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Dear Parents and Carers,
Thank you for your attendance last week at both the Class Information Sessions and the Parents & Friends meeting. With the restrictions impacting on parent attendance at school events, it was fabulous to see so many families take up these opportunities. This week, I've sent out a link to a survey to gain your positive feedback on the Information Sessions and also your suggestions for how we can adjust things to suit your needs. If you haven't already done so, please take this short survey to provide us with your feedback. The survey will close at the end of next week and the average time to complete it is 3.5 minutes.
This week we celebrated Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday as a school community to mark the beginning of the season of Lent. During the next 40 days leading us to Holy Week and the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday we are called to pray, take on acts of kindness, be forgiving, fast and give alms. Our students will learn about Project Compassion and how their small change can help to change the lives of others in the world.
Today, we were meant to celebrate our Welcome and Investiture Mass with Fr Greg at the Holy Name of Jesus Church but due to the rain we have postponed until next Tuesday at 11:45am. Our Student Representative Council will then be commissioned as the leaders for the 2021 school year and pledged their responsibilities to the roles they ahve accepted.
Parents & Friends update
At last week's P&F Meeting, our Committee members were elected to office, including David Isbel as President, Ivy Moore as Vice-President, Leanne Broadbent as the Secretary and Julie Zabell as our Treasurer. Ivy and Naomi Kinkade coordinate the various stalls held throughout the year and for a number of years, Kylie Hodges has coordinated the Easter Raffle. We have many other regular parents who support when they can in various roles and appreciate the work this team do to build our community spirit here at Holy Name.
One of the agenda items for the meeting was to accept the new P&F Constitution developed by the Diocese and make a decision whether to remain in our current model or move to the Parent Engagament Model (PEG) that would see the school take more control over planned meetings and these meetings would be focused to achieve the goals of specific projects. For example, projects that might prompt a parent engagement focus could be changing our Behaviour Management process, selecting a new uniform or changing the name of our school. The group present at our P&F meeting voted to stay with the model currently in place, meeting on Tuesday evenings at 6pm in Weeks 3 & 7 each term.
I have attached a copy of the drafted Constitution and some information about the PEG Model for your interest.
Another of the topics discussed at our P&F meeting was the new Volunteer procedures in our Diocese. The Volunteer Handbook has been updated several times over the last year or two and I have attached a copy of the most recent document for your information. I believe the most important section and information for our parents can be found in the Summary Classification table on page 15. For close family members to work as volunteers in our school, the requirements include:
- Provision of Volunteer Handbook
- National Police Check Consent form with proof of identity
- Volunteer registration form
- Site specific WH&S induction
- Diocesan Code of Conduct Declaration form
- Volunteer Policy Declaration form
- Evidence of attending Safeguarding training (within 6 months of commencing role)
All of the forms listed can be found in the appendix of the attached Volunteer Handbook.
Easter Raffle
The P&F also decided to once again run the Easter Raffle, with prizes being drawn on Wednesday 31st March prior to the students going on holidays. There will be more information to come but generally the P&F request that families donate an Easter Egg and sell tickets in community as the first of our fundraisers for the year. The P&F combine the eggs into baskets to create as many prizes as they can and the students love sitting through the draw to see if they've been a lucky winner!
P&F Functions
The P&F are hopeful of running other functions this year, Covid permitting, including a movie night or disco for students during the colder months.
Clothing Pool (second-hand uniforms)
The P&F suggested I remind parents that we provide a second-hand clothing pool at school for families wishing to purchase additional pieces of uniform at a reduced cost. We hope that our families who relocate or transition to high school also know to bring their uniforms into school for the clothing pool so that other families can benefit.
Strategic priorities
It was great to have our Assistant Director, Mr Steve Lemos working with staff last Tuesday to share his wisdom, experience and knowledge of leading the teaching of writing in primary schools across Sydney. Mr Lemos is completing his PhD in this area and we were blessed to have him share his wisdom with our team. The stage teams of teachers have commenced their discussion of student data and how we will track the growth of student learning in the writing strand of English. This week we are sharing how we teach writing in each class and what the research is saying as we begin to develop consistency of practice across the school.
We have also commenced the next stage of change in regard to our teaching in problem solving. Teachers will make a decision over the next fortnight on the strategies we will introduce across the whole school and how we will track the student progress in this important aspect of our maths program.
Maintaining our focus on student progress in reading this year will focus on refining the approach introduced in 2020 to make sure we are continuing to build our capacity to teach reading. I am drafting an information flyer for parents designed to support your understanding of how we are teaching reading and what you can expect from home reading with your child.
For our next newsletter, you will notice a shift in the timing of distribution. They remain in the even weeks of term but will be sent earlier in the week instead of a Friday. This is purely a logistical change and won't impact what information is distributed.
I look forward to reading your feedback from the survey about our Infromation Sessions for parents/carers and thank you ina dvance for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Regards,
Brooke Stephens
Volunteers needed for the Forster Tuncurry Community Kitchen
Parents, Grandparents and Friends of our School Community,
The Forster Tuncurry Community Kitchen has been so successful that we are looking for some volunteers who can support in small ways to make a big difference. We currently offer lunches and food packages on Wednesdays and Thursdays and would like to add Tuesdays to our roster. There are many ways that you can help, including picking up food from Coles on a Tuesday or Thursday, or from other stores in town at negotiated times throughout the week, or you could help on planned 'cooking days' or for a small shift on either a morning or afternoon on the days the lunches are served.
The Coordinator of the project, Sue Abdoo, would like you to consider providing the following information if you were interested:
- Whether you can afford about 40mins to pick up food from Coles on a Tuesday or Thursday at approximately 11am.
- Which days of the week would you be available ( Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday ) You might decide here that you would potentially be available on Tuesdays and Thursdays (for example).
- Whether you would ideally like to work a morning shift (9:00 – 12:30), or an afternoon shift (11:00 – 2:00) or the entire day (9:00 – 2:00).
- How many shifts would you ideally prefer across the month? ( I know that some volunteers like a shift every week….others once a month, or twice a month ….you might say “Sue, give me one Tuesday a month and two Wednesdays a month”, for example.
This is a fantastic way for our community to extend our generosity of time to people within our community.
If you are interested, please email or phone the school to leave your details admin@forster.catholic.edu.au or 65546504.
Thank you
ATTENDANCE
I have noticed quite several children arriving late at school this term. Our school start time is 8.45 (first bell) and finishes at 3.05pm. Children arriving consistently late are missing out on crucial learning time in the English block which is the basis for all our learning.
Please use the Compass app to notify the school if children are ill or have a medical appointment that cannot be made outside of school hours. If you want to take extended leave, you must complete and application form that must be approved by the Principal.
If children are absent from school for more than 3 days unaccounted for, we have to follow the formal CSO Attendance procedure.
We also need to lock the gates securely each morning at 9am.
ROAD SAFETY
Lot’s of parents are still parking on the grass at the Baptist Church in Carawa street at afternoon pick up time. THIS IS NOT A CARPARK. Please park in Carawa, Maneela or Cross streets to collect your children from the back gate in the afternoons. The Kiss and Ride area is available to drop children off before school.
SPORT
Sport Captains
Our Sport Captains for 2021 are:
SHARKS |
Sophie Scislo |
Cooper Emmerton |
DOLPHINS |
Zsa-Zsa Haywood |
Liam Shanahan |
WHALES |
Alexis Wakefield |
Jackson Clubb |
STINGRAYS |
Mia Hamilton |
Elyse Kijko |
Sports Captains 2021 (Alexis absent)
Regional Swimming
Last Wednesday, myself and Mrs Stephens travelled to Gloucester Pool for the Manning Region Swimming Carnival. The HNS team was very strong and we took out the carnival point score by over 200 points. Holy Name teams also took out all 4 relay events.
Several of our students were successful in their age divisions:
BOYS |
GIRLS |
Senior: 3rd Riley Kinkade |
Senior: 1st Sophie Scislo 2nd Charlotte Cooper 3rd Abby Moelker |
11 Years: 1st Levi Van Haren 2nd Charlie Gibson 3rd Mac Randall |
11 Years: 2nd Bonnie Dempsey |
Junior: 1st Hamish Carmichael 3rd Ashley Allan |
Junior: 1st Lilah Gibson 2nd Adele Whitehouse-Miotto 3rd Sienna Cooper |
The Diocesan Carnival will be held at Lambton Pool on Thursday, February 25th. The majority of the Manning Team will be made up of Holy Name swimmers. The children have their notes and will be accompanied on the bus and during the carnival by Lynn Redding as the Team manager.
Thank you Mr Gordon Cooper for taking these fabulous photos, the Manning Region were lucky that you attended and took photos for all of the schools!
SRC
The Holy Name School SRC meets every second Friday. Every student in Year 6 is part of the school Student Leadership team in our new model and on Friday the children all organised themselves into their working Teams. Each team is led by one of the elected members of the Student Representative Council.
Our wonderful Year 6 Leaders
Year 6 Student Representative Leaders (Baran absent)
Team |
Leaders |
Members |
Social Justice |
Abby & Lincoln |
Stuart, Lashara, Taylor, Emilin & Sophia |
Environment |
Ronan & Byron |
Lee, Marla, Logan & Lorenzo |
The Arts |
Charlotte & Baran |
Charlee, Georgia, Madeline & Lily-Belle |
Technology |
Lucy & Riley |
Brady, Emilia & Jet |
Sport |
To be determined |
Zsa-Zsa, Cooper, Jackson, Sophie, Elyse, Mia, Liam & Alexis |
Each fortnight the children will focus on areas of action within their teams. We will also be discussing and practicing Leadership skills such as time management and public speaking. Some of the initiatives we will be working on are reducing the carbon footprint of HNS, continuing our partnerships with the Parish Community Kitchen, Take 3 for the Sea and Landcare. We will share anti bullying and behaviour messages at assemblies. The technology team will be learning and teaching the wider school community the use of different educational apps and the Arts and Sports teams will be creating some alternate lunch activities once a week.
This is just a taste of things to come...
PBL
Mrs Maloney, Mrs Mullen and I are working together on an exciting new project at Holy Name. Positive Behaviour for Learning is a whole school framework for behaviour management and rewards systems. Very soon you will start seeing some changes around the school with our new behaviour expectations displayed on surfboards. Further into the journey, the children will receive “gotchas” for displaying positive behaviour which can be cashed in for a reward.
We are after 6-9 surfboards to paint for this new project. If anyone has a surfboard lying around in a fair condition we would love to have them.
This week marks the beginning of the Lenten season in the Church calendar. Pancake Tuesday is the day where we feast before we fast during Lent. Children will be served pancakes with a variety of toppings by our SRC Leaders, Mrs Stephens, Mrs Maloney, Mrs Loring, and Fr Anthony.
Ash Wednesday follows Pancake Tuesday. This is the beginning of Lent, 40 days where we are asked to Fast, Pray and Almsgive. The colour symbolising Lent is purple, and this will be displayed in each classroom prayer space over the Lenten season. Holy Name will gather, together to celebrate Ash Wednesday at school, led by Fr Anthony. Only our teachers will receive ashes this year.
Mrs Williamson
Religious Education Coordinator
CREATIVE ARTS OPPORTUNITIES with ASPIRE
Our Diocesan Aspire Team are running the annual Creative Arts workshops for students in Catholic primary schools across the Manning Region. The workshops will be held at St Clare's over 2 days on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th March in the areas of Visual Arts, Choral singing, Drama and Ensemble. We are proceeding at this point but may need to adjust our plan depending on the COVID Guidelines. Our Music teacher, together with our classroom teachers will be calling for nominations from our students and we encourage you to make contact with the school if you would like to nominate your child to participate in one of these workshops. Approximately 32 students from Holy Name will travel together by bus each day and be accompanied by a teacher from Holy Name. The two days normally ends with a performance of their creations over the 2 days but I imagine this year there may need to be filming or special considerations as to how this performance takes place.
The Aspire Team are also providing three other opportunities for our students. The first is the Create Choreographic project, the second is a Songwriting competition and the third is a Junior Theatre Makers program. It is exciting to see that this opportunity is offered in Newcastle but also at St Clare's High School Taree. The flyers for the first two of these opportunities are attached and the Junior Theatres program can be accessed using this link. We are so fortunate to have these opportunties for our students!