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Dear Parents and Carers,
Last week, our families received a notification via Compass about some changes happening across the Diocese, particularly in the Catholic Schools Office. I provide the following information to add another layer to your understanding of these changes.
The Diocese of Maitland Newcastle has been moving through a period of change within the leadership and structure for some time, working towards the 'Many Parts, One Body' concept to guide the way we operate. Across the Diocese previously, there were Diocesan offices connected to the running of the Church, the Catholic Schools Office that coordinated everything to do with schools, and the Parishes, who operated independently from these groups in their local areas. Even though we are all a part of the Catholic Church, for many years there were finance, human resource, building and facilities teams, and many other sub-groups that were duplicated across these different parts of the Diocese.
The leaders of the Diocese have been slowly bringing together these groups under one organisational structure to be more efficient and effective in our operations. On a local level, the impact of these changes so far has been to build stronger connections with St Vincent De Paul, Catholic Care, St Nicholas OOSH and our Parish so that we are better able to support one another and feel the cumulative impact of our Catholic organisations within the community. Overall, these changes are helping us to strengthen our identity and to develop a greater sense of collegiality among all parts of the Diocese.
Tell Them From Me Survey
This week all parents and carers received an email invitation to the Tell Them From Me Survey. I am hopeful that as many parents as possible will contribute to this survey as this is one of the sources of feedback we use to make practical changes to improve our service to students and families. The survey and questions are designed externally, with only three questions created by our staff to explore areas we would like to know more about. The survey is completely anonymous and I know our Parents and Friends Association appreciated our review of the information provided by this survey as part of our meetings earlier this year.
Regional Aboriginal Staff and Principals Saltwater experience
On Thursday, our Manning Regional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff and Principals met Aunty Faye, a Biripi Elder and employee of TIDE (Taree Indigenous Development & Employment), to share a Saltwater experience and continue to work on a plan that includes a strong Cultural program and strategies to address student learning needs. Our work together drew from the outcomes of the regional Learning for Justice day at the end of last term. It was an awesome day to build relationships, develop knowledge and build a shared understanding of how to support one another to achieve our goals. I have included some photos below of our day together.
Student Led Conferences
Please keep Tuesday 20th September free to attend your child's classroom sometime between 3:30-5:50pm for the Student Led Conferences. These Term 3 sessions are a great way to observe the learning progress of your child as they can show you the difference between their achievements in Term 1 and now.
Next week, our school term ends for students on Wednesday 21st September. Our staff will spend Thursday and Friday developing our Strategic Plan for the next three years. St Nicholas OOSH is providing a service for these two days and a Vacation care program during the holidays. The best way to connect with the service is by visiting their website https://stnicholasoosh.org.au/forster.
Yours sincerely,
Brooke Stephens
National Child Protection Week
Holy Name School acknowledged National Child Protection Week (NCPW) this week. The importance of protecting our children is our ultimate job as parents and teachers and we all take this issue very seriously.
The theme of NCPW this year is Every Child in Every Community Needs a Fair Go. In Art Club last week, Mrs Banham organised a group of students to create a banner that is displayed on our front fence around this theme. We have sent a photo of our banner down to our Catholic Schools office and are in the running to win a locally-themed mural to be painted by Newcastle artist, Mitch Revs.
On Tuesday morning, all classes took part in the Biggest Child Safety Lesson. This was an online lesson created by the Daniel Morcombe Foundation to educate children around personal safety. The lessons this year were around the issue of private body parts and appropriate behaviour and feelings within our bodies. The children were very engaged and took the learning very seriously and asked some really interesting and important questions around this topic. We will acknowledge Day for Daniel in October to further promote the issue of Child Safety in Australia. Replays of the lessons are available for viewing on YouTube.
Further information on this important topic is available here.
Sport
Our athletes travelled to Newcastle today to represent the Maitland-Newcastle dioceses at the Polding Athletics carnival in Glendale. Our Senior Boys Relay Team are off to State Athletics! The boys ran third in the final and will represent Polding at the State Athletics Carnival at Olympic Park in Sydney. The team was made up of Aston Hodges, Charlie Gibson, Levi Van Haren and Ashton Robertson.
Ashton Robertson came third in his 200m event and will also go through to the State Carnival!
Ashley Allan came 9th in the High Jump event. This is the first time we have had a high jumper go through to Polding from Holy Name School.
Thank you to parents for supporting your children in their sporting endeavours and keeping us up to date with results.
Unfortunately the Soccer Gala Day that was rescheduled for today has been cancelled.
PBL
Our Positive Behaviour for Learning focus for the past fortnight has been using kind words. Children have been getting surfboard tokens when they display this behaviour. After a certain number of tokens, the children can pick from a Reward menu in their classrooms.
Confirmation
Fr Greg and Fr Peter celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation on the evening of Friday 26th August for 24 excited Confirmation candidates, their families, and the Holy Name of Jesus parish community. Fr Greg commended the children on their preparation and eagerness to receive the Holy Spirit into their lives. Congratulations to all candidates.
Father’s Day Breakfast
A sea of happy faces covered our school playground as the school celebrated its annual Father’s Day breakfast last Friday. Holy Name staff united to cook our dads’ bacon and egg rolls. Dads then joined their children on the playground for handball, soccer, cricket, and other games. Thank you to our community for coming together to celebrate this important day in Holy Name's calendar.
Father’s Day Stall
As a teacher I am always grateful for the work our P and F do to support the students of Holy Name. Thank you for all the organisation and time given prior to and the day of the Father’s Day stall. Watching the faces of our students as they choose just the right gift for their dad was priceless, and another way as a community “We Belong, Learn and Serve in His Holy Name”.
Religious Literacy Test
The Yr 6 Religious Literacy Test will be held on Tuesday 13 September.
This test is made up of three parts: Section 1 -25 Multiple Choice, Section 2- Short answers, Secion 3- 3 tiered questions totalling 50 marks. Questions are created from units taught in Yr5 and Yr 6 Term 1 and 2.
Children are supported by their teachers to be prepared for this paper by practicing past tests, and through class dicussions when revisiting concepts to consolidate their learning. if you are curious as to what sort of questions and knowledge our students will be asked in this year's RE Literacy test, I have attached 2021's multiple choice section for you to answer.
Kind regards
Genevieve Williamson
Religious Education Coordinator
Great Learning Happening in 5/6R!
Each fortnight I like to put a spotlight on the great learning happening in a particular grade or class in our school. In this report the spotlight is on 5/6R. Stage 3 have been researching the concept of survival and have used a variety of different texts to immersive themselves in the theme. Year 5/6 have been particularly interested in learning about Stuart Diver, the Thai Cave Rescue the White Island volcano eruption in New Zealand in 2019.
In writing, 5/6R have been learning to write informative texts on topics that interest them. Students have chosen to write informative texts on a famous survivor and a How-to-Guide to inform readers. Students have enjoyed being able to have some fun with their writing and have written about such things as: ‘How To Survive on a deserted island’, ‘How To Survive a stressful day’ and even ‘How To Survive Living with your Brother!’. Students have been using the ‘Writing Cycle’ display on the classroom learning wall to ensure they are following all steps in the information report and thinking of ways to enhance their writing sample.
In Science 5/6R are looking at Adapting to Survive. They have looked at how humans, animals and plants evolve and change. Students have been analysing how the form of living things enables them to function in their environments. Students have been investigating whether plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behaviour, and reproduction. Students have been employing the skills of critical and creative thinking as they predict, observe, infer and explain observation.
In History 5/6R have been looking at the push and pull factors of why people migrated to Australia in the 1800's. Inspired by the theme of ‘choice and challenge’, the students have encouraged to identify questions, form a historical inquiry and share their research tasks to invoke critical thinking skills such as questioning, application and analysing. Students have been connecting stories of migration to their own family and researching the experiences of people migrating from Vietnam.
Well done 5/6R students keep up the awesome work!
Mrs Suzie Monks
Primary Coordinator
Art Club and Zen Zone
The creative artists who visit Art Club have been diligently making word birds to give over the past 6 weeks and we’ve sent them off to Year 12 students at St. Clare’s High School and Great Lakes College Senior Campus in Tuncurry as the students prepare to sit their HSC. Our students take great pleasure in making to give, actively living our school motto ‘concern for others.’
Following on from Wellbeing Week, our quiet space of Zen Zone has remained open for students to come and enjoy some chill out time from the busyness of the playground. We have been making lots of kindness cards and again students are eager to donate these and we will distribute them to the wider community to brighten other peoples days.
Playgroup
Playgroup has been a little hive of activity over the past fortnight. We have had some new families join us along with a couple of visits from our friends at Pebbly Beach Early Learning Centre. Playgroup is a gentle way for future students to be introduced to Holy Name School. Thanks to St.Nicholas OOSH for loaning us play equipment. We always have an art station and have been enjoying making collaborative artworks together. Playgroup always finishes with a story and dance and lots of smiles.
Mini Vinnies
Our Mini Vinnies team have been championing 5c Fridays and we appreciate and are extremely grateful to our Holy Name families for supporting this initiative by sending in their 5c pieces. Our wonderful and generous parishioners continue to support this initiative as well and together we have raised $573.55 this term!! We will continue to collect next term and will keep you updated to our totals.
Mini Vinnies proudly presented eight handmade blankets to Nycolle from The Great Lakes Shelter at our school assembly. The Great Lakes Women’s Shelter supports women and children in our local area and we are honored to support those in need.
Kristie Banham
Pastoral Care Worker
Holy Name Public Speaking Finals
Next Thursday, 15th September, the Holy Name Public Speaking Finals will be held in the Holy Name School Hall commencing with the Infants’ Section at 11:40am followed by the Stage 2 and Stage 3 Sections at 12:00. Our finalists this year are:
Kindergarten - Ilijana Trautsch, Bella Marchett Carberlon, Vivian James, Johnny Black
Stage 1 – Mac Lambkin, Ezra Lea, Zara Rahman, Amelia Moelker
Stage 2 – Eli Lea, Nanma Joy, Chase Brooks
Stage 3 - Solomon Cassar, Grace Zarate, Isabel Allport, Tara Isbel
These students are eager to display their talents in order to be selected as the Holy Name Representatives at the Manning Regional Finals next term.
You are most welcome to join us for this event and we look forward to having relatives and friends as members of the audience on the day.
Lynn Redding – Holy Name Public Speaking Co-ordinator
Please read about the happenings at St Clare's in their latest newsletter!