Dear Parents and Carers,

Enrolments to Holy Name Primary School have now opened for the 2021 school year following the Catholic Schools Week celebrations across NSW. Our Opening Mass on Sunday afternoon led by Fr Greg was a wonderful celebration, with Steve Brereton 'Welcoming us to Country' in a smoking ceremony as we processed into the Church. Our Director of Schools, Mr Gerard Mowbray showed his support for our Region, attending to be part of our celebration.

Monday morning began with special prayers to acknolwedge this significant time in our calendar year. Mini Vinnies brought some fun to the lunch break with a 'flashmob' for students and Nikki Reece, a Parenting Educator from Catholic Care, ran a workshop for parents after school. On Tuesday, our Open Day sessions provided an opportunity for the community to witness the well balanced; academic, sporting, spiritual and social-emotional education our Catholic School offers. Wednesday included a chance to meet Mr Nicholls, Principal of St Clare's, and to hear first-hand of the quality education offered in our feeder High School. On Thursday and Friday, around 30 of our students attended workshops at St Clare's High School with the very professional Diocesan Aspire Team, culminating with a performance on Friday afternoon. At school on Friday, our students were treated to a fun day of activities, including dancing, a sports tabloid and an ic-cream to conclude our celebrations.

This week we farewelled Mrs Nicholls, our Pastoral Care Worker, and Mrs Brown, one of our Yr 5 teachers. We have advertised the Pastoral Care Worker position and Mrs McKinnon is taking Yr 5 in a full-time temporary position for the remainder of this year. We also said farewell to one of our trusted relief teachers, Mrs Sharon Hammond, who has worked with us for the last 3 years. One of our Clerical Officers, Mrs Jane Sullivan has also tendered her resignation. We knew this was coming because Mrs Sullivan's family moved south at the start of the year but it is doesn't make it any easier! We have advertised for a Clerical Officer to commence at the start of Term 2. 

Finally, as Catholic Schools Week 2020 draws to a close, I would like to acknowledge the dedication and professionalism of our staff, both teaching and in support roles. Taking on a role in Catholic Education is a vocation and I am consistently impressed by the initiative and commitment displayed by the staff of Holy Name. From the specific plans in place for individual students, to the ongoing conversations with students and parents, to the programs of learning planned to guarantee the best outcomes for students, the teachers of Holy Name Primary School are second to none!

I would also like to pay tribute to our families, who demonstrate their commitment and are authentic in their partnership with the staff of Holy Name School to continue to make it a great place for students to learn.

Yours sincerely,

Brooke Stephens

This Monday between 4:00 and 5:30pm, St Clare's is hosting their annual Open Afternoon for interested families to visit, learn about the school, the programs and tour some of the excellent facilities. The families who attended in 2019 were really impressed during their visit and I know the students from our school who visit, love what the school has to offer them. I strongly encourage our families to go up to have a look for yourselves. 

Pancake Tuesday

Our community came together last Tuesday to feast on pancakes cooked by Mrs Loring and Mrs Maloney. Students from Kinder to Yr 6 got to select from a variety of tasty toppings to put on their pancakes. As Catholics, “Shrove Tuesday” is a celebration where we feast on all things yum because the following day is Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday and Lent

Children in all primary grades celebrated Ash Wednesday with Fr Greg and parishioners. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent. This liturgical season of 40 days leads us to Holy Week and the Resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. During Lent children are called to pray more, take on acts of kindness, be forgiving, fast and alms give to charities like Project Compassion. In each class on their sacred space is a Project Compassion Box where children are encouraged to fast from a treat and give the money that it would have cost to Project Compassion. 

Leaders of Yr 6: Jack Thacker, Lylah Darcy, Thomas Priddle, Coco-Simone Huebner, Riley Paine, Grace Randall, Mohammad Nooruddin, Ruby Machon, Jed Hickson, Gypsy Janjic were called by Fr Greg to take ashes back to Holy Name and commissioned to mark the foreheads of our infants students at the Infants Ash Wednesday Liturgy. This action of marking each student was very moving and our Yr 6 leaders were very respectful and reverent in signing the cross on them with ashes. For our Kindergarten students, this was special because their buddies were giving them their ashes.

Project Compassion

LET'S GO FURTHER, TOGETHER

You can’t fight poverty on your own, but together we can with Project Compassion! This Lent, join millions of Australians raising funds for the world’s most vulnerable people.

In 2020:

• 1 in 7 people still go hungry every day.
• 2 billion people don’t have access to clean drinking water.
• There are 11 million women and girls in forced labour.
• It only takes seconds to make the world a better place. Are you with us?

Project Compassion is an extraordinary, ongoing demonstration of the faith, love and generosity of Caritas, Australia's caring supporters, all in the name of justice and peace.

Catholic Schools Week

Holy Name launched Catholic Schools Week at last Sunday’s Parish Mass with students, families, staff and our parish community. Director of Education, Mr Gerard Mowbray was our special guest along with Mr Steve Brereton, well regarded local Worimi elder, who guided us in a traditional Aboriginal 'smoking ceremony' before we commenced our mass. Within the mass our school was invited to encounter and witness the love of God in our relationships with one another. School leaders, Ruby Machon, Helen Thomas and Thomas Priddle played active roles in the Mass and we congratulate them. Our school choir ended our Mass, singing 'Go Make a Difference' that ignited our spirits to be missionary people when we left the Church.

On Monday our school gathered to pray so that we might live in harmony with the Earth. We began with the words of Pope Francis: “All of us can co-operate as instruments of God for the care of creation”. At Holy Name what we wish to draw from the well are ways of “Living in Harmony with God’s Creation”. The choices we make about how we use the environment can have positive or negative effects on people and environments in other places. As a community we prayed that all students and staff at Holy Name would hear the words of Pope Francis and commit to caring for creation and acting in a way that will protect and nurture it.

On Friday to culminate our Catholic Week celebration of all things wonderful about Catholic Schools, we held a whole school fun activities afternoon consisting of tabloid activities, dancing and tent time where children spent time in tents reading with buddies. All children were then given an ice cream in a cone to round off the day. 

What is Catholic Schools Week and Why do we celebrate it?

Schools across the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle celebrate Catholic Schools Week from Sunday 1 March to Saturday 7 March. The theme is “Drawing from the well. Invitation, Encounter, Witness”. This acknowledges that Jesus Christ is always at the heart of everything we do. Recognising this is the foundation of a Catholic school education, the lens through which everything is viewed, and the belief that informs all policies and decisions.

“Invitation, Encounter, Witness” celebrates the connection of the school community with Jesus Christ. Our students are invited to the well, where, with Jesus as their guide they encounter diversity of learning in a supportive and inclusive environment, and witness service to others and the community.

Catholic Schools Week also marks the start of the 2021 enrolment period for all 58 schools across the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.

If a member of your family is a student of one of our schools, or if you are considering a Catholic education for your child, we hope you were able to come along and celebrate with us. If not, please contact the school for more information about enrolling your child for 2021.

Upcoming Masses and Liturgies in Term 1 to add to your home calendar

All parents and carers are most welcome to join our school community at the following parish masses or class school liturgies.

Week 7 Parish Mass- Friday 13 March, Yr 5 attending at 9:30am Forster Church

Week 8 Parish Mass- Friday 20 March, Yr 3 and Yr 6 attending at 9:30am Forster Church

Week 9 Year 1 Liturgy Thursday 26 March, at 1:30pm in Yr 1 classroom.

Week 10 Kindergarten Liturgy to be confirmed. Friday 3 April, Yr 2 and Yr 4 attending at 9:30am Forster Church

Week 11Holy Week Liturgy Whole School in Hall on Thursday 9 April at 11:15am. Led by K, Yr 1 and Yr 2

This coming Monday night, 9th March, our P&F meeting will be held at Plunge Cafe, commencing at 6pm. This venue change came about because at our last meeting we decided to get to know the canteen menu by ordering a tasting plate to share. In my meeting with the Plunge team this week, and because the menu has now changed, we decided it would be easier to have the meeting at Plunge Cafe. I am appreciative of the efforts of the Plunge team to provide a service to our school and for allowing us to use their venue for our meeting. You are welcome to join us!

In case you missed the Compass newsfeed item, the following information is provided regarding the recent survey of the canteen service at Holy Name. Thank you to everyone who competed the recent survey about our school canteen. We had around 25% of families contribute.

On Tuesday, I met with the team from Plunge to go through each of the responses, looking at the positives and negatives and then discussing the possibility of changes that would address the feedback from both our families and the Plunge team. 

I include the following information in response to some of the questions raised:
1. The canteen menu is based on the NSW Government Health Guidelines for school canteens. These guidelines were developed in response to the health statistics of Australian children.
2. The reason our school canteen closed at the end of 2019 was because it was not financially sustainable. We didn’t have enough student orders to cover the wages and overheads and this was communicated to our families over the last 2 years via our P&F and consistently through our school newsletter.
3. We have not had many volunteers for at least 4 years supporting the canteen but are very grateful to the volunteers who have come forward.

In response to your feedback and the feedback from the Plunge team, the following changes will commence from the start of next week (Week 7) and continue for the remainder of the term.

1. The Plunge team will continue to provide a service to Holy Name School for the remainder of this term. The canteen will remain open for Term 2 only if the canteen is financially viable. If this happens, the school may not have a canteen.

2. The canteen will open for 3 days each week - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The canteen will no longer be open on Monday or Tuesday.

3. Orders can be made online using QuickCliq or by a paper bag lunch order with cash. Both types of orders need to be at the canteen by 9am. No orders will be accepted after this time.

4. The canteen will serve the ordered food at 10:45 am during Lunch 1.

5. A few everyday items will be available using cash at the window pending volunteer availability between 11:00-11:15 and at second lunch between 1:00-1:15pm.

6. The menu will change dramatically to reflect some of your suggestions. There will be less of a variety and more of the types of foods suggested by the families who completed the survey. The menu will be online from next week.

7. We are looking for volunteers between 9:30-11:15 and 12:45 - 1:30pm. Please contact the school office if you can help. The Plunge team may make contact with a couple of our regulars.

8. A visual menu will be developed and made available in different places eg at the school canteen and online if possible. 

I hope that our families can see the effort made to address the feedback received. If the canteen is supported and runs smoothly over the last 5 weeks of term, we will continue to offer a canteen service during Term 2.

This interesting clip about lunchboxes was recently shared with me via one of our parents.

Lunchbox nasties

Holy Name Primary School has 2 positions currently advertised. The first is the position of Pastoral Care Worker. This position is 14hrs per week, in school hours, across 3 days and is funded until 2022. The advertsiement will run until Friday 13th March and can be found following this link. If you would like any further information or to chat about this position, please make an appointment to see Brooke Stephens through our school office.

The second position is our main Clerical Officer position. This Level 5 position is 33hrs each week and includes the roles of administration, finance and first aid. Our office team are often 'the face' of our school and have a very special role in building positive relationships with our families. The job is advertised here and applications close on Friday 13th March. Depending on the registration process, we would like to orient the successful applicant to the position this term (before Jane leaves). If you are planning on applying, it may be worth you registering for work within our system now, to hasten the process if you are successful. Registering for work in our system would also allow us to call you for casual work. You can commence the process here.

At the beginning of each year, teachers conduct Cybersafety lessons for students using the eSafety Commissioner website resources. This platform has useful information and tools that parents and teachers can use to support the development of safe practices in the online world. You can access the website following this link.

Following the teaching of best practice in keeping students safe online, teachers introduce and/or remind students of the rules around access and use of technology in Catholic schools in the Diocese of Maitland Newcastle. They work through the Student User Agreement with all students K-6, which students then sign as a way of accepting their repsonsibility to make good choices and to follow the rules set down by the Diocese. This User Agreement is then included in a Newsletter and/or as a Newsfeed item for parents to become familiar with and to reinforce with their child/ren at home. It is important and preferred that we have parent support in complying with the rules to achieve the consistency that results in student understanding and therefore safety. Breaches of the agreement result in a suspension of access to technology at school for a period of time determined by the Assistant Principal in consultation with the Principal.

It is our understanding that several students have started to wear watches to school that have access to social media and/or the internet. Please note that this is a breach of the current policy. I think the best way to achieve the aims of the current school policy while addressing this new technology is to add it to our P&F and Staff meeting agenda. If you would like to contribuute to this discussion, please come along to our P&F or drop me an email with any suggestions to be considered in our decision making.

Thank you for taking the time to reinforce the rules in place at Holy Name to keep your children safe.

Cyber Safety Student User Agreement

Following on from last week's article in our newsletter about 'bullying' and this week's article about 'cybersafety', Catholic Schools NSW included an article about the Child Safety Handbook in their newsletter. The Child Safety Handbook is a resource for parents, carers and teachers, produced by NSW Police Legacy and includes everything we need as a community to protect our most valuable and vulnerable resource – our children.  From preventative measures at home to safety outdoors, from cybersafety to dealing with peer pressures, this handbook is a resource for every family and school community. The handbook is also available as an app and can be downloaded via the Apple store, Google Play or Amazon Kindle. The handbook references the policies in government schools and it is important to note that our Catholic Schools have the same policies and procedures in place in our schools. I particularly liked the descriptions about intervention and the importance of those involved to be working together to resolve problems as they arise. The link to the digital handbook is also available - NSW Police Legacy Child Safety Handbook

Coronavirus

We have started to receive advice through Catholic Schools NSW to inform parents of information relating to the recent Cornavirus situation. Based on the new Federal Government advice, any student or staff member who has been in or transited through mainland China or has returned from Iran from 1 March 2020, is excluded from work, school or childcare services for a period of 14 days after leaving China or Iran. These students or staff members are also required to self-isolate from the community for a period of 14 days, as the COVID-19 incubation period can be as long as two weeks. Further advice will be upadted through a newsfeed item in Compass. Please make sure you are accessing the Compass platform regularly.

Dogs on the playground

We would like to remind parents and carers that pets are not to be brought onto the school site at drop-off or pick-up due to the health and safety requirements of the school. Special arrangements may be made through teachers for class visits but these are rare. Thank you for maintaining our request in consideration of the safety of our students. 

Lake Street crossing

This week, a parent once again reminded me of the dangers that the Lake Street crossing presents for our students and their families. Unfortunately, the proximity of the crossing to the Macintosh Street lights lends itself to drivers looking too far ahead in their haste to get through the lights and not seeing the young people (or adults) that might be in front of them. Our staff and some of our parents have previously contacted MidCoast Council about this crossing but they don't have a solution for us at this time. Our staff do walk a group of students across the road as part of our afternoon departure procedures, but as this parent witnessed, this is not always enough to prevent an accident from occurring. Until we find a solution to this problem, please be mindful that cars do not always pull-up and that we need to supervise our children across this very busy road. 

Last week the Semester 1 SRC had the opportunity to meet together for the first time. This year the SRC is taking a different tack by focusing on the care of the environment and service to others. This is based on the Catholic teachings on stewardship and social justice, as well as the message of the founder of our charism, Mary MacKillop - "Never see a need without doing something about it." 

The leaders are called on to support Mrs W in masses and liturgies and are often called upon to thank visitors at short notice. They also show new families around our school and are expected to always live by our school motto "Concern for Others."

Next week classes will receive their seedlings to plant in the garden space.  Each class has been allocated a bed in our garden space and they will plant seedlings, weed and care for beds and ultimately harvest the lovely fresh produce. Holy Name School has established a partnership with Catholic Care to supply them with fresh produce to use in their Community Kitchen program. We are hoping to expand this partnership when the Community Kitchen starts operating out of our Parish Hall by preparing and serving food for those less fortunate in our community. We also plan to visit the sick and lonely in our community.

The SRC is also going to work on caring for our environment. We are planning to do activities such as a rubbish audit at school, performing skits and making videos about using the bins correctly and not wasting water. Next Semester we will work with Landcare and the Local Council to conduct some local community clean ups and form plans to stop rubbish entering our beautiful waterways. We would also like to raise the profile of the Take 3 for the Sea initiative and hopefully engage a guest speaker from this great organisation.

Our House Captains are going to be busy collecting and displaying House points for our Term Challenge. Each term, the House with the most points will have a BBQ and movie at the end of the Term. Points are earned from Sport events as well as teachers catching children doing the right thing in class or on the playground. Our first "big" job will be to organise a short presentaion for the students on March 20th for the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence.

I am really excited about the direction the SRC is taking in 2020 and I know that our school community can really make a difference!

Last Thursday the 27th of February, Father Greg came to visit the Kindergarten children. This is Father Greg’s second visit to the Kindergarten room and the children showed Father Greg around our classroom and shared different stories about themselves.  The Kindergarten children were eager to ask Father Greg some questions about his role as a Priest. Some of our questions included: 

1. What do you like most about being a Priest? 
2. Do you sleep in the Church? 
3. What is your favourite thing to do on weekends? 
4. What do you like about living in Forster? 
5. What do you eat for dinner?  

Once Father Greg had finished answering our questions, the students began drawing Father Greg and reflecting on some of his questions that he had answered. We thoroughly enjoyed having Father Greg visit us in Kindergarten and we look forward to celebrating our Kindergarten Liturgy with Father Greg in Week 9.  

Mrs Sarah Praschinger and Mrs Suzie Monks  

This year, the teachers are planning their Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE) lessons and experiences using a new syllabus fro NESA. The syllabus is very skills based and moves away from the children participating in a sport as such to experiences teaching skills that are required for a range of sport and physical activities. Skills are taught in fundamental movement skills, catching and throwing, bat and ball and invasion games.

Years 4, 5 and 6 have been lucky enough to work with Kerry from Athletics NSW over the past 4 weeks, honing their athletics skills in preparation for our carnival next term. This program has been a wonderful experience and some of the younger grades will have the opportunity in the latter part of the term. 

PDH lessons are taught each week and cover areas such as relationships and conflict management, healthy and active living and growing and changing as well as various social and emotional skills.

PDHPE is such a vital part of the development of children and the new syllabus offers opportunities to teach children about the lessons of life, relationships, physical activity and healthy living.

Our next big physical activity event is our annual Cross Country to be held at Pebbly Beach on March 27th.

On Thursday 27th February, Holy Name Primary sent down 21 of our champion swimmers to compete at the Diocesan level swimming carnival held at the Lambton Swimming Pool in Newcastle. The competitors from Holy Name were up against the best of the best that our Diocese had to offer. All swimmers put in their absolute best efforts, cheered on one another with pride and behaved exceptionally well. A special congratulations to Sophie Scislo, Latraye Wilson, Grace Randall and Kalani Ryan who were successful and will progress to the Polding swimming carnival which will be held at Homebush in Sydney.    

Congratulations to Lucas Monks and Austin Murray in Year 6 who have been selected to trial for the Diocesan Cricket Team. Both boys currently play for our local junior cricket club and we wish them all the best in the trial next week.

Regional Winter Sport Trials will be held in Taree next Thursday, March 12th. Children attending these trials have been given their notes and will need to be transported to Taree by parents. Good Luck to all those trialling.

The Diocesan Aspire production is back in full swing. We once again have a student participating as part of the cast. We have attached a link to the Aspire Newsletter as it is great to see the level of professionalism and diversity of experiences that form part of this production. 

ASPIRE Newsletter

Around 30 students from Holy Name enjoyed 2 days of workshops in the Creative Arts sphere with the Diocesan aspire Team, led by Anna Kerrigan the Artist Director of the Aspire production. This opportunity for students to attend St Clare's is an annual event that provides students the opportunity to develop their dramatic, instrumental, vocal and visual arts skills under the tutelage of specialists. We are grateful to the St Clare's community and Mr Nicholls for hosting this event. We have included some snapshots of the workshops. We will endeavour to get hold of the video of the performance so that families and students can revisit this experience. Thank you parents for supporting this event.

While students were attending the Manning Creative Arts Days at St Clare’s the remaining Year 6 students worked conscientiously at school. One task the students completed was a ‘100-word story’ challenge. Below are Lylah’s and Ruby’s stories.

The howl of the wind, the grumble of the rocks, the crash of the waves and the screams grew louder. The shark’s fin drew nearer. The scent of blood entered my nose, death had arrived. My worst fear had come to kill me. I had no time to say my goodbyes, no time to swim away. The sun beamed brightly on my face as my eyes squinted. I took a deep breath, I was ready to die. Suddenly, a person rose from beneath the fin, not any person, my sister! A loud laughter launched from her lips as I scowled.

There I was. At the front of the school. Shaking nervously. The time had come. It’s the starter day of high school. When I heard the bell ring I rushed to class, but I went to the wrong one. I asked for help and the teachers were very understanding. When I eventually found my way to the correct class, I wasn’t nervous anymore. I was excited. By the end of the day, I was making friends and they were very understanding about the ‘incident’. A week later, I had made a lot of friends who were amazing peers! Enjoy School!

Dear Parents / Carers

Book Club pamphlets have gone home.  If you child has missed out please contact the office and I will send one home.

Book Club will close on Thursday 26 November 2020.

Thanking you

Kerry