Holy Name Primary School, Toowoomba eNewsletter

From the Principal - Lisa Cavanagh

Newsletter Report

Week 6 Term 4

Last week I attended the Leadership Forum at the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office. Each term, a different school hosts and this Forum, Holy Name had that honour. I was so incredibly proud of our staff and students for the way they prepared for and conducted themselves during the week. We hosted the dinner and prayer celebration on Monday night and then led morning prayer at the Micah Centre at TCS on Tuesday. Special mentions to the following people:

- Ms Inskip – who prepared the prayer celebrations and ensured everything ran smoothly

- Mr Dore and the Choir – for their beautiful singing during the prayer celebration and the performance afterwards. My fellow principals were particularly impressed. A big thank you to Harry for reprising his performance as Young Peter Allen to sing “Name in Lights.”

- Mr Morrish – our grounds are looking particularly beautiful and many of my colleagues commented on how lovely it all looked

- Our students leading prayer on Tuesday – the prayer centred around the Beatitudes, fitted in perfectly with Dr Pat’s (the Executive Director of TCS) keynote address on living a full and flourishing life. Our small plants with the Catherine McAuley quote and the recontextualised Beatitudes written and presented by the Year 3 students were very well received.

- The parents of the choir students and those involved in leading the prayer on Tuesday morning – thank you for arranging your time for your students to attend and represent our school.

- Last, but certainly not least, our school captains Ella and Ava. These two young women have done an outstanding job this year as our school captains. They assisted me to conduct the school tour with my principal colleagues, answering questions about the school, they assisted Ms Inskip and I to lead the prayer celebration at the dinner and then attended and led the prayer on Tuesday morning as well. I had several comments from other principals about the quality of our school captains and how proud they were of their school.

2025

We are currently looking at the class structure and teacher allocation for 2025. To assist us with this, we would appreciate families informing the school office if they are transitioning to a new school in 2025. Thank you in advance.

Student Leadership Positions 2025

Next week, our Year 5 students will be visited by former Holy Name student, Councillor James O’Shea. Councillor O’Shea will be speaking with the students about Leadership. Our Year 5 students will then be writing a leadership speech, as part of their English assessment, in preparation for School Leadership Positions nominations. The students from Year 3 to 6 will be able to vote for the positions below, and the school leadership team (myself, Ms Inskip, Mrs Street and Mrs Elmes) will discern the most suitable candidates for the positions

.- School Captain – 2 students will be named as School Captain for 2025.

- Social Justice Captain – 1 student to be named as Social Justice Captain – will lead Mini-Vinnies and all social justice initiatives within the school.

- House Captains – 2 house captains for each of the houses (Mort, Concannon and McAuley)

Announcements for the 2025 student leadership positions will be at the Year 6 Graduation and Awards presentation on Wednesday the 4th of December at 10:30am.

Year 5/6 camp 2025

Any parents who would like to volunteer to coordinate the raffle to be drawn at our Christmas Concert evening, please contact the office as soon as possible. All you will have to do is assist with the selling of tickets on the night and collate the donations into prizes in preparation. Thank you to those who have already donated raffle prizes – donations can also be left at the office.

‘Prayer is a plant, the seed of which is sown in the heart of every Christian,

but its growth entirely depends on the care we take to nourish it’

(Catherine McAuley)

God Bless

Lisa Cavanagh

Principal

APMI - Jodie Inskip

The role of the APMI – Part 2: Educative leadership and Staff and Community Leadership

Have you ever wondered what the role of the APMI (formally APRE) is?

In the last newsletter, we started to look at the role of the APMI as a Religious leader in our Catholic School Community. This week we explore another two aspects of the role, Educative Leadership and Staff and Community Leadership.

As an Educative leader the APMI contributes to the teaching and learning agenda of the school. - They lead and facilitate the faith and spiritual development of staff to enhance the teaching of Religion

- They provide knowledge of and familiarity with exemplary classroom practice to support the delivery of a contemporary Religious Education program

- The APMI incorporates practical experiences of social justice and service learning into the life of the school community

As a Staff and Community leader, the APMI role is to foster and sustain productive relationships with staff, students, parents, the parish and the wider community. Working together as one community, Prayer and rituals are important traditions in the life of our school community.

- They lead and support staff in their understanding and knowledge of the rudiments of meaningful prayer and liturgical experiences

- They present and communicate a contemporary understanding of faith, Church and spiritual life which facilitates dialogue and provide opportunities for professional formation

All Saints Day and All Souls Day

All Saints’ Day (also known as All Hallows Day) is annually celebrated by the Catholic Church on 1st November. On this day, we honour all the saints. These include well-known saints and those not officially recognized. The celebration began many centuries ago, when the Church wanted to remember all the holy people, who lived good lives and followed Jesus. Throughout the year, many saints are honoured on their own feast day, so All Saints Day, was created to recognize the many others (about 6500 saints) known and unknown, who have also devoted their lives to the service of God and of humanity. All Saints Day is a time to thank God for these saints, who continue to be examples for us to follow today. We ask for their prayers to help us live good lives too. On this day we remember that we are all called to be saints.

All Souls Day, on November 2nd is a significant day in the Catholic Church dedicated to remembering and praying for all the faithful departed. As Christians this affirms our belief in the communion of saints and the resurrection. Some people also take time on this day to visit the graves of their departed loved.

A prayer that is prayed on All Souls Day when we pray for those who have died:

The Eternal Rest Prayer.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.

Amen

Middle Leader News

Last week, Miss Dannille Canning and I had the opportunity to attend the Biannual Trauma-Aware Education conference in Brisbane. There were over 900 delegates in attendance to hear keynote speakers from both Australia and overseas. Additionally, we had the opportunity to participate in workshop sessions and master classes where we were fortunate to hear from experts in their fields. We look forward to sharing our learnings with staff in the future, so as a school we are able to provide the best support possible to our students and families.

School Uniforms Update

We have been advised that within the next week The School Locker is closing at Intersport as the Intersport store is closing.

Uniforms will then be available online only for a few weeks - link below.

Holy Name Primary School (Toowoomba) - Shop By School - School Locker (theschoollocker.com.au) .

During this time The School Locker is going to offer free delivery to our parents.

A new store location has been found onsite at USQ (Toowoomba). The opening date is yet to be confirmed.

We will keep you updated as we receive more confirmation.

Thank you for your patience during this transition phase.

School Fees

A reminder that Term 4 school fees are now due.

If you are experiencing difficulty paying your fees, please contact the office to arrange a meeting with Mrs Cavanagh.

Thank you.

Prep - Tennille Kauter

Prep/1 Gold - Hannah Patterson

Year 2 - Kirralee Bronkhurst

Year 2 - Stacy Mills

Year 5/6 - Brook Marquart

Enrichment - Sophie Elmes

ICAS Participants

Congratulations to the following students who participated in ICAS for 2024.

Sophie Knight, Finn Wilson, Lilly Smith, Maheera Imran, Samuel Anderson, Malachi Wells, Matilda Raccanello, Naya Zahlouk, Savannah Woolmer, Archer Breeze, Rohan Venning and Preston Naylon.

Special mention goes to the following students for their outstanding achievements in ICAS.

Mathematics: Finn Wilson (Merit) and Rohan Venning (Merit).

English: Samuel Anderson (Merit), Naya Zahlouk (Merit), Sophie Knight (Credit) and Finn Wilson (Credit)

Spelling: Finn Wilson (Distinction)

Science: Sophie Knight (Credit) and Finn Wilson (Credit).

Enrichment

Our Enrichment students are most excited about sharing their Genius Hour presentations to the Holy Name community on Wednesday, 13^th November in the MEAC. Our Year 2 and 3 participants will present 9-10am and the Year 4, 5 and 6 participants will present 1:45-2:45pm. All Holy Name families and friends are welcome to view these presentations.

HPE - Jenna Taylor

Tips for High School - Social

Friendships

Stay in touch with friends from primary school
Before Year 6 ends, organise to keep in touch with your existing primary school friends over the holidays and into Year 7 even if they are not going to the same high school. Making time on the weekends or after school to meet up helps keep old friendships strong and means you will always have friends to talk to. This is especially important during the beginning of Year 7 when you may not have had time to make new friends yet.

Look for friendship opportunities
Join a club, team, volunteer group or after-school activity to find people with similar interests as you. Make eye contact and smile at people to look approachable. Try making small talk with someone who’s sitting alone at lunch or on the bus. Ask people questions (e.g., their interests, favourite subjects etc.) to get to know them and remember to listen attentively. Check out https://young.scot/get-informed/a-shy-persons-guide-to-making-friends-at-school/ or https://kidshelpline.com.au/teens/issues/making-friends for extra tips and examples.

Notice people with similar values to you
Look for people who are inclusive, kind and fair. Be careful of groups who exclude others (e.g., because they don’t look a certain way, don’t do certain things etc.), or who spread gossip about people. These people are likely to exclude you and gossip about you if there is a disagreement. Similarly, be wary of people who ask you to tell big secrets about yourself early on. Trust needs to be earned. Try sharing smaller things first (things you don’t mind becoming public) to see if your new friends can be relied on. Avoid people who pressure you to not have any friends except them; try to have some friends from different groups so you always have someone to hang out with if there is a problem with a friendship group. Check out https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/2020-10/Good-Childhood-Friendship-Guide-Young-People.pdf for extra hints and tips for healthy friendships.

Communicating with Teachers

Classwork
Be proactive in asking for your teacher’s help, that is, ask for help before you get behind. Put your hand up to ask questions, or to ask the teacher to do a worked example on the board so that you can understand the work better.

Assignments
Similar to classwork, if you don’t understand part of an assignment, ask your teacher about it before you get behind. Politely ask them if they can explain it using different words, demonstrate the process with something similar, or give an example that won’t give away the answer.

What if I’m shy?
If you are too shy to ask questions in front of other people, you can also ask your teacher after class (e.g., during breaks by going to a staffroom). Teachers are generally very happy to help, and excited that students care enough about their learning to come and ask for help. Even if you are shy at first, it is a good idea to build your confidence by asking small questions first (that you are more comfortable with) and working your way up to bigger questions later. This way, if you really need to ask something, you’ll be able to, and you won’t miss out. Check out https://studentfutures.org/communication-for-teens/how-to-talk-to-teachers-tips-for-student-success/ for extra hints and tips for effective communication with your teachers.

Bullying

What should I do if I’m bullied?
Talk to someone. You're not on your own. Tell a teacher or someone at your school. Talk to your mum or dad or carer, one of your family, a grandparent, friend or someone else who you know will listen to you. Also, remember the counsellors at https://kidshelpline.com.au/ (1800 55 1800). Ask people to help you work out what to do. If things don't get better after you've told someone, don’t give up, tell them again or tell a different person. Check out https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/support-and-advice/for-young-people for additional advice and information.

TCKC

October_24_Newsletter.pdf

Happy Families Article

030424_HopeBuilders.pdf

2024 Term 4 Week 6