3rd June 2021
Principals News
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.
The Gift of Understanding
In order to truly understand that which our Lord speaks to us, we must be open. And openness requires humility. Humility is a virtue that is contrary to a “know-it-all” attitude. It’s a disposition of mind and heart that listens to God speak, hears what He says, comprehends all truth by the gift of grace, and prayerfully submits to that truth. Humility enables us to look beyond ourselves for the answers to the most difficult questions in life. It enables us to turn to the one and only source of truth, Jesus Christ Himself. And the fruit of this humble openness is the gift of understanding. It’s an understanding of the mysteries of life which is beyond our natural intellectual capacity. The grace of God is able to teach and form the humble soul and fill it with clarity of vision and an acceptance of the deepest truths.
Are you able to look at your life and rejoice in the fact that God has also given you His gift of understanding? If not, then look within and consider which questions you most need to bring to Jesus. Place them before Him and then listen, be open and be ready to respond when He speaks.
(https://catholic-daily-reflections.com/2021/06/02/the-gift-of-understanding-2/)
St Mary of the Cross Mackillop 1868 has a special saying: "Believe the whisperings of God to your own heart"...all we have to do is listen.
Leading Learning Collaborative (LLC Update)
Across these past four terms our school has been on a journey of school improvement. This journey has been inspired by the work of Dr Lyn Sharrat, a world renowned educational leader who's work now spans across every school in our diocese. The focus on "Clarity: What matters most in Learning, Teaching and Leading" has had a powerful impact here. This work K-2 has challenged our thinking; inspired our teaching; fostered great collaborative practices and helped us see that the teachers make the difference in the life of a child and in the successes they have in their learning. Teachers have learnt that through positive relationships, nurturing, encouragement, enrichment and routines, our student thrive at our school. Next week on Friday 11th June we have a Pupil Free Day for the purpose of delving deeper into our Assessment practices and exploring the many ways we can provide our early learners with the descriptive feedback they need in order to improve and grow. In our setting often written feedback is not as effective as feedback that is timely, accurate and based on a growth mindset. We will also explore assessment for, of and as learning that is, assessing prior knowledge of students; checking in part way through lessons and investigations and also summative assessment to see what has been learnt.
We will also take part in a Team event with Dr Sharrat (in Canada) to present to her our findings, our evidence of the great changes we have undertaken and of the benefit this change in professional practice has made for every teacher. Our mantra is: "All Students. All Teachers." and together every child's learning success and their development socially, emotionally, spiritually, physically and academically is celebrated.
Celebrating 200 years of Catholic Education in Australia
Last Monday 31st May I was very proud to have two of our school leaders accompany me to represent our school at the Diocesan Celebrations for the 200 years of catholic Education in our country. Kade Power and Charley Wrightson were wonderful company and were in awe of the size of Sacred Heart Cathedral where the liturgy was held. We joined with representative from all our diocesan schools to celebrate the journey and growth in our catholic Schools. The children were also amazed at the beautiful music. Thank you to our parents for their support of this initiative. Charley and Kade were of course the youngest of all the school leaders and had the biggest smiles!
Semester 1 Reporting period
Our teachers have been writing the Semester 1 progress report for each child. These will be made available to parents and carers via Compass on Tuesday 15th June. The formal semester 1 report is only part of this process as parents/carers are invited to attend a Parent Teacher Interview to discuss any aspects of your child's report. These interviews are 10 minutes in length and you will receive a notification via Compass next week to notify you of when each teacher is available to meet with you. Generally these times will be before or after school and some teachers may be able to offer times during their Release from Face to Face teaching time on a Friday. The set time for interviews 2021 is between 16th June and 23rd June.
The teachers will have prepared information to summarise each child’s report however we encourage you to please bring with you any specific questions you’d like to ask.
Kindergarten: Semester 1 report contains gradings of Below Grade Level; At Grade level or Above grade level. Kinder students do not receive an A-E grading.
In Stage 1 (and beyond) all students are graded using the A-E scale and are reported upon based on their achievements in each subject or, as with maths, in the various elements of the subject.
About the Common Grade Scale (https://arc.nesa.nsw.edu.au)
The Common Grade Scale shown below can be used to report student achievement in both primary and junior secondary years in all NSW schools.
The Common Grade Scale describes performance at each of five grade levels.
A | The student has an extensive knowledge and understanding of the content and can readily apply this knowledge. In addition, the student has achieved a very high level of competence in the processes and skills and can apply these skills to new situations. |
B | The student has a thorough knowledge and understanding of the content and a high level of competence in the processes and skills. In addition, the student is able to apply this knowledge and these skills to most situations. |
C | The student has a sound knowledge and understanding of the main areas of content and has achieved an adequate level of competence in the processes and skills. |
D | The student has a basic knowledge and understanding of the content and has achieved a limited level of competence in the processes and skills. |
E | The student has an elementary knowledge and understanding in few areas of the content and has achieved very limited competence in some of the processes and skills. |
Whatever grade your child receives it is imperative that parents/ carers understand these grades are given after careful deliberation across grades and across the stage. The Semester 1 and Semester 2 reports are different as different aspects of the curriculum are taught and assessed for understanding. There is not an end of year report as there used to be.
The child’s effort is very important and we do ask that you please sit with them and show them you value their report. Discuss any concerns you have about effort and similarly, please celebrate the successes. Your children thrive on your feedback and want to please you.
Reminder of Bell Times:
A reminder of our school bell times and a request to please try to have your children here before the morning bell. I do understand that family life is busy of a morning and things happen at times to make families late. That’s not what I am referring to. I am actually referring to those families where the children are regularly late to school.
Parents and carers you may not fully realise the impact this has on your child. They walk in late and assembly is over- so they miss the messages or the birthdays or the awards that morning. They arrive last and walk into their class and the day has already begun. For many this is when we have teary and upset children because they are worried or they feel uncomfortable not knowing what they are to do.
I respectfully request that you please focus on having your child here at school between 8.30am and 8.55am each day. This is the daily routine they know and the daily routine that makes them feel safe and secure. It sets them up for success for a great day at school.
Our bell times are:
8.55am Morning Assembly (Students may arrive from 8.30am)
11.10am Lunch (Fridays 11am)
1.25pm Recess break
2.55pm Dismissal
Thank you for your support.
Casual Teachers and Support Staff
We, like all schools are currently experiencing a shortage of casual teaching and support staff across the diocese. This can mean that at times we may need to split classes for part or all of the day when a replacement teacher cannot be found. We have tried to prepare for this event as winter is coming by asking teachers to pre-prepare a booklet of learning tasks for their class should this happen.
It may also mean that sometimes a class may unfortunately have more than 2 teachers in a week if a casual is able to work one day and not the consecutive day. Please know this is never our plan and we work hard to try to ensure, where possible, this does not occur.
With blessings for a wonderful fortnight
Diane Murphy
Acting Religious Education News
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you...Acts 1:8
Last Tuesday we celebrated the Feast of Pentecost at our school with everyone in "flame coloured" clothing! The school looked amazing. We had a prayerful liturgy where we learnt more about the Fruits of the Spirit and ways we can share these with one another. Thank you to our readers and those who helped place the Fruits on the tree.
Then after some class activities based on the Holy Spirit, it was time to celebrate with a large birthday cake as Pentecost is often referred to as the birthday of the Church. The school leaders led the sinbging as the whole school gathered and enjoyed their big slice of delicious cake. Thank you parents for supporting us as we teach our students about love, joy, peace, self control, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and patience.
SOCIAL JUSTICE - ST Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal
At Holy Spirit Infants we aim to teach the children about Social Justice Issues in the world around them. One such wa we teach them to think about others and to help others is through our annual St Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal.
This year we are asking for the following donations to assist families this winter from each class. If everyone brings in just one item, we will be able to give St Vincent De Paul a boot load of goodies to be shared.
KB - Tins of Soup
KW - White and Brown Rice
1B - Packets of Pasta
1W - Pasta Sauce in a jar
2W - Canned vegetables
2B - Tin of Milo or Hot Chocolate
Each class will have a space in their classroom for the donated goods being collected over the next three weeks.
On Wednesday 16th June we invite all students to add a beanie or a scarf to their sport uniform and bring in a gold coin donation to add to our Appeal.
We thank you for your support.
Meagan Edwards, Acting REC
Year 2 Learning
In Religion, Year 2 have been studying a unit on ‘Reconciliation’ throughout this term. The unit involves. students reflecting on the human experience of forgiving others and being forgiven. The unit explores the concept of reconciliation, and it introduces students to the Sacrament of the same name, exploring how the Catholic community celebrates reconciliation with God and one another. Throughout the unit the students have been introduced to new vocabulary such as:
Sacrament of Reconciliation- one of the seven sacraments. It is when you confess your sins to a priest.
Sin- breaking God’s law.
Mortal Sin- a very serious sin that we know it is wrong and we choose to do it any way.
Venial Sin- is a less serious sin against God.
Conscience- the inner voice that helps guide us to follow God’s law by doing good and avoiding evil.
Contrition- the sorrow we feel when we know that we have sinned followed by the decision not to sin again.
Confession- a time when you go and tell the priest your sins.
Penance- the prayers or good works that the priest asks you to do after you have confessed your sins.
Absolution- the forgiveness we receive from God through the priest in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
We begin each Math lesson with a ‘warm up’ to get students’ brains thinking numbers and all things mathematical. Sometimes as a warm up, we do a ‘number talk’. Number talks are brief discussions (5-10 minutes) that focus on student solutions for a single, carefully chosen mental math computation problem. Students share their different mental math processes aloud while the teacher records their thinking visually on the whiteboard. The children thoroughly enjoy sharing their thoughts and learning new ways of solving math problems.
Throughout math units this term the students have enjoyed completing various hands on activities such as making their own equal arm balance, creating three dimensional objects with playdough and toothpicks.
Year 2 students have been enjoying working with technology across various KLAs. The children have had the opportunity to work on programs such as Reading Eggs, Dance Mat Typing, Typing Club, Tux Paint and Essential Assessment (maths) as well as completing research as part of Geography and English on the computer. The iPad activities on Seesaw are always a favourite for the students.
For sport this term the whole school has been enjoying participating in a schools cricket program ran by Ash and Mickey. The students have been participating in modified activities which is teaching them the skills they need to play cricket. Every week the students have been able to finish the lesson with a new skill which has been fantastic.
This term, Year 2 students have been engaging in the drama unit ‘Playground.’ In this unit, students enact real and imagined events from their everyday experiences of playground interactions using mime, improvisation and readers theatre. Year 2 have shown a lot of dramatic talent when miming out different scenarios and asked to improvise different scenarios on the spot!
Please take the time to view the photos below which shows our beautiful Year 2 classes in action.
Year 2 Teachers, Naomi Mueller, Carlia Collingwood & Kate Kreutzer.
Aboriginal Education News
Last Wednesday, 26th May Holy Spirit Infants School recognised National Sorry Day at morning assembly.
At our morning assembly on Thursday we came together in prayer for the start of Reconciliation Week- More than a word. Reconciliation takes action. Holy Spirit Infants demonstrated such calm and reverence during the prayer and enjoyed watching our Indigenous students play the clapping sticks to the Aboriginal Our Father.
Across our classrooms on Thursday teachers read stories to our students and had gentle conversations about what Reconciliation meant and why we are ‘taking action’ to work together with the first peoples of this country. It is such a difficult topic to explain to the young children in our care and they did a wonderful job at being so respectful and caring when talking about it.
On Thursday afternoon our classes came, one by one to place their handprint or a coloured hand into our front garden where our ‘Indigenous story poles’ stand proud. This was a symbol of action; that each and everyone of us are responsible for learning about our shared histories and can play our own part in ‘taking action’ for a brighter and better future.
It was beautiful to be able to be in and out of rooms, listening to the conversations about our Indigenous culture on Thursday. I am looking forward to our Celebrations for NAIDOC Week at the beginning of Term 3!
May we walk with care and respect upon this land.
Mrs Rebecca Cook
Aboriginal Education Teacher
Awards - Congratulations to:
Office News
SCHOOL FEES
As you are aware we have moved to an annual billing cycle.
School fee statements have been sent out at the end of May. We ask that parents that have not yet returned their Payment Frequency Form please complete and return to the office as soon as possible.
We remind you that fee payments should have commenced by now and if paying by instalments we ask that accounts are finalised by 30 November 2021. If paying in full please finalise prior to 30 June 2021.
Payments can be made via BPay, direct debit or credit card. For families experiencing financial hardship, or wishing to discuss other payment arrangements please contact the office.
ENROLMENTS KINDER 2022
If you know of any families who are seeking enrolment at our school for Kinder 2022, could you please ask them to contact the school office as soon as possible to collect an enrolment pack.
Office of Safeguarding
CONDITIONS OF ENTRY TO OUR SCHOOL FOR VISITORS AND CONTRACTORS
COMPLAINTS RESOLUTION FOR PARENTS AND CARERS
CODE OF CONDUCT
Parking around the school
Please note the changes to parking rules within the Cessnock City Council area. The new rules come into effect on 17th August.
Canteen News
Thank you to all our volunteers who have completed the volunteer compliance requirements. We are grateful for the contribution you willingly give to our school community.
Since the introduction of QKR our sales on both Monday and Friday have increased, therefore we need more volunteers to help out in the canteen. If you have some free time on these days and would like to assist, please contact the office for details.
Dates for your diary
Community News
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