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Welcome to the first of our promotional Newsletters. We will continue to communicate all information to parents via the Compass platform and maintain our Newsletters as a way of showcasing the events in the previous fortnight. We hope you get a sense of the fabulous opportunities available to our students, your children, and enjoy the photos that shine a light on these special events in our school.
In this first of our showcasing newsletters, we have included many of the events in the school year up to this point. Future newsletters will cover the events of the previous fortnight. You can expect a newsletter at the end of every even week.
Just below this report, I have included the link to our School Community Survey in case you missed it. The survey finishes next Wednesday March 27 and takes about 10minutes ot complete. This feedback is so important to guide our work for the next 3 years and we would be grateful for your participation.
Surveying our School Community
Please use the following link to complete the survey. Parent / Carer Survey
The School Swimming Carnival was our first sporting event of the year, closely followed by the Regional and Diocesan carnivals. Some of the our students will be completing at the Polding Carnival in the near future and we wish them all the best. We've attached a gallery of photos in case you missed them.
HNS Carnival
Our Holy Name Swimming Carnival was held on Thursday, February 7th at the Great Lakes YMCA.
A huge thank you to Miss Spinks for organising a great carnival and to all the staff who contributed to the smooth running of the day. Another big thank you to all the parents who assisted with time keeping on the day.
The children competed in events involving all four swimming strokes and vied for a place in the school team to represent at the Regional Carnival.
The Dolphins House came out resounding champions on the day.
Age Champions:
JUNIOR GIRLS | JUNIOR BOYS | |
1st | Sophie Scislo | Preston Roberts |
2nd | Alexis Hudson | Charlie Gibson |
3rd | Charlotte Cooper & Lilah Gibson | Rhys Shanahan |
11YRS GIRLS | 11YRS BOYS | |
1st | Kalani Ryan | Ethan Hudson |
2nd | Piper Bowen | William Gibson |
3rd | Tayla Gleeson | Riley Paine |
SENIOR GIRLS | SENIOR BOYS | |
1st | Hannah Carmichael | Dylan Kinkade |
2nd | Indigo Titow | Jonathan Botros |
3rd | Elise Duckett | Kobi Critchley |
Regional Carnival
The Manning Regional Carnival was held at the beautiful Gloucester swimming pool on February 13th. Thanks to Mr Sullivan from Joeys Gloucester for organising a terrific day. Mrs Schumann and Mrs Loring accompanied the children to the event and all of the team competed to the very best of their ability. We had some great results, with Holy Name winning all of the relay events and 5 out of the 6 Age Champions.
The team consisted of: Sophie Scislo, Alexis Hudson, Lilah Gibson, Kannika Broadbent, Adele Whitehouse – Miotto, Nakoda Ryan, Marley Hodgess, Bonnie Dempsey, Kalani Ryan, Piper Bowen, Charlotte Cooper, Tayla Gleeson, Nakyha Smith, Hannah Carmichael, Indigo Titow, Elise Duckett, Manuela Stewart, Preston Robertson, Charlie Gibson, Rhys Shanahan, Levi Van Haren, Harley Van Haren, Archie Anthony, Hamish Carmichael, Lincoln Atkinson, Ethan Hudson, William Gibson, Riley Paine, Cooper Emmerton, Rohan Dormor, Dylan Kinkade, Jonathan Botros, Kobi Critchley, Jack Thacker, Liam Turner and Oliver Zarate.
Sophie Scislo, Kalani Ryan, Hannah Carmichael, Ethan Hudson and Dylan Kinkade were awarded Age Champions trophies in their respective age categories – Well Done!
Diocesan Carnival
A large contingent of Holy Name swimmers headed down to the Lambton Pool on February 28th as part of the Manning Regional Swimming team to compete against children from other regions in our Diocese.
Sophie Scislo, Alexis Hudson, Lilah Gibson, Adele Whitehouse – Miotto, Nakoda Ryan, Marley Hodgess, Bonnie Dempsey, Kalani Ryan, Piper Bowen, Charlotte Cooper, Tayla Gleeson, Hannah Carmichael, Indigo Titow, Elise Duckett, Preston Robertson, Charlie Gibson, Rhys Shanahan, Levi Van Haren, Hamish Carmichael, Ethan Hudson, William Gibson, Riley Paine, Rohan Dormor, Dylan Kinkade, Jonathan Botros, and Jack Thacker were part of the Carnival and from this level Ethan, Sophie, Will, Hannah, Alexis, Kalani, Jonathan and Dylan will be part of the Maitland-Newcastle team that will compete at the Polding Championships in Sydney later this term.
We are so proud of three of our students, Jack, Jed and Ethan, who were accepted into the Virtual Academy for 2019. The Virtual Academy is an online school program for highly gifted students. It is led by specialist teachers and provides learning opportunities beyond the scope of the regular classroom, as well as the chance to connect with like-minded peers across the Diocese.
Catholic Schools Week “Learn, Serve, Belong”, was celebrated at Holy Name in Week 6 and was a wonderful opportunity to capture the vibrant life and essence of our school that makes us truly unique. The week began with a Parish and school community Mass on Sunday to launch Catholic Schools week.
On Tuesday morning, our Open Morning was hosted by our Kinder Teachers and Support staff. As it was Pancake Tuesday, prospective new students and families, along with all our current students were served a feast of tasty pancakes.
As a school community on Ash Wednesday, we celebrated the faith tradition of receiving ashes on the forehead to commence the season of Lent, where we fast, give to those in need and take on acts of kindness for six weeks. Mr Nicholls, Principal of St Clare’s met with parents of Yr 5 and Year 6 students to begin conversations about their transition from a Catholic Primary School to Catholic High School.
On Thursday our school band, under the supportive hand of Mrs Carmel Brown performed for our Yr 3 students. We are hoping there may be interest among this group to begin to learn an instrument and/or to join our band.
Mrs Schumann hosted a morning tea for our Holy Name Staff and thanked each one of them for the contribution they play in Catholic Education. Each staff member was also given a personalised card of thanks from Mrs Schumann.
Tabloid Friday was the culmination of our week. Fr Greg, our teachers and volunteer parents were there as support, whilst our Yr 6 students led this event. Congratulations Yr 6, on mirroring to us, how you learn, serve and belong to our school community. We all had an icy pole to finish off what was a fantastic and memorable week at Holy Name.
Take a look at our gallery of photos that highlights Holy Name as a community of faith, of learning, of service and connectedness with school, parish and wider community.
Mrs Williamson
Religious Education Coordinator
Winter Sport Trials
Some Holy Name students went to St Joseph’s in Taree to trial for consideration for the Dio Winter sports teams. The sports available were: Rugby League, Soccer, Hockey and Netball.
These children have made it through to Dio trials: Liam Turner and Kalani Ryan – Soccer, Logan Joughin – Rugby League and Emily Lawless – Netball.
Touch Trials
Some children will again travel to Taree this week to trial for inclusion in the Dio Touch teams.
Manning Region Creative Arts 2-day workshops
Last week, thirty-three students from Holy Name attended the two-day Manning Regional Gifted Creative Arts workshops at St Clare’s. Our 33 students joined other students from the St Joseph Primary Schools in Taree, Wingham, Gloucester and Bulahdelah for a fun-filled two days of learning in an area of interest and talent. They were split into four groups - visual arts, drama, vocalists and instrumentalists and had the opportunity to work with specialist tutors from the Catholic Schools Office’s ASPIRE team, to develop their skills in their chosen area to create an integrated performance piece that they performed to an audience consisting of parents, teachers and high school students on the afternoon of the second day. These workshops were an exciting opportunity for students to collaborate with those with similar gifts and interests, develop friendships and receive specialist teaching in their creative domain.
Below is a short clip from the performance. Any families wanting a copy of the entire performance can bring a USB to school and Mr Pomplun will copy it for you.
Mini Vinnie Commissioning Ceremony
Forty-four amazing Mini Vinnies students in Year 5 and 6 were commissioned and received their badges at Monday assembly. Mini Vinnies volunteer their time, energy and talents to do ‘good works’ around our school.
The students are encouraged to focus on social justice issues that they feel passionate about, whilst always aiming to assist those who are in need in our school and the wider community through fundraising and volunteering. Please stay tuned for news of the Mini Vinnies 'Good Works' happening around our school.
Mini Vinnies pledge
As a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society Mini Vinnies
I commit to making a difference in my world, to loving and respecting myself,
to reaching out to others in my school and community through friendship and doing good works.
Maureen Nicholls Pastoral Care Worker
Holy Name Primary School Forster celebrated Harmony Day on the 21st March, focusing on the theme ‘How do we belong at Holy Name?’ To celebrate the school’s rich and culturally diverse environment, Miss Teasey, our English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EALD) teacher, organised a special day, allowing students to wear traditional cultural dress, to present their story in different languages and to share food from a variety of cultures. Classes learned about the significance of Harmony Day and created a Poster for a competition demonstrating their understanding.
This was a great opportunity for us to highlight the gifts and experiences that the students from different countries, as well as our own Indigenous students bring to our school community. It was a chance for our students to broaden their thinking about the world, to learn to accept accept differences and appreciate and love diversity.
Students from Holy Name Primary School come from many different backgrounds. Along with our Indigenous Australians, we have students from Chile, India, Iran, the Philippines, Thailand, New Zealand, South Africa, Egypt, China, Korea, Germany, Finland, Russia, Ireland and South America.
The Yr 6 students working with Miss Teasey led our Harmony Day Assembly. For the very first time, one of our Indigenous students, Marla Coulton-Donnelly welcomed our community to country in her native ‘Gathang’ language. We acknowledge how lucky we are to have an Aboriginal Education Worker, Crystal Simon, who has started teaching students the Gathang language. This was followed by students introducing themselves in different languages and then repeating what they said in English. The students speaking were so courageous, and the rest of us were amazed by how many of our students could speak more than one language.
Throughout the assembly, Yr 6 and the school choir led the singing of ‘I am Australian’ as well as our own School Song, ‘One in Your Holy Name.’
Parents from across the school prepared food to share from many different cultures, and following the assembly, students had the opportunity to taste food from all over the world. ‘We are so lucky to have families who support our work at school. The food they prepared was unreal and the students learned so much about the relationship between culture and food just from today.’ (Miss Teasey)
The celebrations concluded with the judging of the Poster Competition, with representatives from all classes taking out prizes.
Student Representative Council
Our SRC had our first meeting in week 3 and will have another one this week. We will continue our focus on the environment over the course of 2019. Reps in years 3 and 4 will become “Bin Heroes” and assist students in putting their rubbish in the correct bins. We will continue to work with JR Richards and the local Land Care organisations on the Take 3 For the Sea initiative and take part in a community clean up each term. The children will organise Emu Bobs when required as well as a “Nude Food” day each term.
We also discussed problems arising from children’s poor behaviour choices in the toilets and tried to come up with some solutions to graffiti, children blocking drains with paper and turning on taps to flood the area as well as emptying out of the hand soap pumps.
We are also trying to source some new solid soccer goals for the Primary Playground.
Stage 3 are up and running with their Kitchen Garden lessons this term. Michelle and Cate have been organising some engaging experiences in both the Garden and the Kitchen so far this term. A huge Thankyou to our wonderful volunteers who ensure that the program runs smoothly.
SAVE THE DATE
The major fundraiser for our Garden project will be the Holy Name School 60th Anniversary Ball to be held at Club Forster on August 10th. Details will be forthcoming but please lock this date in for a great night out.