Filter Content
Dear Parents and Carers of St Kevin’s,
I trust this newsletter finds you all moving forward and adjusting to the new normal as we learn to QR code in everywhere and provide proof of our vaccination status. I personally have found shopping perhaps not as relaxing as it used to be, but no matter, these strategies are keeping us safe.
Thank you to all the parents who are also doing their bit by keeping sick children home and getting them tested. Also thank you for your patience around dismissal times and adjusting to the different home times for some students. To the staff who are doing extra duties to ensure cohorts / classes stay isolated from each other during learning and playtimes. To the students for washing their hands frequently and using hand santizer. It’s the little things like this that reduce the risk of St Kevin’s going into lockdown due to a positive case.
Catholic Schools NSW has stated that we will remain at an updated Level 3, with additional safety layers till the end of term.
So, what does this look like for St Kevin’s?
- School photos on November 26 – individual and family photos only. No class groups.
- Kinder transition November 18, 25 – students only to attend. 1 fully vaccinated parent may walk them to the classroom.
- Swimming carnival postponed till 2022. Now February 8, 2022.
- 2022 Captains speeches – December 9, outdoors with only Years 2-5 listening. No parents permitted on site.
- End of Year awards – December 10 – no parents on site.
- End of Year Liturgy – December 10 – outdoors in COLA area – no parents permitted on site.
- Christmas Craft Day – December 13 – students spend the day with their 2022 teacher where possible.
- Year 6 Graduation Mass – December 14 – 11am outdoors in COLA area – 2 fully vaccinated parents/carers may attend. QR code entry and evidence of double vaccination status required.
- Year 6 end of year lunch – December 14 following Graduation Mass- school to provide. Year 6 children only.
- Year 6 clap out- December 15 – 2:45pm – outdoors with COVID plan to ensure cohorts are separated. Parents to meet Year 6 at Church gate, maintaining social distancing.
- December 15 – last day for all students.
Once again, thank you for all your assistance and understanding as we complete a very unusual school year.
Mary-Anne Jennings
Principal
Messages from the Assistant Principal
It seems incredible to think that it is Week 7 of Term 4. It has been a VERY full on year with only just over 3 weeks left of the school year. Over the last few months, our children have had a lot of screen time. It is important that we are keenly aware of our children’s digital world and what they are participating in. The digital world is definitely here to stay and has enormous benefits. This was certainly obvious this year in Lockdown where we were able to continue learning at an extraordinary level. I am currently reviewing our PAT Assessments and we have generally reached or even exceeded expected norms in Maths and Reading. However, like anything that is good, technology is good dependent on how it is being used. We all need to be keenly aware of what our children are doing online and have regular conversations with them about responsible, safe and ethical use. Having regular conversations allows you to easily intervene when issues arise, but more importantly it shows that you are interested in and care about what matters to your children.
Some basic safety tips:
- Make sure age filters are turned on for the device
- Make sure correct ages for children are entered into games. Their age triggers in game restrictions automatically in most cases, entering a fake age does not protect them from online predators
- Make sure you have all their passwords and codes. They are children it is not an invasion of their privacy, it is how we protect them. Look at their devices often and talk regularly about what they are doing.
- Follow laws regarding social media, no one under the age of 13 is allowed to have social media accounts.
Please take time to have a look at the following websites the first two links are to the ‘Raising Children Network’, a federal government funding organisation with quality research partners. The third link is to a website called Parents, this is a private for profit company and as such has advertising on the site, we do not endorse this site or the advertising, the particular article is informative.
God Bless
Kim Hogan
Assistant Principal
Final Week for Virtual Book Fair Orders
Thank you to the families who have already sent their order form back to school or ordered online through LOOP. If you would like to order from St Kevin’s Virtual Book Fairs orders close today, Thursday 18th November.
Issue 7 is a bumper Catalogue with many exciting boxed sets and new release titles in it. There will also be gift options available for families, which is exciting for Christmas gift ideas. Happy shopping!
Thank you for your ongoing support of Book Club and our St Kevin’s library.
Reading Throne
The children have finished decorating the Reading Throne. Well done on a fantastic job!
Photos were sent to Bunnings Glendale last week. Photos of St Kevin’s reading throne will be displayed in store this week and voting closes Sunday 21st November.
We would really appreciate you visiting Bunnings Glendale and voting for St Kevin’s. Please spread the word.
Below is the final design, it looks amazing!
Visit Bunnings Glendale
There are some amazing designs of Reading Thrones. The display is in the glass cabinet on the left as you walk into the foyer of Bunnings. St Kevin’s Reading Throne is displayed on the bottom left corner. Please collect a form, vote for St. Kevin’s and place the form in the box. Please remember voting closes Sunday afternoon.
Good luck St. Kevin’s ?
Library borrowing is Thursday this term.
Congratulations Year 2 for winning the Library Borrowing Trophy in Week 5 and Kindergarten in Week 6. Please encourage your children to borrow as we have many new books.
Kaayi / Yaama
Language is so important to any culture as it so integral to identity. Thankfully there is growing appreciation of the importance of Indigenous languages and the need to preserve them.
Language identifies who we are and where we come from. We use the languages we speak to express all that we feel and know. When we lose a language, we lose the unique knowledge and perspectives of the people that speak it. For tens of thousands of years, hundreds of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages have been spoken across Australia. These languages hold a unique and rich part of our heritage.
Studies show that there were about 250 Aboriginal languages in Australia at the time Europeans arrived. These distinct languages had extensive vocabularies and complex grammars. Today, 145 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are still spoken in Australia, however only 18 remain strong, meaning they are spoken by people of all ages.
As much of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history has been passed down orally it is important to the nation that these languages are preserved.
Source: National Indigenous Languages Survey 2005
Here are a few words in Awabakal and Gomeroi (Gamilaraay). You will notice some varied spelling of words because Indigenous languages were passed down orally and not written down. English speaking Europeans wrote down what they thought they heard. For example, they heard a ‘k’ sound at the start of Gamilaroi / Gamilaraay and wrote ‘Kamilaroi’.
Next year we will help children learn words in Awabakal and other languages of some neighbouring areas.
English Awabakal Gomeroi (Gamilaraay)
Hello kaayi (rhymes with ‘eye’) yaama
Goodbye /
See you later nginowa (silent ‘g’) yaluu (yarluu)
No keyawaii (kee-why) gamil (garmil)
Yes ngaba (nar-bar) yawu (yow)
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Nginowa / Yaluu
Phil Taylor
Aboriginal Education Teacher
Christmas Appeal
Our St. Vincent De Paul Christmas Appeal will be held on Friday 3rd December. The children are invited to wear Christmas Clothes (with joggers please) and bring a cash donation or Woolies/Coles gift card. Cash donations will be used to purchase gift cards for the St. Vincent De Paul to distribute as necessary.
The SVDP were beyond grateful for our gift card donations for the Winter Appeal. We helped many struggling families in our community. Let’s band together one last time in 2021 to help those in need whilst having a lot of fun in our Christmas gear!
Year 6 Religious Literacy Test
Today the year 6 children participated in a modified version of the Religious Literacy Test. The Religious Literacy test is a standardised assessment given to students across the diocese to ascertain their level of ‘Religious Literacy,’ meaning their knowledge and application of skill in Religion. During another year full of quick and creative adaptions to curriculum delivery and assessment strategies, the Religious Education and Spirituality Team were also busily at work developing new ways to deliver the annual Religious Literacy Test. Usually, the Religious Literacy test has a multiple-choice section and a short answer question section. This year there is no short answer section and the multiple choice questions are all online.
New Religious Education Curriculum
I am very excited to announce that the new Religious Education Curriculum for Early Stage One (Kindergarten) will be rolled out next year and training will begin for Mrs Albury later this month in readiness for next year. In 2023, the new Stage One (Year One and two) will be implemented.
The new curriculum is based on the Pedagogy of Encounter and is following the direction being taken by other Key Learning Areas through NESA that is focused on Big Ideas and Inquiry-based Learning. The new Early Stage One curriculum has been piloted in several schools across the diocese this year and has been met with tremendous success. It is closely aligned with the ideology behind Successful Foundations; learning through play, provocations, dialogue and investigation. Mrs Albury and I look forward to sharing more curriculum news and beautiful photos of how the children are learning under this new model with you throughout 2022.
May God’s Spirit be with you all each day,
Mrs Jasmina Boudan
Religious Education Coordinator
FAMILY MINISTRY CORNER
Now that life is slowly returning to pre Covid times members of the family may still be feeling the effects of lockdown or home schooling or missing their friends whatever age you/they are. I recently watched a webinar presented by the Catholic Schools NSW. The presenter Justin Coulson focused on Self Care and reminded us that you ‘can’t pour from an empty cup.’ Maybe you are feeling that way that you simply have no more to give. Let me share some of Jason’s pearls using the acronym HALTS which may resonate with that feeling of overwhelm.
Hungry – you need to have food in your ‘belly’. Good nutritious food will sustain you and help you through the challenging times. Remember also if the chocolate in the fridge is tempting you, go for it and enjoy a treat.
Angry – if your mental health isn’t at the level you are used to, the blood flow may be being diverted as your brain takes over. Your normal state of equilibrium is out of whack; the kids are fighting; the weather has turned foul and home schooling is not your chosen career path. Find a quiet space and try to switch off. Some quality ‘ME’ time will help balance you.
Lonely – do you feel like you are doing all this on your own? Are you struggling with not being connected? Try not to despair. Phone a friend or take the time to care for yourself. What is it that would bring back your sense of worth or feeling valued again? Remember you are special
Tired – we all need 8 hours sleep. Easier said than done. Switch off the computer; let the family know that your ‘ME’ time is between a certain time; have a ‘lights out’ policy one night a week when at 9pm all lights go out (sleep before midnight is worth double) and have a light dinner so you wont feel ‘heavy’ when you get into bed and therefore unable to sleep.
Stress – we all know how our life is impacted by not handling what is thrown at us to deal with.
Over the next week try to eliminate the Halts through eating well, focusing on personal and spiritual growth; having a medical check up and getting to bed as early as possible. Happy days!
Advent at Home
HELENE O'NEILL
PARISH - FAMILY LIAISON OFFICER, DIOCESE OF MAITLAND - NEWCASTLE
P 02) 4979 1133 F M 0400 781 374
841 Hunter St Newcastle West NSW 2302 | PO Box 756 Newcastle NSW 2300
Email Helene.ONeill@mn.catholic.org.au Visit us online www.mn.catholic.org.au
Dear Parishioners
Please find attached our Parish Bulletin for this Sunday, 21 November, Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.
Under current health guidelines capacity limits at our three churches are now 120 people at both Adamstown & Kotara and 84 people at Cardiff.
Please share this news with all your parish contacts.
With prayers for you and your families.
Louise Byron
Parish Secretary
All Saints’ Parish Blackbutt South
230 Main Road (Postal PO Box 233)
Cardiff NSW 2285
P 02 4954 0977
F 02 4956 7168
E Louise.Byron@mn.catholic.org.au
Mondays - Wednesdays & alternate Thursdays 9am to 3pm Unavailable 12 noon to 1pm
Visit us at www.allsaintsblackbuttsouth.org.au