I hope this newsletter finds everyone enjoying this beautiful autumn weather. I know we live in a place renowned for its swimming, fishing and surfing and other warm weather pursuits, but I for one love this time of year. I am in the Principal’s job for three weeks while Mrs Stephens is taking some leave travelling in the outback and I am enjoying the challenges and positive things that happen each day.

Emmaus Award

Mrs Banham is with her family and Mrs Maloney at the Cathedral in Newcastle today. Kristie is receiving an Emmaus Award from the Diocese for Excellence in her support role as Holy Name School’s Pastoral Care worker and Kinder LSA. Kristie exudes positivity and does a great job in many areas of the school: student and staff wellbeing, Art Club, Mini Vinnies, Breakfast Club, art classes for students and staff, baking amazing melting moments and much more… On behalf of everyone at HNS I would like to congratulate Kristie on this very well-deserved award. One of our Kinder teachers, and Acting Primary Co Ordinator, Mrs Suzie Monks, was also nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award. We are so lucky to have theses ladies, and all of our dedicated staff, on our team!

Last Friday, the Year 6 SRC lead an informative and entertaining mid term assembly in our school Hall. We looked at a video clip about World Ocean Day (June 8^th). WeThe SRC would love to promote this day as the ocean is very much a part of our local environment. We talked about keeping our beaches and waterways clean and reminded the students about the Take 3 for the Sea message. Baran Zanjani (5/6P) shared her persuasive story titled “Why choose Holy Name?” with the school. Baran won the writing section of our Catholic Schools Week competition with her excellent piece. Stevie Anderson also shared her video on the same topic and Georgia Sparks and Everly Webb won the prizes for the best posters.

This is a link to Stevie’s video https://mncatholic-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/r/personal/gary_pomplun_mn_catholic_edu_au/Documents/Holy%20Name%20School.mp4?csf=1&web=1&e=fgvREH

Baran’s writing

Why choose Holy Name?

I have always heard that your school needs to be your second home. Your teachers, your second parents and your friends your siblings. You are supposed to be happy and excited every morning to go to school, ready for the adventure ahead. But sadly, this is not how it is in many schools. Many kids dread every day at school because of mean teachers and bullies. A school needs to be welcoming. A school needs to be fun. A school needs to be a safe and happy place, and luckily enough for me, Holy Name is.

In movies and books teachers are always expressed as ancient, grey, horribly mean figures whose daily mission is to ruin every child’s day. At first glance teachers and Holy name might seem strict and scary. However, after only a few minutes of conversation it is easy to see that most teachers in my school only want to help you improve. Yes, they might shout at you once or twice but they are always willing to help, and some of them have some truly hilarious jokes, ha ha. Our teachers care about every child’s well-being and will join into our conversations and games in the playground.

Next ingredient to a perfect school, nice kids. I cannot say that every single child in our school is an absolute little angel, but I can confirm that about 99% are very nice. Most students are willing to welcome others into their games and they are very supportive. Unlike many schools the number of bullies and troublemakers is very low in our school. Nice kids create a safe environment for everybody to enjoy. The playground and the classroom are always filled with learning opportunities. Kids always describe learning as boring, however teachers in Holy Name make sure to make it interesting and interactive. Teachers at Holy Name make you a future, instead of making you feel like school is torture.

The environment around our school if one of the highlights. We have a basketball court, netball court and a soccer/touch footy field. We also have a newly installed cricket pitch which can also be used for dancing and gymnastics. If physical sports are not your thing you can also go to art club to create master pieces. We also have an amazing selection of picture books and novels in our school library. In the infant’s playground we have a sand box and a kitchen completed with a modern oven with over-the-top technology, new non-stick pans and pots and a fridge with a tv on it. It is impossible to find an excuse to be alone in our playground because there are so many activities to enjoy.

What is your dream school like? An Olympic sized pool? A all you can eat cafeteria? For me, a perfect school needs only three elements, and Holy Name has it all. The amazing and caring teachers is one of the three points. The kind students and the spectacular learning environment make Holy Name one of kind. This is why Holy Name is my home.

Georgia’s poster

Year 3M also shared their wonderful animal artworks with us. They used collage in the technique of Pete Cromer to create bright Australian animals.

The children also presented an anti-bullying video they created, and a message was given about Garden Club. The following children received Principal’s Awards or received silver badges: Ethan Moore 2G, Emilin Shibu 6L, Amelia Macinnes 5H, Sophie Scislo 6L, Nash Syron 6L, Anthony Matta 1W, Baran Zanjani 5/6P, Jackson Paine 4M and Taj Johnson in 5H. Congratulations to all these students for their hard work, respect and perseverance!

Student Representative Council

Our Year 6 leaders have been working in their teams this term to get some projects underway. Our Environmental Team have been working in our garden space as well as reminding the students to pick up their rubbish. The Social Justice Team have been creating some anti bullying scenarios that we will share at Friday assemblies. The Arts Team are busy creating posters to raise awareness for World Ocean Day and the Sport Team have cleaned out the shed, organised a tabloid and a roster for Sports Shed supervision. Our Technology Team has been busy sorting out our robotics gear so we can resume Coding Club in Term 3. Stevie and Nash, our School Captains, are the over arching leaders of all the teams and will float in and out as required. We meet every second Friday (odd weeks) in the 6L room.

Behaviour

The behaviour of some children is causing concern. We have some students who are constantly in the limelight for the wrong reasons at Holy Name. Please speak to your children about the need to listen, follow directions and respect their teachers and peers. This week we are trialling a step towards our new Behaviour Management System at Holy Name. We are introducing PBL (Positive Behaviour for Learning) at Holy Name School. Behaviour will be managed using a template to record minor and major behaviour infringements. Good behaviour will be rewarded with the use of our surfboard tokens. Our trial begins Monday and will involve children getting caught doing the right thing receiving a surfboard which they write their name on and put in the “barrel” in the office. Every second Friday, 5 surfboards will be drawn out of the barrel and those students will receive a prize. We will continue with the trial for the next 5 weeks and hopefully launch our new system in Term 3.

Ellara Coillins from 3/4H puts our first surfboard token in our barrel in the office.

Library Visits

Last week we were very lucky to host an author and Illustrator visit at school. Mrs Arrow organised the visits in conjunction with the Mid Coast library. The illustrator was Marc McBride, who is most famous for working with renowned author Emily Rodda. One of Marc’s most recent works with Emily was on a book called “The Glimme” and we got to see all the wonderful drawings that Marc created. Lee Hobbs is a famous children’s author whose best known characters are Old Tom and Horrible Harriet. Lee was very entertaining and had the children eating out of his hand. The children really enjoyed these visits and gained lots of motivation and ideas from our visitors.

Illustrator and Author visits

Athletics

On Thursday, we will be hosting our school Athletics carnival at Tuncurry Oval. Ms McKinnon has taken on the role of sport coordinator and she will be supported by our teachers and support staff on Thursday. The children will need to sit in their House groups and it would be lovely if parents could support us by not encouraging their children away from their areas. The canteen is open for drinks and the pre ordered BBQ lunch only. Mrs Banham and the Mini Vinnie Crew will be organising Australia’s Biggest Morning Tea at the carnival. Tea and coffee will be available for purchase to raise funds for the Cancer Council and we would love families to send in a slice, biccies, cakes etc for the cause. These will be available for purchase in the morning of the carnival.

Golf

Ms McKinnon has organised golf lessons for 4M, 5H, 5/6P and 6L this term. The children will participate in 5 sessions, lead by Golf Pro, Matthew Newton, from Forster Golf Club. The lessons will culminate with a session at Forster Golf Club.

Writing Competition

Earlier this year, students from Holy Name entered the ‘Tell Me a Story’ writing competition. This competition is run locally to engage students in the writing process and offers the opportunity for students to compete against students at other schools. This week, we received the results from this competition with so many of our students achieving amazing results.

In the Years 5 and 6 competition, there were 141 entrants from across our region. There were 13 Excellence Awards presented, and students at Holy Name received 6 of these! Congratulations Charlie Gibson, Sofia Gonzalez, Baran Zanjani, Stevie Anderson, Byron Donegan and Marla Coulton-Donnelly. These children will be awarded $50 at a presentation later this year.

Other award winners from Holy Name included:

Highly Commended – Bonnie Dempsey, Sophie Scislo and Georgia Sparks.

Commended – Lucy Ford, Aston Hodges, Jasmine Mahoney, Mia Hamilton and Marley Donegan.