Dear Parents and Carers,

This week was Catholic Schools Week and I attended the Australian Catholic Schools Principal's Conference in Wollongong. Aside from the importance of connecting with other principals, the conference was an opportunity to learn from the experience of others and to listen to the experts and the research that shines a light on the way forward in education. These opportunities are important and add breadth to my knowledge, assisting our development of new ideas for Holy Name. I am grateful for my Leadership Team and the staff of Holy Name who manage the school in my absence. Although our school acknowledged Catholic Schools Week with the students, we plan to celebrate our school with families when the building work is complete so we can invite you all in for a real celebration!

I would like to acknowledge one of our Yr 6 students, Oscar Yeates, who successfully participated in a challenge for high potential students last week in Newcastle. Oscar demonstrated his leadership and talent by accepting the opportunity to work with other students from across our Diocese to compete against other teams. There is a special article a little later in the newsletter about Oscar's experience, but well done Oscar, we are very proud of you!

This week, Mr Pomplun coordinated our School Spelling and Maths Bees. This is another opportunity for our academic students to challenge themselves. Mr Pomplun has included an article with the winners, those who will represent Holy Name at the Regional Spelling and Maths Bee later this term. I was disappointed to miss the Athletics Carnival and am looking forward to hearing all about the carnival when I return. I hope everyone enjoyed the day and that our athletes were happy with their achievements. Thank you to our parent volunteers who supported our staff to ensure the carnival ran smoothly.

Last week, we held two successful Open Day opportunities for families seeking enrolment at Holy Name. It was interesting to hear that some parents have been told that we have a waiting list for Kindergarten 2024. Although we do have a long and healthy list of enrolment applications for next year, at this stage, we are still open for new enrolments. Our Early Learning Team will meet with our Leadership Team next week to consider the applications and commence the process of accepting enrolments. Please encourage anyone you know who is interested in a place for their child in the Kinder 2024 Class, to complete and provide an application as soon as possible.

There are two areas for improvement in our school at the moment that I need your support to change. The behaviour and attendance of students are areas of our school's operation that rely on the support and partnerships between our families and the staff of our school. When we have a shared understanding of the impact of both poor behaviour and low attendance on the capacity of our staff to meet the learning goals for students, we feel your support through the way you work with us to improve behaviour or attendance. We understand this message is sometimes difficult to hear, however, I would like to remind our parents and carers that our staff are mandated to follow up on behaviours of concern and matters of attendance, and that all conversations with school staff should be respectful in manner and content. The Diocese has a Code of Conduct for staff and for parents, and I expect that all members of our community, work within these guidelines. For me, this is a non-negotiable because I place enormous importance on the relationships between students, teachers and parents and would hope that this is an area our school excels in. There is nothing more rewarding than feeling you are part of a team who is successfully working together to ensure a student's individual needs are being met. Thank you to those parents who always ensure their children are prepared and ready for school, who have a high percentage of attendance and who always speak respectfully to staff - we appreciate you!

Yours sincerely,

Brooke Stephens 

This term, our Student Representative Council will hold a fundraiser on Friday 26th May to raise funds for First Nations communities by participating in the 'Wear It Yellow' Day. This will be a gold coin donation and part of our acknowledgement of Sorry Day just prior to National Reconciliation Week. The students will provide more information in the coming weeks.

Our Mini Vinnies group will host a PJ and Hot Chocolate Day on Friday 23rd June to support St Vincent De Paul's Winter Appeal. The group will also provide more information closer to the day.

Last Thursday, one of our Year 6 students, Oscar Yeates, represented the Maitland-Newcastle Catholic Schools Office in the da Vinci Decathlon competition for Year 5 and 6 students. This was held at Bishop Tyrrell Anglican College, Fletcher. To be selected on this team is a remarkable achievement, with just eight Year 6 students across the 44 Primary Schools in the diocese being selected to compete on this team. This competition was extremely challenging, enabling students to stretch themselves academically, socially and emotionally. Oscar represented Holy Name with pride and performed exceptionally well, with his team being awarded first place in the Ideation category, that is, the process of generating new ideas. Congratulations, Oscar – an amazing achievement!

Positive Behaviour for Learning

We have been experiencing a higher than usual number of students making poor behaviour choices at Holy Name this Term. One of our biggest concerns is children not listening to the teachers and not being able to settle quietly in class or when we gather as a larger group. Students are not listening to instructions, which can lead safety issues as well as the disruption of learning. We will focus on this skill over the next fortnight and students will be rewarded with surfboard tokens when they display this skill.

Families can support us by encouraging children to have some quiet time each day which doesn't involve sitting in front of a screen, teaching children when it is appropriate to speak and not letting them interrupt adult conversations and to reiterate the importance of listening to adults when they are giving instructions.

Running alongside our PBL framework is our school's Pastoral Care and Well Being Policy, our Behaviour Management plan and our Anti Bullying Policy. These documents are created from the CSO policies and procedures and help us to manage challenging behaviour in the school environment. The first point of call for any issues with students is their classroom teacher, however, sometimes I need to contact parents regarding their child's behaviour choices and if we work together to support their child the outcome is usually positive.

SPORT

Diocesan Cross Country

Last Wednesday, our 9 of our 12 qualifying students travelled down to Maitland to compete in the Dio Cross Country. The students were: Anna Brooks, Brabham Cooper, Eli Te Raki-Pitfield, Sophia Whitehouse-Miotto, Eli Lea, Zac Te Raki-Pitfield, Sienna Cooper, Patrick Sky and Christian Botros. All runners had a great day and ran well. The competition was fierce and while some of our students came so close, no one was able to grab a top 8 position to progress to Polding level. For those competitors that would like to view their times you can access results at our sport website - https://csnsw.sport/maitland-newcastle/primary/sport/cross-country  

HNS Athletics 

Rugby League Gala Day

Girls League Tag

On the 11/5/23 we went to Taree to play league tag. We represented our school and played three games. We won against Manning Valley Anglican School and lost our other two. We scored lots of trys and made lots of great tags. The team all got along and we had lots of fun. It was great competition and we hope to do it again. Our school is lucky to have enough people willing to join so that we can compete against others. Written by Airlia and Sophia

Last Thursday, some Holy Name students represented our school in a non-competitive Gala Day which was held at Taree Recreational grounds. The Rugby league team played Wingham Public School in their first game drawing 3-3. Isaac Grehan got a cut above his eye and wasn’t allowed to continue the rest of the day. That left the rugby league team playing short all day, they put in a gutsy effort beating St Josephs, Forster Tuncurry Public school and losing to MVAC in a close last game to finish off the day. Special mention to Sophia and Airlia for playing in both teams throughout the day. Written by Ashton.

ICAS

The ICAS parent portal is now open to enter students in the University of NSW Competitions. All competetions are open to students in Years 2 through to 6 except Writing which is offered to students in Years 3-6.

The dates for the tests at HNS this Year will be:

Spelling and Maths Bees

Further to Mrs Stephen's reference to the school Spelling and Maths bees here are the reults from Mr Pomplun:

On Wednesday 17^th May, we held our Stage Spelling and Maths Bee finals at Holy Name. Students have participated in class competitions over the past fortnight to progress to this phase of the competition. Congratulations to all the students who participated confidently in what were closely contested finals across all Stages. 

The winners from each Stage are listed below: 

Spelling Bee

Stage 1: Anna Brooks

Stage 2: Reuben Cassar

Stage 3: Marley Donegan 

Maths Bee

Stage 1: Matthew Jajo

Stage 2: Reuben Cassar

Stage 3: Ashton Robertson 

These students will now progress to represent Holy Name l at the Manning Regional Finals to be held at St Joseph’s Wingham on Friday 2^nd June. Congratulations!

Mother’s Day

Our Mother’s Day Liturgy was celebrated by over 300 mothers, grandmothers, fathers, and mother figures from our school community last Thursday. We began with a PowerPoint of our mums. Year 3 led us in song with “We Walk with Mary” and read from Corinthians for us to hear the message of what love is like. Love is patient, kind, not envious nor boastful. Love is forgiving, it endures and is never ending. Mrs Williamson shared Matthew’s Gospel message for us to not hide our light but shine it for others to see. This is what mothers do. Mothers show us the way to live a good life. They teach us how to be kind to others, how to be compassionate and just, how to be peacemakers. Our mothers are loving and forgiving. Mothers can be like a light that show us the way to live like Jesus.

Our school community gave our mothers and mother figures a blessing along with singing them “An Irish Blessing”. A Devonshire tea was served following the liturgy, with families moving out into the playground to share morning tea with their children.

Thank you to Miss Meers, Mrs Williamson, Mrs Monkley, Mrs Amato, Mrs Morse for preparing for our Mother’s Day celebration and to all Year 3 students for their active participation in this year’s liturgy. And to Mrs Stephens for zooming our liturgy to all our mothers who could not physically be with us but could watch from their places of work or homes.

Thank you also goes to Tuncurry Woolworths, to Ben and staff for supplying us with 400 scones and donating 60 to the school. We appreciate your financial support with these important community events in our school calendar.

Catholic Schools Week 15-19 May

This year’s theme, ‘Encounter: Journeying Together’, reminds us that we are called to be Easter people – those who are committed to building joy-filled communities constantly seeking unity and belonging.

Our theme calls for us to accompany others along the road, meeting them where they are at, hearing the things that excite, and those that express their disappointments, and offering fresh hope through the Word and love of God.

Hear more from Bishop Michael Kennedy below.

Religious Education and Religious Literacy

We understand that the nature and purpose of Religious Education is an integral part of our Catholic school here at Holy Name. The Leadership Team and Teaching Staff articulate this in staff meetings, in our school newsletters, at parent meetings such as the Parent Information Night at the beginning of the year, in work samples seen at Student Led Conferences and during Kindergarten Orientation Meetings with new families who wish to join our school community.

At our latest staff meeting Mrs Williamson shared the 2022 Religious Literacy Data with staff and asked the question “How do we as a school make Religious Literacy a priority at Holy Name?”

Teachers share the belief that Religious Education should be given high priority at Holy Name. Our school is developing an agenda for improvement in religious literacy for we agree we wish to see our students are successful at achieving greater religious literacy.

Teachers in grades workshopped to identify the Religious Literacy students needed to know by the end of the next unit to be taught this term. Using pedagogical practices from our work with “Clarity” in the Reading, Writing and Mathematics, we created “I can statements” for children learning in a unit of work from the Religious curriculum. They then connected learning sequences with these statements. Teachers were asked to consider ways to build student engagement with religious literacy and are now brainstorming ways for classes to achieve this by in from our students for the improvement of religious literacy to occur.  On May 31^st, Mrs Stephens and Mrs Williamson will travel to the Catholic Education Office to join other Principals and Religious Education Coordinators for the Religious Literacy Improvement Day Conference. It is here that we will analysis and discuss our 2022 data for strengths and weaknesses and for trends in student achievement levels. We hope to create and then share with staff suggested targets for improvement that are clear and accompanied with timelines for achievement.

Last week I shared with you the Kindergarten to Year 6 Religious Education units of work for Term 2 and unpacked the unit called Hebrew Scriptures that Year 3 are learning. This week I wanted to share with you the Year 4 unit of work “the Sacrament of Eucharist”, with the learning intentions for Religious Literacy to begin with and a learning sequence which shows how the children come to understand and know the I can statement for religious literacy success.  

Snapshot of a Year 4 Religious Education Unit in Term 2

The Sacrament of Eucharist   Week 6-10

½ hour each day, 2 ½ hours per week, 12 ½ hours of teaching

Learning Intentions

I can name the four parts of the Mass.

I can recognise the Mass as the celebration of the Eucharist. 

I can outline what each part of the Mass is about. 

I can define the terms: Eucharist, Holy Communion 

Learning Sequence for I can recognise the Mass as the celebration of the Eucharist. 

The Eucharist is a celebration of Jesus' love for us. It has three dimensions: meal, sacrifice and memorial. 

Lesson 1: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcB7Uem00n4&t=1s  

Teacher provides an overview of how the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life  

Introduce the concept of the Eucharist as a meal, sacrifice, and memorial. 

Lesson 2: 

The Eucharist as a meal 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBvc2wimT6M  

-Discuss the story of Zacchaeus  

-Discuss Passover 

-Discuss the Last Supper and read Mark: 14-24 and Acts 2:24 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7N-QE67lPM&t=145s  

Lesson 3: 

The Eucharist as a sacrifice 

-Discuss Eucharist as a sacrifice 

-Passover sacrifice  

-Jesus’ sacrifice 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxUjb_xXVJs&t=142s  

Lesson 4: 

The Eucharist as a memorial  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkCuWPuo3Pc  

***Interactive activity on Eucharist as a memorial

Upcoming Events

National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week Prayer Reflection in Hall Friday 26^th May at 9am

Pentecost Sunday celebrations in classrooms on Monday 29^th May

National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week -Walk Forward with Hope and Healing

We teach students of Holy Name that God ask’s them to act justly and to love one another. That if they see a need to do something about it. National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week are opportunities to celebrate, commemorate and engage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander days of significance. Our school acknowledges the unique status of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Australians.

It is an opportunity to remind our students that God’s dream for humanity is one of justice, compassion, and equality, of kindness and understanding, of forgiveness and mercy, to be shared by all peoples on earth. We pray that we rise up and walk together in a spirit of reconciliation and unity, recognising and valuing each other.

Spotlight on Year 6! 

Thanks to Mrs Russell and Miss McKinnon for the great insight below into what has been happening in the Year 6 classrooms!

Year 6 have settled into Term two quickly and are getting some amazing work in our Key Learning Areas.  

In English, we are investigating a big idea, ‘What is impacting us in our world as year 6 students?’ We have been workshopping, brainstorming and researching the areas in our life that impact children. The main issues we discovered were technology, environment, gaming, racism, social media, pollution and mental health. We have also researched daily school life with other cultures around the world and compared their day to ours. We discovered that children around the world have many similarities to us but also many differences. 

Using our research on issues impacting us, the students have each chosen a topic to write a persuasive speech on. The students have been analysing examples of how children can make an impact to other children, parents, governments and world leaders and using their knowledge of persuasion the students are currently writing a speech on an issue they are passionate about, and are looking forward to presenting them soon. One small voice to make a big change.

‘Finding the unknown’ has been our big idea in Mathematics this term. The students have developed their skills in finding the area of regular shapes such as rectangles and triangles as well as decomposing complex shapes to find the total area. We have looked at how shapes can translate, reflect and rotate and we investigated real life examples of where this occurs. The retro game of Pacman helped us understand how a shape can turn, flip and slide to get to another position. Next week we are looking at angles.

Year 6 study the final group of Sacraments this term in Religion, the Sacraments of Service. We are looking at what service means for us and how this is demonstrated in the Sacrament of Marriage and Holy Orders.  

As part of our year long study of Australia as a Nation, this term we focus on Democracy and Citizenship. In this unit, we have looked at the struggles for rights and freedoms in Australia in the 20th Century. So far, we have examined Australian human rights, past and present, including the status and rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and children. In the next few weeks, we will look at how Australian society has changed throughout the 20th Century and investigate the significance of the Mabo Decision. 

In our Science unit, we are exploring reversible and irreversible changes to matter by using common, everyday substances and considering everyday observations. We have started examining reversible changes of state and irreversible chemical changes. We will be creating mixtures and exploring how to separate them and consider the significant environmental challenge of separating a mixture such as e-waste into valuable components for re-use.

Our skateboards are beginning to take shape with some amazing designs and patterns. We cannot wait to show you the finished products.

Yesterday saw the last Athletics Carnival for us at Holy Name. We have been busy practising our athletics skills this term and this showed yesterday with some great participation and sporting results by everyone.

Keep up the great work Year 6!

A message from some of our SRC  Representatives

Athletics Carnival Bake Sale.

As year 6 leaders, we decided to fundraise money for the netball and soccer goals. So yesterday at the Athletics Carnival, Year 6 set up a bake sale for kids and parents to enjoy a treat while attending the carnival.  On behalf of year 6 SRC, we would like to thank the students and parents that brought food in for our bake sale.  In total, we have raised over $482.80 which will fund the new sporting equipment. We were thankful for having so many people buy food to put towards the fundraiser. 

Representing the SRC, Ivy, Milly and Madeline

Mrs Suzie Monks

Primary Coordinator