Dear Parents and Carers,

This week we opened up the Conferences in Compass for parents to select a time for the Goal Setting Conversation with their child and teacher. The conversation times are particular to a teacher and are spaced out over the next few weeks. All families are required to attend and if this is not possible to physically come to the school, we encourage you to book a time online via Compass and then to contact your child's teacher to request an online meeting. 

Goal Setting Conversations in Term 1 are a chance to review the goals drafted by the teacher and student in Reading, Writing and Mathematics. During the 15 minute conversations, you may review the evidence that led to the setting of the goal and discuss the strategies that the student will commit to for the next term in order to achieve their goal. The feedback from the teacher about how the student went is recorded in Compass during Term 2 and then the goal and the feedback is absorbed into the Semester 1 Student Report. We look forward to welcoming you to these conversations over the next few weeks.

Enrolments are open for Kinder 2025!

The Catholic Schools Office have a new enrolment policy and procedure in place for the 2024 school year. Along with changes to the way our enrolment process happens, there are also changes to the order of acceptance for students into our primary and high schools. Enrolments opened on the 1st March for Kinder 2025 and will close on May 24. Following this period, the first round offers will be made. If you know anyone planning to enrol to Holy Name in 2025, please encourage them to pick up an enrolment package as soon as possible and to be sure to return it prior to the closing date. 

Wishing you a wonderful fortnight.

Brooke Stephens 

School Garden

A huge thank you must go out to Mrs Amato for taking carriage of our school garden. Mrs Amato has a green thumb and along with her merry band of helpers, already has the garden looking neat and tidy. A couple of our beds need to be repaired and next week the gardening crew will plant out some of our beds.

This part of our playground is such a lovely space and it is wonderful to see the children enjoying the garden space and activity at lunch time.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Our PBL focus for the past two weeks has been "I Can Listen to the Teacher." Children were given surfboard tokens when they were "caught" displaying this behaviour. Many students showed really plaesing behaviour in this area, however, we will practice this skill for another fortnight until we get it right.

Our Award winners for this fortnight were:

KM	Nathan Malferrari and Jett Tull
KT	Wyatt Godbolt & Abby Gardiner
1N	Casper Liu and Hudson Bennett
1M	Ally Rice and Luke Jajo
2L	Luka Zic, Novah Cockeram and Olivia Quilter
2S	Anika Tan and Grace Martin
3M	Ezra Lea and Tyrese Simon
3W	Sienna Sorbello and Hallie Clark
4H	Ruby Trunley and Aston Rettke
4Q	Charlotte Allan and Edie Loy
5S	Larah Farr and Grayson Wood
5H	Eden Lucenti and Eva Wilson
6M	Amna Omar and Zac Te Raki-Pitfield

 Our Principal Award winners were:

Amelia Moelker	4Q	80 Surfboards
Dhyan Jith	4Q	60 Surfboards
Charlotte Allan	4Q	60 Surfboards
Molly Kutzner	4Q	40 Surfboards
Grace Negulic	5H	40 Surfboards

 

Catholic Social Teachings

In 2023 Holy Name began a three-year plan to embed Catholic Social teachings into the curriculum and through action across Kindergarten to Year 6. Now that these opportunities have been planned, 2024 is the year that we live our action plans. 

What are the Catholic Social Teachings?

Catholic Social Teachings (CST's) cover all spheres of life: the economic, political, personal, and spiritual. The CST are inspired by scripture and the writings of the Popes and other Catholic leaders about social issues.

The CST's are human dignity, solidarity, the common good, preferential option for the poor, subsidiarity, participation, and care for our common home.

Each grade at Holy Name will focus their attention on a specific CST across the year. Below are the CSTs for each grade, so you can see what your child will be focusing on and can check in to ask questions and hear what their class is doing in this space. 

Kinder- Dignity of the Person

Year 1- Solidarity

Year 2- The Common Good

Year 3- The Common Good

Year 4- Dignity of the Human Person

Year 5- Preferential Option for the Poor

Year 6- Care for God’s Creation 

This fortnight’s spotlight is on Year 2.

In Year 2 we believe in working towards the common good and looking beyond our own personal interests.

Year 2 are learning about what it means to belong to a community. Students were posed the question: What gifts do you have that you could contribute to your community? Here are some pictures of their created responses. Year 2 teachers were so inspired, and heart warmed by students’ explanations. Many children stated they would contribute by helping people in need, creating a peaceful community, and showing love and kindness to all. Watch this space as Year 2 begin to formulate fundraising plans to donate to Project Compassion in Week 8. 

Great Learning Happening in Year Five!

Each fortnight we like to put a spotlight on the great learning happening in a particular grade in our school. In this report the spotlight is on Year 5. The classes have worked really hard to develop great routines that foster positive interactions and a growth mindset! During reading sessions Year 5 have focusing on improving their comprehension strategies, in particular the skills of skimming and scanning, summarising,self monitoring and questioning. Students have been working hard on their ability to create their own thick or thin questions based on their shared text which is based on the theme of survival. Each week as part of their reading lesson, Year 5 are introduced to new vocabulary which is pulled from their shared text. During independent work students locate tier 2 words (words that are more frequently in texts than in oral language, so children are less likely to learn them without assistance) or tier 3 words (these have a low user frequency and are often technical and limited to topics or domains) in their texts. Students break the word into its graphemes and record the definition of the base word. They use the word in a sentence. Students record prefixes and suffixes that could be added to the word. Students record synonyms and antonyms of the word. This work requires a high level of concentration and connection to prior learning. The Year 5 teachers have been impressed with the level of effort and collaboration the students engage in during these reading lessons.

In writing, Year 5 have been developing their skills to write a persuasive text that will convince the reader to share their opinion. Students started by planning what topic they would write about and creating a strong introduction that includes rhetorical devices and hyperbole (an exaggerated statement). The students worked on multiple mini lessons prior to starting their persuasive texts in order to ensure they had a good understanding of complex sentences and the skills to build an effective argument. Students worked on developing a plan for their persuasive text based on examples they had heard from previous students writing. Students then worked through developing an introduction which included rhetorical devices, their arguments and finally their conclusion. When students finished their draft they worked through the success criteria points to ensure their writing included everything it requires to be a quality persuasive text.

In Maths, Year 5 has been focussing on extending a number line to include negative numbers. The students having been playing a game that involves moving an elevator up and down in a hotel using a numberline. Through playing the game they have developed a strong mental model of negative integers. Students have then used this knowledge to plot coordinates on a treasure map and have been working with old school video games like Pacman to plot a path using coordinates, which include negative integers. Check out the photos to see the learning in action.

During sport this term, Year 5 have been learning a variety of swimming survival skills to help keep them safe when in pools and in the ocean. Stage 3 have been holding their swim to survive sessions at the Bullring at Forster Main Beach every Friday afternoon. The skills the Stage 3 students have been learning are: Step in entry, head-first and feet-first sculling, orientating the body using rotation skills, sidestroke, dolphin kick, freestyle, and backstroke. The teachers have reported that the students have gained so much confidence in the swimming ability over the past 5 weeks.

 Well done Year Five students and teachers keep up the awesome work!

 Mrs Suzie Monks

Primary Coordinator

The following procedures relate to the administering of medication at Holy Name Primary School. We remind parents of their obligations in the provision of mediation to the school for the regualr days at school and/or on excursions.

1. Any person delivering a student to the school must not leave any type of medication in the student’s bag. Medication must be given directly to a staff member of the school and the nominated person/s notified for appropriate storage upon arrival.  
2. Ongoing medications (such as Ritalin taken for a prolonged period) should be provided to the school on a weekly basis wherever possible to limit administrative load and manage amounts held in stock. 
3. Where a student is transferring from school to service or vice versa, the person in charge of this transfer must ensure medications are given to the person in charge of the respective school or service. 
4. The administration of any medication is authorised by a parent/guardian in writing and the medication, including packaging must adhere to the following guidelines:  
   • Medication is prescribed by a registered medical practitioner (with instructions either attached to the medication, or in written form from the medical practitioner)  
   • Medication has the original label clearly showing the name of the student and name of medication 
   • The dosage of medication to be administered is provided by medical practitioner, and is supplied in the correct dosage (tablets will not be cut up, crushed up etc)  
   • Frequency in administration is specified. 
   • Medication is from the original container (Note: Medications supplied in Pharmacist packed Dosage Administration Aids such as Webster Paks® are acceptable).  
   • Medication is within the expiry/use by date. 
5. The parent/guardian is responsible for supplying any associated equipment needed for administration of medication such as a spacer or diabetes testing equipment and must ensure the school remains in stock. 
6. Parents/guardians are required to update the school at the earliest possible occasion where changes to medications, dosages or similar occur. These should be communicated in writing in the first instance and the school may require the parent/guardian to sign a new consent form and provide an updated Health Care Plan where necessary 

Thank you for helping us to keep your children safe.