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Dear Parents and Carers,
In a couple of weeks I will take part in a sporting event called 'The Wildside Adventure Race', which is one of two adventure races that I participate in each year. For this event, I am part of a team of four women and a community of a few hundred people who enjoy getting out into nature and testing our physical and mental strength and endurance. The event requires skills in navigation, mountain biking, trekking, running and paddling. Sometimes, we also have to swim, abseil, or use flotation devices to meet our goals. An adventure race can be anywhere between 20-36hrs of non-stop (no sleeping) physical and mental exertion, and our team must train regularly to ensure our fitness and strength affords us the ability to manage under all sorts of conditions. In reflecting on the year (or two) we've had, I think my sport of choice has been a good training ground for the principal role during a pandemic. There have been many unexpected changes and challenges as we have navigated the enduring impact on every aspect of school life. At each point, I have to consider the needs of each member of the team to get the result that moves us closer to our goal.
In lots of ways, I believe that I bring the skills that I train for in these events to my position as principal here at school. Just like in an adventure race, I might make a mistake and head off in the wrong direction, but I'm never too proud to acknowledge the error, to seek advice from my team and to reset and refocus on the goal ahead. That's why we have a team. Sometimes we have really successful periods of time where we are making all the right decisions and seem to be making excellent progress towards our goals, and at other times, we feel fatigued and begin to question whether we have chosen the right direction at all. That's where the power of the team comes in again. It is very unusual for all members of the team to be feeling like this at the same time, and it is during these periods of time that the rest of the team rallies around this person to make sure their mental and physical well being is maintained. The impact of this support on the individual is positive and usually means that the team begins to feel a greater sense of positivity and progress. At other times, usually when we are all tired (about 2am), members of the team disagree with a decision made, but through our training and time together, we have learned to pause, listen to the voices of others and know when to step up or step back and have faith in another. We have learned that we are not always going to agree with one another and that there is sometimes more than one way to reach our destination. We have learned that others may notice different things that may impact on achieving our goal, and that's where we can use their gifts or wisdom as part of the team to be successful.
For our school, the everyday team consists of the students, parents/carers, teachers and specialist staff. At Holy Name...you, our parents, are a really important part of our team. Your voice helps to ensure we have a balance of perspectives and that we use the skills and knowledge of all in our community to make the right decisions for our students. Without your voice and participation, we cannot authentically achieve our goals for our students.
Our training or time spent together as 'our Holy Name' team has been limited for two years due to the pandemic and I believe this has impacted on the strength and trust that exists in some of our relationships. I am really looking forward to a time when our parents can be back on site, can attend meetings in person, can volunteer in classrooms to help achieve our learning goals, and at sporting or fundraising events to build a community of interested and engaged families who have a deep knowledge of the individuals who make up our staff and feel valued in their role as parent and as an important part of our community.
Every year, we provide opportunities for parent/carer input. We seek your feedback though the Tell Them From Me Survey, we invite our families to a meeting at the beginning of the year with their child's teacher, we hold Student Led Conferences twice each year, P&F Meetings twice a term and build connections between home and school through the Compass Newsfeed, email, See-Saw, Class Dojo or other online options. Even with these options in place, we know there is room for improvement and will be introducing some new options in 2022 to strengthen those connections and the relationships that form between our parents, carers, students and the school and staff. We will be trialling a process for feedback and reporting that we hope gives parents and students a greater sense of engagement in the learning agenda of the school and holding information evenings for parents on specific topics of interest. We look forward to your feedback on these initiatives as they are introduced so that we can continue to build our Holy Name team and work together to achieve the goals set for our students.
We have a busy couple of weeks coming up, with changes to all events due to the current restrictions.
The Yr 6 Graduation Mass will be held next Tuesday 30th November at 1.40pm. Weather permitting, we are hoping to hold this mass under Kirkangina so that our class groups can sit in groups to be part of this special celebration. We will try to live stream the mass to our parent group using zoom and will take some photos at special moments for our parent group.
The Yr 6 Graduation Dinner will be held at Club Forster on Monday 6th December from 5.30pm.
The Christmas Concert was planned for Wednesday 8th December but unfortunately this will not be going ahead. We are trying to put together a clip for families and will post out a link once we make our fina decision. We apologisie but have not had the continuity of learning or the rules to allow adequate preparation for this event.
The end of year Awards Assembly will be held on Friday 10th December at 11.30am. This event will not be filmed, however, photos of the award recipients will be forwarded to our families.
With just over two weeks to go for the school year, I think everyone is looking forward to a break. We still have some learning to do and some fun to have and with the further easing of restrictions from Monday, we are looking forward to continuing our learning programmes with less disruption.
Please look out for one another, the build up to Christmas can be a stressful time, even without a pandemic. Thank you to those families who have very generously donated food goods for the Christmas Hampers, it is much appreciated. Just like last year, we will set up our Giving Tree in the foyer and accept gifts for children or families to pass on to those who could do with some support. Our senior students make decisions about which organisations could do with our support.
Kind regards,
Brooke Stephens
Please follow this link to the St Clare's Newsletter to catch up on the happeings and our Catholic High School.
School Garden Project
For the past few weeks we have been graced with the warm November sun and also had good showers of rain to help encourage our newly planted vegetable beds to grow. The beans that Yr 2 planted two weeks ago are now shooting up and winding themselves along and over the stakes they made for them to be supported by. Our pots were painted this week in bright colours and will soon be filled again with plants that we can pick a harvest from. We will be using a planting calendar guide to help us with our selection of vegetable plants to plant in our freshly painted pots, as these will be harvested over late December and January for the Forster Tuncurry Parish Community Kitchen. Any donations of seedlings or lemon, lime citrus trees are welcomed.
Positive Behaviour Learning PBL and Year 5 Student Leadership Day
We have lent on our Year 5 cohort to help lead the behaviour focus this week across the school. In Year 6's absence, Miss Nolan met with Year 5 and worked with them to create Banners and short explainations of what it means to DO THE RIGHT THING at Holy Name. Some students created Wordels, others designed I wonder Kahoot questions, to DO THE RIGHT THING at Holy Name, to the quiz the lower primary and infant grades.
It in fact has been perfect timing for Year 5 as they prepare for the Year 5 Leadership Day this Friday with Miss Nolan and myself. This day is seen as an all important opportunity to work closely with our students to help lead them to a clear understanding about what servant leadership is in a Catholic School, stear them in ways where they can see how they are leaders, and determine what part they each will play as student leaders at Holy Name in 2022. This is a very pivotal time for this cohort, and I ask that you please keep them in your prayers over the next few weeks as we elect our 2022 Student Leadership Council, School Captains and Vice Captains and also Sports House Captains for Sharks, Stingrays, Dolphins and Whales.
Well Being and Behaviour Management at Holy Name
Holy Name seeks to foster and develop a safe, positive, physical and emotioal school enviroment that creates a climate of trust. Students, staff, parents and the school community share the responsiblitiy for making our school a respectful and inclusive environment.
Fotnightly, students are given explicit positve behaviour education opportunities in the classroom by teachers and the school's SRC. We also are redesigning the restorative justice experience our students have when they behave negatively in the classroom, on the playground or online with other students. Our teachers set clear expectations with their students around attitudes and behaviour towards learning, respecting the rights of others and of care for our environment. In the case of a student showing disrespectful communication,inappropriate language, isolated incident of defiance, isolated hand on contact, absconding from classroom, poor attitude to learning, continuously off class, cyber safely breech, deliberatley prevoking others, distracting others from learning, property misuse, playing in toilets, poor bus behaviour the student will be given a Minor warning. The teacher will speak with the child to discuss the incident and this is recorded on Compass. If the same child in a fortnight is given two minors then they are asked to go to the garden during second lunch, meet with the Assistant Principal. This is a chance for the Assistant Principal to let the student know they have two minors and are to work harder in the areas where he/ she is offending. When a student has three minors in a fortnight, the Assistant Principal contacts the parents to discuss the incidences and plan a path forward for restorative justice. The student will take time to reflect with the Assistant Principal for the following two days on this restorative plan.
Acting Assistant Principal
Mrs Genevieve Williamson
What a challenging fortnight it has been with home learning in place for many classes at Holy Name. Being at home and isolated away from the Holy Name community made me reflect upon what it is that makes our school community such a special community to be a part of, and not to take for granted the ‘face-to-face’ learning that happens in the classroom. It has been amazing to witness and experience our staff, students and parents reach out to those in isolation. Our use of online platforms such as Teams, Zoom and SeeSaw, as well as through the posts and videos put together on Facebook has allowed our students, families and staff to stay connected.
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent is a special time in the church year when we prepare and get ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus. At this weekend’s Mass, the first candle will be lit on the Advent wreath. This first candle represents hope. It represents the expectation felt in the anticipation of the coming Messiah. Your child/ren are currently learning about the Seasons of Advent and Christmas in their Religion lessons in their classes. Over the coming weeks, your child will engage in different experiences in their classrooms to prepare them for Christmas.
Thank you to all the families who have contributed to our Christmas Hamper Appeal. Over the coming weeks, I invite all children in the primary classes to bring in non-perishable items that can assist a local family in need over the Christmas period. It has been lovely to see so many items come in already. These hampers will be put together in Week 10.
Wishing you an enjoyable weekend with your family,
Gary Pomplun
Acting Religious Education Coordinator
Final Kindergarten 2022 Transition Visit
Our 2022 students have now completed all 5 of their transition visits. It has been wonderful to watch the new Kinders become more confident when leaving their parents and excited to join in on all of the transition fun. During the visits we were happy to see new friendships form and were impressed with the kind and respectful kind way, the students interacted with one another.
This week we read the book, ‘The Hungry Little Caterpillar’ and made our own little caterpillar using paper chains. The new Kinders showed lots of patience when gluing their chains together, and even practised counting to 20 each time to make sure the glue was dry! Such clever cookies.
At the end of the final session, each child received a goodie bag that contained lots of treasures including a photo and letter from their Year 5 buddy, a lavender dream pillow, an advice letter from one of current Kinder friends and much more.
We are looking forward to see our 2022 Kinders on their first day next year!
Fr Peter’s Kinder Classroom Visits
In Week 5 Fr Peter visited Kindergarten to introduce himself and answer some questions that the students wanted to know about being him and his role as a priest. We learnt that Fr Peter likes to cook yummy food and he also like to read in his spare time. Our Kindergarten students decided they wanted to draw a picture of Fr Peter and each of them took their time to make their picture look extra special. Last Friday Fr Peter returned to Kindergarten to look at the completed drawings. Fr Peter was so impressed with the Kindergaten’s drawings that we put them altogether in a bound book so he could keep it as a special gift.
We hope that Fr Peter visits the Kinder classroom again soon.
Mrs Suzie Monks
Primary Coordinator
Breakfast Club has become like a little takeaway cafe amidst our changing landscape. When students are visiting Breakfast Club on a Monday they receive a takeaway milo and toast to return to Kirk and enjoy a breakfast treat. It brightens my day to see so many smiles on a Monday morning and even though we have had many changes I love our children have been so flexible and can still enjoy breakfast on the go!
Kindergarten have been focusing on Kindness in class and last week embarked on a mission to bring smiles to those who are at home and could not be with us at school. Together with Ms.Redding and Mrs.Cusack we created “The Kindness of Kinder…..” for you all to enjoy. It is on our school Facebook page so you can pop over and have a look of you haven’t already seen it. It will be sure to bring some joy and a smile to your day.
Art Club is continuing to be a lovely alternate play option, we are currently set up on the Music Room verandah and are open to the grade that play in that designated area each day. Miss Reynold has kindly let us ‘Art bomb’ the outside of her room and it is bright and cherry and full of colour.
‘Tis the Season song challenge……
As we move into the Season of Advent, we know this year has been challenging for all of us, we’d love to share some fun and a little frivolity with you, our precious community. We would love for you and your family to make a Christmas or a family favourite song and send it to us. We will then post them to our Facebook page…… sharing the spirit of joy, smiles and a sprinkling of Christmas Cheer and whilst we cannot come together currently we can share our collective joy.
Please if you’d like to rise to the challenge record your family singing, miming or dancing and send it to us via our Facebook messenger page. (please keep your clip to 1 minute 30 seconds) Miss. Reynolds and Mrs.Banham are very excited and made two clips to inspire you…… again if you head to our school Facebook page you will be able view these.
In times of change and uncertainty I often find music and art make me smile. I wanted to share with you some lines from a Rascal Flatts song I love, My Wish…..
I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow
And each road leads you where you want to go
And if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose
I hope you choose the one that means the most to you
And if one door opens to another door closed
I hope you keep on walkin' 'till you find the window
If it's cold outside, show the world the warmth of your smile
But more than anything, more than anything
My wish, for you, is that this life becomes all that you want it to
Your dreams stay big, your worries stay small
You never need to carry more than you can hold
And while you're out there getting where you're getting to
I hope you know somebody loves you, and wants the same things too
I hope that as we near the end of the year I hope you are able to find tiny moments that continue to make you smile and enjoy the little things, because these quite often are the big things.
Kristie Banham
Pastoral Care Worker