17th June 2021

Principal News

Dear Parents and Carers,

We hope you and your family enjoyed an extra long weekend.

This year Pope Francis decreed is the Year of St Joseph, Patron of the Universal Church and I began reflecting on St Joseph, the father figure for Our Lord Jesus and the husband of Mary. He was, we are told, a protector of his family and the provider for his family. We are told he was a quiet man and a man who trusted in God's providence. He was also a "carpenter" but not so much working with wood, he worked more with stone, like a stone mason at that time in history. Joseph and his family fled to Egypt, away from the persecution by King Herod. Joseph and his young family, took a dangerous journey, and faced enormous pressure and trauma, like some of our ancestors. Many challenges and struggles were endured in order to provide a safe and secure future for their children. Listening to migrants and refugees can help us to appreciate Joseph and Mary’s own experience and increase our understanding of Pope Francis’ call to respond to the needs of our new neighbours so that together “we” can continue to create an ever greater “us”.

For the holy family, settling in a new place was just the beginning. Soon Joseph would discover that
being separated from home and immediate family meant that the fundamental means of social
support was no longer available. Joseph and Mary would also have had a sense of being
strangers stranded in a new place under an unknown local language and with unfamiliar
cultures and customs. As a family still dealing with the trauma of flight and estrangement, those
challenges would have impacted heavily on Joseph, Mary and Jesus. Similar conditions and
circumstances continue to confront the 80 million refugees and displaced people today, 2000 years on. 

A generous, hospitable spirit reflects the universality of our Church and contributes to her enrichment and growth. “In encountering the diversity of foreigners, migrants and refugees, and in the intercultural dialogue that can emerge from this encounter, we have an opportunity to grow as Church and to enrich one another,” Pope Francis. 

(Adapted from Fr Khalid Marogi is the Director of the Australian Catholic Migrant & Refugee Office)        

Next week 20th-27th June 2021, is Refugee Week held to raise awareness about refugees and to celebrate the contributions made by refugees to Australian society. It was initiated by the Refugee Council of Australia and is held every year in June to coincide with World Refugee Day on 20 June. The theme for 2021 is....UNITY. This common theme is a reminder that, regardless of our differences, we all share a common humanity.

Parent Teacher Interviews Begin

Thank you to all parents/carers who booked a meeting with their child/children's teachers over the next week. Either face to face, via Zoom or over the phone, our teachers are looking forward to sharing with you your child's learning successes so far and any areas for development. If you missed the booking times on Compass and would like an interview time, please contact the office. We have planned to have our PT Interviews earlier than Holy Spirit Kurri so that parents are not rushing between the two schools. Your children have really achieved so many great things this semester! 

Compass Connection 

A reminder that at Holy Spirit Infants we utilise Compass as our main tool for communication with families. Please ensure if you update your phone that you can stay connected with the school. If you do experience any issues, kindly contact Dot or Lesley to assist you. 

Professional Development Day for Teachers Friday 10th June

Last Friday our teachers engaged in valuable Professional Development about various types of assessment and we had a strong and rigorous discussion about how we provide feedback to our students K-2. We spoke at length about Assessment for learning (Formative Assessment); Assessment As learning (Diagnostic Assessment) and Assessment of Learning (Summative Assessment) and the important role these different types of assessment play in developing a students' knowledge, skills and understanding. Not all assessment is a "test" as such. It’s about a teacher knowing the students in their class well and ensuring prior knowledge and understanding is checked before launching into an enquiry based unit of learning. We do not want students having to listen to things they already know and understand. Assessment of the learning might be by teacher observation where a teacher listens and sees how a student is working. The teacher observes a students' problem solving skills; their processing of tasks...it’s not always about the end product. Assessment of Learning is an opportunity for the student to demonstrate what they have learnt over the course of an investigation. 

The work we do in the Leading Learning Collaborative where lessons begin with a Learning Intention (what are we learning and why) and a set of Success Criteria (how will I know if I’ve achieved success) is an agreed practice K-2 across our school. Since embedding this into our daily teaching, teachers reported our students have a sharper and more precise focus in their learning. It’s working very well. We use the work of Dr Lyn Sharrat and also the work of Dylan Wiliam (an Australian academic and experienced educator) to inform our practices.  Our day involved lots of input from Educative Experts and discussions on the implementation of these practices in our school. 

On Friday our Executive Team- Mrs Edwards, Mrs Porter, myself and Mrs Cook presented our work to Dr Lyn Sharrat via a Teams meeting. She was in her home in Canada and in our meeting were four other Catholic Schools in our diocese as well as Mr Gerard Mowbray the Director of Schools and other Catholic Schools Office personnel. At the end of our ten minute video presentation, our work was described as being "Stellar" by Lyn, a world renowned Educative Researcher and Author whose work permeates all our Diocesan schools. We were very proud! Our day was very productive with great learning by all staff. 

When you visit classrooms, you will see the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria written in our classrooms. You'll also see "Bump It Up" Walls which show examples to our students of the requirements for them to gain a good to great writing sample. 

Winter Uniform Reminders 

We still have over a week of lessons and school days this term and a gentle reminder please about the students' winter uniform. We need your support to discourage the wearing of necklaces and bracelets - please ensure your child saves these accessories for wearing on the weekend or the holiday times.

Long hair does need to be tied up and we do ask that if hair accessories are worn, they are either navy, royal blue or white ribbon/scrunchie rather than a brightly coloured bow. Hair dye or coloured hair also has no place in our Infants School setting. 

In our uniform policy it does state that radical hairstyles are not ok for school and whilst it may be fashionable for shaved sides of the head and a mullet hairstyle it is just a fad. I do thank our parents who have changed their child's hairstyle according to the school policy. If you feel you'd like to discuss this with me further, you are welcome to do so. Please contact our school. 

Kinder 2022 Interviews

Yesterday we sent out our invitation to an enrolment interview for our applicants for Kinder 2022. These were sent via email (we felt that sending via post may take too long). We are excited to meet the children and their families who have made application for our school. These interviews will take place across July and August, Term 3. Thank you to our parents who have already responded to the invitation. It enables us to make changes to the arrangements if they do not suit our family's needs. Interviews are for approximately 25 minutes and are the second step in our Enrolment Process. Then we will undertake visits to Preschools to talk with the teachers there. Offers of a place will be made in mid August. We hope this year, as we did in 2019, to offer some playgroup days in September if our building work is complete and then we will host our transition to school visits across various dates in November. It's a very exciting time meeting new families! 

Volunteers for Reading Groups and Gardening Group

Our teachers would like to invite parents/grandparent helpers in to assist with Reading Groups and we'd also like to start a gardening group next term. Would you be interested? Teachers will send home in Week 1 a list of days and dates across the term when they would like some Reading Helpers. You may like to commit for once a week; once a fortnight or once a month...its all helpful. Our Volunteers will need to undertake the process to be able to be on site and working with our children and this can take some time for police checks and wwc clearances to come through. We are here to help you with that. If you'd like to help, please let us know via email or phone call and leave your details with Dot. We welcome our parents and grandparents as partners in learning at Holy Spirit Infants - we have surely missed you! 

Special thanks to Maria (Grandmother of James and Lewis) who has volunteered her time and talent to work as a tutor under the Intensive Tutor Program this term. We are so appreciative of all Maria brings to share with the students- her wealth of teacher knowledge, her enthusiasm and great big smile! The program is going very well. We are blessed - thank you Maria. 

Excursions and Incursions

Our teachers have been busy planning their grade excursions for Semester 2 and we will also be heading on buses as a whole school to see "Zoom- A lost Star finds its way home" presented by Patch Theatre, a high tech presentation at the Cessnock School of Performing Arts .

We have a visit to school from an African Drumming Group early in the term as well. 

Term 3 Public Speaking 

Next term we will once again have Public Speaking as a focus for developing skills and confidence in our students with this life long skill of learning to share an opinion, persuade an audience and use humour and other elements when writing and then delivering a speech. the children will learn about the importance of eye contact, stance, gesture and voice projection. As in years prior to 2020, we will again host class speeches, then grade speeches and then Stage speeches with finalists being invited to attend the Regional Public Speaking event which will be at Rosary Park Branxton for 2021.  

Term 4 Showcase/Musical 

We are in the midst of firming up our specialist staff to assist us with the preparation for our planned Performance this year in October. It will be held at The Cessnock School of Performing Arts and we hope to do two shows - a matinee and then an evening performance. Our 2019 showcase was wonderful and although its means lots of rehearsals, we believe its all worth it. Mrs Fawcett our Specialist Music Teacher and Mrs Shakespeare have created a terrific script and we hope to begin learning the songs and drama scripts week 1 next term. More news in our Term 3 newsletter in July. 

We have so much to look forward to in semester 2. Have a wonderful week ahead and we hope the children all enjoy the upcoming school holiday winter break and return to school relaxed and refreshed for term 3. If any parent/carers would like to touch base about anything that you think we could be doing better or any ideas you may have, please contact me at the school. 

Kind Regards,

Diane Murphy Principal        

Acting Assistant Principal News

Term 2 has been a term filled with excitement and achievements! Semester 1 reports were made live on Compass this week. We hope the students reports providing you with an insight into your child’s education. We look forward to meeting with you across this week and next in a parent teacher conference.

PBL

Our school is a Positive Behaviour for Learning School. The PBL framework assists schools to improve social, emotional, behavioural, and academic outcomes for children and young people.

Our Positive Behaviour for learning focus for weeks 9 and 10 is ‘I use safe hands, safe feet, and safe words’ This focus contributes to becoming a safe learner.

We teach the children that by keeping their hands and feet to themselves, we are keeping each other safe.

Each Monday the teachers introduce the PBL at morning assembly. In class time we talk about what this focus looks like and how we can show apply theses skills in different situations across the school. The following Monday a class reinforces this message by role playing the PBL focus.

When children are seen or heard following the PBL, they can receive Gotchas and select children who consistently follow this PBL focus are awarded with merit certificates at assembly.

SPORTING ACHIEVEMENTS

Congratulations to the children from year 2 who participated in the Holy Spirit Primary Kurri Kurri athletics carnival. You each represented our school proudly and many of you left the day with a ribbon. Well done!! Ashton J and Noah B also came first and second place in the junior boys 1500m race trials held recently. Great job!

The Regional Athletics Carnival will take place next Friday 25th June and we wish our team all the very best! Good luck: Ashton J, Noah B, Xanthe and Kade.

I wish everyone a happy and relaxing term break! Stay warm and enjoy the time with your family. God bless you!

Courtney Porter, Acting Assistant Principal

Acting Religious Education News

Winter Wednesday was very successful at Holy Spirit Infants!! Kinder White loved wearing their beanies and were toasty warm all day. 

Due to your generosity, we have filled shopping bags with food donations ready to give to St Vincent de Paul along with a monetary donation. Thank you for your wonderful support of this event.  

This fortnight our Fruit of the Spirit focus is love. Love is probably the most well-known fruit of the Spirit, but it also may be the most misunderstood.  

Love is at the heart of everything that we do, the love that we show for our families in what we do for them, the love that we show for our friends and the love that we show for ourselves.  

Love is a powerful action. We seek wholeness in the love of God. We pursue it in a lifelong companion. We give it selflessly to our children and withhold it from our enemies. Love is an action we take part in daily. 

How can you love well? Find truth to pierce your heart and mind, whether it be in loving God, family, your enemy, or yourself, just to name a few.  

It is love that changes the world!! 

Meagan Edwards, Acting REC

Awards: Congratulations to -

Canteen News

Thank you to those who responded to the call for assistance in the canteen for Term 3.  Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Dates for your Diary

Community News