Our Spirit. 10 March 2016 WEEK 6 TERM 1. H o l y S p i r i t P r i m a r y S c h o o l. Dear Parents and Carers, Catholic Schools Week

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1 H o l y S p i r i t P r i m a r y S c h o o l Our Spirit WEEK 6 TERM 1 10 March 2016 Dear Parents and Carers, Catholic Schools Week ALIVE WITH THE SPIRIT, WE CELEBRATE FAITH, LEARNING AND LIFE. Dates to Remember Monday 14th Public Holiday Friday 16th Cross Country Carnival ELC Yr 6 Sunday 20th Palm Sunday Monday 21st Nth Cbr/ Gungahlin Swimming Carnival School Board & P&F Meeting School Address Kelleway Avenue Nicholls ACT 2913 School website edu.au office.holyspirit@ cg.catholic.edu.au Phone On Wednesday this week, Holy Spirit welcomed parents into the classrooms as part of our recognition of Catholic Schools Week across the Archdiocese. Following a wonderful Focus Assembly by 3 Nuske and 3 Hague where we were taught about seeking a Win Win approach to dealing with disagreements, parents were invited back into classrooms to see the fantastic work being done and to join in with the morning session. It was lovely to walk around the school to see so many excited children showing their work and sharing their learning. The morning finished with a relaxed morning tea to catch up and to meet new parents and teachers. From the Canberra Goulburn CEO Website: First and foremost, Catholic Schools Week is about celebration. The theme for 2016 is I Belong. You Belong. We Belong. which aligns with the Catholic Church s strong focus on supporting refugees and asylum seekers and the need for a compassionate global community. The theme also ties in with the Catholic Church s celebration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which centres on pardon, strength and love. In this Year of Mercy, Pope Francis is calling on all Catholic communities to extend mercy to those in need, particularly refugees fleeing hunger and war. The Catholic Education Office of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn is proud of the quality of the 56 Catholic Schools across the Archdiocese. Our Catholic schools seek to contribute to the creation of an Australian community that is highly educated, skilled and cultured with an ability to promote and embrace a critical analysis of social issues, the expansion of knowledge and the pursuit of truth. A wonderful part of Catholic Schools Week is held tomorrow afternoon at St Christopher s Cathedral, where all staff across the Diocese are invited to come together to celebrate Mass. As part of this celebration, the significant contributions of individual teachers and whole schools to Catholic education is recognised, at which Kate MacGregor and Charissa Eldridge will be acknowledged for their work in leading transformational change within our school. Congratulations to Kate and Charissa and to all the staff who work tirelessly at Holy Spirit to make it such a wonderful school. NAPLAN School Achievement On Tuesday, ACARA identified Holy Spirit School as having demonstrated substantially above average gain in NAPLAN results. We are very proud of the work our staff and students have done to achieve this. In their communication with us they stated: On behalf of ACARA, I would like to extend my congratulations to you and your school community on this achievement. Gains of this magnitude are significant and worthy of highlighting and acknowledgement. We are very pleased that our school is making great gains in the education of our students. CONGRATULATIONS Last Wednesday, Mrs Catherine Doig (Miss Guthrie) and Mr Pete Doig welcomed to the world a beautiful baby girl, Amelia Monica. We offer our sincerest congratulations to both Catherine and Pete. All are doing well.

2 Numeracy Our spirit On Wednesday afternoon this week, we held an information session for K 1 parents looking at Numeracy and the strategies able to be used easily at home to support the development of fundamental number skills and general confidence in Maths. The key message delivered was the need to identify maths in the day to day of our lives and therefore the lives of the children. As parents, there are endless opportunities to talk about maths; cutting the sandwiches in half, estimating if there is enough milk for everyone at breakfast, talking about the fact you are actually using money when paying for groceries on your card and reading the time constantly. When it comes to working on the formal maths of numbers, the key is to expose, experiment and experience numbers in as many ways as possible. Counting by 1s is a great start, but counting forwards, backwards and skip counting by 2s, 3s etc. is a great way to become familiar with how numbers really work. There are many great activities that you can do with some dice or playing cards that can really engage children in working with numbers and gaining confidence. Please contact me (Cameron.tarrant@cg.catholic.edu.au) if you would like any further information or ideas regarding supporting your child s numeracy development. Student Leaders At Week 7 s Focus Assembly the Year 6 students will receive their student leader badges. The sport house captains will also receive badges. Parents are than welcome to attend. Parenting Ideas Holy Spirit subscribes to the parenting website Parenting Ideas which is based on the work of parenting advisor Michael Grose. The website offers many great insights into the challenges of being a parent and presents articles related to areas that parents call for. Periodically I will include an article from the website that may be of interest or pick up on an area that is relevant. This week an article titled, Developing your child s social media scripts has been attached to the Newsletter. This article presents valuable suggestions around supporting children as they venture into the digital social world. While most children at primary age won t have much opportunity to use social media, as Michael Grose suggests, starting the conversation about appropriate digital behaviour is very beneficial. Please contact me if you have any questions or particular areas that you would like covered throughout the year. Working with you to educate your children. Cameron Tarrant Confirmation News... Our Year 6 children have now begun preparations for the Sacrament of Confirmation the third sacrament of initiation into the church. We ask that you keep these children in your prayers during this significant time. Important Upcoming Dates: Weekend 11 th and 12 th March children can bring their prayer cards to Mass. During the Mass the children will give the card to a parishioner and ask them to pray for them as they continue their preparation journey. 20 th March Palm Sunday. Some of our Year 6 students will be involved in the dramatization of Holy Week at the 9:30am Mass. Notes will go home with those students with further information. Help Needed We are looking for a number of volunteers to help sew the Confirmation stoles for our Year 6 students. If you are able to help please katrina.macgregor@cg.catholic.edu.au or phone the school on and leave me a message. Working with you in faith, Kate MacGregor

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5 ELC NEWS.. Our spirit We have been so busy in the Orange class. It is hard to believe that we are half way through our first term of Preschool. We have been enjoying the very warm weather with lots of water play. We have enjoyed making pools of water, floating objects down the flowing river and using the water to make mud in the outside kitchen. We discovered some animal footprints in the sandpit that we had to identify. We then looked at different animal tracks and how they are made, this lead us to creating our own footprints in our classroom. Holy Spirit P&F Would like to thank you for all your Easter Egg donations & ongoing support for the Easter Egg Raffle Our Year 6 helpers will be selling raffle tickets At lunchtimes until Thursday 17/3/16 3 tickets for $1 Help Needed.. We are looking for volunteers to help make the hampers for the raffle. If you have time on Monday the 21 st to help put these wonderful prizes together please contact Sarah on Thank you

6 Our spirit STUDENT WELFARE NEWS.. KIDSMATTER PRIMARY Component 3: Parenting support and education I will frequently place links here, for parents and carers to access, which will lead you to up to date information on children s mental health. These links will allow you to quickly access important knowledge and resources. This week s link continues with resolving conflict and looks at Sorting Out Conflict Together MINI VINNIES NEWS Mini-Vinnies is a St Vincent de Paul group of young people, in a primary school, who get together to organise help for others in need, within their school community and beyond. This year we will again hold a regular Mini Vinnies group here at Holy Spirit Primary. It is open for students in Year Four to join and we will meet once a fortnight (even weeks) on Wednesdays in the Multipurpose Room. HOLY SPIRIT LUNCH TIME SOCIAL CLUB Our lunch time Social Club continues this year in the same format as last year, where the children are invited to attend by their classroom teacher. They may choose a friend to bring along. We will hold structured activities for them and be there to support them, as they build on their social skills. This week the children played board games in the air-conditioned Multi-Purpose room, next week we will invite the Kinders to Year 3 to enjoy some Easter Craft! SOCIAL TUBS Our Social Tubs are small wheelie bins filled with various toys, which are maintained by our lovely Year Four classes. The students put the tubs out every lunch time for everybody to use, though they particularly appeal to the students in Kinder, Years One and Two. We are always happy to receive donations of clean dress ups, dolls, cars, and blocks to freshen up our tubs. We find the community toys help the children to learn social skills, whilst not bringing their own precious toys to school. SAFE SCHOOLS HUB As a parent, you want your child to feel safe and to be safe at school. The National Safe Schools Framework values the vital role that you play in supporting your child, in connecting and communicating effectively with your child's school, and in building and nurturing positive relationships. The Safe Schools Hub for Parents provides you with a guide to the Framework, with information and resources that you may find useful in helping to make your child's school experience a positive and happy one. The following is a link to the Safe Schools Hub website which is funded by the Australian Government Department of Education. PLAY GROUPS Holy Spirit Play Group We hope to continue our play group during 2016 and we invite parents and carers to attend Play Group in our Community Hub from 9.00am 11.00am on Thursday mornings, please feel free to come along during term time. Cheeky Cherubs Playgroup is held in our Community Hub on Wednesday mornings from ; it is run through ACT Playgroups. There are limited places and a small fee does apply to this group so if you would like further information please contact the front office. Always feel free to contact me if I can be of any assistance at Sharonmarie.harrison@cg.catholic.edu.au

7 Our spirit K Johns K Bartley K Bell K McFarlane Nate Darcy Ella Boland Mya Richardson To be advised 1 Wood Austen Jugovic 1 Creagh Darcy Morris 1 Hardiman Lilijana Turcic 1 Masters John DiIulio 2 Spencer Lidija O Donnell 2 Kelly Luka Cerni 2 Taylor Cooper Martin 3 Kaptein Matthew Robinson 3 Gaffey To be advised 3 Hague Olivia Masters 3 Nuske Jessica King 4 Jackson William Ness 4 Camp Ivana DiIulio 4 Hickman Lauren Murphy 5 French Ella Cortes 5 Cannon Thao Mi Quach Tran 5 Eldridge Ella Vasek 6 Jenkins Abbey Sutherland 6 Kennedy Eva Kolac 6 Cambridge/ MacGregor Raul Chand Cross Country Carnival Friday 18th March ELC Year 6 PLEASE Wear Sport s Uniform with house colour T.SHIRT Wear your sneakers Bring a water bottle Wear Sunscreen Have fun

8 OSHClub News Our spirit Before School / After School Care Program Program Update We can t believe it s the middle of Term 1 already. Our holiday program is now open for bookings. Please remember when picking up your children to continue to drive slowly in the carpark and watch out for pedestrians, even though school is over the carpark still gets quite busy. Our mix up Wednesday to Friday for Grades 1-6 is going well. Please feel free to talk to us about this if you have any concerns or questions. Sometimes your child might ask about bringing in a costume for our mix up days or for a talent show. This is fine and we encourage this, but please no toys or ICT devices. Over the last couple of weeks we have engaged your children in activities based around characters, books and films. Children really enjoy our cooking experiences and using the Ipads 2 afternoons a week. This week we are focussing on Autumn followed by Saint Patricks and Harmony day activities. The educators at OSHClub have also planned activities based on observations of children and their suggestions and interests. Please make sure we have all your medical information and medication so we can ensure your child is safe. Also we have a plethora of hats in lost property, come and see if your child s is there. We now cater for 165 children in the afternoon so please cancel bookings online, if unable to please notify OSHClub by calling the mobile phone. See you next time at OHSClub. Kathleen and team. The Week s Activities Before Care Activities After Care Activities Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Balloon Sewing with Fitness circuit Paper bag animals felt Autumn scarecrow 3D paper Autumn tree Nature Tissue paper Pac man rainbows Leaf life cycle colouring leaf sheets Amazing detergent Optical illusion hand print Autumn pinwheel Extreme handball Lemon Slice Boot camp Design your own board game Zoob building competition Autumn acrostic poems Obstacle coarse Parent Information OSHC program phone: Program Manager: Kathleen Rigby Coordinators: Sandra, Tanya and Luke OSHClub Head Office: All families must be enrolled to attend the program, remember this is Free!! Please create an account online at all bookings and cancellations can also be managed via your online account. For on the day bookings please contact the Coordinator direct at the program. DO YOU NEED HELP WITH YOUR ENGLISH LEARN ENGLISH WITH A NATIVE ENGLISH TEACHER Qualified TESOL Teacher (Teach English to Speakers of Other Language) Small groups or one on one tuition Fun, practical and conversation lessons. Call Veronica on for more information