This week is the last week the whole school is focussing on our key to success of ‘Getting Along.’ Teachers will then select 2 children from each class who have been consistently demonstrating how to “Get Along” this term. The children selected will be joining me in a spe-cial afternoon tea at school to celebrate their achievement. From next week as a school we will be focussing on the next key to success which is ‘Confidence.’ Please read the information in the newsletter regarding confidence and what we will be focussing on with the children for the second half of this term. Please remember to contact your teacher if you would like more information. Congratulations to the school cross country team who competed in the interschool carnival last week, our intermediate girls won their division and we came third overall.
Faith
Please keep in your prayers the Lopez Calil family, Nuria’s (Year 5) grandmother passed away recently. A reminder we will be celebrating our school feast day tomorrow. There will be a whole school mass in the church at 10am, parents are most welcome to attend. Later in the day the children will be involved in tabloid sports to celebrate this special day.
Thursday, 09 May 2013 23:38
Curriculum
Next week our Yr’s 3,5 & 7 students will be undertaking NAPLAN tests. On Tuesday children will be undertaking language conventions and writing, Wednesday is reading and Thursday is numer-acy. Although this test provides the school with important data to use, it must be remembered that it is one piece of data. It is a snapshot of how your child is performing in exam conditions. Teachers use a variety of data that is ongoing and used in different learning contexts to gain a more complete understanding of how your child is progressing according to the curriculum.
Faith
Next month schools and parishes within our archdiocese will be asked to help support the Annu-al Catholic Campaign. Archbishop Mark Coleridge will be writing to you to ask for your support. You can find out more about the Annual Catholic Campaign by going to www.catholicfoundation.org.au Nick
Thursday, 02 May 2013 00:00
Community
At the moment we are currently undertaking enrolment interviews for children entering Prep in 2014. It is great to see all the children who are excited about coming to school and to hear from the parents how they want their child and themselves to be part of our school community. At present we have more applications than we have places available so we will continue interviews over the next several weeks and then hope to work out places and inform parents if they have been successful or unsuccessful in gaining a place for their child by mid to late June. Last week we held our P&F AGM to elect the executive for the next year. Congratulations to our new executive of Brad Richardson-President, Cath Hatcher-Vice President, Kerry Whimp-Treasurer, Louise Fitzgerald-Parent Rep coordinator, Helen McAuliffe-Tuckshop convenor. A big thankyou to Mark Mazurkiewicz and Tina Hennig for their contributions to the executive. At this stage no secretary was nominated so we will be asking for nominations for this role at the next meeting in June. I am sure you will join with me in congratulating these parents for the important role they play in the school community. Also within the newsletter is the summary of results for the P&F parent survey that was undertaken last term, please take some time to have a look at the results. A reminder that the P&F meeting last week was a combined April and May meeting so there will not be a P&F meeting next week.
Organisation
At Holy Spirit we talk about being a ‘We Can Work it Out’ school. We are constantly working with children to create a culture that is productive and harmonious. There are times however when children will have disagreements or not demonstrate the appropriate behaviour, that is part of growing and testing the boundaries. If this occurs we use it as a teaching and learning opportunity to develop strategies with the children that can assist them to make better deci-sions in the future and if needed contact parents involved. This can occur on different occasions and contexts with the children and incorporates consequences with our system of non belonging that can be found in the parent handbook. We also work with children to develop strategies so they feel empowered to know what to do if something happens. Eg: Tell the per-son ‘Stop I don't like it’ and ask a teacher for help. You often hear me talking about ongoing communication, if your child comes home upset because of something occurring at school then please contact your teacher ASAP and reinforce with your child the importance of letting their teacher know. If we continue to keep the cycle of communication strong between child, school and home it allows the teacher and parents to gain a better understanding of what happened and how a child is feeling. It also allows the teacher to use these incidences as a teaching and learning opportunity for all. This is part of creating the ‘We Can Work it Out’ culture in the school. For more information regarding this please contact your child's teacher or myself.
Friday, 26 April 2013 13:44
Dear Parents & Friends,
Community Tomorrow a number of our children from Yrs 2-7 will be involved in leading the singing of the national anthem at the ANZAC Day ceremony held in New Farm Park at 9am. Thank you to Martin Bradley and Rosemary La Spina for organising our choir and please remember we ask that children come in their correct day school uniform. This has become a proud tradition for our children who are involved and it is clear they get real meaning out of it.
Curriculum At the end of this term children will be bringing home their end of Semester 1 report cards. The purpose of this report is to provide you with a summative review of how your child is pro-gressing this year at school. Formal dialogues with your child’s teacher will occur in the first week of Term 3 and this allows you to discuss with your child’s teacher how your child is going and to ask any questions. Please remember however that you do not have to wait till Term 3 if you want to know how your child is going, you can make an appointment to see your teacher at anytime. Faith Please remember that our Holy Spirit School feast day is on Friday 17 May. There will be a whole school mass that you will be most welcome to attend as well as children involved later in the day with tabloid games, more details of this day will be provided shortly. I hope your ANZAC day is a reflective one, Lest We Forget.
Thursday, 18 April 2013 00:00
Organisation
This term there are many events occurring. Our 5-7’s are involved in interschool sport, the P-4’s are receiving specialist PE lessons, we have cross country carnivals, our feast day, Moth-er's day stall, and the list goes on. Inside the newsletter there is a list of dates for term 2. Please keep an eye these dates for any alterations or additions and contact the school if you have any questions. Please remember that the Prep playground needs to be vacated by 3.20pm every afternoon as after school care is licenced to use these grounds then. Your assistance in this matter is much appreciated.
Faith
Welcome back to term 2. I hope you had some time to relax with your families and enjoy your Easter break. On Monday afternoon we completed the Easter story that we began in the last week of term 1. We watched the year 4 children explain the story how after Jesus was crucified and it was discovered he had risen. The Easter story is the most important event in the Catho-lic calendar year and it is great to see the children demonstrating a clear understanding of the true meaning of Easter.