2nd November 2023
Principal News
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.”
Dear Families,
Wednesday is the first day of November, a month which begins with the celebration of all the saints and culminates is the feast of Christ the King. All Saints’ Day (also called All Hallows), is celebrated on 1st November in the Western Church. The feast of All Saints recognises all the saints, both known and unknown, in a single celebration. The present date of 1st November follows a tradition established in England and Ireland.
All Saints Day is celebrated by Christians from a number of different traditions. Because of our differing understandings of the identity and function of the saints, however, the liturgical practices associated with the feast vary. For Roman Catholics, All Saints is a day to remember, venerate, imitate and invoke the saints.
We remember and thank God for all saints, both dead and living and glorify Jesus Christ who by his life and death has made the saints holy through baptism and faith.
We venerate the saints as human beings transformed by the grace of God. When we celebrate the feast of a saint, we give glory to God who has done such wonderful things in the life of one of us.
We imitate the saints because they offer examples of how to be disciples of Christ.
We invoke the intercession of the saints in the sense that we ask them to pray for us, just as we might ask a friend or family member to pray for us.
Celebrating All Souls Day on the day after All Saints reminds us of those who have not yet achieved the goal of their pilgrimage, the Kingdom of Heaven. As part of the communion of saints, they need our prayers. This feast is an opportunity for us to pray in unity for our relatives and friends and for those who have no one to pray for them.
The feast of Christ the King which brings the liturgical year to a close was instituted by Pius IX in 1925 to mark the close of a Year of Jubilee. This feast should inspire all Christians with a sense of confident hope that Christ will come again as the supreme ruler over “a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love, and peace”. (Preface of Christ the King).
(Summary from Elizabeth Harrington Snr Liturgist Brisbane Liturgy Brisbaneliturgy.net.au)
Bush Dance Fun!
What a wonderful evening was had by all at our Bush Dance Family Fun Night! Our school was transformed by picnic blankets and picnics; the enticing scent of 300 sausages on the bbq; families and friends gathered together for a chat; toddlers in the sandpit; children running and climbing and having a fabulous time with each other out of school time; our staff all dressed in their country gear and a fabulous bush band sound played by The Bushwackers!
We hope that everyone enjoyed the children’s dances and had fun dancing with your child/children! We even saw a grandmother having such a great time she took off her high heels!
Our sincere thank to each family who came along to see the children proudly dance The Barn Dance, The Stockyards; The Heel and Toe Polka amongst others. It was planned as a social event for you, our families and we were thrilled so many of you could come along! It truly was a terrific atmosphere and we hope you may have had the chance to meet other families. We even had some of our new families for 2024 come along. My thanks again to our beautiful staff who worked so hard to get everything prepared and set up for the evening! We are blessed with a great team! Thank you for coming!
We would love to hear your ideas about other family events we may be able to host so please get in touch.
Grandparents Day
We do apologise for any inconvenience experienced by families and grandparents when we had to postpone the event due to the predicted wet weather. This was simply because we had such a huge number of adults respond that they wished to attend, that we did not have enough undercover spaces to keep everyone dry!
We would like to try again and extend an invitation to grandparents to come along on Thursday 23rd November for a liturgy, a visit to classrooms and an afternoon tea. Please see the flyer later in this bulletin.
Staff and Student Illnesses
These past few weeks we have experienced an increase in various viruses circulating amongst students and their families. We are very appreciative when parents do keep their children at home when they are unwell. If a child becomes unwell when at school such as excessive coughing; runny nose; stomach aches or headaches; vomiting etc, we will contact parents to inform you that your child is unwell and we respectfully request that your child be collected and taken home to recover. Our sick bay space is a very transient space and it is set up for short visits where your child’s complaint is checked and treated or, as above, where parents will be called.
Just as students become unwell, our staff have also experienced illness or their families have become sick and the staff member needs to care for themselves or their own family. In the current situation of the chronic teacher shortage, it does mean that there are times when we are unable to replace a class teacher with a casual teacher and if we are unable to make arrangements for another staff member to teach the class, that class may need to be split across the other classes for the day and complete an activity booklet. We do all that we can to minimise this happening as in our school. If parents have any questions around this, please get in touch so that I can have a conversation with you. We do thank you for your understanding and want you to know that splitting classes is our option only when all other options are exhausted.
Bus Travel and School Opal Card
This week and next week all students across the Diocese have been asked to ensure they “Tap on” with their opal card when they catch the bus. Many of our students never have a bus pass with them. Our teachers are now reminding the students to have their opal card ready before they get onto the bus each afternoon. This is due to the fact that the Diocese is in contact with all local bus companies to check that our Catholic schools have enough buses in place for all our students. If our students do not tap on, we have no data to review. If your child does not have a student travel card, please see below on how to apply. We would like to see all students using their opal cards.
Family And Community Meeting (F.A.C.E.)
Our term 4 parent meeting (Previously called PEG) was held at Holy Spirit Kurri last week on Tuesday evening. Both the Religious Education Coordinators Jessica and Phoebe, prepared a presentation about the new Religious Education Syllabus used in Kinder and Yr 1 at Abermain and the Yr 3 RE syllabus that Kurri trialled as a pilot school. The presentations outlined the new aspects of “An Encounter” which threads through the new syllabus written by teachers from our diocese. Both our REC’s also shared some of their experience during World Youth Day 2023 and their pilgrimage with other young people to the Holy Land.
We had one parent attendee and received one apology and whilst the meeting proceeded and we learnt from the REC’s presentation, it was disappointing for us. We really are keen to reach out and meet with parents and share an educational component of your choice with you. So far this year we have discussed ‘How do students learn to read and how do we teach reading at both schools’; ‘How do we teach subtraction K-6’ and this last one where the focus was on ‘Religious Education’ and what is taught. Paul O’Heir and I have agreed that we will in future send out an RSVP to parents prior to the meeting. Perhaps the Tuesday evening isn’t a popular evening; perhaps the timing of 6pm isn’t great or perhaps our parents are happy with what their children are learning about across both schools and prefer not to come along? We will send out a survey early term 1 to gather your thoughts about future meetings. If you do have any topics that you’d like to learn more about, please email me via admin@abermain.catholic.edu.au as we’d love to hear what you’re interested in. Thank you.
13 November – World Kindness Day
World Kindness Day – Have you considered volunteering?
Monday 13th November is World Kindness Day. Kindness has the power to change the world. We all have the power to make people happy. We do this in our actions and our words. Examples include giving someone a compliment, saying hello and genuinely asking people how they are going.
Volunteering our time is another way of being kind, and having our parents volunteer at our school is one way to make your children (our students) very happy. You could volunteer in the canteen – Wednesday for ice blocks and Fridays for lunches; be part of class reading groups; help staff safely conduct the AQUACOLOUR FUN RUN etc.
If you have ever considered volunteering at our school, please click on the link below.
Trialling a change at Recess Time
This week we have switched around our processes at the second break, or recess break each day. When the bell goes at 1.25pm students are able to go straight to play. Then another bell goes to indicate its time to gather their recess snack food and water bottle and the students then sit with friends and eat their recess. A reminder bell tells students it’s time for a toilet break and a drink and to line up ready for class. This new process is planned to allow students to play and get some energy out then eat (many had decided not to eat so they could play) and walk back into their classrooms for the afternoon session calm and ready to learn. We are trialing this process and will seek feedback from staff and the students in coming weeks.
Assessments
This time in term four is when teachers are gathering data from assessments and standardised assessments to be able to track each student’s learning gains across the year. These results are then recorded and will be shared with your child’s 2024 teacher in a handover later this term. Parents and grandparents are respectfully requested to please minimise the amount of time your child/grandchild is out of school as every day away means important learning time is lost.
Diane Murphy, Principal.
Assistant Principal News
Positive Behaviour for Learning
Our PBL focus for Weeks 5 and 6 this term is from the domain “I am responsible”:
“I care for the school environment!”
At Holy Spirit Infants School, we encourage our students to demonstrate pride in our school by caring for the school environment. This involves:
- Putting rubbish in the bin;
- Packing up our equipment and returning it to the correct place;
- Picking up our own belongings and placing them back in our bags; and
- Keeping our classroom environment neat and tidy.
Caring for our school environment contributes to our feeling of pride and ultimately our sense of belonging.
AquaColour Fun Run
On Friday 17th November Holy Spirit Infants School be holding an AquaColour Fun Run commencing at 10 am. Students will be sprayed with Holi Powder in a variety of bright colours as they participate in our water themed obstacle course. Notes and sponsorship forms were handed to students yesterday.
This event is a school fundraiser and the money raised will contribute to the purchasing of new iPads for our school. To participate, students must collect sponsors and bring their sponsorship form on the day. All sponsorship money will need to be collected after the event and returned to school no later than Friday 8th December. We appreciate your generous support.
It will be a day of fun, colour and excitement!
Rebecca Kearns - Assistant Principal.
Sharing Our Faith
FACE Meeting Summary - New RE Curriculum
Last Tuesday 24th October, we held our Family and Community Engagement Meeting (formerly PEG). The evening had myself and Phoebe Spencer (REC from Holy Spirit Kurri Kurri) present on the new Religious Education Curriculum. We discussed the focus of the new curriculum, the pedagogy that is used, what topics and themes are covered, as well as discussing our pilgrimage to the Holy Land and how we are able to incorperate that into the new curriculum.
Please consider coming to our next FACE meeting as it is a great opportunity for you to find out in depth about what is going on at school. We ask you what you would like to find out more about and tailor these meetings to you, so please think of coming along next time. A survey will come out soon for you to indicate when best suits you.
Here is a snippet of what you missed:
The Themes & Topics of the Kinder and Year 1 Curriculum
The Holy Land pilgrimage embedded in the Curriculum
Many of the sites that we saw are places that we teach about in our curriculums. One way that we are incorperating this into our curriculum is by embedding the photos and videos into the programs. For example you can see below we have a lesson on the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan, and a lesson on the story - a Hole in the Roof. I have embedded pictures of what the river looks like so students can have a real life connection. And with the Hole in the Roof story, many students think St. Peter's house is a house like we have, but infact it is not, it is a stone house that looks quite different.
Grandparents Day - NEW DATE
We have a new date for our Grandparents Day celebrations - Thursday 23rd November! Thank you again for your understanding on our postponement due to the weather.
We look forward to celebrating our Grandparents and Grandfriends for Grandparents Day. We will have a liturgy in the Church at 1:30pm followed by afternoon tea with scones and tea/coffee. Please note the adjusted time.
We look forward to celebrating with you all!
Term 4 Family Mass
Our Term 4 Family Mass will be on Sunday 26th November at 4:30pm, The Feast of Christ the King. Students are invited to come dressed in royal colours for this mass in gold, red or purple.
There will be opportunities for students to participate in the mass through music, readings or offertory.
Please email Miss Laczkowski at: jessica.laczkowski@mn.catholic.edu.au to RSVP and please inform if your child would like to do a special job.
All are welcome!
St. Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal
During Term 4 we focus our fundraising on St. Vincent de Paul and their Christmas appeal. We are supporting families who are struggling in the cost of living crisis to have some joy this Chrismas season through donating items for Christmas hampers. These hampers will include non-perishable food items that will allow these families to experience a Christmas meal that they wouldn't have otherwise.
Over the term, each grade is asked to bring in different items outlined below which we will then donate to the Cessnock Vinnies Conference in December.
Thank you for your support!
Parish Mass Times
Saturday 4th November
9:00am Mass - Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
6:00pm Mass - St. Josephs, Cessnock
Sunday 5th November
8:30am Mass - Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
10:30am Mass - St. Joseph's, Cessnock
4:30pm Mass - St. Francis Xavier's, Abermain
Saturday 11th November
9:00am Mass - St. Joseph's, Cessnock
6:00pm Mass - St. Joseph's, Cessnock
Sunday 12th November
8:30am Mass - Holy Spirit, Kurri Kurri
10:30am Mass - St. Joseph's, Cessnock
4:30pm Mass - St. Michael the Aarchangel, Wollombi
4:30pm Liturgy of the Word - St. Francis Xavier's, Abermain
Bush Dance
Well done to our students for showcasing their very best dancing at the Holy Spirit Bush Dance.
It was fantastic to see so many children, parents and siblings dressed up and making the most of a school community event.
The Bushwackers band were very impressed with our dance moves and hope to return to Holy Spirit in the future.
Thank you for your support in making this event a success.
Meagan Edwards
Awards: Congratulations to....
Canteen News
Pizza Meal Deal is now open for ordering on QKR. On Wednesdays we will continue to sell iceblocks during the lunch time break.
Dates for your Diary
Community News
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This event will be beneficial in showcasing what our local community has to offer in the disability sector and assisting families with the NDIS process.
