Dear Parents and Carers,

Welcome to the last newsletter for Term 3. You are now gifted a 2-week break from school routines and demands. Given that the weather is going to fine up, I hope that you will enjoy the beautiful outdoors and surrounds of the local area. Since our last newsletter we have had a number of significant events. I would like to congratulate all of our students who made their first Holy Communion last weekend and thanks Genevieve Williamson for her preparation of the children and organisation of the Sacrament celebration. Kindergarten had a very successful excursion to Oakvale Zoo and were very excited to take part in this extra-curricula event. Four of our students, Mae, Arden, Hafsa and Nanma represented each stage at the Regional Public Speaking competition in Taree last week. I was very happy to hear their speeches and very proud of their efforts and achievement. Hafsa and Arden will go through to the final round in Term 4 at Chisholm and look forward to seeing their progress as I will be organising the event. I commend all students who took part in the competition at all levels and encourage them to continue taking part again next year. Another way students were able to have their voice heard was at the student voice workshop held online last week. This initiative was for Stage 3 students all around the diocese. The results of this initiative will be made available at a later date.

This week staff have been heavily involved in Professional Learning with Lyn Sharratt, an international educational researcher. Her ‘Clarity’ framework has been used at Holy Name for the last five years with much improvement in student outcomes evidence of its success. On Thursday Holy Name hosted Lyn Sharratt and 20 visitors from Manning schools and St John Vianney, Morrisett. Our colleagues visited all classrooms to observe teachers and students in the Waterfall Learning and Assessment Cycle. What they saw was pedagogy at its best and students engaged in quality purposeful learning who were able to articulate their learning intentions and success criteria and how they were progressing towards the goals, as well as how they could improve and where they would go to for help. That might sound like a no brainer but often students do not engage in the ‘why’ of their learning – just the ‘what’ which can limit understanding and decrease engagement and drive to learn more. Knowing why you are doing a task makes it more meaningful and purposeful and being able to self-assess and know how to improve is the key to lifelong learning. I would like to congratulate all staff and Mrs Stephens on their noteworthy progress in using the 14 parameters of Sharratt’s Clarity. I would especially like to congratulate and thanks Suzie Monks and Sean Hassett on their focus work in this area as the Pedagogical Mentors for the school.   

The Diocese has embarked on a carpet, Autex and paint refurbishment of a percentage of classrooms in every school. Holy Name have been the happy recipients of 7 classrooms of new carpet this week, Students in Kinder, Yr1, Yr2 and 5H had a slight disruption to their routine and moved momentarily into the library whilst their rooms were being refurbished. Autex and painting will occur in Term 4.

We look forward to Having our new Kinders for 2025 join us for the first five Thursdays of Term 4. It was great to meet the students and parents of Pebbly Beach preschool this week and talk about school readiness. All new Kinder parents are welcome to join is for the parent evening on Tuesday 15 October at 5pm. This is a very exciting yet somewhat daunting time for students and families. We hope to alleviate your anxiety by answering any questions you may have during this session.

Next term we will be involved in a ‘Wellbeing’ pilot project for Years 3-6 called “Pivot”. This will involve a 20-minute survey to collect baseline data and then 5 x 2minute check-ins for the next three terms. Details and consent forms will be provided early next term. The purpose of the project is to better manage student needs by responding to the data and providing resources where they are needed. Students may not feel brave enough to speak up in person about issues but may find it easier to do so in a digital format. Capturing wellbeing data will better equip teachers to provide necessary care for all students.  

Please keep Sunday 27 October in your diary as we will be hosting the 10am Parish Mass in our school hall and we would love for your and your families to be able to join the Holy Name Parish community in this eucharistic celebration.  

Happy Term Break,

God Bless,

Niamh