30th November 2023
Principal News
Alleluia, alleluia!
Lord, show us your mercy and love,
and grant us your salvation.
Alleluia!
Dear Families,
The Holy Season of Advent
Advent, from the Latin word adventus, means coming. During the four weeks before Christmas we look forward to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as king and judge at the end of time and to our Christmas celebration of his coming as our Saviour 2,000 years ago.
During the first weeks of Advent, which begins this Sunday, we reflect on Christ as our coming king and our judge; we wait in joyful hope for his return in glory to complete his work on earth.
Beginning on December 17, we join with the prophets and the people of God who looked forward to the birth of the Messiah. We express our longing for God’s mercy, and grow more aware of our need for this saving help.
Advent is a Season of Renewal
During Advent, we express our great longing for God. Who are we without God? Apart from Christ we can do nothing (John 15.5). We prepare ourselves and wait for God’s coming. We open our hearts to Jesus in prayer, and show by our actions each day that we are his. We try to love other people more, and to be more patient and understanding. We pray for others, especially those who are close to us, and ask God to help them to grow in love.
During Advent we are invited to change our lives and our hearts. God wants us to prepare for his coming by doing good. Each day we should look at our faults and weaknesses and ask our Father to help us to follow Jesus more closely.
Advent is a Season of Hope
Advent brings hope, because Jesus is always ready to help us to grow. He has conquered sin and selfishness by his obedient death and by his rising; he can help us to change our lives for the better. If we want to grow closer to him, and pray and work to improve, Jesus will help us to change for him.
Advent is a Season of Joy
We are followers of Jesus, who is the king of glory. We are happy because he is our king, and we are his brothers and sisters. We rejoice because God is our dear Father and because the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts. We are happy because Jesus wants to give us his peace and let us share his joy now and in heaven forever.
Advent is not a time of penance like Lent. It is a season of renewal, when God invites us to let Jesus come into our hearts and make us more like him. It is a season of quiet expectation; we live it in the expectation of the fullness of joy to come.
Let us embrace this Advent Season as a school community as we share joy, hope, prayer and create a sense of renewal with one another. May God Bless you!
I would like to also thank the staff, parish and our families for keeping my mother in your thoughts and prayers. My family is very grateful indeed.
Thank you Holy Spirit
Our Head of Schools Mr Steve Lemos reached out to Principals this week to share with him a highlight from our school year. That was a very hard question to answer as we have truly had a fantastic year of learning across our school and we have much to celebrate in terms of the growth of every child for whom we care at our school community. This is what I shared with Steve:
At Holy Spirit we are very proud of the ways we have nurtured the SPIRIT in our community through our welcoming celebrations of faith, our enthusiastic team, our fantastic old style bush dance, and the recent "this is the best day of my life" colour fun run event! The Holy Spirit community has had a wonderful year!
We have been so overwhelmed with parent and grandparent support at our school and our events such as Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparents day, the combined school Athletics Carnival with Kurri, the fabulous Bush Dance evening, our liturgies and masses and the recent Aqua Colour Fun Run last week - all so well attended and are all about building our wonderful school community spirit!
My sincere thanks to every family for the continued support you have shown our school and to our incredible staff, who work as such an amazing team! Heartfelt thanks!
Thank you to all our volunteers
We have had a wonderful year where we have had volunteer support across the year at Holy Spirit. I would especially like to acknowledge Mr Pat Sharkey who has been a volunteer at Holy Spirit for over 17 years! Pat has fixed things, build things, maintained things for us and always with a generous heart! Pat's kind and generous nature has led to the Pat Sharkey Community Award which we present annually to specially selected students who honour the values of generosity of Spirit. Pat will not be around our school helping as much as he used to do and we ask for God's continued blessing on him. Our sincere thanks to the Canteen Committee Paige, Sharna and Tarsha as well as long standing helper Natalie for your incredible support for our families by keeping our canteen operational in 2024. We are always looking for more helpers! To our grandparents and parents who assisted with special events or wrapping gifts or were classroom reading helpers - THANK YOU!
We hosted a morning tea last Monday for all our Volunteers. Those who couldn't attend, please know we are very appreciative of your support! God bless you!
Student Leadership Team 2024
Our Year 2 Student Leaders for 2023: Evie, Sara, Matilda, Emmett, Jett and Jake have been wonderful leaders who have grown and developed such a high level of maturity and skills through undertaking their role with such diligence and pride. Well done Team!
As we look to 2024, our Year 1 students have undertaken a Leadership Formation Experience with our REC Miss Laczkowski and the Year One Teachers and Staff earlier this week. The students then took home a nomination form where they were asked to reflect upon the skills or attributes of a good leader and how it is important that a school leader follows the example of Jesus. The staff voted via a ballot and the twelve students who will move forward to now write a speech at school and then present it on Monday at 12 noon in the school hall are:
Piper, Amelie, Vivian, Arlo, Vinnie, Maxie Rae, Kade, Matilda, Jedd, Myla, Charlotte and Archer
Thank you to all the parents/carers who supported their child to make a nomination. We were so very proud of the reflective responses the children had written. The new student leadership team will then be announced after the children have voted. These students will play a role in the end of year liturgy on Thursday 7th Dec at 12pm. They will be inducted formally in 2024 at the Opening School Year Mass.
Semester two Reports:
Our teachers have worked diligently to prepare the semester two reports for all students and these will be shared via Compass next Friday 8th December. Parents and carers are invited, as per our school policy, to then request a meeting with your child's teacher if you would like to do any follow up on their progress report. Please remember it is a semester two report, not an overall end of year report. Our school has focused on student learning and improvement of results across the year with various ways we have gathered and tracked student data. I commend our staff for their continual work in this aspect of the teaching and learning cycle.
Step Up days
We help our first Step Up day this week on Tuesday afternoon and we asked Year 1 to Step Up into their Year 2 classrooms whilst Kinder Stepped Up to their Year 1 classrooms for next year. Year 2 had their second transition visit to Holy Spirit Kurri on Thursday which was also exciting for them. Here at Holy Spirit the concept of Step Up is for the children to go to their new classroom (the teacher may be different in 2024) and for them to spend some time within their new learning space. It is a process that is aimed at minimising anxiety and concern for our students. It went very well. Our next Step Up day is Tuesday afternoon 5th Dec, so please ensure your child is in attendance.
The teachers for 2024 are as yet not confirmed and I will have this information to you as soon as I can.
School Fees
In this challenging economic environment, I would like to commend our families who have continued to make fee payments as agreed on enrolment or via a meeting with myself. Thank you to the families who have completed their fee commitment and to those who will continue payments as scheduled after the CSO set deadline of 30th November. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, please reach out to me.
Kind Regards
Diane Murphy
Assistant Principal News
Positive Behaviour for Learning
Our PBL focus for Weeks 9 and 10 this term is from the domain “I am responsible!”:
“I wear our uniform with pride!”
Wearing our school uniform with pride reflects a sense of belonging and commitment to Holy Spirit Infants School. It not only demonstrates personal pride but also contributes to a positive community spirit. In the coming weeks we have a few important events to celebrate our year, please ensure that your child is dressed in the correct summer uniform. If a student is not able to wear the correct uniform or a particular part of the uniform (including school shoes), please send a message to your child’s teacher explaining why.
Rebecca Kearns, Assistant Principal.
Sharing Our Faith
Advent
This weekend marks the start of the season of Advent which is when the Catholic Church prepares in the lead up to Christmas. Advent goes for four weeks in the lead up to Christmas and it is a time that us as Catholics need to remember to be ready for the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Ways that we mark Advent is through using an Advent wreath. Being a circle, it has no beginning or end, reminds us that our lives will not end but that we will live in eternity in the Kingdom of Heaven. With the wreath, we place four candles, each representing a different Sunday (week) of Advent. Three of these are purple, representing hope, peace and love, and one is pink, representing joy. The light that these candles create represents the light of Christ who was sent to us to defeat the darkness. Each week we light a candle, each time lighting another to show the progression and our increasing readiness to meet our Lord.
Each Monday over the following weeks at school, we will have a prayer and reflection at our morning assembly about the Advent focus for that week where our students will be able to develop a deeper understanding of the reason for the season.
Leadership Formation - Year 1
Earlier this week, our Year 1 students participated in a leadership formation session. During this, they unpacked what a leader is, what they do and how they can be a leader in line with our Fruits of the Spirit and PBL.
Students worked together on team building activities and reflected about the importance of working together.
The students got a lot out of the session and we look forward to progressing with our leadership processes for 2024.
Grandparents Day
Last week we were able to finally celebrate our postponed Grandparents Day celebrations. Our students led our liturgy so well, with Fr james, and enjoyed presenting the special song "Deep in my Heart" to their grandparents and grandfriends.
Afterwards we shared afternoon tea with scones and got to read stories with our grandparents which the students enjoyed so much.
Thank you to all those who were able to make it!
Family Mass
Thank you to our families who joined us last Sunday evening for our Term 4 Family Mass. As it was the feast of Christ the King the students got to experience the procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the Church and experience Adoration for the first time. All students read beautifully and led us in actions throughout the mass. We shared a afternoon tea at the conclusion.
Thank you to all who have supported our family masses throughout the year. It is a great opportunity to experience mass and join in with the parish community. We look forward to seeing you at our masses next year.
Carols by Candlelight
On Sunday 10th December our students are invited to join with the Kurri Kurri community at their annual Carols by Candlelight. The students will be on stage singing two Christmas songs.
We attended last year and the stuents absolutely loved it, so we would love for you to join us again!
When: Sunday 10th December
Where: Kurri Kurri Sports Ground
Time: Carols start from 6pm
What to wear: Christmas clothes
Miss L will be there to meet you on the night. Compass notification will be sent out when we find out what time we will be gathering near the stage for our performance.
RSVP by emailing Miss L please so we know who to look out for: jessica.laczkowski@mn.catholic.edu.au
End of Year Liturgy
Next week we will be holding our End of Year Liturgy and Fruits of the Spirit awards will be held next Thursday 7th December at 12:00pm.
All are welcome to join us!
Parish Mass Times
Saturday 2nd December
9:00am Mass - Holy Spirit Kurri Kurri
6:00pm Mass - St. Joseph's Cessnock
Sunday 3rd December
8:30am Mass - Holy Spirit Kurri Kurri
10:30am Mass - St. Joseph's Cessnock
4:30pm Mass - St Francis Xavier's Abermain
Saturday 9th December
9:00am Mass - St. Joseph's Cessnock
6:00pm Mass - St. Joseph's Cessnock
Sunday 10th December
8:30am Mass - Holy Spirit Kurri Kurri
10:30am Mass - St. Joseph's Cessnock
4:30pm Liturgy of the Word - St. Francis Xavier's Abermian
4:30pm Mass - St. Michael the Achangel Wollombi
Yours in faith,
Miss Jessica Laczkowski
Religious Education Coordinator
AquaColour Run
On Friday 24th November Holy Spirit Infants School held our AquaColour Fun Run! The students had wonderful time participating in our water themed obstacle course as they were sprayed with colourful powder! Thank you to our parent volunteers for assisting with the set up and running of the obstacle course!
A reminder that this event is a school fundraiser and the money raised will contribute to the purchasing of new iPads for our school. It is now time to bring your sponsorship form to school to have the number of laps marked off by a teacher and then collect your sponsorship money!
You can send the donations in as cash. Alternatively, we have an additional payment method available to submit your pledged sponsorship amounts. As of now, sponsorship amounts can be submitted via the QKR app. This option is available under the “School Events” tab “School Fundraiser”.
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.
The class that raises the most money will be rewarded with an ice-cream party!
Rebecca Kearns, Assistant Principal.
Big Beach Week
This week, our students have enjoyed participating in Beach Week! Throughout the week they have learnt about how to be safe around the water at our beaches and at our pools. On Wednesday we had our big Beach Week day where we were visited by Lifeguard and swimming coach Ben. He taught us about how to be safe and who can help us around water and the importance of following lifeguards rules.
In the afternoon we participated in rotational activities (including making sandcastles!) and made posters to show our knowledge of water safety.
Library News
News from the Library
Thank you for supporting the library throughout the year.
It’s that time of year the library is stocktaking. Please return all library books as soon as possible.
As we draw closer to the holidays don’t forget to take advantage of your local library. Both Cessnock City Library and Kurri Kurri Library will have some amazing activities throughout the school holidays that will surely captivate and entertain your children. The best thing about taking advantage of your local library is that it is absolutely free!!!
While you are visiting, there may be some books calling out your name, begging you to take them home and read.
The best gift you can give your child is to instill a love of reading.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year!
Miss Covita, TL
End of Year Liturgy
On Thusday 7th December at 12 noon in the church where we will give thanks for the great year of learning and growuing together. At this time we will be acknowledging those students who will receive the Fruit of the Spirit Awards for their class. As our school embraces the Fruits of the Spirit in all we do, these awards are very special. Teachers will send a Seesaw message to you if your child is receiving a Fruit of the Spirit Award. We do hope that you can keep this as a surprise for them.
End of Year Awards
On Friday 8th December at 9.30am we will be hosting the major award presentations for 2023 school year in the church. Parents of students receiving a major award will be contacted by their child's class teacher prior to the event. We are looking forward to acknowledging the efforts of our amazing early learners! Please keep this confidential...it's a big surprise! Thank you.
School Disco Christmas 11 December
Christmas Craft Day 12th December
Our annual very special Christmas Craft Day will take place on the 12th December. Students can wear out of uniform, fun Christmas themed clothes. The children in white classes will rotate through 3 craft activities and the blue classes will rotate through their 3 activities. Parent helpers are warmly welcomed! Please ensure you have your WWCC and let Bonney/Dot know in the school office if you can come along. We will begin at 11.50am until approx 1.30pm.
Bring a carry bag..
Our student books and art works will be coming home on Wednesday 13th December as we prepare our classrooms for next year. Please send your child with an additional bag for these items. Thank you.
Awards...Congratulations to:
Dates for your Diary Term 4 Week 8
Canteen News
Friday 8th December will be the final day for canteen lunch orders.
Community News
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