Dear Families,

I hope you are all well and looking forward to spending some special time with your families during our Term 3 holidays. We have had a lot of illness this term and I hope that this coming time of rest and relaxation will help people recover. Thank you for all your support throughout this term. 

I have decided to write our fortnightly newsletter early, as we have some great activities coming for the students next week and I really wanted you to hear all about them. Very exciting events!!

I will outline each event for you below.

NAIDOC WEEK

Next week, our school will be celebrating NAIDOC Week, with a special liturgy to be held on Tuesday and an incursion from Jollybops on Monday, that focuses on Science with an Indigenous perspective. 

National NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year (Sunday to Sunday), to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. 

AUSTRALIAN BLESSING

To commence our NAIDOC Week preparations, I would like to share with you an Australian Blessing Prayer, written by Andrew Chinn. This prayer focuses on the beauty of Australia and reminds us all that we are very blessed to share together this beautiful land, with all who walk upon it. 

Andrew has written a special song to go with this prayer, which I have shared here. Please take a moment to pause and reflect on the beauty God has created for us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yAcLJveGgM

May the God of the sun, gently rising

Bring the hope of a day just begun

May the God of the oceans all around us

Bring you the peace of the Holy One

May the God of the desert, heart of our land

Bring the stillness and silence of the wise

May the God of the rivers, flowing freely

Bring new hope, soothing calm, and new life

May the God of blue skies above us

Lift your heart and bring you joy

May the God of the rains from the heavens

Nurture you and soothe your soul

May the God of the sun, gently setting

Bring you peace and rest your weary heart

May the God of the stars of our Southern Cross

Shine down on you wherever you are

Shine down on you wherever you are

NSW PARLIAMENT NAIDOC WEEK SCHOOL HOLIDAYS COMPETITION 

During the school holidays, the NSW Parliament is running a NAIDOC Week competition to design a message stick. It is a great competition for students to participate in. If your child is interested, please see the link below. 

https://education.parliament.nsw.gov.au/naidoc-week-school-holidays-competition/

Example of the competition task

MONDAY 27TH JUNE- JOLLYBOPS SCIENCE SHOW

On Monday 27th June, our whole school will participate in the Jollybops Indigenous Perspective Science Show. This show entitled “Flight, Fire and Sound – Science with an Aboriginal Perspective” essentially looks at the scientific principles behind some of the great inventions and environmental understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Students will discover the science behind the returning Boomerang. Learn about the science of sound and the Didgeridoo (Yidaki). The students will find out about the inventions of one of the great Aboriginal Scientists and leaders David Unaipon (The Face of the $50 note). They will learn about the science of Fire and how Indigenous communities manage and use fire with their ‘Caring for Country’ Fire management practices throughout Australia. As with all their Science shows, there is lots of fun and student interaction with all experiments. A 10-piece student lead Aboriginal instrumental band with song makes for a special finish. 

Jollybops Science would like to acknowledge advice received from Indigenous educators in developing this show. Concepts covered include: Flight, Air Pressure, Bernoulli’s Principle, Design, Fire Triangle, Chemical reactions, Sound, Musical Instruments, Sustainability & Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Culture.

TUESDAY 28TH JUNE- NAIDOC LITURGY

On Tuesday at 12:30pm, our students will participate in a NAIDOC Week liturgy in the hall. Parents are welcome to attend. If you are attending, please enter the school via the hall gate and be seated in the hall by 12:20pm. Thank you to Mrs Mitchell for preparing this liturgy. 

FRIDAY 1ST JULY- VISIT BY CAM GIRDLESTONE (OLYMPIAN) AND CELEBRATION OF AUSTRALIAN SPORTS FUNDRAISER DAY

Friday is going to be such a fun day for the students. Firstly, for a gold coin donation, the students and staff can wear their favourite sporting outfit and/or jersey to school as part of our AUSTRALIAN SPORTS celebration- eg Soccer shorts and jersey, netball outfit, cricket, tennis, hockey, dancing, gymnastics shirts, NRL, AFL, National Football (Soccer) etc team jerseys,  hats, scarves, beanies etc. Anything that represents sport. If they don’t have anything at home to wear, they can just come in mufti- maybe focus on Green and Gold for Australia.

It’s just a little fun, as we are going to be celebrating Australian Sport with our VERY SPECIAL VISITOR- CAM GIRDLESTONE. 

AUSTRALIAN OLYMPIAN VISITOR TO SCHOOL- FRIDAY 1ST JULY

Last year, our current Year 5 class along with Mr Sherry, participated in the Nestle ‘Design the Athletes Village Competition’ in the leadup to the Tokyo Olympic Games. The students designed a village that encouraged athlete physical and mental health. Year 4 (2021) won the competition for Stage 2, earning the school a school visit by an olympian.

Our visit this coming Friday Ist July, is by Olympic Rower Cam Girdlestone. 

ABOUT CAMERON GIRDLESTONE

Cameron Girdlestone is an Australian representative rower. He is a five-time Australian National Champion, a medalist at World Championships, a dual Olympian and an Olympic silver and bronze medallist. He raced in the Australian men's quad scull at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to a bronze medal. For more information about Cam, please visit the Australian Olympics site

https://www.olympics.com.au/olympians/cameron-girdlestone/

OUTLINE OF THE DAY

Cameron will present to the whole school firstly and then will do some class sessions. 

In his presentation he will:

• talk about about his career and his journey through sport; 

• Show a Tokyo highlight reel video
• Discuss with the students about Goal setting focus 
• There will be some rowing machine fun at the end of the session. He will ask students to come up and try 100m’s or so with the last 100 m's of Tokyo race playing in the background

THURSDAY 30TH JUNE- MESSAGE FROM PETER HILL

As per our newsfeed note today from Peter Hill- Director of Catholic Education Wollongong, The Independent Education Union (IEU) has informed Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong that their members will engage in protected industrial action on Thursday 30 June 2022 for the entire school day.

What this means for you and your child on Thursday 30 June 2022

• Limited supervision will be provided at school, but classes will not run as normal.
• You may wish to keep your child at home.
• Any absence from school on this day will not impact your child's attendance record.

As a Catholic employer, we respect the rights of employees to be members of the union and take protected industrial action and we will endeavour to continue in good faith to bargain with the union and reach agreement. We recognise this event may present challenges for school families and we are committed to doing all we can to minimise disruption for your child.

REPORTS- YEAR 1 TO YEAR 6

Semester One Digitised Reports will be available late this afternoon on COMPASS. I will send a newsfeed notification to let you know when they have been uploaded by our CEO. 

Year 5 and Year 6 will be given printed copies of their reports today, as they often need them for High School applications etc. Please note, at the time of printing, the number of days absent for the semester on the printed copies for Years 5 and 6, had not been uploaded. This information will be available on the digitised version. 

You are able to print a copy of your reports from COMPASS. If however, you need assistance with this, please don’t hesitate to contact our staff in the office. If you would rather a printed copy be given to you, please contact our office.

In our Term 2 Week 8 newsletter, I included a detailed explanation of the report structure. Please refer to this if you need any further information regarding the reports. This newsletter can be found on our school website.

Should you have any queries regarding your child’s report and wish to speak with their teacher, please contact our school office next week and we can arrange an appointment time. There are no formal parent teacher meetings next week, as these have previously occurred.

A reminder, that our teaching staff are very happy to speak with you at any time during the year about any questions or concerns you may have. I really appreciate the great connection we have amongst our community for supporting our students. 

Have a wonderful weekend.

We are all looking forward to a very exciting week ahead for our students.

Take care and God bless.

Katrina West

Principal