STEAM Grant
Thanks to Ms Ellison our school won the Australian Capital Territory State prize for the 2019 OfficeMax and Winc STEAM Grant program to the value of $5,000. We will use this money to buy a variety of STEAM and robotic equipment.

Qkr
Qkr!™ (pronounced 'quicker') is a mobile payments platform that enables consumers to order and pay for goods & services directly from their smart device. Qkr accepts all major credit and debit cards and consumers can register more than one card. Qkr is already proving a success in many of our Catholic schools. Qkr will enable parents to order and pay for school items (lunches, trips, pictures, uniforms, extra-curricular activities, etc.) for their children directly from their phone or computer. Qkr is now up and running if you would like to install it on your phone or computer.

Year 3/4 Gold Family Mass
This Sunday 18^th August Year 3/4 Gold will be leading our celebration at the 9am mass. If your family is intending on attending the mass we would love you to take on a role. If you are coming to the mass could you please let Ms Dwyer know via email; hayley.dwyer@cg.catholic.edu.au

School Fees
The renovation of our front office is nearly complete. The builders has also completed some repair work on some developing cracks in the 5/6 classrooms. This renovation has been paid for by the Building Fund that families contribute to. The Building Fund is currently a voluntary contribution and tax deductible. This fund is managed directly by the CEO to be used to pay for the upkeep of our schools. Under the current arrangement, should St Benedict’s require a plumber to fix leaking toilets or an electrician to fix the heating or have a broken window fixed, we simply contact the CEO and they send the relevant tradesmen. The cost for this is paid by the CEO through the CCSBF money (i.e. the building fund). Some of the funds each year are also used to support schools in small projects that they cannot fully fund at school level (eg. our front office repairs). Should all our families elect not to pay this fund, then the CCSBF will no longer be viable and the CEO will no longer be able to provide these services. Should that occur, each school would have to introduce an additional levy to fund this specialised maintenance, and I fear this would be an expensive exercise for the school and the families and would not be tax deductible. I encourage our families to continue to support this initiative in order to maintain the condition of our school. Thank you for your efforts in this aspect of our partnership.

SZapp
Just a reminder that one of the many ways we communicate at St Benedict’s is through the Schoolzine SZapp messaging system. If you have not already downloaded this app it would be worth considering doing so.