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St. Catherine’s High School

December…a time for giving and sharing!

…of tots, tweens & teens!

December 2010

Newsletter

The festive season is with us and with it come all the ac-

tivities and events related to Christmas. It is a time of

celebrations and at St. Catherine’s we do our utmost to

create an environment that reminds us of this special

time.

In fact, December

was all hustle and

bustle with different

activities taking place.

And, despite the

stress levels going up

at times, we would

not want it other-

wise! It is very satisfying to see the

smiles, the excitement and the happi-

ness on the students’ faces as they

prepare - be it rehearsals, class activi-

ties, costume-making, exchanging

cards, decorating the place, or contrib-

uting to good causes - for the Christ-

mas events. We want to thank all the Teachers and Child

Carers for their commitment to make each and every

festive season one to remember for their students. Well

done and keep it up!

As in previous years, this Christmas we had yummy

Christmas Logs for sale. We take this opportunity to

thank our group of Mummy Chefs for giving their time to

make such scrumptious logs.

December is a time for receiving...receiving gifts, cards,

smses, emails, well wishes, invitations to parties and din-

ners, and so many other things! And these are all beau-

tiful things because it is really a time to celebrate par-

ents, children, families, friends, relatives, col-

leagues, etc. But it is also a time for giving and

for sharing, and at St. Catherine’s we try to instill

in our students the true spirit of Christmas...a

sense of thinking of others, of giving and of shar-

ing with others, especially with those who are in

most need. There is great satisfaction in giving

and sharing as there is in receiv-

ing, if not more! So, this festive

season, let us extend our worlds

and think more of those who live

in dire situations, who are going

through difficult times, who are

lonely, ill or in distress, or who

have lost someone dear to them.

While we enjoy ourselves, let us

be more sensitive towards these persons who may not

be up to celebrating, or who cannot afford it for that

matter. Let us not forget the true value of Christmas...of

love, of peace, of sharing, of appreciating others, of sim-

plicity, of joy, and of serenity.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Brian Gauci

School Coordinator

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The Christmas Concerts...of boosting confidence and celebrating talents sharp. They are to come wearing their costumes and to

bring with them a Santa’s costume and a torch (for the

Pre-Juniors to the Junior 2s) or a Santa’s hat and torch

(for the Junior 3s to the Junior 6s). Students are to bring

their lunch and drink with them for the evening.

JUNIORS’ CONCERT MEMENTO OF (PHOTOS & DVD)...

Please note that there will be an official professional

DVD taker and photographer on the day of the concert

and as such, no video or photo-taking will be allowed on

the day. Parents will be able to order copies of the DVD

and of the photos in January.

Flutterby Concert

We must say that the Flutterby Concerts (Groups

6 to 10) were a success. Both the evening and

the matinée show were lovely to watch and both

audiences responded warmly by cheering and

clapping for our little performers as they danced

and/or sang on stage. And one cannot but not note that

we already have some little stars emerging amongst our

Flutterby children!

Well done to our little children and their Child Carers,

including Ms. Karen Galea and Ms. Karen Abela, for the

items they prepared and for putting up such a beautiful

show. We loved it!

FLUTTERBY CONCERT MEMENTO (PHOTOS & DVD)...

For those of you who would like to keep a memento of

this concert, they can order the photos and/or a DVD

from Mr. Midolo’s office. DVDs cost €10 each. Photos

are on display just as you enter the Flutterby Child Care

Centre; the 7x5 cost €2.50 each whereas the 6x4 cost

€1.50 each. Orders can be placed until 17th December.

Seniors’ Concert

We also want to wish good luck to our Senior students

as they present their performing items during their

Christmas Concert on Friday, 17th December (morning).

The students have been wrecking their brains to come

up with an item for the show and they have prepared

hard for this concert; so we wish them all ’break a leg!’

and we hope they enjoy it.

Pre-Juniors’ & Juniors’ Concert

This Saturday, 18th December, we will be having our

much awaited annual Pre-Juniors & Juniors’ Christmas

Concert.

CELEBRATING DIVERSITY...

This year, we chose ‘Celebrating Diversity’ as the theme

for our Christmas Concert. At St. Catherine’s we pride

ourselves in the value we give to diversity. We believe

that being different makes us all unique and that, when

we bring our differences together, our individual worlds

become richer and

more beautiful. We

thus work hard to help

our students embrace

the diversity that exists

in our School and to

appreciate the differ-

ences in our population

- be it in colour, race,

belief, ability, gender or other - and to foster the respect

that our individuality and uniqueness call for.

So we do hope that on that day you come and join us,

cheer for our Pre-Junior and Junior performers, and to-

gether we celebrate diversity!

CONCERT TICKETS...

Tickets for the Concert are now selling at €8 per

ticket. Extra tickets (in addition to the 2 per family) are

now available for purchase from Mr. Midolo’s office;

alternatively, please send the money for the extra tickets

in a sealed envelope with your child with “Tickets for

Concert – Attn. Mr. Midolo” written on it.

Please note that no push chairs will be allowed in the

auditorium and no tickets will be sold at the door. Chil-

dren under 2 years of age can be kept on the parents’

laps but no child above 2 can be kept on the same seat

as an adult. Children 2 years and over will need to be in

possession of a ticket. Kindly bring your tickets with you

on the day since you will need to present them at the

door.

CONCERT TIME & COSTUMES:

The concert starts at 5:30pm and students are expected

to be at St. Agatha’s Auditorium (Rabat) at 4:45pm

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Multi-Activity Marathon

We are happy to announce that the money raised during

the Multi-Activity Marathon amounted to €5170.54. As

previously informed, this money will go towards the pur-

chasing of new chairs for the Senior School, and towards

the expenses related to the

Sports Days of this scholas-

tic year. The chairs will

cost the School the total

sum of €5500, so we al-

most managed to reach

this target.

We want to thank all the

students and parents who

contributed towards this

cause. Well done!

Tree Deco Day

As you have been previously informed, this year, we

decorated our Christmas Trees differently. Our Pre-

Junior to Junior 6, made handmade decorations to adorn

the School Christmas Trees. Each of them then was

asked to choose a decoration and bring the grocery item

written on its back. These items were to be donated to

the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS) which work with asylum

seekers.

The response was extremely good and we want to con-

gratulate all the students for contributing to this cause.

We had boxes full of items under the Christmas Tree.

On Thursday, 16th December, Fr. Joe Cassar SJ and two

other representatives from the JRS came to speak to our

Junior students and collect the items. Fr. Joe said that

the items will be donated to refugees who live in dire

conditions and who would benefit from such support.

Istrina 2010

As is customary, our School participated in this year’s

Istrina. During the first week of December, we collected

money for this worthy cause and the students had the

opportunity to put their donations in the piggy banks

specifically given to us for this event! Representatives

from the Istrina will come to collect the piggy banks

from the School on Friday, 17th December.

School Winter Uniform

Temperatures are getting cooler. Brrrrrr! Kindly note

that as from Friday 7th January, students in Junior 3 and

upper levels must start wearing the winter uniform for

colder temperatures, that is, as follows:

Girls: black polo neck; rust v-neck jer-

sey; charcoal trousers with pin-stripe;

and black anorak with the school logo

or the rust blazer with the school logo.

Boys: black polo neck light

grey shirt; light charcoal-grey v-neck

jersey; light charcoal-grey trousers;

and black anorak with the school logo

or the rust blazer with the school logo.

P.E. Kit (Girls and Boys): yellow

sweatshirt with the school logo (compulsory for Junior 3

to Senior 3, optional for Senior 4); and black tracksuit

with green and yellow markings.

Thank you.

Book your Diaries!

Please take note of the following dates:

17th December (Friday, morning, at school) -

Christmas Parties for Flutterby.

17th December (Friday, morning, at school) -

Christmas Concert for Senior School.

18th December (Saturday, 5.30pm, at St. Agatha’s

Auditorium) - Christmas Concert for Pre-Junior

and Junior School.

20th December (Monday, morning, at school) -

Christmas Parties for Pre-Junior and Junior School.

20th December (Monday) - Last Day of Term 1.

School finishes at 11.15am for Pre-Junior and Jun-

ior. No school in the morning for the Senior

School.

20th December (Monday, evening, at school) -

Christmas Parties for Senior School.

21st December (Tuesday) - Teachers’ Morning.

7th January (Friday) - First Day of Term 2.

Kindly note that the 1st April is going to be a holiday for

our School. So please note it down in your diaries…and

no, it is not an April Fool’s joke!

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Venice Trip

A group of 26 students from the Senior 2, 3 and 4 are

going on a School trip to Venice between the 31st March

and the 3rd April (no school days will be missed). The

group of students will be accompanied by Ms. Paula, Ms.

Josette, Ms. Giselle, Ms. Fenech and Mr. Hales.

Robinwood Trip

Following the success of last year's adventure trip

abroad to Robinwood, we will be taking another

group up to the UK for an adventure based school

trip between the 31st March and the 3rd April (no

school days will be missed). The price for the trip

has still to be issued but a minimum of 20 stu-

dents need to have registered for the trip to take

place. Ms. Sue, Mr. Brian and Ms. Lorraine will be

again accompanying the group for the trip so

there will be ample supervision for the students.

This opportunity is open for students from the Junior 4

up to Senior 1. Those parents who would be interested

in sending their son/daughter on the trip are kindly re-

quested to send an email to Ms. Sue on

sue.mifsud.midolo@stcatherines.eu to express their in-

terest in this respect. We will be advising the price for

the trip in January since we are still expecting the confir-

mation from Robinwood Dobroyd Centre.

This is a wonderful opportunity for our students to de-

velop their skills of leadership, explore new sports' ac-

tivities and learn how to take care of themselves and

others and how to take care of their things too!! So we

look forward to next year's trip with our students!

Thank You for your Cooperation!

We would like to bring to your attention the following

important points:

it is extremely important that people collecting

students from our School drive safely into our

premises as we were informed of careless driving

in the school car park;

it is important that parents who bring children to

school in the morning and leave their vehicle in

the car park, align their car properly when parking

so that more cars can fit in and thus we utilize the

space to its maximum capacity.

“We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must under-

stand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter

what their colour.”

Maya Angelou

Our Heartfelt Wishes!

There's more, much more to Christmas than just candle-

lights and cheer. It's the spirit of sweet friendship that

brightens all the years. It is thoughtfulness and kindness;

it is hope that is reborn again, for peace, for understand-

ing and for goodwill to all humans!

On behalf of the School we wish all the students and

their families love, joy and peace this Christmas and

throughout the forthcoming year. May your good times

and treasures of

the present be-

come the golden

memories of

tomorrow.

Merry Christmas

&

Happy New Year!

from all of us

at

St. Catherine’s