Dear Parents and Carers,

The school year has commenced with a positive but calm energy here at Holy Name. I am grateful for the effort of our teachers in preparing the learning programs and spaces, and our parents in making sure their children were ready for the start of another school year. It really does make a difference when we are all on the same page. We welcome Fr John Vo Vien to our Parish and are looking forward to engaging with him in the life of the school. The Kinder 2024 classes commenced on Monday this week and I'm sure have gone home exhausted from the full week in this new setting. Last Friday I was involved in the Early Stage 1 (Kinder) Professional Learning Team (PLT) meeting and was so impressed by the preparedness, knowledge and plans relating to the learning agenda for the Kinder students...and they hadn't even started yet! The Friday PLT meetings across all grades provide such a rich collaboration between teachers and leaders, and we are fortunate to work in an age that promotes such high levels of professionalism and the structures to achieve our goals.

This is the second year of our current Strategic Plan. Our Catholic Identity focus continues to be on the formation of students and following on from the planning stages last year, our teachers will action the formation plans for students throughout the 2024 school year. The big idea behind these plans is to connect the Catholic Social Teachings that are covered in our teaching and learning programs, with the school charism, and provide opportunities for students to put their learning into action. We know our students love the idea of serving others as we see their kindness everyday but it will be interesting to see whether this helps embed the concepts at a deeper level for students by engaging in this practical way throughout the year.

Our Learning & Wellbeing agenda continues to focus on developing an 'Expert Teaching Team' who use 'highly effective instructional strategies' in the classroom. This year, we continue to deepen our understanding of the new maths pedagogy and use the Assessment Waterfall concepts more broadly across our Key Learning Areas. The Assessment Waterfall concepts include Learning Intentions, Success Criteria, Descriptive Feedback, Peer and Self-Assessment and Goal Setting. We are focused on building a culture of feedback across the school with our parents, students and staff. This year, our Goal Setting Conversations will be used across all classes. During the first 6 weeks of this term, our students and teachers will draft learning goals in reading, writing and mathematics. Later in the term, our parents will be invited to review the goals in Compass prior to a meeting, where they will sit with their child and the teacher to commit to the goals and confirm the strategies that will support the student to achieve the goal. The feedback on these goals will be included in the Semester 1 Student Report.

The period of Lent commences early this year with Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday next week. On Tuesday, we are hosting our Parent Information sessions, offering a chance to visit the classrooms and hear from the teacher regarding learning expectations and logistics for the year ahead. These meetings are followed up each term with an overview document for families of the changes for each term. We will be serving pancakes during this time and families are invited to bring a picnic rug and some toppings to share on the school grounds. Later that afternoon at 5:30pm, we will hold our first P&F Meeting for the year. You are all very welcome to attend.

I hope the year has started well for all of you.

Warm regards,

Brooke Stephens 

Hello to all our families and welcome to or back to Holy Name School for the 2024 school year! It is wonderful to see so many happy, smiling faces both in the classrooms and on the playground.

Attendance

Attendance is a focus area for our school during 2024. It is a legal requirement that parents enrol their children of compulsory school age in a government or registered non-government school or register them with NESA for home schooling.

It is also a legal requirement that they ensure their children attend school and to notify the school promptly of any absences. At Holy Name, this can be done over COMPASS, by ringing the office or sending a note/email/Seesaw message to your child's classroom teacher. For absences 10 days and over, an exemption from school form must be completed and is available at the school office.

The chart below explains attendance levels.

Attendance rates of less than 97% start to be of concern and non attendance can have a real affect on your child's learning and social skills. Another way of looking at it is that if a child misses 1 day per week of school, they are missing 20% of the year's learning which adds up to almost a Term. It is also very important that students are at school ready to begin the day at 8.45. Our reading block begins at 8.50 each day across all classes. Arriving late means your child misses some of the integral literacy block.

Thank you for your support in this area and if you have any queries or problems please contact Mrs Kyla Loring.

Bell Times

At Holy Name, there is teacher supervision from 8.30am each day with the learning beginning at 8.45am. If parents need to begin work earlier than this, there is a St Nicholas OOSH before and after school care service located in our school hall. When children arrive prior to the bell, they are expected to sit under Kirkangina until a teacher arrives for morning duty.

Safety

As the year gets into full swing, it is important to remind parents about safety at pick up and drop off times. Carawa st (back entrance to school) is the preferred drop off and pick up area for all students being driven to school. A Kiss n' Ride area operates there before school. Children catching buses, walking and riding always leave from the Lake street (front entrance). 

PBL

Our Positive Behaviour for Learning focus for weeks 3 & 4 will be "I Wear my School Uniform with Pride." Students will receive surfboard tokens when they are "caught" wearing the correct uniform. 

At Holy Name School we pride ourselves in our neat and tidy uniform. The main problems we see are children wearing incorrect shoes and socks - these are to be ALL BLACK only. Shoes are not to have coloured accents or laces and socks are not to have brand names. Jewellery is limited to a watch, flat signet type ring and sleepers or studs for earrings. No makeup, including nail polish and false nails, is allowed. A school hat is part of the uniform each day.

Please support us in upholding our uniform policy and standard.

Sport

Regional Swimmimg Carnival

Thirty two Holy Name students attended the Regional Swimming carnival at Gloucester Olympic pool yesterday. Our Holy Name team were on fire and there was a sea of red caps at the finish line. 

Holy Name came first in every relay event as well which is quite an achievement! 

Thanks to Ms McKinnon for organising the event. Details of Age Champions and Dio competitors will come out next week.

Diocesan Swimming Carnival

The Diocesan Swimming carnival will be held in Newcastle on 27th February. Details as they come to hand.

Accreditation

This week, our Creative Arts Teacher, Mrs Natasha Clifton, received her proficient teacher accreditation certificate from NESA. This is a big achievement for Mrs Clifton as she worked alongside her mentor, Mrs Amy Arrow, to provide documentation and evidence of her teaching knowledge and practice.

Choir

Welcome back to Holy Name, where Belonging, Learning and Serving, in His Holy Name, is at the heart of all we do. As the new year begins, I'd like to welcome both new families and returning ones. The start of the year is a time of change for both students and families and it has been wonderful to see how well everyone has been settling into their new classes.

In my REC news reports, I hope to give you all the information you need about Masses, Liturgies, the Parish Sacramental Programs and Parish news at Holy Name, so that you can join us and celebrate in our community of faith. Next week is a very busy week, we celebrate Pancake Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and our Welcome and Commissioning Mass.

Pancake Tuesday

Next Tuesday afternoon between 3:45-5pm, pancakes will be served to students and parents whilst the Parent Information Meetings are held. Pancake Tuesday is the day in the church calendar where we feast before Ash Wednesday, the day which marks the beginning of Lent. Please join us as we share a meal as a community. These pancakes are free.

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent. There are 40 days in the season of Lent. As Christians, in this period of time we are called to pray, fast and almsgive. This means we are asked to pray more, give up something or to take on daily an act of kindness, and to give generously to those less fortunate. In our Diocese we support the charity CARITAS and donate money to Project Compassion over the Lenten period. Next Wednesday, 14th February, students in Yr3 to Yr 6 will join the parish community to celebrate Ash Wednesday in the Church at 9:30am. Parents, their families, carers and friends are welcome to join us. Fr John will then come to the school at 11:30am to celebrate Ash Wednesday with the Kinder, Year 1 and Year 2. Parents are most welcome to celebrate this liturgy with their children and teachers.

Welcome and Commissioning Mass

On Friday 15th February at 11:30am, in the Holy Name of Jesus Forster Tuncurry Church, we will be celebrating our Welcome and Investiture Mass, which marks the beginning of our school year. We will welcome new members to our community, pray together to give thanks for all we have. The Leadership badges will be blessed and presented to our Yr 6 SRC and Sports Captains after an induction ceremony. All classes will be attending this mass. Everyone is most welcome.

Parish News 

We welcome Fr John Vo Vien as our new Parish Priest. Fr John commenced his service in the Forster Tuncurry Parish in January, coming from Newcastle. We look forward to getting to know Fr John as he helps us build a community built on faith, love, hope and mutual support. 

Genevieve Williamson

Religious Education Co-ordinator

Year 6 and Kindergarten Buddy Program

Here at Holy Name, the tradition of Year 6 students being linked with kinder students to support their first year at school is still going strong. Our current Year 6 cohort met their Kinder buddy during the transition visits in term 4. During the transition sessions the new Kinders and Year 6 buddies engaged in craft activities, fun games and listening to stories. Before the break the Year 6’s wrote letters and took photos which were sent in the post to help build a strong connection and build a sense of community. This was definitely successful as our Kinder students were delighted to see their buddies on their first day and were excited to be able to spend time together on the playground.

Over the past week our Year 6 students have been an incredible help to the Kinder teachers by waiting at the gates in the morning to walk new Kinder students in and help they put their bags away. For lots of Kinder students this has helped reduce the anxiety of leaving their parents and helped put parent's minds at ease. We have had lots of nice feedback from Kinder parents about the positive impact the relationship with Year 6 buddy has had on their child.

This week our Kinder students were excited to have they very first Library borrowing session, and they had their Year 6 buddies alongside them to help them choose a book. The afternoon was topped off when the Year 6 students found a comfy spot in the Kinder room to read the library books to their Kinder buddies.

We are looking forward to sharing more experiences during buddy time and making special memories.

Mrs Suzie Monks

Primary Coordinator & Kindergarten Teacher.

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club has commenced this week and we have already had some wonderful new Year 5 helpers serving Milo and toast. Breakfast Club operates twice a week, on Monday’s we offer toast and Milo from the canteen space from 8.15am. All students are welcome to pop along, it is a beautiful way to start our week and chat about our weekend adventures. 

 On Wednesday’s Catholic Care support our fruit before class and provide us with an amazing array of fruit for students, again all students are welcome. The fruit is served under Kirk, often with Mrs Banham and some music. Fruit before class is from 8.30am. 

Mini Vinnies

We are super excited to invite our Year 5 students to come along and find out what Mini Vinnies is all about. We held our first meeting this week and as most meetings it was an action meeting. Students were invited to think about the following things: What does good works mean? What does it mean to be a good human? How can I be the best part of someone else’s day? 

We also made time to make some kindness cards to hide in some special places so that others may discover them and smile. We hope lots of students may stumble across them soon. 

The students also coloured lots of posters for Lent and Easter to deliver to Mrs W, the school and the wider community. We had around 30 students at our first meeting, all of them excited and eager to learn and do! 

Art Club

Art Club is BACK and open every first lunch for students to come and create. Students have been making collaborative posters promoting Art Club and kindness. It’s always heartwarming to watch a mix of students work together to create. It is even more heartwarming seeing how proud they are of their work once it is on display. 

Students have also been making clay heart ornament/necklaces this week and free drawing is always on offer. Art Club is a fun space open to all students to still enjoy outside time and a creative environment. 

Wellbeing 

Starting a new school year can be overwhelming for some students. Below is a link to The BRAVE Program which is an interactive, online program for the prevention and treatment of childhood and adolescent anxiety. 

The programs provide ways for children and teenagers to better cope with their worries. There are also programs for parents. 

https://brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au

Kristie Banham 

Pastoral Care Worker

Year 4 are building an Attitude of Gratitude!