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Dear Parents and Friends of St Kevin's,
Welcome to the final term of 2022. This year has certainly flown by. This week we had a visit from our Assistant Director, Mr Paul Greaves, to celebrate with staff the outstanding NAPLAN results we achieved in both Year 3 and Year 5. Writing and reading are our superpowers in both grades, and numeracy is also showing growth and excellence in both grades.
These results reflect the work we have as a learning community engaged in, where our students know what they are learning and why, where to go for help and how to improve in their learning. Staff work hard at creating “Learning Intentions” for English and Numeracy, and work with the students to co-construct the success criteria for these intentions or goals. Parents follow up by asking “What did you learn at school today? How is your learning going? Where do you go for help to improve your learning?” It is the result of students taking responsibility for their own learning, setting personal goals and working hard to achieve these goals. It is about not giving up when the work is hard. Students are utilising skills in persistence, resilience and problem solving. It’s about collaborative learning and working with each other to learn new things. These layers all contribute to a very successful base for all learning opportunities to be optimized and academic excellence to be achieved.
Congratulations also to our students who completed their Sacraments of Initiation on Sunday. These Sacraments begin with Baptism and are completed through receiving Confirmation and First Eucharist. On Sunday we celebrated as a Parish this milestone in their Faith lives with cake after Mass where the students had participated as readers and in the Offertory Procession. A huge thank you to our Sacramental Team led by Donna Morgan for all their work in assisting the parents with preparing their child for these Sacraments. Congratulations to Harper, Susan, Zara, Lucas, James, Isabella and Caine. Father Joseph and Deacon Solomon look forward to seeing you at Mass in the coming weeks as we lead up to Christmas.
Staff Changes for 2023
My role as Principal is to not only assist students in their learning journey, but also to mentor staff so that they can become the best teachers possible. With this comes the knowledge that some of them may leave your nest... sound familiar...your children don’t stay with you forever, they spread their wings and fly. So, it is with staff. In 2023 Mrs Fiona Stretton will be moving to a much larger school – St Joseph’s at Lochinvar, to share her talents and learn from others. We wish Mrs Stretton all the best at her new school ...WE WILL MISS YOU!!!
We have 2 new staff starting in 2023. Mr Jye Bowen and Mrs Cassie Tonks will be joining our team. I look forward to working with these teachers and sharing the gifts and talents they bring to St Kevin’s.
We still have some other vacancies to fill and I will share this information with you as soon as possible.
Keep up the great work everyone! Gee I love my job!!!
Mary-Anne Jennings
Principal
School fees
Thank you to everyone that is making the effort to ensure their school fees are paid by November 30. I know this is a burden, but in enrolling in a Catholic school, as parents you agreed to pay the set school fees. These school fees contribute to resources for your child’s education such as the variety of STEM equipment for use by all students, updating technology within all classrooms, grounds maintenance, literacy and numeracy resources, Religious Education resources, music lesson resources and the list goes on. This year school fees also covered some excursions such as the recent trip to Sydney for Years 3-6 and the upcoming K-2 visit to the Hunter Valley Zoo. If fees are not paid, then to make the budget balance, resources and excursions must be trimmed back. We can’t spend it if we don’t have the money in the bank. So please check your balance and contact the school if you are experiencing genuine hardship, so that a payment plan can be put in place.
Children’s University
Congratulations to Leon, Saxon, Jonathan, Teddy, Rebecca, Braethan, Tessa, James, Matilda, Isabella, Cierra, Indiana, Zara, Elliana, Emerson, Caine, Mackenzie and Ava, who will all graduate at Newcastle Uni on November 22. This is a full on graduation whereby students and staff attending wear formal graduation gowns and caps over their school uniforms, and receive their Graduation Certificate. These students from Years 4-6 had to complete 30 hours of extra-curricular activities where learning something new was achieved. Congratulations to everyone and thank you Mr Taylor for being the driving force of this initiative.
End of Year Activities – times etc to be finalised.
- Swimming K-6 programme – November 28 to December 9- cost of $45 per child.
- P&F disco – December 2 here at school (P & F Fundraiser)
- Year 6 Graduation Mass – Sunday 9:30am December 11.
- Grandparents Day December 12 commencing at 11.30am – a fun day of Christmas craft and a picnic lunch (No cost). Grandparents to bring a picnic lunch.
- Infants Nativity Play (2.00pm -3.00pm) – December 12 to coincide with Grandparents Day!
- End of Year Liturgy and Awards – December 14 commencing at 1pm
- P&F Meeting – December 14 at Cardiff Bowling Club
- Colour run – December 15 at Wilkinson Park
- Last day for students- December 16
- Year 6 luncheon for students only – December 16 (No cost)
- Year 6 Clap Out - December 16 commencing at 2.45pm
News from the Assistant Principal
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
At St Kevin’s, according to our policy, students bring their own device from Year 4. Students currently in Year 3 have paper notes in their bag today 20/10/22. Please read all information carefully and return notes to school by the end of October. It is extremely important that virus protection software is not put on these laptops as the device will not connect to Wi-Fi because of our system protocols.
Swimming
As advised in Term 2, we commence our swimming program in Weeks 8 and 9. Each day for 10 days students will travel to Speers Point pool for a 30 minute swimming lesson. The cost of this program is $45 per child and includes 10 x $6 swim coach lesson and $35 transport. For 2022 the remainder of the swimming cost will be funded through the resource levy.
Your child’s swim bag should include
- Swim shirt – rash shirt is ideal.
- Swim goggles (optional)
- Underwear
- Towel
- Water bottle
- Sunscreen
- Thongs for wearing around the pool and in the change rooms
- Brush or comb
All items (including students’ shoes and school clothes) should be LABELLED.
PAT assessment
In weeks 3-6 students will be completing standardized tests in Reading and Maths. Triangulating our data is important. Teachers mark their own students’ work. At designated dates in the term, we moderate across the school to ensure consistency and to improve our assessment pedagogy. Additionally, at various points of the year, according to the Diocesan Assessment Schedule we utilize standardized assessments, such as SENA, PAT, NAPLAN and Acadience to reference students against the curriculum and Australian norms. Analysis of these assessments allows us to more fully understand where each child is at and what is required to help progress their learning. I bring this to your attention so that when your child comes home and tells you that they did a PAT assessment today, you will be aware of its purpose. There is no need to have conversations with your child prior to testing or practice, as this could be possibly be detrimental to the process creating concern or anxiety.
Transport
Last week we had a Lake Macquarie City Council ranger present when we were dismissing students in car lines. LMCC are launching a new travel safe initiative and will be more vigilant monitoring use of our Kiss and Drop zone. They will be updating signage and educating parents on correct use of our Kiss and Drop zone. The ranger was clear that LMCC will issue on the spot fines to people who fail to comply with directions ($198) and regulations. Remember that our Kiss and Drop Zone is for students who are able to buckle themselves into their seat. Also, students MUST enter the vehicle from the kerbside (not the road). Finally, you can only “stand” in the Kiss and Drop zone for 4 minutes prior to 9am and between 2:30pm and 4pm.
Kim Hogan
Assistant Principal
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and are ready for an exciting final term of 2022.
Mini Vinnies Christmas Appeal
From now until 30th November the Mini Vinnies will be running our Christmas Appeal to assist St Vincent De Paul in making Christmas hampers which they will distribute to those in need. The generosity of the St Kevin’s school community is amazing. If you are able to add any of items on the list below to your shopping it would be very appreciated.
- Bottles of soft drink
- Christmas/fancy sweet biscuits
- Savoury crackers/biscuits
- Chips
- Christmas lollies
- Christmas cake
- Christmas pudding
- Long life custard
Mass to launch school Vision and Mission
You are invited to join us for mass to launch St Kevin’s Vision and Mission. Please see the invitation below.
Bishop’s Staff School Visit
Last Thursday the school hosted around twenty staff and parishioners from throughout the Diocese. The purpose of the visit was to highlight the teaching and learning that is happening at St Kevin’s.
Sacramental News
The sacramental program for the next group interested will begin in November. If your child is in year 3 or above and would like to make their First Reconciliation there will be a lesson held on 15th November in the MacKillop Room, St Kevin’s Cottage, Cardiff. First Reconciliation in our Parish will be on 23rd November at 6pm at St Philip’s, Kotara.
Thank you to those who attended the Parish & School mass on Sunday to celebrate the students who recently made their confirmation and First Holy Communion.
Socktober
On Wednesday we held a Socktober event to raise funds to support children facing malnutrition and food insecurity in Ethiopia. The day included a penalty shoot-out competition with Socktober balls which were made by year 5/6. Thank you to Father Joseph and Deacon Solomon for attending our event. Students were able to ask lots of questions after Deacon Solomon’s presentation and Father Joseph displayed his soccer goalie skills. Congratulations to Kindergarten, which must be full of future representative soccer players, as they won the penalty shoot out! Our community raised $608.15. What a fantastic effort.
Parish News
Please see the All Saints Feast Day Celebration flyer from the parish attached.
God Bless
Fiona Stretton
Acting Religious Education Coordinator
Kaayi (hello in Awabakal; rhymes with ‘hi’)
WIPCE – World Indigenous Peoples’ Conference on Education
In the holidays I had the privilege of attending WIPCE in Adelaide along with our Aboriginal Education Officers, Louise, Craig and Steve from the Catholic Schools Office and several other Aboriginal Education Teachers in our Catholic schools.
This International Conference is held every 3 years and gives educators an opportunity to learn about Indigenous people from around the world, how Indigenous education is structured and delivered in their countries and the benefits for kids and their communities. We also learned about school communities in Australia and some of the great things that are happening.
All of us who attended from our diocese look forward to sharing what we learned with our colleagues to enhance education for all in our school communities.
Book Club
The last day to order from Book Club Issue 7 is 28 October 2022. All orders must be placed online via Loop. The school no longer accepts cash payments for Book Club.
Spare catelogues are available from the school office if needed.