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Dear Parents and Carers,
Our school finished the term strongly this week with a well attended assembly to celebrate NAIDOC Week and a focused day of professional learning for staff on 'Learning for Justice - Raising Awareness for Change in our Schools.' Students participated in additional learning experiences to continue to develop their knowledge, understanding and awareness of Culture, the true history of Australia and challenges we face on our way to Reconciliation.
NAIDOC 2022 at Holy Name was all about connecting the theme 'Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! to people we can learn from who have stood up for their beliefes in the past. This year, there was an amazing connection between the theme and the experience of working with some of the younger Worimi people from our community to create the assembly experience for our students. It took real courage and commitment from these younger members of community to share their gifts and knowledge with us and we are forever grateful for their support. This gratitude extends to those in the generations above, who continue to lead by example and pass on the Cultural knowledge and skills. A special thanks to Miss Simon and Miss day for their leadership and to Gordon and Dean who cooked the BBQ for the student lunches.
It was great to read this week that Tobwabba Aboriginal Medical Centre won the 'Close the Gap Award' at the Hunter New England Central Coast Primary Health Network Primary Care Quality and Innovation Awards 2022, and was also recognised as a finalist in the 'Patients First' Award. There are great things happening in our Worimi community and much to celebrate. Keep your eye out this week for the community celebrations for NADIOC Week, 3rd to 10th July.
At Holy Name, we hold ourselves accountable to positive outcomes for the staff, students and families connected with our school. One of the ways we do this is by creating a learning environment that is Culturally sensitive and safe for students. The professional learning day for staff on Friday brought together the staff from all Catholic schools across the Manning Region and was developed to help achieve this goal. We were blessed to have Mr Stan Grant speak to us through the day and share his experiences of education as an Aboriginal man and the key moments that he believes have led to his achievements in life.
Our learning intention for the day was to build our capacity to create Culturally sensitive and safe educational environments through considering factors that impact Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students and families. The learning from this day could be applied to the diversity of cultural groups within our Manning Region schools.
We knew the day would be successful if we were able to:
- Describe why it is important to create Culturally sensitive educational environments.
- Identify factors that impact the educational outcomes of students, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people from other cultural groups.
- Discuss where these factors are found in Manning Region schools.
- Identify tangible changes that we could make in our school settings that will help to create Culturally sensitive and safe educational environments.
Staff were taken through the data that underpins our need for change, were provided with input from Stan Grant, and shared stories to develop a plan for priority changes in each school setting. We were so lucky to be joined by members of the Worimi and Biripi communities whose voice strengthened the learning from the day. A practical and valuable day in taking a step forward to achieving our goal.
Although the celebrations and learning this week coincided with NAIDOC Week, the work in this area for us is an everyday, every week, all year focus. Manning Region Principals have been collaborating for the last 3 years, meeting three times each term focused on planning and improving the academic outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. Our academic focus has been on closing the gap in reading, however, we understand the importance of a Cultural plan in schools so that students develop a strong identity and sense of belonging to feel safe and ready to learn. This Cultural plan is foundational to positive change. The next step, in Term 3 and 4, is to work with our Aboriginal staff to build their capacity to support intervention in reading using current best practice strategies.
Baby news
Congratulations to the Kelso family who welcomed Florence Kristin Kelso born on 7th June and the Arrow family, who welcomed Rudy James Arrow on 12th June. Both families and babies are doing well. Later next term, we look forward to welcoming Baby Whitlam, the final of the four staff babies this year.
Semester 1 Student Report Survey
Please complete the Student Report survey to share your feedback about recent changes to the layout of the report. Your feedback will help to guide further changes in the future.
A reminder that school recommences in Term 3 on Tuesday 19th July.
Warm regards,
Brooke Stephens
Please follow this link to connect with the St Clare's Newsletter and all of the wonderful things happening at this great high school.
PBL
Our Positive Behaviour for Learning focus for the past fortnight has been Showing Respect to Teachers. Children have been receiving surfboard tokens when they are caught displaying the targeted behaviour. Each week the children also undertake a lesson on explicitly teaching the social skill that we are working on.
When the children reach certain levels in their surfboard tokens, they are able to choose a reward from the PBL Rewards Menu in their class. This week, Dorian Doherty, in 1M, received a Principal’s Award for receiving 20 surfboards. Well Done Dorian!
Sport
Early in Term 3 a contingent of our athletes will travel to Newcastle as part of the Manning Team to represent at the Diocesan Athletics Carnival.
Last week we gave out the Manning Region Athletics trophies to the following students:
Zac Te Raki-Pitfield – 1st Junior Boys
Mackenzie Allen – 1st 11 year Boys
Ashley Allan and Ashton Robertson – Equal 1st 11 year Boys (Ashton’s trophy to come)
Levi Van Haren – 1st Senior Boys
NAIDOC Tabloids
On Wednesday, our Year 6 leaders organised and ran a tabloid of Indigenous games for all classes. We found the games on a website called yulunga. We had to modify some of the activities to use the equipment we had at school. The children were told the name of the game and some of the background behind each activity. The teachers all said that the activities were well organised and fun for the children.
Love is our Mission
On Monday 18 July of Term 3 our whole staff will engage in a day of contemplation, discussion, and formation around the theme: Love is our Mission- recognising the “Mission” activity in God in the Cosmic Narrative, Christ Narrative, and the Church Narrative. The day will be led by Mr Richard Cootes, former educational ambassador of Catholic Mission for our diocese.
This day will be:
- Christ-Centred, leads to personal and communal encounter with Christ
- Incorporate the 'Head, Heart and Hands'' approach
- Build capacity for mission and service of our staff
- Is invitational, intentional, differentiated, ongoing, reflective
- Deepens vocational motivation and spiritual awareness
The staff will be invited to identify ways in which the activity of God is manifested in everyday school life and will be invited to explore the costs, and joys of loving as Christ loved. The Staff will reflect on death/resurrection as a theme of the cosmos. And additionally, reflect on how their school community manifests itself as a BELIEVING, SERVING, CELEBRATING community.
Parish Based Sacramental Program
Holy Name students are now invited to enrol in the Confirmation Parish Sacramental Program. The sacrament of Confirmation is the second sacrament children prepare and receive before the sacrament of Eucharist. Once children have received Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist, they are fully initiated into the Catholic Church. Recently students enrolled and prepared for reconciliation- this is not included in initiation.
If your child is baptised, did or did not receive Reconciliation last month, they are now invited to enrol for Confirmation.
Your child does need to be in Yr. 3, Yr. 4, Yr. 5, or Yr. 6 to enrol in the program.
Forster Tuncurry parish priest, Fr Peter, is eager to ensure all Holy Name catholic students take up this invitation and receive these sacraments before they graduate from Holy Name. We understand COVID has interrupted the sacramental program and are eager to include all students from Yr3-Yr 6 who are baptised in the Catholic Church, to take up this invitation to receive the sacrament Confirmation and Eucharist this year.
Please contact Danielle at the Parish Office 6554601 for further details on how to enrol.
Genevieve Williamson
Religious Education Coordinator
Great Learning Happening in Year Two!
Each fortnight I 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 2.
During reading sessions Year 2 have focusing on persuasive texts where they can develop opinions about the characters and describe a particular character’s point of view. Students have been learning to identify the main idea and supporting details so that they can develop skills for summarising.
The students have been working hard to develop their comprehension skills. Each week students work together to answer a range of open-ended questions about their focus text:
- What do you think the author hoped you would think after reading the text?
- What do you think about the story/text?
- Can you summarise the text in just two or three sentences?
- What was your favourite part?
- Was the plot/text different than you thought it would be?
- What would you change in this text if you could write it?
In writing, Year 2 have been learning to write a persuasive text that convinces a reader of their point of view. Students have been taught to use the OREO model when writing their persuasive texts. This means that they need to state their opinion (O) provide reasons for their opinion (R), provide evidence for their reasons (E) and finally restate their opinion (O). Students were given lots of practise on developing their skills in forming opinions, developing reasons and explaining the evidence they have. Mr Gleeson and Miss Spinks gave students regular feedback on their writing based on the set co-constructed success criteria. The final assessment was to write a persuasive text on the topic, ‘Kids should have a three day weekend.’. Check out some of the awesome examples from our clever Year two writers!
In Maths, Year Two has been focusing on the Big Idea ‘2D Spatial Strucure.’ The students are learning to represent, combine and separate two-dimensional shapes as well as identify and describe the orientation of shapes using quarter turns. This week the students have taken part in fun stem lessons with pattern blocks to help them identify what shapes look like from different orientations. Students have enjoyed working in teams to problem solve together and explain their thinking and new learning to the class.
To celebrate Reconciliation week earlier in the term and NAIDOC week this week, Year 2 engaged in some amazing activities to build the students’ knowledge and understanding of the importance of reconciliation and appreciation of our Indigenous history.
Well done Year Two students and teachers keep up the awesome work!
Mrs Suzie Monks
Primary Coordinator