Our Students are the Best Teachers

In my role, I have the privilege of working with many groups of students.  One of the groups I work with focuses on dealing with conflict.  This is an example.  Child A accused Child B of “stealing”, while Child B insisted he was “borrowing equipment.” Voices rose, chairs scraped, chests puffed up, and words were said.  

As educators, we step in — not to solve the problem, but to guide them through it. I asked them to pause, write down what they were feeling and what they wanted the other to understand. At first, they resisted. “This is dumb,” one muttered. But slowly, they began to write. Child A admitted he felt ignored by the group. Child B admitted to dominating the equipment. They apologised—not because I told them to, but because they understood each other better.  I continue to meet with the students regularly to discuss the challenges of navigating relationships. 

Watching them, I thought about how adults handle conflict. Unlike the students, we rarely pause to reflect or express what we truly feel to the person directly involved. We often avoid it.

We vent to our partners. Avoid hard conversations by ghosting friends. Bottle things up until they explode or fade into resentment. Or become keyboard warriors late at night after a bottle of cheap chardonnay.

What those students did, naming their emotions, listening, and repairing, was something many adults struggle with. They didn’t get it perfect, and since then, we have had other interventions.  But they communicated to, and with the person. 

Conflict isn’t a sign of failure, it’s a sign of connection trying to happen. But it takes courage to face it. As educators and parents, we want our children to have the skills and courage to navigate relationships and manage conflict, the right way.

Perhaps we can learn from the wisdom of these students and put it into our lives. Next time you experience conflict, pause, write down what's bothering you and then talk to the person directly.  

Ben Doyle
Principal

Winter has arrived! I really love this time of year with the crisp air and hopefully some clear days.

One that note, students should now be in Winter uniform.

Girls: Tartan culottes or long pants, school shirt long or short sleeve, school jumper and/or jacket and school hat.

Boys: Grey shorts or long pants, school shirt long or short sleeve, school jumper and/or jacket and school hat.

All students are to wear plain black socks (not ankle socks) and a plain black leather joggers.

Jewellery should be kept to a minimum with plain studs or sleepers in ears, a watch and a signet ring. Hair accessories to be plain or in the school colours. Makeup is not allowed and any extra clothing (e.g. a scarf) must be in the school colours.

PB4L

Our PB4L focus has been on demonstrating good learning behaviours. Children have been awarded tokens for active listening, active participation in learning, task completion, organisation and other learning dispositions.

Our Class Award winners are:

Due to a printer problem this morning, these certificates will be given out on Tuesday.

These children received Principal’s Awards

Our HNS Spelling and Maths Bees were held today. The winner’s certificates will be presented to students on Tuesday morning. The Manning Region Bees will be hosted by HNS next Friday, June 13^th.

The competitors today were:

Spelling

Maths

The winners who will be progressing to the Regional Competition are:

National Sorry Day and Reconciliation Week

Staff and Students of Holy Name gathered together on National Sorry Day to pay our respects to the Stolen Generations and to remember and recognise the loss and sadness they have felt and continue to feel today. We listened to the words of aboriginal people to help us understand more and how this day connects with the commencement of Reconciliation Week.

National Reconciliation Week (May 27th-June 3rd) is a time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia.    

The theme this year is Bridging Now to Next, reflecting the ongoing connection between past, present and future- learning from the past to look ahead and push forward together on the reconciliation journey. We then joined together in prayer for Reconciliation, praying that we together can build a bridge to peace in the future. 

Catholic Schools Week

This week we celebrated Catholic Schools Week. Beginning on Monday with our Student Leadership Team leading us in a prayer reflection, our Holy Name community were reminded of three areas to show God's love:

1. For us all each day to be inclusive, this means to include others in our games and show that they belong in our community.

2. For ourselves to see the value in learning and to do our best to become good learners.

3. For us all to serve others in our homes, our classroom and playground, our community and the wider world. 

Celebrating Catholic Schools Week on Thursday with a whole school liturgy, we particularly remembered that Jesus calls us to open our hearts so we are ready to serve. Yr 5 helped us to celebrate the gift of Catholic Education, sending us out from the hall to be God's helpers in the world. Our actions show others how much God loves them.  

Thank you Yr 5, Mrs Loring, Miss Frost and Mrs Allport for leading us in prayer. Mrs Loring congratulated the school for their participation during the liturgy, particularly their singing of the song "We are your Instruments". Our choir master Miss Reynolds was extremely pleased with the choir and wider audience of singers from Year 6 who led us in song. It looks like our choir will be expanding its numbers!

Yr 6 Religious Literacy Test

Our Yr 6 teachers have begun preparing their students for the 2025 Yr 6 Religious Literacy Test on 1st September. This online test has three sections.

Section 1 20 multiple choice questions- 20 marks (children given approximately 30 minutes for this section), Section 2 children answer 5 questions- 15 marks (children given approximately 30 minutes for this section) and Section 3 children give 5 longer responses to questions- 15 marks (children given approximately 30 minutes for this section). 

An Invitation to the next Family Parish Mass 

Our school community are warmly welcome to join with the parishioners of Forster Tuncurry Parish to celebrate Mass on Sunday 22 June at 10am in Holy Name’s MacKillop Hall. 

This Mass will be celebrated by Fr John Vien Vo. Our school choir will lead us in the processional and recessional hymn 10,000 Reasons and in the reflection hymn after communion You are My Instruments. Our School Student Leaders and Student Representatives will be actively involved during the Mass.

This is the first Parish Mass to be celebrated for the year at Holy Name and is an initiative of the Parish to strengthen our parish and school connections. We hope you can join us. 

Light refreshments are served after Mass from the back of the hall. 

Confirmation

Congratulations to the following children for receiving the Sacrament of Confirmation on Friday 16th May before family and the parish community: John and Charbel Andary, Christopher and Enrico Azzopardi, Mackenzie and Olivia Quilter, Gracie Johnson, Summer-Rose Jinks, Elise Matlawski, Isabella Marchett Caberlon, Emmanuel Shibu, Franky Wall, Luka Zic.

Bishop Michael was unable to join us and so the presider for the sacrament was Fr Joyce Sadastion Victor. His message to the children was to unwrap the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit they received and to use them in their relationships with others daily. 

Genevieve Williamson

Religious Education Coordinator.

Kindergarten Learning Spotlight

Each fortnight we like to put a spotlight on the great learning happening in a particular grade in our school. In this report the spotlight is on Kindergarten!

Our Kindergarten students have had a wonderful few weeks of learning, showing fantastic engagement and enthusiasm across all subject areas!

In Literacy, our reading groups have been a hive of activity with students enthusiastically building CVC words and working hard to improve their reading fluency. During dictation, we’ve seen great progress as students tune in to the sounds they hear and work to record them accurately in their writing. Handwriting sessions have focused on ensuring letters are consistently sized and spaced correctly, with careful attention to punctuation. The children have also been learning how to write simple sentences using co-constructed sentence starters. It's been a joy to see students confidently using their sound charts to spell new words and proudly reading their writing to friends and teachers.

In Mathematics, we’ve been exploring teen numbers by matching numerals to quantities using think boards and hands-on activities. We've also been refining our number formation to ensure digits are neat and clear. Recently, we began learning about data, where students discovered they can gather information by asking questions or sorting items, and then represent that information in creative ways. We used tally marks to collect data and created both picture and column graphs. Highlights included graphing the colours of Smarties and making a picture graph of Kindergarten’s eye colours—such fun and engaging ways to bring data to life!

Our Science investigations have had a real-world focus as we explored the materials in our environment. On Tuesday, students tested a range of materials to determine if they were waterproof. This experiment sparked lots of curiosity and will inform our upcoming design challenge—to create a waterproof bird feeder using recyclable materials. Time to get those thinking caps on!

In Geography, we’ve been learning about our local environment and the special features of our school. Students have enjoyed exploring different types of maps and creating their own school maps complete with a key to help someone new navigate our grounds.

In Health lessons students have been learning how to keep themselves safe near the road, water, at home and on Country. On Wednesday the students worked with their buddies to draw ways to keep themselves safe in our school and home environment.

In Art lessons students have been studying famous Aboriginal Illustators. This fortnight we focused on Bronwyn Bancroft in particular her boo, 'Big Rain Coming'. This felt even more fitting with the rain we have been experiencing in our local community. It also prompted many students to want to talk about the floods and unpack that rain can have lots of benefits and is very necessary but too much can be devastating to communities. We used 'Big Rain Coming' as inspiration for our art session on Friday. The students enjoyed using lots of different textures and materials to create their artworks.

Today we also joined the rest of the school in celebrating Catholic Schools Week with a beautiful liturgy. As part of our reflections, Kindergarten shared what they love about Holy Name School—and the answers were heartwarming!

It’s been a delight to see all our Kindergarten friends embracing their learning with such joy and curiosity. Keep up the great work, Kinders!

Hello everyone and welcome to the garden. 

HNS students were very happy to be back in the garden in week 5, after lashings of strong winds and sheets of torrential rain caused the garden to be out of bounds and closed for more than a week.  The ground was waterlogged and soddened under foot. Only the ducks enjoyed the ponds of water!

Upon inspecting the garden after the adverse weather, we were grateful to discover that most plants survived, with only a few unable to stand their ground.

With the return of warm sunshine and clear blue skies, the students again happily spent time in the garden, talking and laughing as they enjoyed the company of like-minded friends ... and always learning.  I've recently heard some students quietly singing as they sat, calmly working in the garden.

Collecting snails has been the newest and most exciting activity in the garden.

Concern for Others and curiosity motivated one student to plant the seeds from his mandarin.  His words to me were, “so that they will grow into mandarin trees and people can eat the mandarins and no-one will be hungry." 

Students harvested fresh rocket and gifted a bunch to Mr Doyle and also delighted in showing him a few successfully grown large and straight carrots.  

The students harvested ripened produce and delivered it to the Catholic Care Community Kitchen and enjoyed a chat with the welcoming and friendly volunteers. 

Until we meet next time in the garden, where “every child is a different kind of flower and together, they make the world a beautiful garden.”  

Kind regards,

Mrs Jackie Amato

Learning Support Assistant/Garden Supervisor

Infants Carnival

As the Lake Street Sporting Ground has now reopened, we look to reschedule the Infants Athletics Carnival. The Infants teachers as well as Year 6 are excited and determined to make this event happen. Watch this space for dates and details once confirmed! We may even see an appearance of our dedicated Mini Vinnies team and their ever-popular Cake Stall.

Regional Athletics

The date for the Regional Athletics Carnival is approaching and all the Manning school’s Sports Coordinators are working together to prepare for a great event. Prior to this, we will of course need to run the 800m which was rained out on the day of our school carnival. Interested students will be notified ASAP when and where this will occur within the next few weeks. Following this, notifications will go out regarding all track and field events, if students have qualified to progress to the Regional Athletics Carnival. The carnival is scheduled for Thursday 26th June at Tuncurry Oval, the Diocesan carnival is scheduled for Wednesday 6th August at Glendale.

New Look for Representative Sport

In other news, we have been working together with the P&F to design and purchase new athletics singlets and football jerseys! We are working on a consistent, cohesive Holy Name design that students and spectators alike can be proud of. These will be used whenever students represent the school or region at a sporting event or Gala Day. Thank you to some of our families for the suggestion and gentle push in this direction, keeping us looking sharp! It is a great idea, and we are grateful for the P&F for getting behind it too.

School Sport

As the fields continue to dry it has been wonderful to see classes begin to (carefully!) use the spaces again for school sport lessons. Never to be deterred, and ever-flexible educators, our teachers and LSA’s have been getting clever at utilizing the netball court, Infants COLA and Kirkangina in new ways too. Physical activity is so important and every teacher tries hard to incorporate engaging, challenging, age appropriate, skill-level appropriate lessons into the students' learning every week.

Yours in Sport

Michelle Quilter