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Dear Parents, Carers and Friends,
We've had a successful first full week of face-to-face teaching and learning thanks to the preparation of our families and the staff of Holy Name. With some guidelines still in place to minimise the risk for students, we have successfully navigated the transition back to school. This week I received a copy of what to do when or if there is an incident of COVID-19 within our school community. This is a very prescriptive document and although we all hope this does not happen, it is good to be proactive and realistic about the possibility.
I received a link to the following blog this week and thought you might like to read it as well. Written by Maggie Dent (Parent Educator and Teacher), it provides some food for thought about the next stage of the journey with our students...your children, following the recent series of events in their lives. I know that in some ways we have been fortunate in our regional area, however, it is always good to consider different viewpoints.
Schools key to our kids recovery: Why the 3 Cs count before grades
Athletics
With the cancellation of all Term 2 carnivals and representative sport, we decided to run the events during class sport time. We wanted to have student times and distances recorded in case there is a resumption to representative sports in Term 3. With this in mind, we are asking families to check that their children are wearing the correct black joggers each day to support their participation in these activities.
Playground development
Our new cricket net is starting to take shape at the back of the Primary playground. The preparation, and concreting took place this week and in a couple of weeks the synthetic grass will be laid over the concrete to form the pitch. The final stage will be to install the cyclone fencing around the outside. I have been consulting with a local Cricket Club throughout the process and they are willing to come and walk the students through some bowling and batting techniques when the nets are ready to use.
Dr David Gillespie dropped in to see how the work was progressing as our school received a $5000 grant from the Federal Government to go towards the building of the cricket net. While he was here, we took the opportunity to introduce Dr Gillespie to one of our young leaders, Ruby Machon, who shared some of the good work that our Mini Vinnies crew do here at Holy Name.
We are also collaborating with GLAICA to replace the colourbond fence at the back of the playground with a hardwood timber lapped and capped fence. This work will be completed over the coming months.
St Nicholas OOSH
It has been exciting to see that our St Nicholas OOSH has experienced a growth in attendance this term. We are licenced for 30 students and I am now considering whether we need to seek an increase to this number for our school. Please let me know if you have troubles getting in so that I can make the necessary enquiries. We have always said that if we have the numbers for the morning that we could open then as well - please let me know if you would be interested in 'before school' care. This week I spoke with Sheridan Morton, one of the administrators of the St Nicholas OOSH Centres across the Diocese about our service. She is working with Kimberley and Sarah to consistently improve the program of activities and menu for students. It was great to feedback some of the positives and things to improve that our P&F shared with me at one of our meetings. Sheridan is also keen for our families to put the word out around the community that we are looking for people to register as casual employees for the St Nicholas OOSH Service. Being a Regional area, they like to ensure they have enough local people to cover our eduactors should one of them fall ill or take leave. If you are interested, please email Sheridan with a copy of your CV and your enquiry to sheridan.morton@stnicholasoosh.org.au. If you are interested in enrolling your child to the OOSH program, please follow this link.
Parents & Friends
This coming Tuesday from 6pm we will host our second online P&F meeting. The last one was really successful and I felt it provided an opportunity for parents and carers who may not normally be able to particpate, to join in the conversation. Interested parents are asked to make contact with Luisa or Kerry in our office at admin@forster.catholic.edu.au.
By registering your interest you will receive an invitation via email to join. The best part about this is that if things work out for you on the night, you can join, and if it doesn't, there's nothing lost. Anyone who has registered their interest this year will receive an invitation to next week's meeting.
The topics for discussion this week include:
- P&F quotes for shades
- P&F Shed Clean out
- Process for Welcoming new families to school
- Changes to the Student Representative Council
- Focusing on Positive Behaviour for Learning
- Partnering with Forster Tuncurry Community Kitchen and our Parish
- School Improvements: Playground, Learning Hub, Reading Resources, Staff technology
I hope you all enjoy a fabulous long weekend!
Warm regards,
Brooke Stephens
St Clare’s Catholic High School Taree
St Clare's HIgh School is currently accepting enrolments for 2021. Get to know the school by reading their latest Newsletter or find out more information about the school by booking a tour!
Primary Coordinator Report - National Reconciliation Week 2020
#NRW20 #InThisTogether
Simone Maloney
Primary Coordinator
Mrs Stephens and I attended a meeting on Wednesday regarding the Forster Tuncurry Community Kitchen that will be operating out of our Parish hall each Wednesday and Thursday from July 1st. We are really excited about forming a partnership with Catholic Care by supplying produce from our garden as well as volunteers, including our senior students and staff being involved with the collection of donated food, the preparation and service of meals and the cleaning up involved with the process.
I know the students are really keen to be involved in this Social Justice initiative and becoming active supporters of the Catholic Social Justice Principles.
All the classes at HNS have been enthusiastically planting out their beds with Winter crops to supply the Community Kitchen initiative! We have lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, peas, pak choy, leeks, silverbeet and rainbow chard planted as well as a variety of herbs in our sunny herb garden.
The Year 6 children have also added some marigolds, nasturtium, viola and lavender as companion plants to assist with pest management. Once crops are ready to harvest we will get them to the Community Kitchen.
With a forever changing learning environment, The Virtual Academy, has been a constant for our students with many of them continuing to impress us with their dedication and hard work.
Our students are finding out lots of different ways to collaborate and engage with new skills and content including:
- Small group video conferences where they can chat with their peers and the Virtual Academy Educators about their projects.
- Engaging with real world experts via video conferences and emails. Such experts have included engineers, university professors and teachers.
- Undertaking primary data collection methods such as surveys and experiments.
It been great to see students keeping up their application to work in their OneNote. Below you will find information regarding important dates and events for the remainder of Term 2.
Online Workshops
This term we have decided to hold two online workshops to assist students in building skills in delivering engaging presentations in an online environment. The two workshops are Advanced PowerPoint skills and Presenting in a Digital World. See below for more information and the schedule:
WORKSHOP 1- Advanced PowerPoint Skills
WHEN: Tuesday 2nd June OR Thursday 4th June (choose one)
In this workshop students will learn how to use some of the more advanced tools in the PowerPoint program such as:
- Inserting moving parts onto slides e.g. animations and gifs
- Creating engagement with quizzes
- Embedding videos
- Using the “record slideshow” function
WORKSHOP 2- Presenting in a Digital World
WHEN: Tuesday 9th June OR Thursday 11th June (choose one)
In this workshop students will learn how to navigate presenting in the online space including:
- Positioning your camera and lighting to get the best view
- Preparing your presentation and script
- Learning how to have a physical presence on camera
- Practicing using your voice to engage your audience
An online booking sheet will be sent to students so they can book into a session that suits their school schedule.
Project Sharing
In weeks 9 and 10 students will have the opportunity to share their final or ongoing solutions and projects. We will be assisting students to create a digital version of their presentation as a record of their project that they will upload. Schools have also been asked to set aside some time in the final two weeks of term to allow the students to physically present in front of an audience ie class, as this has proven to be a very positive experience for the students. Students are also encouraged to show their presentations at home in either a digital or physical format.
- Patterns and Agency students- will be delivering their final solutions to the problem they were posed at the beginning of Term 1.
- Adaptation students- will be delivering their ongoing research to their individual inquiry question. This is the halfway point in this unit which continues into Semester 2. Students will then present their final projects to the panels of experts in Term 4.
- Leadership students- will be taking part in a mock G20 Summit conference and presenting their infographics comparing nations in the G20. This is the halfway point in this unit which continues into Semester 2. Students will then present their final projects to the panels of experts in Term 4.
We are continually impressed with the sophisticated and independent work from our Virtual Academy students and eagerly await their final presentations.
Reports
Look out for the Virtual Academy Semester Reports that will be published in the students' Semester school reports. The report will provide feedback on the student’s learning across the semester including the new skills they have obtained and skills they have developed throughout the online learning activities, video conferences and workshops.
We congratulate the many Virtual Academy students who have shown confidence, flexibility and resilience in navigating their learning during this interesting period. Many have shown their capacity for self-management, self-awareness and organisation all from their own home! We take our virtual hats off to them and look forward to seeing them regularly in the online space.
Rebecca Heath and Justin Mahoney
Virtual Academy Educators
Chilly Monday mornings have been warmed with lots of warm milo, toast, music and smiley, happy students. Breakfast Club opens at 8.15am Monday mornings and all students are welcome to attend. A big thanks to our wonderful Mini Vinnies students who help prepare and clean up each Monday morning. Breakfast Club is a beautiful way to start our school week.
We have been very busy in Art Club the past two weeks, the students have made an enormous amount of word birds both to give and to keep. We had the pleasure of delivering some to Cape Hawke Private Hospital last week for distribution to both staff and patients. This week we have passed on a beautiful box of them to Fr. Greg to distribute to the parishioners in our wider community. The joy that I see on the faces of the children as they continually add to the give box makes my heart smile. They know and love that these little birds can brighten they day of someone they may not even know.
I wanted to share the below clip with you all for Wellbeing Week. It has been around for a few years, I remember my son Rourke sharing it with me when he was in Mr. Haire’s class in Year 5 (he is 19 now) I love how one persons kindness has a ripple effect. I hope you like it to and that it might inspire you to send your ripple of kindness out into the world as well.
Kristie Banham
Pastoral care Worker
Mini Vinnies Report
Early this week, to commence Wellbeing Week Mini Vinnies delivered a small gift to all the staff at Holy Name School. These were a handmade little token so the teachers and staff could remember to take care of themselves with a tea or coffee and a little note of wellbeing.
We also met Hon Dr David Gillespie MP on Thursday to share with him the kindness gifts of the ‘word birds’ that students have made in Art Club. We explained to him that we were making them to give to people to brighten their day during the time of the pandemic. We have sent them to the local hospitals for front line workers and patients and given lots to Fr. Greg as well for the Parish.
Also as a part of Wellbeing Week Mini Vinnies did one of their favourite things. They organized a surprise flash mob for the students, we did this to the song YMCA. This took place on Friday afternoon in our second lunch and was a really cool way to end Wellbeing week. This is always a fun experience for all the school and we look forward to doing it again.
Mini Vinnies Reporter
Week 6
Last Wednesday the 27th of May, Kindergarten participated in the National Simultaneous Storytime. Each year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools and homes around Australia. It is a wonderful event, which aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children’s book, that explores age-appropriate themes. This year the story Whitney and Britney Chicken Diva’s, written and illustrated by Lucinda Gifford was selected.
In class we read the picture book and then we discussed what happened in the story and the Kinder’s also shared who was their favourite character and why. We also discussed what a setting is in a story and predicted a different ending to the story. Then the students drew the different parts of the story, to identify the beginning, middle and end. In Kindergarten we read at least two or three picture books each day to encourage reading for enjoyment. We look forward to participating again next year!
Mrs Sarah Praschinger
The directive from our CSO at present is that we are not to hold sporting carnivals with large groups. Keeping this in mind, we wanted the children to have an opportunity to do some Athletics so Houses can gain points and Sport Champions can be awarded at the end of the year. On Tuesday, the teachers brought their classes down in grades and the children ran their 100m Age races. It was freezing down at Lake Street but the children ran with much enthusiasm! Thank you to our Leadership Team and Support Staff for organising these races and to our Year 6 Sport Captains for their assistance in setting up and timekeeping.
Over the next few weeks, we will run the 200m and 800m for children who wish to participate. The Long jump and Shot Put events will be practised and run off at school as part of the children’s weekly sport.
We are forever grateful to the generosity of our parents for supporting us - this week a shout out to Gordon Cooper who captured some of the best moments of the students attending their age races. Even though it was cold, the absolute joy experienced by the children is all of their faces. Everyone participated with such a keen spirit and Gordon captured that - thank you! Hope you enjoy the gallery of images from the day.