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Dear Parents and Carers,
Term 4 has really flown by and I can't believe we are entering the final two weeks of the year. There are quite a few celebrations and events during this time so please be sure to checkout the calendar so you can join us where you can.
Some of you know that my father, Warren Dormor, passed away last Sunday. This is a sad time for our family but I do have many friends and colleagues who have been supporting me. I thank you as well, our school and parish communities, for the support I have received. I have been in and out of work this week and will return next Wednesday, following my father's funeral.
I am pleased to announce that Mrs Rose Loring will join our team in 2023. Mrs Loring (Junior) will take a Year 2 class, alongside Miss Spinks and Miss Frost, while Mr Gleeson ventures out to St Joseph's Gloucester for 12 months. This completes our teaching team and we are looking forward to working with our new professional learning teams in 2023 focusing on student learning growth.
Early Stage 1 | Mrs Monks, Mrs Praschinger and Mrs Tull |
Stage 1 | Miss Nolan, Mr Mackay, Mrs Loring (Jnr), Miss Spinks & Mrs Frost |
Stage 2 | Miss Meers, Mrs Williamson, Mrs Quilter, Mr Hassett & Mrs Loring (Snr) |
Stage 3 | Miss Flannery, Mrs Russell & Mrs McKinnon |
We will continue to have Mrs Morse support our students with English as an Additional Language or Dialect, Mrs Arrow in the Learning Hub, Mr Kelso in Learning Support and Mrs Townsend in Aboriginal Education, Mr Pomplun in Gifted Education and Miss Reynolds in Music and Drama. We have a great team of teachers at Holy Name and some wonderful support staff who go above and beyond to meet the needs of our students. Our support staff include Mrs Bowie and Mrs Monkley in the office, Mrs Harris in the Learning Hub, Mrs Banham as Pastoral Care Worker and Learning Support Assistant, along with Mrs Amato, Mrs Jackson and Mrs Moncrieff-McCarthy, and Crystal Simon as our Aboriginal Education Worker. For the last two years, we have been lucky to have Mrs McCarthy and Mrs Barlow supporting our students with reading intervention and will be sad to see them finish up at the end of the year. Our cleaning and grounds staff, Ms Gray and Mr Lloyd do a fabulous job at maintaining our facilities and we are very grateful for their commitment to our school. Ms Williams has been replacing Mrs Townsend while she has been on leave and will continue to do so until Mrs Townsend returns.
I hope to see you at some of the events over the next fortnight.
Take care,
Brooke Stephens
Formation
The formation of all members of the school community is crucial to the mission of Catholic education. This formation is closely linked with the beliefs and teachings of the Catholic tradition. Such formation is orientated to the spiritual growth of students and staff, and the spiritual flourishing of the school community.
Student Servant Leadership at Holy Name in 2023
The notion of servant leadership is the preferred model of student leadership in the school and is linked directly with the Gospel understanding of leadership modelled on Jesus Christ, his teachings and ministry. Next year, Holy Name staff will be working together to create a Mission and Justice Scope and Sequence for all grades to be actively involved in student servant leadership across the year. Please watch this space as it will be a very exciting and engaging process for staff, students, and our families.
Yr 5 Leadership Day
Each year our Year 5 cohort come together to connect more deeply with the leadership qualities of Jesus modelled by gospel stories, his teachings and ministry. At Holy Name we make connections with catholic values so that they underpin student leadership. Throughout the day, their knowledge is built upon as they look closely at world leaders and Australian figures to then name why their leadership qualities are so valuable to being an effective leader. Drawing from their own experiences of leaders in their lives and what they believe a good leader is, the group are led through a sequence of activities to help them identify their own leadership qualities and decide in their final year at Holy Name as Year 6 students what leadership roles they wish to be part of. Students will be very soon nominating for Captain and Vice-captain positions, followed by Sports Captain positions.
Thank you to Mrs Loring, Mrs Russell and Mrs Williamson for leading the day and to the wonderful Year 5 students for their engagement and enthusiastic attitude to taking on servant leadership roles in 2023.
Please check out our school Facebook site for the Year 5 Leadership Day Clip.
Remembrance Day
Students, staff, and parents gathered for our annual Remembrance Day Liturgy. Fr Peter reminded us that Remembrance Day is not a day we celebrate but rather a day we are grateful to the selfless, brave men and women who fought for our freedom. Thank you to Mrs Tull and Yr 5 who led the liturgy.
Christmas Hampers
You an help by donating any of the items listed below:
*Fruit mince pies or Christmas puddings * Tins of ham * Fruit juice or tins of stewed fruit *Jams, cranberry or apple sauce * Cereal, long life milk or custard * Sweet or savory biscuits * Tins of vegetables: baby potatoes, beetroot, corn, peas or tomatoes * tea bags, coffee, hot chocolate, sugar * Chocolates, lollies or pancake mix.
Please give what you can to support this wonderful initiative.
Christmas Concert
Holy Name staff and students are looking forward to families and friends joining us at our annual Christmas Concert this year called "Our Favourite Time of the Year", held at Club Forster Auditorium on Wednesday 14 December at 5:30pm. Children are asked to be seated by 5:15pm with their teachers and class. The concert is expected to be finished by 6:45pm.
Religious Literacy
Year 6 Religious Literacy Test
Earlier this term Year 6 sat the Maitland Newcastle Religious Literacy Test. We had 18 students at or above the minimum level of achievement. Congratulations to the following 8 students who were at or above the minimum standard for Religious Literacy: Adele Whitehouse-Miotto, Tara Isbel, Charlie Gibson, Levi Van Haren, Kim Tulio, Annie Portelli, Jade Thacker, Isabel Allport and Jasmine Mahoney.
Test Format
QUESTION TYPES COURSE CONTENT
Part 1 20 x Multiple Choice Questions (20 marks) Across a range of units and content areas from across the course.
Part 2 A cluster web and short answer responses (15 marks) The Year 6 Jesus Unit
Part 3 Short answer responses and extended personal response (15 Marks)The Year 6 Scriptures Unit
NEW Year 1 Religious Education Curriculum Units
Next week our two Year 1 teachers for 2023- Miss Nolan and Mr Mackay along with Mrs Williamson, Holy Name's Religious Education Coordinator will join other Year 1 teachers and REC's from the Manning Region as they are educated in the new religious education units following the Pedagogy of Encounter.
The new units will be rolled out at the beginning of 2023, the first 10 week unit is called "Living in Relationship". The essential question children are asked is " How does God want us to live in relationship? The key content unpacked over the weeks are: recognising what it means to belong to the human family, exploring christian concepts of belonging and friendship, communicating ways of living in relationship with god and others during Lent and Holy Week as a time to remember how Jesus reached out in love for others.
Sacramental Program
First Communion
This term students from Holy Name have been preparing for the final Sacrament of Initiation- Eucharist. Congratulations to all these children, who over the past few weeks have received communion for the first time.
Kind regards,
Genevieve Williamson
Religious Education Coordinator
Great Learning Happening in Year Three!
Each fortnight we like to put a spotlight on the great learning happening in a particular grade in our school, this time around the spotlight is on Year 3. During reading sessions Year 3 have been focusing on improving their comprehension strategies, in particular the skills of predicting, visualising and inferring. Students have been working hard on their ability to create their own inferential questions based on their shared text. Miss Meers has incorporated a fun interactive Jeopardy game that involves the students answering inferential questions after watching a short clip. The laughter, considered answers and energy from the students are proof that the students are not only learning, but having a great time in the process. Each week as part of their reading lesson, Year 3 are introduced to new vocabulary which is pulled from their shared text. These words are analysed with a focus on definition, morphology and examples and non-examples identified. The focus words over the past few weeks have been: limply, scalding, lingering, mutter and choreograph. These words are added to the class learning wall for students to refer back to and use in their writing and in their oral language.
In writing Year 3 have been learning how to write a narrative text in the form of a fable with the purpose being to entertain the reader. Students started by planning what they would write about and identifying the moral of their story, the setting, the characters and decide on the problem that the story will be based on. Students then continued to work on their first draft introducing their problem, developing their fable’s problem and the resolution at the end where the problem is solved or the lesson was learnt by a character. Students used the Success Criteria to compare their writing to and were encouraged to make necessary changes to improve their work before asking for teacher feedback. After receiving teacher feedback students then made any suggested changes to improve their work then published their final copy to share with the class. It was wonderful to see the students referring to their writing goals when showing me their published work.
In Maths, Year Three has been focusing on Fractions. The students are learning to represent fractions in different ways, count up using fractions and represent mixed fractions. This week the students have taken part in students used a fraction dice and a regular dice to roll a whole number and a fraction. Students then modelled the mixed fraction by drawing and explaining e.g. 1 ½ = three halves. It was great to hear the mathematical language used by students to explain their answers. Students have also enjoyed working in teams to solve fraction word problems together and explain their thinking and new learning to the class.
As always, the Year 3 teachers like to keep the learning tasks they create engaging and fun. This was evident earlier this term when the students engaged in a potion making afternoon. This activity incorporated mathematics with volume and capacity skills being used as well as science skills related to their topic, ‘States of Matter’. Students were hands on with the measuring, comparing, observing and recording. Check out these photos...
This term in History Year 3 have been learning about Celebrations around the world. The teachers got super creative becoming flight attendants and each week taking their students on a journey to a different destination. Some of the highlights were their virtual visit to Ireland for St Patricks Day, a quick trip over to America for the 4th of July celebrations and a visit to France for Bastille Day. The students loved learning the specific details of how celebrations look different in other countries and the history behind the celebrations.
To get into the Christmas spirit over the past couple of weeks, Miss Meers introduced the Year Three students to Bookmas. This is a beautiful literacy initiative where 25 books have been wrapped up and each day a child is picked from a hat to unwrap the book for the day. The book is then read to the class by the teacher and the class are asked to rate the book out of 5 stars. Students have to clearly articulate why they have given a book a specific rating. This is then recorded on a class chart and now the class have seven books they can highly recommend to other readers!
Amazing work Year Three!
Mrs Suzie Monks
Primary Coordinator
Mini Vinnies
Our wonderful Mini Vinnies team are so excited to share with you that together we have raised $900 from 5c Fridays and World Children’s Day. We met last week and after much discussion the students voted and have decided to donate to three worthy causes. They will donate $300 to the Ukraine Children's Emergency Fund through UNICEF, $300 to St Joseph’s Primary School in Eugowra after the floods and they will spend $300 to purchase gifts for our school Wishing Tree to support families in our local area.
The students shared their ideas and had lengthy discussions on why they wanted to support these causes, they then voted and unanimously decided to share the funds. I am so proud of their dedication to helping others.
Christmas Wishing Tree
Our Christmas Wishing Tree is located in our school office and as per previous years, please feel free to take a card from the tree and return it with a gift for those in our community in need. In previous years our donations have been received by children and families in our community, the Great Lakes Women’s Shelter and Catholic Care. This is a wonderful opportunity to live our school motto “Concern for Others”.
Heart to Heart
Our Heartists have completed their painting and last week made special invitations for their loved ones, friends and teachers to be able to attend a special Exhibition to celebrate them and their journey over the past 7 weeks. The students have deepened their understanding in making their masterpieces and have been painting with mindfulness in our art space. We have also shared beautiful afternoon teas where we share in deepening our connections with each other as a group.
Playgroup
Playgroup is every Thursday, 9-10am in our school hall. It is open to all families with early learners, we also enjoy a shared morning tea together. Please feel free to pop along with your early learners, the more the merrier.
Art Club
In Art Club we have enjoyed creating some collaborative artworks for Christmas to hang in our space. Lots of colour, creativity and joy is being shared. Students can also make some decorations to take home whilst listening to some of our favourite Christmas tunes.
Christmas Sing-a-longs
Miss Reynolds and I have decided to spread some Christmas joy and cheer. Head over to our school FaceBook page and you can see our frivolity as we lip sync to nine popular Christmas tunes. We would also invite you to join us and send us in your family singing their favourite Christmas tune. You can send your clip to us via direct message, so we share it with our school community.
This week, Year 5 shared an action packed few days together at The Great Aussie Bush Camp in Tea Gardens. The students, along with myself and Mr Gleeson, were privileged with a unique, curriculum-centered outdoor education program that took everyone out of their comfort zones and promoted the importance of teamwork, persistence, courage and resilience.
The students challenged themselves to complete activities such as high-ropes, rock climbing, archery, a giant swing, and the ‘Lost Island’ obstacle course which involved lots and lots of mud! We spent time discussing the mechanics of each activity, how the pully systems worked, the estimated height of the giant swing and rock-climbing walls, and the co-ordination involved in archery. All students learnt how to correctly fit and wear a harness and helped each other when things became tricky and tangled.
Although the students were challenged physically, as the activities were no easy feat, the biggest challenge was overcoming fear and developing the resilience to get back up and try again if things didn’t go as planned. The students realised quickly that they needed the support of their peers. The development of their teamwork and collaboration skills was impeccable over the 3 days. During our time, the students cheered for each other, reassured each other, helped to untangle harnesses, gave advice on technique and encouraged one another when activities proved overwhelming.
We were also treated to an ‘excursion within an excursion’. Our first stop was a nearby rainforest for an educational walk-and-talk. Our camp instructors T.K and Nick educated us all about the rainforest’s diverse ecosystem, history and wildlife. We then ventured to the sand dunes for some more fun. Nick challenged the students to break the record of 17 laps, which seemed like an easy accomplishment for Mackenzie and Neil!
Each night, the students engaged in teamwork challenges and games with their camp instructors. Night 1 involved completing individual challenges that contributed to team points. This involved a range of fun games, tasks and even a ‘garbage-bag chic’ catwalk. The challenge night concluded in high spirits for the students and a cup of water on the head for Mr Gleeson. Night 2 was a game of Commando in the bush. The students worked in small groups to sneak though the bush, without being spotted, in search of ‘golden bricks’ that were held hostage by Mr Gleeson, Maddie Todd and myself. Staying quiet and unseen while trekking over logs in the dark proved, unsurprisingly, too challenging for chatty Year 5, with only Harley and Ashton even getting close.
After such a busy few days of emotional and physical challenges, approximately 4000 games of soccer in the courtyard, a sneaky (but not sneaky enough) 1.00 am dance party, and a hilarious goanna encounter, I could not be prouder of Year 5 and how they participated and engaged in the excursion. A big thank-you also to Mr Gleeson who came along at short notice.
Mrs Tull