15 August 2019

Newsletter Articles

Dates to Remember

Principal’s Messages

SPECIAL NEEDS MASS

The Diocese will be celebrating the wonderful gifts we share with our Special Needs children. Mass and supper will be shared at the Sacred Heart Cathedral on Sunday 8 September at 2.30pm. If you can, please come along and celebrate these beautiful children. PLEASE NOTE A CHANGE IN DATE FROM THE LAST NEWSLETTER – DATES TO REMEMBER.

NPBS MATHS COMPETITION

The children in Year 5 & 6 will be participating in the Newcastle Permanent Building Society Maths Competition on Wednesday 21 August. This is a great opportunity for the children to test their skills that they have been developing over the years. This will occur during normal class time. Good Luck to them all.

REGIONAL DEBATING

We have selected a very strong team to represent the school in the Regional Debating on Tuesday 27 August. I am sure Eloise, Jodie, Chloe and Oscar will do us proud. We look forward to seeing how they get on.

WATER SAFETY INCURSION

On Thursday next week, 22 August, the primary classes will be visited by the Newcastle City Council Life Guards to remind them of the need and how to stay safe in our region’s waterways. There is no cost for this incursion.

ST PIUS X SPORTS DAY

As part of their transition to St Pius X, those children who are enrolling there next year, have been invited to attend the Sports Day organised by the PE Department. Our children will join with our sister parish school, St Patrick’s Wallsend, to form a team to participate in the day if they wish. The day will be held on Thursday 5 September. More details in a separate note will be sent home on Monday.

EARLY ARRIVALS

There is a growing number of students arriving before 8:30am – some earlier than 8am. Parents need to be aware that there is no supervision for early arrivals and there is no guarantee that the gate will be open or any staff on site before 8:30am.

Parents who need to drop children early to get to work or attend TAFE or Uni, are encouraged to make arrangements with St Nicholas OOSH to provide supervision for their child/ren if they need to drop children off early. See the details below how to enrol for OOSH.

LOCKED GATE

Just a reminder that if you are entering or leaving the school via the gate please ensure that the magnet has been engaged before moving on. It takes a few seconds for the magnet to reset, so please just hold the gate closed until it engages again. Thank You

WALLSEND WINTER FAIR

Thanks to all those that braved the chilly morning last Sunday to participate in the Grand Parade at the Wallsend Winter Fair. The children did a great job representing the school and giving out sample bags to many of those that lined the street.

Our dancers put on a fine show and entertained the crowd wonderfully well.

TERM CALENDARS

Paper copies of the Term 3 & Term 4 Calendars have been distributed today. Please keep them somewhere prominent – I believe the fridge door is a popular place. Please note, that sometimes late changes need to be made, so make sure you make adjustments when notified. Electronic versions are also available on COMPASS, Schoolzine App and the school website at link below

NB – there are some dates in Term 4 that need to be confirmed ie Swimming Carnival, and Year 6 Fun Day

ST PIUS X TRANSITION MEETINGS

I received the following correspondence from St Pius X addressed to parents who are enrolling their children at the High School in 2020.

Hi

My name is Rachael Moore. I am currently the Perry House Coordinator at St Pius X High School while Kieran Kelly is on leave for the term.

I will be looking after the Transition Meeting to St Patrick’s (which your students will attend if they are interested) and the St Pius X Transition Tour.

The following times have been locked into by St Patrick’s today:

St Pius X visits St Patricks (Our Lady of Victories Shortland invited and welcomed to attend):
Week 4 Friday 16th August at 9:30am

St Patricks and OLoV to visit St Pius X for a tour of the school:
Week 10 Friday 27th September at 9:30am

Parents should note that it will be their responsibility to organise transport for their children to attend these sessions.

RE News

FATHER’S DAY BREAKFAST AND LITURGY

As a school, we will be celebrating Father’s day on Friday 30th August starting the morning bright and early at 7:30am with our Father’s Day Breakfast. For catering purposes please indicate if you will be able to attend via the slip sent home today. During Breakfast this year we have an activity that Dad, Pop, Grandad, Uncle can do with our students which involves creating the best flying paper plane. Paper will be provided. At 9am Year 5 will recognise our father figures in our liturgy. After liturgy we will have our “Paper Plane” competition in the back playground. Please join us for this special occasion even if you can only be part of some of the activities.

MISSION ACTIVITIES

Next Thursday, Year 5 will be selling jelly cups, so don’t forget to bring your money along.

MONDAY MORNING LITURGY

We would like to encourage parents to stay and be part of our Monday morning liturgy. Each Monday the students will play in the hall prior to Liturgy, so please bring your toddlers along to participate in the activities in the hall and stay that extra 10 minutes to be part of our Liturgy. Students really enjoy sharing these special moments with their parents.

P & F News

PIE DRIVE

We have launched our fund raiser for Term Three and the Order Form should be returned this week. If you would like to take advantage of getting some very tasty pies, please return your order forms and payment to school by tomorrow, Friday 16 August. Deliveries should arrive for pickup on Tuesday 27 August.

We will need some helpers to pack the orders ready for pickup. If you can help, please return the volunteer slip sent home this week.

FATHER’S DAY STALL

As we prepare to celebrate the great dads, granddads and other significant men in our lives, we will be selling small gifts for the children to give to them. All gifts will be $5 each and can be pre-ordered by returning the order form. We will be holding the stall on Wednesday 28 August.

CANTEEN NEWS

We are always looking for volunteers to help out with the activities of the P&F. If you might be available for the canteen in Term 4, please access the following:

Pastoral Care News

Wow! Week 4 already! Does it seem as if time is flying? Are we allowing precious time for ourselves and our family?

Last week we had our second afternoon tea. I wish to thank all who attended. It was fantastic to see so many people come along for a chat and cuppa. I am looking forward to hosting more afternoon teas.

OLV gardens are growing nicely. We have had a few helpers who have dedicated their time to ensure the gardens grow and expand. There are blossoms on our fruit trees! We are all watching and waiting for the fruit to grow. Sunshine, Grace and Ella (chickens) have settled in well and Speedy (chicken) seems happy to have the company. Hopefully they will begin to lay soon, as the students love looking after them and collecting eggs.

Take Care and God Bless

Karen

Class News

Kinder

Our Religion unit this term is “Loving God and Others”. We talked about what love is and how it feels to be loved by someone. We discussed the question ‘How do we know that God loves us?’ and learnt that God loves us no matter what. We viewed the story, “The Boy and the Ocean” on God tube which conveyed the message that we are surrounded by God’s love revealed in his creation. We viewed a video clip, “What does love look like?” We discussed when we feel loved eg “I feel loved when my mum hugs me.” In English this term we are exploring ‘Fairy tales”. We read ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ and formed an opinion about whether Goldilocks was a good or bad character. We compared different versions of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears ‘and completed a set of yes/no comprehension questions about the story eg. ‘The three bears had eggs for breakfast” (No). Science is a very engaging topic this term as we learn about our school chickens. They have four basic needs: food, water, air and shelter. We discovered that our class pets, three delightful hermit crabs, on loan from the Barrett family, have the same needs. However, they also need larger shells as they grow, and substrate (sand and gravel), to burrow in. Our Geography unit is “People Live in Places”. We used Google Earth to find our school and familiar local places. We viewed some of the Kinder homes and discussed their house number and their street name. Please give your child opportunities to learn their address and if possible, view their house on Google Earth. We had great fun in Gymnastics. It is the highlight of the week!

Year 1

It’s been a busy return to Term 3 for Year 1. We have been discussing what we know about fairy tales and what we would like to know about them. Everyone has been reading well in our reading group sessions and working hard on our spelling words and sight words.

In Maths, we have been building our guess and check skills to solve problems. Year 1 have been enjoying the challenge. This week we begin a new problem solving method called ‘draw a diagram’. We have been working on addition and subtraction strategies to help us answer questions.

In Geography, we have been learning how to read a weather report and have been looking at the language we use to give a weather forecast. ‘Sunny’, ‘partly cloudy’ and in particular ‘windy’ over the weekend!

In Religion, we have been learning about the ways of praying. We have learnt about how we pray and how Jesus prayed. Last week we did many activities about the ‘Our Father’ prayer and this week we are looking at the ‘Hail Mary’ prayer.

On Monday the 19th of August (Week 5), Year 1 will be leading our school liturgy in the hall at 9am. Children have received their readings this week to practise them for next week. Please join us on Monday morning if you are available, we are very excited to lead the liturgy.

Year 2

I would like to congratulate all year 2 students for practising their reading for our whole school St Mary of the Cross Mass, you all did a wonderful job. Thank you for making this day special for our school. In the last few weeks in Religion we have learnt to name the different seasons in the Church Calendar and the colours that represent these seasons.

In Mathematics we have been working on the split strategy in Mathematics and most students have achieve this strategy and are able to use this strategy in problem solving activities.

This term we are discussing the importance of exercise and healthy food in Health. All students are enjoying and fully participating in our gymnastic lessons and I can see improvements each week.

The children have been asked to go home and look at their computer systems at home. Please make sure that your child knows where your modem, laptops, iPad are. They will mostly start asking you some interesting questions.

Year 3/4

During the last two weeks in Religion, we have been learning about ‘Liturgy’. We know that the priest’s clothes are called ‘vestments’ and that the priest only wears the coloured chasuble when he celebrates Mass. We also know the names of some of the sacred vessels, such as chalice, paten, cruets and purificator. In Maths, our focus has been addition and subtraction of money, and measurement. We have been measuring small lengths using millimetres and looking at how temperature is measured. We are going very well with the multiplication challenges that we do each day. In English, we continue to enjoy reading the book “FernGully” by Diana Young. The story is helping us to understand the importance of rainforests and the devasting affect that humans sometimes have on the environment. In Visual Arts, we are looking at the work of Nick Gustafson, a modern American artist. This artist’s work is very colourful and much of it focuses on nature. He has been quoted saying: “Just trying to brighten up the world and trying to make people smile.” Our Geography focus is on ‘Environments’. We are comparing the various vegetation types in Australia with those in Japan.

Year 5

It is so difficult to believe how quickly this term is going!

In Religion, we have been looking at how God is made known to human beings in distinct ways –

1. through personal relationships,
2. through His Covenant with the Hebrew people,
3. through important events in Hebrew history,
4. through Creation and the natural world, and
5. through the Prophets.

In English, we have started our novel, ‘Hitler’s Daughter’ by Jackie French and, although only a short way through, have discovered a lot about the main characters. We made predictions about the story using the images on the various book covers the novel has had. We wonder whose prediction will be the closest!

In Maths, we have been looking at 3D shapes and we were very clever when creating and matching the nets of 3D objects to the actual object. We have since moved on to Volume and Capacity and have discovered a way to calculate the volume of certain objects, have built a one-metre-cube and used it to measure the classroom, the hall and other areas. Ask us if we found a simple way to do this!

In science, students have been creating a powerpoint about plants and animals and their adaptations to survive in a specific environment i.e. rainforest, desert etc. They have included 3 plants and animals and identified and explained their adaptations and highlighted the similarities and differences between these. Students will present their slides with their partners next week.

In geography, students have begun planning for their geographical investigation - How does the natural environment influence people and place around the world. Together, we created some geographical questions to plan the research and discussed and identified ways to acquire data and information.

In PDHPE, we have looked at how we are similar and different to those in our class. We will now move on to identify their own strengths and achievements as well as those of peers, acknowledge the strengths and achievements of others and refer to a sense of their own worth and dignity.

In Drama, we have learnt how to improve our performance in a video. We are now moving on to writing a script for a news item which we will video and edit towards the end of the term.

Year 6

We have had a very busy start to Term 3. In Religion, we have begun a unit on Liturgy and we have spoken about the ways in which we celebrate. We shared some of the rituals our families have for special gatherings. We went on to discuss some of the many rituals celebrated in the Church. We each devised a ten word summary to express our own understanding of liturgy. We are now studying the Parts of the Mass to deepen our understanding of the celebration of the Eucharist.

In English, we have been working on our debating skills and they are developing well. There were some very eager candidates for the School Debating Team! It was such a difficult decision to have to make. Congratulations to Eloise, Jodie, Chloe and Oscar on being chosen to represent OLV at the Regional Debating Competition on Tuesday, 27th August. Special mention must go to Ebony, Jocelyn, Maree and Peace for their fine efforts and enthusiasm in trying out for the team. Well done to you all!

In Maths we have been challenged by some interesting problem-solving opportunities each day. We are learning to use a variety of strategies in “Using Simpler Numbers” to assist our ways of finding a solution. We have also been working on Patterns and Algebra, creating and exploring sequences of whole positive and negative numbers, fractions and decimals. We have been measuring length and calculating perimeter using different units such as metre, centimetre and millimetre. Some activities are taking us outside the classroom for some real-world measuring challenges.

In Geography, we are embarking on a study of Asia in our Geography unit - "A Diverse and Connected World". We have been studying maps of the continent of Asia and were surprised by how many countries are part of Asia. We are researching information about various Asian countries.

Gymnastics has been wonderful fun so far!

Sport News

DIOCESAN ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

Congratulation to Jessie F, Jocelyn B, Suma M, Peace H & Julian A who represented the North Region at the Diocesan Athletics Carnival last week. Special congrats to Jessie who was selected to represent the Diocese at the next level in October.

SOCCER GALA

WELL!!! What a wind. As strong as it was, our determined soccer players had a great day at Raymond Terrace last week. It was wonderful to watch our children participate with such enthusiasm and fun in their hearts. Thanks to all those that were able to help with transport and came along to cheer on our players.

Library News

BOOK FAIR AND PARADE

The children are getting excited about the upcoming Book Week activities. On Tuesday 20 August, our Book Fair will begin from 9:00am. The children will preview the section prior to the Fair and make up their wish list. Parents are welcome to do so as well from Monday afternoon.

After lunch from 12:15pm the children will parade in keeping with the theme – READING IS MY SUPER POWER. We don’t expect parents to go out and buy costumes.

Class Awards

OOSH

One issue that may arise is the need for Casual Care on occasions. If you think that you might need this, it will be necessary to be enrolled in the service prior to making a booking. Remember that you need to contact St Nicholas OOSH to book your child in, as we can’t do it through the school.

Their contact details are, Christine 0447 288 040 or tracey.sweetman@stnicholasoosh.org.au

If you intend to use the OOSH either before or after school, you might like to download the application forms, fill them out and send them into school to pass on for processing.

Check out this link for more information on St Nicholas OOSH.