29th June 2023
Principal News
"So great is the strength we possess in our unity." Mary MacKillop 1874
Dear Parents and Carers,
It was a delight to see so many of our parents/carers coming along to our Student Led Conferences last week. There were so many students who were skipping and smiling as they left the school with their parents after their first conference! I'm sure you were so proud of their efforts! Whilst some students were confident and eager to share, we know that others may have been a little unsure and needed more support from their teachers but overall - it went very well. We had over 94% of our parents/carers come along to see, hear and encourage their child/children to lead a conversation about their own learning. They each did their very best for their first time. The Student Led Conference is certainly a different format to what parents may be used to or have expected, and I am so proud of the students and grateful to teachers for preparing the children to share the great things happening in classrooms across the school. I am appreciative that so many parents/carers attended to actively support their children. Educating your children is a partnership which both parents and teachers actively engage in.
Why did we try Student Led Conferences?
The process of communicating the progress of students to parents/carers must involve students in a meaningful way. Having students lead a conference with parents is a way to maximise their involvement. The involvement of students in the conferencing process promotes three elements essential to improving student achievement at school:
- Relevance - why we are teaching what we are teaching to students
- Responsibility- making students become more responsible for learning
- Reporting to parents in a dynamic way how students are progressing in learning
Successful student led conferences require changes in the roles of the teacher, student and parent/carer have played in traditional parent/teacher conferencing.
In our model, teachers become facilitators, students become leaders and parents become active listeners and questioners. The concept of using a game board was to keep the conferences child centred and interactive and to support each child as they moved through the squares on the board.
Our teachers had lots of positive feedback about the process and valued the opportunity to support each child to be at the very centre of the sharing of their efforts, work samples they were proud of (and which they themselves chose to share) and their goals which they are working toward achieving.
The life skills being developed through this model can not be underestimated. Next term we would like to have some feedback from parents via a google survey. Please keep your eye out for the link in our next newsletter.
Congratulations to Fr James for his 25th Silver Jubilee Anniversary of Priesthood
Last wekend Vineyards Parish held a celebration to mark Fr James' 25 years in the priesthood. Fr James was surrounded by parishioners who provided a wonderful morning tea to celebrate the special occasion. Our school made a little book of class prayers thanking God for Fr James and his ministry to us here at Holy Spirit Infants. The prayers were illustrated by some of the children and our thanks to River KB, Sophie KW, Archie 1W, Charlotte 1B, Ryka 2B and Khloe 2W for their terrific drawings. Fr James loved our prayers and we also gave the gift of a new jumper from our school. He sends his thanks and blessings to us all. We ask for God's blessing on Fr James as he continues his ministry.
Staffing for Term 3
During the first few weeks of term 3, Miss Laczkowski will be participating in a pilgrimage following in the footsteps of Jesus in Israel and then on to Lisbon, Portugal for the world celebration of World Youth Day. We look forward to all that Miss L will bring back with her to share with our school community. During her absence, Mr Flynn will teach KB fulltime and we are appreciative that this will provide consistency for the class who already have him as their teacher one day a week. Miss L will be away from Monday Week 2 to Friday Week 4.
With Mr Flynn moving across to teach Kinder Blue, we have Mrs Beukes teaching Yr 2 Blue on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the majority of the time to take his place. The children know Mrs Beukes.
Winter Uniform Reminders
A gentle reminder please about the students' winter uniform and our school’s expectations. We need your support to discourage the wearing of necklaces, bracelets or dangly earrings- please ensure your child saves these accessories for wearing on the weekend or the holiday times.
We have noticed quite a few students wearing beanies to school during this cold weather. Whilst we understand the need to keep warm, it is important to note that any beanie worn needs to be in line with our school uniform. This means a plain beanie, with no logos, that is blue or grey. They should not be worn in the classroom.
Long hair does need to be tied up for any student with a long fringe or hair longer than a shirt collar. We do ask that if hair accessories are worn, they are either navy, royal blue or white ribbon/scrunchie. Hair dye or sprayed coloured hair have no place in our Infants School setting. Thank you for sending your child to school looking smart!
Do you have some ideas about our uniform?
It is time for us to review our current uniform and look to include some alternate uniform options for our students. We need a small committee of parents/carers willing to work with me to get some changes made.
Currently the girls have a summer uniform (dress) and I am keen to investigate the possibility of introducing additional options such as shorts and a blouse for summer. This is not changing the girls summer uniform, but rather adding in another option such as shorts and a blouse.
The current sport uniform - the shirt and style of shorts also needs to be reviewed and updated in terms of the materials used and the colours/design. Many parents have mentioned the skorts waistbands are too short/tight; the sport shirt material is too heavy for summer and given this uniform is great but quite old now, there is likely better materials with UV protection etc that could be used.
Changing a uniform takes time as we have a specific consultative process to undertake and any changes would need to be supported by the majority of current parents. A survey of parents needs to be undertaken.
Further, any new uniform items would need to be phased in over time and we would work with our supplier to see when items can be made/shipped and able to be purchased.
Interested? Please contact the office and we will be in touch early Term 3.
Kinder 2024 Interviews
Our enrolment interviews for next year are well underway and we plan to send out offers of places on the last day of term. We are planning to hold some informal playgroup sessions in August/September for new kinders and follow up with our four transition visits to school in October and early November. If any families have not yet returned their paperwork, please so do quickly.
Volunteers for Morning Reading Groups
Our teachers would like to invite parents/grandparent helpers in to assist with Reading Groups each morning. 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 really helpful.
Our Volunteers will need to undertake the process to be able to be on site and working with our children and it can take some time for police checks to come through. We are here to help you with applying for these checks and it may be an idea to start that process now. If you'd like to help out in the classrooms, please let us know via email to admin@abermain.catholic.edu.au or give us a phone call and leave your details with preferred days with Dot or Bonney.
We welcome our parents and grandparents as partners in learning at Holy Spirit Infants! Thank you to our Year 1 Parent Helpers this term.
Term 3 Public Speaking Focus
Next term we will once again have Public Speaking as a focus for developing skills and confidence in our students. Public speaking is a life long skill where students learn 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 previous years we will again host class speeches, then grade speeches and then Stage speeches with finalists being invited to attend the Regional Public Speaking event. Our school will host the event on 22nd August in our school hall and winners of each stage will be invited to progress to the Diocesan Public Speaking Event the following week. It’s a great chance for the children to put all those persuasive techniques they use on parents at the checkouts when wanting a treat, to good use.
Sport News
Regional Athletics Carnival:
Congratulations to our Regional Athletics Team who will compete at the Lower Hunter Regional Carnival (with our 10 Catholic Primary Schools in the region) at Maitland Athletics Track on 18th July. We will sit with Holy Spirit Kurri on the day and Ms Murphy will be the Team Manager.
We wish them the best of luck and are very proud of you:
200m Ryka
100m Jett; McKewan; Hudson G; Evie; Chloe W; Ivie
Basketball:
This term we once again partnered with the terrific staff from Cessnock Basketball and the students have thoroughly enjoyed their weekly lessons involving skills learnt through fun games. There have been some very fancy moves on show and our sincere thanks to Daniel for another excellent program. The students’ have grown in self confidence and hand eye coordination through this program. Many have some fancy ball skills to show you!
Dance:
Term 3 will see each class learning some bush dances during their sport lessons and we are planning a special 'Bush Dance Family Fun Event' to be held at school in early term 4. Hold onto those flanelette shirts everyone!
Grade Sharing Assemblies:
Thank you to the parents/grandparents able to come along to our grade sharing assemblies this term – we hope you have enjoyed watching them as much as the students have enjoyed preparing them to showcase all that they have learnt so far. We know that not every parent is able to attend and so we do hope that the photos we share on our new facebook page and via this newsletter are helpful for you. Congratulations to the children and their teachers for being so creative in the ways in which they proudly shared their learning - its been amazing!
School Holidays and Screen Time:
As we head to two weeks of school holidays I'd like to share with parents this vimeo about putting safety fences around technology use by young children. It may be easy to allow your child to have some additional screen time during the break given they are on holidays, but please be mindful to ensure that what your child is accessing is safe for them; age appropriate; is not linked to your credit card for any unplanned in game purcahses and that screen time is for a period of time that is set by you, their parent. The vimeo is only a few minutes long and I do hope its helpful.
We have had a truly fabulous term of learning at Holy Spirit Infants with many more terrific things yet to come! Thank you to our volunteers on the canteen, at excursions, in reading groups or helping with Mother's day - we cannot operate without you. Thanks to Mr Pat Sharkey our Parishioner and long time volunteer who generously gives of his time to 'fix' things around the school; to Mr Trevor Shakespeare our cleaner and maintenance person for his tireless efforts around the school and to Mr Michael Spencer who looks after our grass and grounds so well and ensures our school looks its best!
Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday break!
Warm Regards
Diane Murphy
Sharing our Faith
World Youth Day 2023
Next Term, I am lucky enough to be attending World Youth Day with a group of 40 young people and teachers. This event will be held in Lisbon, Portugal where we will gather with millions of other young Catholics and be joined by Pope Francis. Before the week-long event, our Diocesan contingent will be travelling through the Holy Land in the footsteps of Jesus. It will be an opportunity to see significant sites and have a glimpse into where Jesus lived and performed his ministry. I am looking forward to the opportunity to grow my faith more throughout this time and to deepen my understanding of Jesus Christ. Bringing back what I have learnt and experienced with our school community on my return.
I will be away from Week 2 - 4. During this time, Mr. Brodie Flynn will be taking Kindergarten Blue. I will be back in Week 5, very excited to share my trip with you.
Family Mass
On Sunday the 18th June, we celebrated our Term 2 Family Mass at St. Francis Xavier’s Church Abermain. Thank you to all those families who were able to make it. On the evening, we had two priests presiding, Fr James and Fr Hugh. Fr Hugh gave the homily where he spoke to us about how important it is to spend time with Jesus, just like how we spend time with our friends.
Well done to our beautiful readers, you did an amazing job and to our students who sang and did the actions to Holy Spirit Rock. The parish community loved having our school community join them for this special mass. Stay tuned for our Term 3 Family Mass date and we hope to see you there!
St. Mary of the Cross Mackillop Liturgy
In Week 4 of next term, Tuesday 8th August, we will be celebrating the feast of Saint Mary of the Cross Mackillop. The liturgy will be in the church at 2:00pm with Year 1 White leading us.
If any family is interested in finding out more information about the Sacrament of Baptism within our Parish, please contact Ms Murphy or Miss L and we will be happy to assist you.
Parish Mass Times
Saturday 1st July
9:00am Mass – Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
6:00pm Mass – St. Joseph’s, Cessnock
Sunday 2nd July
8:30am Mass – Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
10:30am Mass – Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
4:30pm Mass – St. Francis Xavier’s, Abermain
Saturday 8th July
9:00am Mass – St. Joseph’s, Cessnock
6:00pm Mass – St. Joseph’s, Cessnock
Sunday 9th July
8:30am Mass – Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
10:30am Mass – St. Joseph’s, Cessnock
4:30pm Liturgy of the Word – St. Francis Xavier’s, Abermain
4:30pm Mass – St. Michael the Archangel, Wollombi
Saturday 15th July
9:00am Mass – Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
6:00pm Mass – St. Joseph’s, Cessnock
Sunday 16th July
8:30am Mass – Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
10:30am Mass – St. Joseph’s Cessnock
4:30pm Mass – St. Francis Xavier’s, Abermain
Yours in faith,
Miss Jessica Laczkowski
Religious Education Coordinator
Science Show
On Monday, 19th June 'Jolly Bops' visited Holy Spirit Infants to engage the children in science experiments with an Aboriginal Perspective. The show entitled 'Flight, Fire and Sound' looked at the scientific principles behind some of the great inventions and environmental understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.The children were able to gain an understanding of the science behind a returning Boomerang, learn about the Didgeridoo (Yidaki) and find out about the inventions of one of the great Aboriginal Scientists and Leaders David Unaipon (Face of the $50 note). A great afternoon was had by everyone involved and lots of new knowledge was taken away from the show.
Ashlee Edwards
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Teacher
NAIDOC Week
During the school holidays from Sunday, 2nd July to Sunday, 9th July 2023 people all around Australia will be celebrating NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC Week is a time to celebrate the histories, cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It’s held each year and is an important annual event where everyone’s invited to join in the celebrations.
This year the 2023 theme is For Our Elders.
Across every generation, our Elders have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in our communities and families. They are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones.
Please click the link below to find NAIDOC celebrations and activities in the Cessnock Council Area.
Kinder News
A Reflection on Term 3
This Term Kindergarten have been busy making great leaps in their learning!
In our English lessons we have learnt about more letters and sounds and are almost through the whole alphabet. We enjoy all the hand actions that help us remember our sounds. When writing, we have been focusing on sentence structure, making sure to include important aspects such as capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. This past fortnight saw us learning about Possums from our storybook 'Possum Goes to School' and writing about these animals.
In Maths, we have learnt about counting, addition, patterns, and our favourite time! This week when learning about time and clocks we got to go outside for our lesson and make our own clocks using natural materials we found on the playground. We then got to use sticks to make different times on our clock.
All of this was so much fun, and we enjoyed sharing it with you at our grade sharing assembly and during our student led conferences.
Well done and Happy Holidays Kindergarten!
Miss Laczkowski, Miss Pryor & Mr Flynn
100 Days of Kindergarten
We are coming up to 100 days of Kindergarten for our students and we will be celebrating this occasion on Tuesday 25th July. We have lots of fun activities planned for the day. We would like to invite our Kindergarten students to dress up like they are 100 years old. Get creative with some glasses, grey hair and outfits! Enclosed shoes suitable for school will still need to be worn on this day. We look forward to seeing you all dressed up!
Could parents please send in some pre-packaged party food for your child to share with the class for our party we will have on the day. Thank you.
Year 1 News
Reflection on Grade Assembly
In Year 1, we have been very busy in our classrooms and in preparing for our grade assembly. During writing we have been working on writing a well-structured piece of writing that includes noun groups and prepositional phrases. Our reading is improving each week as we participate in reading groups and use our learnt spelling rules. Thank you to our wonderful parents who supported us in reading groups this term.
In Maths we have been learning about number combinations and counting on from two-digit numbers. We have learnt how to estimate and measure length, area and volume. With a science and geography focus, 1Blue and 1White visited the Wetlands in Shortland to learn about more about living things and their habitats. The Year 1 Grade Assembly reflected our learning from this term, and we had a fantastic time showing our families what we have been learning in class this term. Our children worked extremely well in being organised and ready to show their work.
It has been a wonderful term!
Mrs Porter-Kay and Miss Elias
Year 2 News
Year 2 students have had a fantastic term filled with various engaging activities. The highlight of their term was undoubtedly the exhilarating grade assembly, where they showcased their talents and skills to the entire school community.
In their English lessons, the students delved into the fascinating world of turtles, crafting informative texts that captivated their readers. They honed their writing skills by emphasizing the importance of punctuation and paragraphs, ensuring their work was not only informative but also well-structured and coherent.
Mathematics was another area where Year 2 shone brightly. They delved into division and multiplication, practising these fundamental operations with enthusiasm. Through interactive exercises and hands-on activities, they strengthened their understanding of these concepts and developed valuable problem-solving skills.
Overall, Year 2 students have demonstrated tremendous growth and enthusiasm this term. They have shown a remarkable ability to apply their learning across various subjects, showcasing their creativity, diligence, and determination. Both classes have really excelled at developing their basketball skills through drills and games this term.
As the term comes to a close, they can be proud of their achievements and look forward to new and exciting learning opportunities in the future.
Mrs Kreutzer, Mr Flynn and Mrs Kearns
Office News
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 or change your number, that you stay connected with the school by notifying us. If you do experience any issues, kindly contact Dot or Bonney to assist you.
Canteen News
Tomorrow is meal deal day, please send in your child's lunch wallet so that their order can be distributed efficiently.
Thank you to the many volunteers who have generously given their time in Term 2 to support our school. The canteen will continue to operate on Fridays in Term 3.
Price increases for Term 3
Due to supply cost increases, iceblocks will be going up to $2 and Custard Cups will be $1 from the first canteen day in Term 3.
For those volunteers wanting to brush up on their accreditation, please click on the link below. The My Alert food prep course is through the Cessnock City Council. Volunteers have to sign up to do the course. It is not compulsory and it takes about 1.5 hours to complete but worth while.
Awards: Congratulations to....
Award Winners
Athletics Awards
Dates for your Diary
Community News
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Discover More These School Holidays
Celebrate NAIDOC Week and our feathered friends with Newcastle Libraries these holidays!
Enjoy First Nations stories with Uncle Amos Simon from Muurrung Marai and Sarah Corrigan from Rainbow Crow Cultural Collective or go on a guided Aboriginal Cultural Walk at Blackbutt Reserve with a National Parks and Wildlife Services Ranger.
Start a nature journal with local natural history illustrator Henrietta Mooney, learn more about our shorebirds with National Parks and Wildlife Services, or come and enjoy stories, songs and games.
Our program is not just for the kids – come and join the fun with Young Adult Book Bingo and Minute to Win It games.
Discover more school holiday fun and book your FREE tickets!
School holidays sorted with eAudiobooks!
Allow young minds to float off into another world of imagination and adventure these school holidays with eAudiobooks.Whether you're hitting the road or jetting off, these captivating stories are the perfect travel companions to keep kids engaged and entertained on the go. Download Libby in iOS or Android and browse Junior and Young Adult titles they'll love.