St Angela's students try to figure out how a hot air balloon landed on their oval
St Angela’s Primary, Castle Hill students arrived at school on 20 August, 2015 to find something unusual.
As part of St Angela’s Writing Festival, a hot air balloon that looked as if it had crashed, was placed on the school oval.
The writing festival encourages all students from Kindergarten to Year 6 to write an informative, persuasive or entertaining piece based on the hot air balloon.
Classes came out to examine the scene and its many artefacts and returned to class to plan and begin their writing.
Principal Tony Calabria said the writing festivals are a great way to stimulate students’ imagination.
‘The students were all curious and had their own ideas about what it was and how it got there,’ Tony said. ‘There was a buzz with plenty of talk in every corner of the playground.’
‘We believe initiatives like the Writing Festival are working to improve learning outcomes and are being reflected in our Naplan results, with 80 percent of our Year 3 students in the top two bands for writing’ he said. ‘This and many other strategies have helped our goal of enhancing the children’s writing.’
All written pieces will be published in a special class display folder to be read by others.
What is inside the top secret box?
Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese
www.parra.catholic.edu.au
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Year 6 at Encounter 🎶 🙏 It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with fellow year 6 students across our diocese. We are so proud of the way they have represented our school. Thank you to Mrs Fisher, Mr Hurst, Mr Connellan and Miss Dirsch for taking the students🙏. Thank you Gen Bryant and Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese
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19 Feb 2026
From Facebook
Year 6 at Encounter 🎶 🙏 It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with fellow year 6 students across our diocese. We are so proud of the way they have represented our school. Thank you to Mrs Fisher, Mr Hurst, Mr Connellan and Miss Dirsch for taking the students🙏. Thank you Gen Bryant and Catholic Schools Parramatta Diocese
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From Facebook
✝️ ASH WEDNESDAY Today we came together in prayer for Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a time for prayer, fasting and almsgiving.
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We were so excited to welcome Joash Papalii and Kitione Kautoga from the @theparraeels to St Angela’s today as part of @nrl Schools Blitz. They talked to us about the important messages of wellbeing and gave tips to help with physical and mental health. The kids loved asking questions during Q&A, finding out what’s it’s really like to be an NRL player. Joash even challenged a few of the kids to a Scissors Paper Rock competition. Thanks for visiting boys - you made our day. 🔵 🟡
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Year 4 shared a meal together for their Religion unit, 'Why are people Hungry?' They then discussed these questions: - What does it mean to you to 'break bread' with others? - How does sharing this meal feel like being part of a bigger community, like our parish or school Mass? We then used the See, Think, Wonder Routine to look at an image of a local Eucharistic celebration and The Last Supper.
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🙏 ✝️ 2026 Opening School Liturgy and Leaders Commissioning 🙏 ✝️ This morning we came together to celebrate the start of our school year and to commission our 2026 School Leaders and Semester 1 Student Representative Council. In the Year of Grace, in the footsteps of St Francis, may we Let our Light Shine in the spirit of peace, joy and love of creation. ✨
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Today, we welcomed our newest members of the St Angela's community - our adorable Kindy children and their families. The day was filled with smiling faces, making friends, playing, learning and having lots of fun 😊🎒 What a joyful start to their time at St Angela's! 💛✨
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A Message from Our Lady of the Rosary Parish Catch up program for First Reconciliation We invite all parents with children in Year 3 or above who have been baptised, and have missed receiving the sacrament of reconciliation last year to register your child by filling in the form attached: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdsr1_9hgcFb6TC7kbsel9zJVkGatqqoTTJOtXcxfdu5jcNlA/viewform Please complete by Monday February 9th , 2026 to reserve a place. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact OLOR Parish at: sacraments@olorparishkellyville.org.au.
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We are so excited to welcome our Years 1 to 6 students back to St Angela’s for their first day of 2026. It was definitely smiles all round 😃
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