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Dear Parents and Friends of St Kevin’s,
There is always much discussion around how well schools are going in the media, and focusing on how students are not meeting basic benchmarks in Literacy and Numeracy, along with poor well-being and social-emotional development. I would like to challenge this perception for our school community.
St Kevin’s achieved outstanding NAPLAN results in 2022 in both Year 3 and 5, and this was after 2 years of COVID interrupted schooling. It is testament to the quality teaching, the student engagement and the parent support.
We have 4 students engaged in the 2023 ASPIRE programme reflecting and utilising their talents in dance and writing.
We had our annual swimming carnival last week where the majority of students participated to the best of their ability across all swimming strokes, demonstrating resilience and great teamwork.
We have our Year 5/6 buddies caring and supporting our kindergarten students as they start school here at St Kevin’s.
We have an amazing P&F that supports and assists St Kevin’s across many areas, including the running of the canteen and the uniform shop, and in providing many opportunities for parents to gather socially and be active members of the community.
We have weekly sport opportunities that provide students with a variety of experiences to promote good physical growth and development along with self-confidence and resilience.
We have an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education programme second to none, where all students are learning about Indigenous Culture, and our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are also receiving individual assistance to either extend or assist in specific areas as required.
Proof of all this amazing work was brought to the fore today when an ex-student Shaila, came to visit and say thank you to St Kevin’s for everything we did for her. Shaila has completed her Degree in Bio Medical Science, and has now been accepted to study Medicine at Armidale Uni. Shaila said she would always remember and be thankful to St Kevin’s for the work of the teachers and the support of her parents to achieve her goal.
So, St Kevin’s is definitely the place to be in 2023! Here’s to a year of great learning, continuing to build and excel in Literacy and Numeracy, all the while, developing social and emotional well-being and good mental health. Why would I work anywhere else, and why would you send your children anywhere else?
Mary-Anne Jennings
Principal
School fees
Thank you to the parents who have established a budget and /or payment plan for this year’s school fees. Sending your child to St Kevin’s does require a financial commitment that you do not encounter at our local public schools. This financial commitment is used to ensure that we as a school and system can meet the educational needs of our students. 2023 school fees accounts will be sent out shortly. Some families have not returned their 2023 School Fee Information Form, if your child brings this home today, please return it to the school office as soon as possible. This determines if any discounts are applicable.
At St Kevin’s we have a local resource fee of $600 per student. This is a school-based fee and as such stays here at school in our account. This resource fee pays for all excursions, incursions (onsite events) Friday sport, School Athletics and Swimming Carnivals, end of year intensive swimming, classroom technology, grounds maintenance and classroom supplies. It does not cover representative sport or large excursions such as camp.
The only other time you may be asked for money is for charitable occasions such as Project Compassion or Mission Days where we are raising money for those less fortunate than ourselves.
Bus Safety Week February 20 – 26
Next week is Bus Safety Week. We have students who catch the bus to and from school daily. Please talk to your children about the Code of Conduct expected when travelling on a bus, how to use an Opal Card correctly and how to behave at bus stops.
It might also be a good time for parents and carers to review where bus zones are around St Kevin’s to ensure we don’t inadvertently get a parking fine!
School Playgrounds
Our school playground equipment has been out of action due to maintenance issues. We waited 5 months for replacement parts for our bridge to arrive. The bridge is now repaired and ready to go! We have also been waiting for compliant soft fill to become available for under our equipment. Without this soft fill being replaced and restored, it was not safe for children to access the equipment. On Saturday both areas will have new soft fill delivered and spread out underneath the equipment, and the sandpit will have new sand installed. Mother Nature has caused these delays, which are very minor in comparison to the loss of homes and lives caused by the floods, but still, we are very thankful to be able to utilise this equipment once more.
Congratulations Mrs Stretton
We congratulate Mrs Fiona Stretton on her “Excellence in Teaching Award”. Mrs Stretton received this award at the annual “Called to Serve Mass” on February 7. Although Mrs Stretton no longer works here at St Kevin’s, we acknowledge her amazing skills and dedication to being a teacher, and we thank her for the work she did here at St Kevin’s.
Welcome to our New Families and Students
We welcome Ziva in Year 5 and Callen in Year 3 along with their parents Sarah and George to the St Kevin’s community.
We also welcome Adaline in Year 3 and her parents Danley and Christina.
We hope that you come to love and enjoy your time here at St Kevin’s, making many new friends and learning why St Kevin’s is such an amazing school.
Welcome to our 2023 Kindergarten Students and Parents
We are into week 4 of the school year and already Kindergarten have settled into their new routines, making friends and facing new learning challenges. Successful Foundations is providing fantastic opportunities to engage in social interaction with new friends, and provides teachers with data identifying the learning needs of all the students. So welcome Kindergarten and the new mums and dads – may you all make many new friends that join you in the adventures ahead that being at school provide.
Pupil Free Days
Pupil Frees Days will be Friday March 24th and Monday April 24th. School will be closed on these days as teachers engage in professional devlopment.
Student/Parent/TeacherConferences K-6
Thursday March 16 3.15pm to 6pm. Parents will be notified of their time to meet. BBQ sausage sizzle in COLA throughout the afternoon. Hope to see you all.
News from the Assistant Principal
This year NESA has released new syllabi for both Mathematics and English. This has massive implications for systems, schools, teachers, students and parents as we grapple with coming to grips with the new syllabus – the two largest syllabus – and how to effectively embed them into practice.
This year the Catholic Schools Office has engaged Professor Peter Sullivan to provide professional development in Mathematics for Principals, teachers and system leaders in the Diocese. This commenced this week. On Monday and Tuesday, Mrs Jennings and I experienced the first of these inservices. I LOVED it, I am unashamedly a Math's nerd even though one of my degrees is a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English and History. I love the logic of Mathematics and manipulating numbers and finding patterns.
In our governance days prior to the commencement of school, Mrs Jennings talked to staff about getting students to get into the Learning Pit. Question your children each day asking them whether they got into the Learning Pit today? During what lesson? What did they do? How did they cope with the stress? Did they start to climb out? How did they do that? Did they piggyback on the ideas of others? Or did they work it out on their own? Jo Boaler highlights the importance of making children struggle, too often we try to protect our children from this. Australian schools HAVE to change Mathematical pedagogy. We have to re-vision the way we think about Mathematics. There is no ”maths” brain, rather it is the sum of our experiences (positive or negative) that position us on our attitude to Mathematics and the belief that we are capable/incapable in Maths. Don’t give your children an out. If they come home from school and say that they are not any good at Maths, please don’t empathise with them by saying ”I wasn’t any good at Maths either” - this is giving them permission to not have a go. Rather encourage them by talking about what they were doing and work through the problem together – no written algorithms please!
Mathematics under the new syllabus is very different. We are rapidly coming up to speed with these new documents and the research based evidence behind them. On the 24th March we have a Pupil Free Day. On this day, staff will be in Sydney at the MANSW K-8 Maths conference, many staff are staying for the Saturday sessions as well. I look forward to sharing with you what we learn.
Kim Hogan
Assistant Principal
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education News
Yaama Ngindaay! (Hello everyone)
Welcome to the 2023 school year. In 2023 we have 13 Aboriginal students at St Kevin’s.
I will be at school every Wednesday and Thursday, working in classrooms to help students and teachers. I assist our Aboriginal students with their literacy and numeracy and I also help teachers with their planning and teaching of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. This is a cross-curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum which is designed for all students to engage in reconciliation, respect and recognition of the world’s oldest continuous living cultures.
At St Kevin’s we have a very supportive community where we respect all cultures and celebrate diversity. I look forward to working with our staff, students and families again this year.
Anniversary of the National Apology to Stolen Generations Survivors
This week the country marked the 15th anniversary of the National Apology to Stolen Generations Survivors. It is important to acknowledge the anniversary as Australians continue working towards reconciliation with our First Nations peoples. Some of our Aboriginal families at St Kevin’s have been impacted by past government policies of forced removal.
Here is a statement from the Healing Foundation about the anniversary of the National Apology:
February 13 each year marks the anniversary of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations, who suffered trauma because of past government policies of forced child removal.
Many of these removals occurred as the result of laws and policies aimed at assimilating the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population into the predominately white community.
Stolen Generations survivors are some of Australia’s most vulnerable people and many have kept their stories and experiences secret for many years, even decades.
Through hearing the resilient stories of Stolen Generations survivors there is now a willingness for Australians to join in on the healing journey. To be part of solutions into the future. This is the spirit of the anniversary.
We commemorate the apology to keep the spirit of its words and their meaning alive. The commemoration is a very real part of the healing journey. One that encourages us to keep looking for new ways to work together for genuine change in the lives of our survivors and their descendants. – CEO, The Healing Foundation, Fiona Petersen
I hope you have been enjoying a peaceful start to the school year. Parents, thank you for the very warm welcome back, you have all made me feel so loved and it has been the biggest pleasure catching up with you and seeing how much your beautiful children have grown.
Term One School Mass
Please join us this Sunday at 9.30am for our first school Mass for 2023. Special invitations have been sent to our Year 6 leaders and our new Kindergarten children. Please come along for a special blessing on the academic year ahead.
Formation Flashes
We are embarking on a big and exciting year when it comes to Religious matters and I am excited to share all the happenings as time goes by. First and foremost, I encourage you to connect to the St. Kevin’s Facebook page and enjoy our ‘St. Kevin’s Formation Flashes’. I hope that these fun bits of information about our Catholic Faith, will provide opportunities to understand more about our Catholic Culture and Faith Life here at St Kevin’s.
Lent
Lent begins next Wednesday with Ash Wednesday. Our Year 4, 5 and 6 children have been invited to attend the Parish Mass at 9.30am. They will bring ashes back to school and Kindergarten – Year 3 will celebrate with a beautiful liturgy later in the day. Parents and grandparents are warmly welcomed to attend the 9.30am Mass. During Lent we support Project Compassion. Each classroom will have a Project Compassion box on their Sacred Space for the duration of Lent and we invite the children to think about those in need and donate some coins if they are able to.
This Week’s Formation Flash...
Why Ashes for Ash Wednesday?
Two reasons: a personal act of remembrance and as a sign or a witness for others.
Where Do the Ashes Come From?
The ashes come from the burnt Palms from last year's Passion Sunday celebration, which begins Holy Week. So, these ashes bring us back to our last celebration of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus for us. On Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, we begin a journey of renewal - from death to life. This is a joyful season. We will make sacrifices, in order to try to let God reform our desiring, but this is also a time for God to be generous to us.
How will you allow God to thrive in your heart this Lent?
The Regional and Diocesan winter sports trials will be held over the next few weeks. There is an opportunity for St Kevin’s students to nominate for the following sports: Soccer, Netball, Hockey, Rugby and AFL.
There are strict requirements to participate through the pathways on to Polding. The children should have at least two years consecutive of playing in their chosen sport as well as either playing representative or A Grade. The convenors of Regional and Diocesan trials, the children should be highly talented and ready to compete at the Polding level if chosen.
This week we are looking at Soccer trials and have spoken to some of our netballers in anticipation that they are ready to trial if needed. Below is a list of winter trials.
Soccer
Netball
Hockey
Rugby League is a Diocesan Trial
AFL is a Diocesan Trial
Regional Trials will be held on February 23rd or 24th February.
Diocesan Trials will be held on the 14th of March
Martin Vaughan
Sports Coordinator