE SIGN -IN

All visitors to the school during the day must please sign-in at the office before en-tering the school premises. This is a require-ment of the Toowoomba Catholic Education Office and the State Government. The times for sign-in and out are from 8.45 a.m. until 2.45pm ( Parents are welcome to bring their children into the school in the mornings and to collect them in the afternoons without sign-ing - in. )

BEFORE & AFTER SCHOOL SUPERVI-

SION

Supervision is provided from 8:30 am each morning. Children arriving before this time are required to sit quietly until a teacher comes on duty. No children should be at school before 8.15 am in the morning. After school supervision is provided until 3:30pm. Please contact the school if you are running late to avoid unnecessary panic.

CLOTHING POOL:

The clothing pool Co-ordinator, Mrs Susan

Smith, will be available on Tuesday and

Thursday mornings at the Clothing Pool

Room.

ROAD SAFETY

For the safety of the children, please do not park in the bus zone at the front of the school. Children crossing Meara Place to parents parked on the other side of the road are re-quired to use the pedestrian crossing with their parents. Please show your children the safe way to cross the road.

Central Downs Swimming

Congratulations are extended to Lexi Wil-kinson, Juston Free, Breanna Meacle, Tara Wilkinson, Kate Dowdle, Bridie Jop-pich, Michael Shingles, Tyler Gillam, Ham-ish Rutherford, Lauren Smith , Michael Duncan, Caitlin Fogarty, Lachlan Meacle, Liam Ruhle, Aaron Stace, Lilly Ferguson and Millie Zeller who represented the school at the CD Swimming Carnival. They all gave of their very best on the day. Special mention goes to the following swimmers who attained Age Champion Awards: Kate Dowdle, Juston Free, Lachlan Meacle, Lexi Wilkinson and Michael Shin-gles. Well done children on a magnificent effort.

Canberra Trip Sausage Sizzle

Sunday’s Bunnings sausage sizzle was a roaring success thanks to the many par-ents, teachers and siblings who gave gen-erously of their time: Pat and Len Tickner, Jocelyn Wilson, Mi-chael and Julie Lyons, Randip Dutta, Troy Gillam, Jacqui Drysdale, Rebecca Nys-trom, Jenny Gillam , Thomas and Meggan Jeffcoat, Debra Batham, Ty Maher and Brett Pollard. Thanks also go to Alan and Cathy Rich-ards, from RDS farming, who donated 40kg of onions. The tuck-shop now has a very unique smell. A special thanks to John and Linda Fogarty for the kind use of their cold room for storage and to John Jeffcoat for all the driving around and collection of esky’s and supplies. Without such amazing support and tireless efforts of these people our extremely busy day would not have gone off so smoothly. Tania Jeffcoat-Altena

Medical Notification Forms:

Please return the forms that were sent to every family as soon as possible.

This Week’s Liturgy Roster

09/02/13 Saturday 7PM

Welcoming: H Gillam

POF/OHP: M Wiedman

Altar: Readers: M Wiedman & T Maher

Offertory: B & J Keleher

Eucharistic Ministers: H Gillam & T Maher

Cleaning: P Imhoff, G Imhoff, J O’Leary,

M Bowe, S McDowall

Club Hotel Raffle Roster Feb 8th— L Free & S McCarthy

Feb 15th - M Edwards & M Lyons

Quote of the Week

Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to

love and to work and to play and to look up at the

stars."

Henry Van Dyke

God Bless,

Brett Pollard

Principal

Dates To Remember

February 2013

11th - Prep Information Evening 6.00 pm

12th - SD Swimming Trials, Warwick

12th -15th - Principals’ Meetings

13th - Ash Wednesday 9.00 am

15-17th - Clifton Show

18th - 21st - School Swimming

22nd - Nobby Triathlon

22nd - Meet & Greet ( 5.30pm)

28th - Yr 7 Leadership Mass 1.30 p.m.

March 2013

1st - SCHOOL PHOTOS

5th - P & F MEETING - ALL WELCOME

8th - CD Netball - Allora

CD Rugby League - Clifton

18th - 21st - Parent/Teacher Interviews 25th - School X-Country Event

26th - School Easter Mass - 12 noon

28th - School closes at 3.00pm for the Easter

Break

29th - Good Friday

31st - Easter Sunday

April 2013

1st - Easter Monday

9th - Pupil Free - Teacher In-service

10th - Pupil Free - Teacher In-Service

11th - Toowoomba Show Holiday

15th - Term 2 Begins (MONDAY)

Congratulations to CD Swimmers

Lexie, Juston, Breanna, Tara,

Kate, Bridie, Michael, Tyler,

Hamish, Lauren, Lachlan, Liam, Aaron, Lilly and

Millie. Absent: Caitlin and

Michael D

MEET AND GREET REPLY

For Catering purposes, please complete the slip to give us an idea of numbers for the Meet and Greet on Friday, 22nd February. The evening will take the following format : Two sessions: 5.35pm and 6.00pm Year 6/7 - Parent Information Meeting with Mr Maher (Classroom) Year 2/3 - Parent Information Meeting with Mrs Taylor (Classroom) Prep/1 - Parent Information Meeting with Mrs Drysdale (Classroom) Year 4/5 - Parent Information Meeting with Miss Nystrom (Classroom) 6.20pm The Fun Begins If you have children in the other classroom please endeavour to send one parent to each room or catch up with the teacher you have missed out on during the evening. The P & F will provide the meat and parents are asked to assist by providing a dessert or salad. Parents with an eldest child in Preschool – Year 4 are asked to provide a dessert for the BBQ while those with an eldest child in Years 5 – 7 are asked to pro-vide a salad. Please BYO drinks.

Please remember to avoid all nut products and shellfish in any preparation of

salads or desserts. Please Label any foods which may have these ingredients

in!!! We are a Nut and Shellfish Aware School. REPLIES ARE NEEDED FOR CATERING.

.....................................................................................................................................

RETURN SLIP: .................................... FAMILY NUMBER ATTENDING: ........................ Please return to school before Friday, 15th February 2013 .....................................................................................................................................

Congratulations!! Mrs Dennielle and Mr Alistair Taylor on their recent wedding. May God Bless you and your family for many years of wedded bliss.

Chip Van 2013

Even though school has just started, the first P&F fundraiser for the year is approaching fast.

Our first fundraising event for the year is running the Hot Chip Van at the Clifton Show over

the weekend of 15th to 17th February, 2013. We have been offering this service to the Clifton

Show Society for some years now and it has always been a solid way to raise some funds for the

school. Again this year we have been asked to operate the stall on Friday night, all day Saturday

(including night) and Sunday (usually until lunch time).

Of course to run the van efficiently we require some help from our parents (if our teaching staff

offer their help every year, then surely it is not too much to ask of our parents). We usually ask

for two hours of your time over the three day period. If you are able to support this fundraiser by

giving up two hours of your time, please complete the form below and return it to the school by

11th February, 2013.

Parent/Volunteer 1

Name:………………………………..

Phone Number: …………………….

Please circle preferred time to be on

van duty:

Friday night

Saturday morning afternoon night

Sunday morning

Parent/Volunteer 1

Name:………………………………..

Phone Number: …………………….

Please circle preferred time to be on

van duty:

Friday night

Saturday morning afternoon night

Sunday morning

Library Books and Airconditioner: The staff and children of St Francis de Sales School would like to thank the P& F for their generous donations for the library air- conditioner and funding of new books. It is greatly appreciated.

P & F NEWS

The first P & F meeting of the year was held on Tuesday evening with a respectable attendance. Due to the resignation of Daryl Weatherstone as Deputy President of the Association, Mr Andrew Woodside was unanimously voted onto the committee as new Deputy President. We congratulate Andrew and hope that his stay on the P & F is a long and enjoyable one. At the November 2012 meeting, the P & F forum decided to donate a sum of $4500 to the library for 2013, with a special emphasis to be placed on the new History and Geography Curriculum. They also do-nated a sum of $1800 for half the purchase and installation of an air - conditioner for the school library. The school paid the balance of the funds required. The P & F also discussed possible fund raising events for 2013/2014 and it was decided that we continue to hold the Fishing Competition every second year. Other ideas were also tabled about possible fund-raising events during 2013, one of which is to hold a St Francis de Sales Race Day at Clifford Park on Saturday, 18 May 2013 . The idea would be to put on a bus ( possibly more than one) to leave Clifton around 12 noon . The day would include a good meal, the rac-es, mystery prizes and raffles etc. These Race Days are usually great fun and can raise a great deal of funds. The invitation for the Race Day would include all Parishioners and family and friends. To gauge interest, we ask that you complete the form below and re-turn it to school by next Tuesday, (12 February). We would need at least 60 people who are interested before booking the event. The ex-pected cost per ticket is approx. $50(incl of bus, dinner and en-trance). ……………………………………………………………………………………… Name: ……………………… Approx. number of attendees: ………... I am (interested/ not interested) in attending the St Francis de Sales Race Day on 18 May 2013. Signed: ……………………………. (Please return by next Tuesday)