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Dear Parents and Carers,
Our students were amazing at this week's Feast Day celebration for Mary Mackillop in the Holy Name of Jesus Church. It was the first time our students have all attended the church together and they were respectful and reverent, and a credit to us all.
Celebrating how the life and choices of Mary Mackillop led to the beginnings of our Catholic schools is important to remind us of our history and our preferential option for those who need us. We are here to serve the many different needs of the students, families, and staff in our community and take this part of our role very seriously. It is a privilege to lead an organisation with such strong foundations and I am grateful that we continue to provide an educational environment that makes a difference in the lives of our community and beyond.
The growing connection between our school and Catholic Care is one example of how we show our 'Concern for Others'. Whether it is volunteering in our garden, providing pantry items for the Community Kitchen or blankets for the Women's Shelter, our students are learning through these examples about the positive impact they can have on the lives of others.
Parents and Friends Update
At the Week 3 P&F meeting, we talked about:
- The positive 2023 Kinder enrolment numbers
- The building refurbishment - out to tender and waiting for approval through MidCoast Council
- Parent Workshop - Wednesday 31st August at 9am.
- Feedback from the Semester 1 Student Reports
- Some changes to staffing - Mrs Whitlam finishing up at the end of Week 4 and Mrs Tull teaching Year 5. Our new groundsperson, Mr Lloyd commences on Monday 15th August.
- Upcoming events - Mackillop Feast Day, Bookweek and Grandparents day, Father's day breakfast
- The annual Tell Them From Me Survey (Teachers, Parents and Students) - out in September
- Pupil Free days - the last two days of Term 3, the 22nd and 23rd of September will be our final Pupil Free Days for this year. These staff development days will be focused on developing our 3-year Strategic Plan following our External Review in Term 2.
- Ideas for building community - Trivia night, Working Bee, Shared vegetable box?
The concept of a shared vegetable box is one that we are hoping might take off. The idea is that if families harvest produce from their own gardens and they have extras, the students could bring it to school and place it in the shared vegetable box. This box could be made accessible to families at drop-off or pick-up so that we are supporting one another through our shared generosity.
Enrolments and 2023
Our enrolment pattern has been strong over the last few years and we are excited to announce that next year, we will have an additional class allocated to our school. There will be an advertisement going out later this term for a full-time permanent teaching position at Holy Name commencing in 2023. The class groups for 2023 will be as follows.
Kinder Gold | Kinder Maroon |
Year 1 Gold | Year 1 Maroon |
Year 2 Gold | Year 2 Maroon |
Year 3 Gold | Year 3 Maroon |
Year 4 Gold | Year 4 Maroon |
Year 5 Gold | |
Year 6 Gold | Year 6 Maroon |
Mr Gary Pomplun will remain in his Regional position for another twelve months and a temporary full-time position will also be advertised to replace him during this time.
Later this year, we will work out the class groups and corresponding teachers, however, I thought the news was worthy of sharing with our parents.
Parent Workshop - Teaching & Learning
We are hosting a workshop for our parents and carers on Wednesday 31st August at 9am in the Music Room at school. The 1hr session will include a 45min presentation and a 15min Q&A. We will also make a recorded presentation to share with interested parents who can't attend at 9am and a follow-up Q&A session for those who engage with the recorded option.
In the presentation, we will focus on:
- The structure of the school day - timetabling
- Key Learning Areas - stage statements, content and skills
- School Improvement focus areas
- Assessment & Reporting
We are asking parents to RSVP with our office by Friday 26th August on 6554 6504 or admin@forster.catholic.edu.au to ensure we prepare enough resources and catering.
Pupil Free Days
The final two days of this term, Thursday 22nd and Friday 23rd September will be Pupil Free - Staff Development days. The focus of these days is to use the information from our External Review process held in Term 2, to develop a Strategic Plan for Holy Name from 2023 - 2025. We are really looking forward to sharing this plan with our families for review once it is published.
Best wishes for a safe and happy fortnight,
Brooke Stephens
PBL
Our PBL focus for the next fortnight will be entering the classroom calmly and being ready to learn. The SRC will share a video of or targeted behaviour at our Monday morning assembly. It is important that students learn to be calm and still so their minds and bodies are open to learning.
SRC
Today, the SRC filled up our garden beds with some lovely new soil and we are ready to plant and mulch in our Spring crops next week. We will be putting in tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, asian greens, lettuce and reviving our herb beds.
Polding Athletics
Five of our Senior students have made it through to the Diocesan team to compete at the Polding Athletics carnival. Our senior boys relay team - Levi Van Haren, Charlie Gibson, Ashton Robertson and Aston Hodges - have been training hard under the expertise of Anne Evans. Levi and Ashton will also compete in the 100m and 200m. Jack Le Roux is competing in the Senior shot put and Ashley Allan is competing in the high jump. This is the first time a student from HNS has competed in high jump at this level.
Bell times
Just a reminder about morning bell times.
The bell goes at 8.30 for children to play under teacher supervision.
At 8.40 the bell goes and children use the bathroom and have a drink if needed then make their way to the Kirkangina.
8.45 Short assembly to say our prayer and do a PBL reminder (longer on Mondays)
8.50 Lessons begin
Book Week and Grandparent's Day
Excitement is mounting around our annual Book Week celebrations. All students have been reading the nominated shortlisted books from the Children's Book Council of Australia. Nest week the students will be voting for their favourite books in 3 categories and on Friday at midday, the winners will be announced and we will see how our votes compared. During Weeks 5 and 6 the children will be working on Book Week activities in their Learning Hub lessons.
On Monday of Week 6, August 22nd, we are combining our Book Week and Grandparent's Day celebrations. We will hold our book character parade from 9am (with a surprise from the HNS staff) and parents and grandparents are welcome to attend. At the conclusion of the parade, grandparents are invited to visit the classrooms of their grandchildren and then stay on for a cuppa and scone.
Kyla Loring
Assistant Principal
Mary MacKillop's Feast Day
Mary MacKillop is Australia's first saint. She was cannonised in 2010. Also named Mary of the Cross, Mary founded the Josephite order of nuns. The Diocese of Maitland Newcastle have a close connection with the Mary's Josephite order, as a branch from her order in Penola, South Australia, settled in Lochinvar, opening schools to educate the poor. All Manning primary schools, apart from Holy Name, were called St Joseph's as the Josephite sisters founded these schools. The Josephite nuns Sisters Francesca, Hilda and Florence Mary commenced a school of 30 pupils in the Church at Forster in 1958. The new Holy Name School building for 150 enrollments, was opened and blessed by His Lordship Bishop John Toohey on 1 January, 1961.
Mary MacKillop is Holy Name's charism ..we follow in her footsteps by Belonging, Learning and Serving In His Holy Name, and by "Showing Concern for Others" like Mary MacKillop through her motto.."Never see a need without doing something about it."
We celebrated the feast of Mary MacKillop on Monday 8 August with our parish in the Holy Name of Jesus Church, led by Fr Peter Street, our parish priest. This was the first mass we've celebrated in the church this year. It was wonderful to see a sea of maroon seated in the church amongst parishoners, actively listening and particiapting in prayer and song for Mary MacKillop.
Assumption of Mary
Next Monday, we celebrate the Assumption of Mary at 9:30am in the Holy Name of Jesus Church. Fr Peter will be celebrating this mass. All parents and carers are welcome to join our school and parish communities celebrate this holy day of obligation.
Staff Formation
Last term staff participated in a formation day with Richard Cootes. As promised, here are some photographs of the activities staff participated in during the day.
Staff meet each Tuesday afternoon from 3:30pm for professional learning. We begin each meeting with formation. Below is an example of a meditation prayer technique called photo , which combines decompartmentalising scripture into a key word or phrase which resinates with each staff member. This word or phrase is then recorded around an image over and over again. Whilst reflective music is played, in this time, the teacher deepens their connection to the scriptures intention and meaning.
Religious Curriculum Unpacked
Year 1 Week 1-5 Ways of Praying- deepen their understanding of ways to pray, how Jesus teaches us to pray, naming and learning some special prayers.
In this 5-week unit your child will be learning more about ways of praying. These are concepts being taught each day for 30 minutes: In this unit students will be invited to deepen their relationship with God through prayer. They will have opportunities to be involved in different prayer experiences as individuals and in community. They will work together to answer these enquiry questions:
- How do we pray?
- How do we experience God in prayer?
- What does Jesus teach us about prayer?
- What are some special Catholic prayers? Hail Mary and Our Father
Year 3 Week 1-5 Forms of Prayer- Types of Prayer. Learning the Rosary.
In this 5-week unit your child will be learning more about the types of prayer. These are concepts being taught each day for 30 minutes: In this unit students will explore different forms of prayer as a means of further developing their prayer life. They will be introduced to experiences of prayer, such as the Rosary and meditation, drawn from the rich Catholic spiritual heritage. Students will explore a variety of prayer styles and be able to recognise the features of these prayers. They will work together to answer these enquiry questions.
- When do we listen to God?
- How do we pray when we are alone?
- What is the Rosary?
- What types of prayers are used for different purposes?
Catholic Care Pantry Item Collection
Holy Name would like to support the Catholic Care Food Program. Food support big or small, really does make a difference and Catholic Care would certainly be very grateful to receive a food donation from our School Community! All we ask to support this initiative is to send in to school from today any of the following items suggested pantry items.
Michelle Robinson, representing Catholic Care has been invited to join us at our School morning assembly on the 19th of August to collect these pantry items, to make a difference in our local community.
Please find following some suggested pantry items. The kitchen will use these items to prepare meals or package them into food hampers, to feed the most vulnerable in our community.
- Canned sliced beetroot
- Canned corn kernels
- Canned mixed vegetables
- 2 minute noodles
- Weet bix
- UHT Milk
- Canned peas, corn and carrots
- Canned tiny taters
- Tinned two fruits
- Tinned baked beans
- Tinned spaghetti
- Tinned ham
- Tinned Tuna
- UHT custard
- Fruit mince pies
- Christmas fruit cake
- PastaRice
- Assorted confectionary
Sacramental Preparation for Confirmation
Children from Year 2 to Year 6 have begun preparing for Confirmation with Mrs Williamson and Mr MacKay on Sunday's at Holy Name of Jesus Hall. This prepartion runs for four weeks. Children will be presented to the Administrator for the Diocese of Maitland/Newcastle, Fr Greg Barker on the evening of 26 August to receive the Sacrament. Keep in your prayers, the following students from Holy Name who are preparing for the Sacrament: Makayla Bowie, Harrison Naughton, Marcus Kim, Zarah Clark, Ethan Cullen, Xavier Laurie, Olivia Sleiman, Isabella Sleiman, Shenia Lakin, Alessandra Devescovi, Amelia McKiness, Ivy Baker.
Learning Focus - Year Three
It has been wonderful to see how beautifully Year 3 has transitioned into their new classroom space in the Learning Hub. This fortnight our focus will be on the awesome learning happening in 3M and 3W, thanks to teachers for providing the information and the photos!
From Miss Meers -
Each day in reading we focus on a different element. Monday students look at new and interesting vocabulary words from our shared text and their readers. On Tuesday we are looking at different reading comprehension strategies. The last two weeks, students have been learning to ‘monitor’ their reading and use ‘fix-up’ strategies for when the meaning breaks down. Wednesday’s focus is spelling rules and we have been learning about prefixes and suffixes, and Thursday is all about grammar and punctuation. Each Friday we look at the structural features of texts and we have been focusing on the different features found in informative texts.
In Writing, Year 3 are very excited to be learning about natural disasters. Students have been working hard this week learning about volcanoes and have started writing some great introductions explaining “what is a volcano?”. At the end of the unit students will be researching a natural disaster of their choice and writing an information report. We can’t wait to see what they can achieve!
In Maths students have been learning about adding and subtracting larger numbers using carrying and borrowing. It can be a tricky concept, but every child demonstrated excellent improvement and the teachers were so proud of how hard they worked!
Keep up the great work Year 3!
Teddy Bear’s Picnic
Today our Kinder students and some of our Preschool friends got to enjoy a very special Teddy Bear’s Picnic. We read stories about bears, sang songs and danced with our cuddly friends. To get into ‘Teddy Bears’ Picnic mode’ we all made teddy ears to wear and coloured teddy bear pictures! Everyone got to sit on a comfy picnic rug and enjoy some Tiny Teddies and fruit in true picnic style!
We finished off we some fun relays with our teddies. We saw some excellent jumping, bear walking and tiptoeing from the kids and even the teddies.
We are so grateful to the new families that came along to join in the fun. We can’t wait to do it all again next year!
Mrs Suzie Monks
Primary Coordinator
Mini Vinnies
Mini Vinnies have commenced the term in full swing! The students have launched 5c Fridays and each class have received a jar for collecting 5 cent pieces. Mini Vinnies will collect from classrooms each Friday so if you have any spare 5 cent pieces at home please send them to school, 5c is a little on its own but together all our 5c pieces end up being a lot.
Our Mini Vinnies team have created three artistic interpretations of Saint Mary of the Cross, Mary MacKillop. The team together with staff voted and three were selected to paint. Collaboratively students painted these artworks, we love the creativity shown in all three. One of the versions was then turned into a special prayer card that was presented to Mrs Stephens and the whole school on Saint Mary’s Feast Day Monday August 8. The card contains Saint Mary’s motto ‘never see a need without doing something about it’ which is what we strive for at Holy Name School.
Lots of our Mini Vinnies team show up Monday morning to help serve warm milo and toast at Breakfast Club. It is always a wonderful way to commence our school week and a chance for students to share stories from their weekend. I often ask the children what they are grateful for and their responses make me grateful to be surrounded by beautiful smiles and caring students. Breakfast Club is Monday mornings from 8.15am and everyone is welcome.
Art Club
In Art Club we have been weaving with paper plates. The students love seeing what lots of patience and persistence turns into. It can be tricky remembering to weave over, under, over, under but once the weave starts to form it is a joy to see students proud of what they have created. We have also been painting collaborative posters and signs to hang in Art Club. Art Club is a quieter space that is open for all students at first lunch. We have begun operation word birds. There is always something fun to do, we’ve been making kindness chatterboxes on top of painting and weaving recently.
Playgroup
Our HNS playgroup has recommenced for this term and is open to all families with children being transition to school. It is held in the school hall every Thursday from 9-10am. It’s a lovely, gentle way for our early learners to become familiar with Holy Name. There are a variety of play areas, art/craft, a story and a dance. Parents and grandparents are most welcome, morning tea and a cuppa is provided.
Tobwabba Breakfast Club
Shout out to Manning-Great Lakes Police and Catholic Care for a wonderful initiative hosting breakfast club at Tobwabba Medical Centre. The breakfast encourages community to come together and enjoy a hot breakfast while providing children a healthy packed school lunch. Everyone is welcome and Miss Redding and I were blessed to be able to go along and help last Friday. Tobwabba Breakfast Club is on again Friday August 19, 7.30-8.30am.
Kristie Banham
Pastoral Care Worker
This week's St Clare's Newsletter is filled with wonderful opportunities and experiences for students and families. It is definitely worth taking a look at what is on offer at St Clare's Catholic College!