Newsletter 19th March Term 1, Week 8

Principal's Message

Catholic Identity: In 2025, we will establish pedagogical practices that improve student religious literacy and provide opportunities for encounter with Christ.

Learning: In 2025 we will establish effective and consistent pedagogical practices for all students by all teachers.

Wellbeing: In 2025 we will establish a school-wide common language in Positive Behaviour 4 Learning (PB4L) incorporating our Mercy pillars.

Dear Parent/Carer

What is the purpose of Lent? The best way to describe Lent is to keep us on track as Christians. It begins with ashes and the call to prayer, fasting and almsgiving, and ends with the words - He is Risen!
At the start of the journey with ashes, we are challenged to look at ourselves through prayer, or another way of looking at it- living out the command to love God. Am I taking some quiet time in listening to God’s spirit in my life, community, school, workplace?
Almsgiving, or another way of looking at it, living out the command to love our neighbour …is that easy to do? How am I reaching out to the poor, the vulnerable, the sick and the lonely perhaps in my own neighbourhood, community, maybe even in our own homes.
Thirdly, fasting or living out the command to love ourselves. Fasting not necessarily from food or sweets but in this busy world, am I looking after my body, this gift from God through rest perhaps even taking out some time for my family. Am I a kind and caring person?
Prayer, fasting and almsgiving are our Lenten tools to break any habits or patterns in our lives that we can form.
Lent calls us to turn the lens in on ourselves. Jesus spent forty days in the desert during Lent.
What is it about the desert?….it’s dry most of the time, it’s baron, it’s hard to find much life, and in the desert our phones are useless….in time their battery will run out, their signal is usually not available…so in the desert we rely on instinct; we rely on God and God’s spirit that journeys also with us; to survive, we rely on the need for water and food! Just like the people of Israel, they were called out into the desert to get to know God better. They wanted to trust God, but when your tummy is grumbling you often think of much else.
Jesus enters the desert to get to know himself better, and he faces these 3 temptations:

• turning stones into bread – to feed just his own hunger…no Jesus says we are called to feed the hunger of many…not just bread, but people’s self-worth and dignity
• all these kingdoms could be yours – kingdoms of power and glory - Jesus says we are to bring the world under the control of good – love, kindness and peace.
• Throw yourself down the cliff – Jesus says trust in God’s power to protect us. Do we believe God has got our back?

Our world tells us many things, we can call them temptations - to seek wealth, to seek power, to have the best of the best of things, sometimes but not all the time do they bring us happiness.
Jesus went into the desert to find himself, and yes there were temptations. He invites us to also do this during Lent, to go into the desert to rediscover our true selves, to open our ears and hearts to God’s love, friendship, guidance and support.

If you were dropped in the desert who or what would be most important to you?

Leading Learning Collaborative: ‘’Clarity’ by Dr Lyn Sharratt
The Diocese of Maitland Newcastle is focusing all schools on contemporary learning and the effective use of data. 
All schools continue with the employment of Pedagogical Mentors who act as mentors for other staff.  Trish McNeil (K-2) Therese Jackman (Year 3-4) and Melissa Pyers (year 5-6) fulfil this role at St Thereses throughout this year, and they will receive professional development on this role and how-to best work with staff to improve outcomes for our students. 
Our learning focus for 2025 is on improving teaching & learning in English and Religion through a strategic approach to the setting of Learning Intention and Success Criteria and helping our children identify their individual goals including ways to improves as learners.
In her book ‘Clarity’ Dr Lyn Sharratt emphasises fourteen parameters that are needed to improve teaching and learning in a school.
The important role that parents play in their child’s education is one of these key parameters. Here are five questions that she suggests parents can ask their children when engaging with them about their learning:

1. What did you learn today?
2. How did you do?
3. What did you do if you didn’t understand?
4. How can you improve on your learning?
5. What are you most proud of?

Professional Learning Team (PLT) Meetings
As part of our work with ‘Clarity,’ Professional Learning Team meetings for teachers, working with our Pedagogical Mentors, have already started for 2025.
On average these meetings occur for each grade twice/term, and they involve an analysis of our children’s data and how we can provide them with opportunities to continue their progress.
This is part of our School Improvement Plan (SIP) and there is allocation from the CS system to fund these meetings.

The Benefits of Attending a Catholic School
These two recent articles reinforce for us what we already know - Catholic schools provide personal, social, and spiritual growth that extends beyond the classroom:

• A study in The Australian that highlights how Catholic school graduates outperform their peers in key areas such as life satisfaction, work success, and overall health. You can read the full article here: Catholic school graduates 'perform better' on key outcomes including life satisfaction, work and health.
• The Victorian Catholic Education Authority has published a resource outlining the extensive lifelong benefits of attending a Catholic school, including the development of values, resilience, and a strong sense of community. You can access the resource here: Lifelong Benefits of Attending a Catholic School.

 Thank you for your dedication and commitment to Catholic education.

School Visit
On 9 April our Chief Operating Officer (COO) Lisa Tierney and various diocesan and CS teams will visit St Therese’s. The purpose of the school visit is for a small team which will also include Jacqui Wilkinson our Head of Schools, and relevant CSO and Shared Services staff to visit our school to build a shared understanding of our context. The conversation will identify our school strengths, challenges and next steps based on the data and evidence. The visit is designed to gain a clear understanding of our improvement journey together and to ensure alignment of all support services provided. The visit will also be an opportunity to build relationships across all teams.

Office of Safeguarding – Our diocesan and school commitment
Keeping our children safe can be achieved by ensuring our children are informed about their rights and participate in decision-making. Adults need to ensure they listen actively to children and engage them in discussions. This will help children feel valued and respected, which will help them to speak up if they feel they are unsafe or have been abused. At St Therese’s, the voice of each child is respected and valued, we have many opportunities for children to be involved in teams and activities to build our community. Encourage your child to participate in these activities such as:

*Lunch clubs (Minecraft, Active Lifestyle)

* School band for Years 3-6

*Leadership Teams (termly meetings with their team and the principal)

Daily Roll Marking and School Attendance
Each day, we are in classrooms marking class rolls on Compass as we begin our learning for the day. So, it is important that your child is at school on time or that you mark them absent (for full day absences only – not partial absences) via Compass promptly in the morning. Otherwise, you will receive the automated absence text message.
It is extremely important that children attend school every day. Days off school not only contribute to significant gaps and lost opportunities in learning, it is also hard for children to establish, develop and maintain social connections.
Unless it is absolutely necessary, please do not schedule holidays during school time. Unless an emergency, medical appointments should be scheduled for school holidays.
If your child is not at school for a valid reason, parents are expected to log into Compass and give explanation for their absence within 7 calendar days. If you do not do this, you will be notified by the admin staff to explain your child’s absence. If it is past the seven-day window, it remains an ‘unexplained/unjustified’ absence on the class roll.
If your child has continued unexplained absences, you will be contacted by the school to explain these and asked to attend a meeting at school to work on formulating an attendance plan.

FACE meetings- Survey data
Parents were recently invited to complete a survey on our Family And Community Engagement (FACE) meetings.
The results are as follows:
Most families ranked meetings held on Monday nights at 6pm as their first option.
The most requested educative topic is ‘The new NSW Syllabus (English and Maths 2024) -- what my child learns in various stages of their learning.
So, on Monday 18 August at 6pm all parents are invited to our Term 3 FACE meeting on the above topic. Zoom will also be available, and children are welcome to attend, with activities set out for them.
Our Term 2 meeting, as previously communicated, is Tuesday 3 June at 8:30am before open classrooms for Catholic Schools Week.

Uniform Survey
In our recent FACE meeting, parents requested the opportunity to be surveyed on the wearing of our Winter uniform as well as offering flexibility to wear sport uniform more often, just as Trinity College our feeder high school offers their students. Please complete this survey. It closes Friday 28 March 3pm.

Kind regards,  

Sallyanne Stanbridge
Principal

Assistant Principal's Message

NAPLAN
Our Years 3 and 5 students have been completing their NAPLAN testing in Writing, Reading, Conventions of Language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and Numeracy.  We would like to acknowledge engagement of the students, and I would like to thank all the Year 3 and 5 teachers and Learning Support Teachers for their assistance in administering NAPLAN.  We will continue testing until Wednesday, then will have two days of “catch up” on Thursday and Friday for any student that has been away.

Easter Donations
Each year, we collect donations for Easter to create hampers for families staying at Ronald McDonald House and the residents of St John’s Villa.  Since 1991, Ronald McDonald House Newcastle has provided accommodation on the ground of the John Hunter Hospital (JHH), for families of children that are unwell, and who live in Northern NSW.  Some families live at Ronald McDonald House for months, while their child/ren receive treatment at the JHH.  St John’s Villa provides residential aged care in New Lambton, and St Therese’s has had a partnership with the villa for many years.  Our Year 5 students visit the residents to play games, sing songs and participate in Christmas activities each year.  This year, some residents will also visit us at St Therese’s.  Our Easter hampers bring joy and a sweet treat to the residents and families of both Ronald McDonald House and St John’s Villa, and the staff for all the wonderful work they do.  We ask each student to bring in some items to add to the hampers, as below:

• Kindergarten & Year 1 – packs of medium sized, hollow eggs
• Year 2 – packets of sweet biscuits
• Year 3 – tea or coffee e.g. 10 packs of Twinings Tea, Herbal Teas, coffee sachets etc
• Year 4 & 5 - small hollow Easter bunnies
• Year 6 – packs of small solid Easter eggs

School Uniform
We ask that all children adhere to our uniform and wear their uniform with pride.  Please take note of the following:

• Students are permitted to wear one set of earrings, that are either studs or small sleepers – dangly earrings are not permitted as they pose a safety concern
• Simple necklaces with a cross or small medallion, a single signet ring and one simple bangle are excepted – no other jewellery is to be work
• Any student with hair that is below shoulder length, must have their hair tied back
• Nail polish must NOT be worn to school
• Make up IS NOT permitted
• School socks are white

We thank all students that always wear their uniform correctly.  If your child cannot wear their uniform for extenuating circumstances, please notify their class teacher.

Positive Behaviour for Schol (PB4L)
Bullying is a term that can be misunderstood in social situations.  In friendships and social interactions, conflicts often arise, such as children wanting a break from friends, choosing friends to be on a team at play time, a child “poking” their tongue out at another child, as well as many other behaviours.  These are upsetting for children, and we work with parents to build social strategies to deal with these situations, these are not instances of bullying.  Bullying refers to ongoing, and deliberate misuse of power in relations, and is repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that is intended to cause harm.  School TV has developed a series on bullying for parents to understand bullying and the strategies to deal with bullying and includes a video by Dr Michael Carr-Greg that defines bullying and resources for parents.
While we regularly include resources for parents/carers from SchoolTV, parents/carers have free access to this resource.

Earth Hour
This Saturday 22 March is Earth Hour and nations across the world will observe this between 8:30 – 9:30pm local time.  We encourage all families to observe Earth Hour this Saturday, and “power down” from all non-essential electronic usage, to focus on the beauty of our natural world.  You might like to spend this time taking a twilight walk to see your local neighbourhood or playing games in the backyard.  On Friday 21 March, all classes will “power down” from 2:30 – 3:00pm, and will engage in activities that promote our environment, and how we can look after it, today and always.

Upcoming information sessions and webinars for parents and carers
Parents and carers are the most important educators in their child’s life. As well as partnering directly with our school to support your child’s learning and wellbeing, there are a range of webinars and information sessions provided each month by reputable providers specifically for parents and carers- free of charge. To view a list of upcoming webinars and information sessions that may be of interest to you, click here. The list will be updated weekly throughout the school term, so be sure to check the page regularly.

Kaylene Maretich
Assistant Principal

Catholic Identity & Curriculum

Faith Formation: Francis' Focus – Who better to help guide us in the true depth and meaning of our Catholic faith than the charismatic and authentic leader of our Church, Pope Francis. Below, Pope Francis reflects upon Sunday’s Gospel and the challenge we all face during the season of Lent to remain open to the light of Christ. May we also keep Pope Francis in our prayers as he continues to recover from his recent health issues:
In the Gospel passage on the Transfiguration, our attention is called to Peter, James and John. Understandably weary, they were struggling against sleep and almost missed the Transfiguration entirely!
‘The drowsiness of the three disciples appears to be a discordant note’, the Pope muses. These three disciples later fall asleep at Gethsemane! ‘This sleepiness in such important moments is surprising’, the Pope remarks.
In this regard, the apostles can help us think about Lent. ‘It is a period’, the Pope suggests, ‘in which God wants to awaken us from our inner lethargy, from this sleepiness that does not let the Spirit express itself.’
In their sleepiness these apostles make good role models for us. Despite their exhaustion, they remained open to the working of Grace. ‘We might think’, the Pope says, ‘that it was the light of Jesus that reawakened them.’
‘Like them, we too are in need of God’s light,’ the Pope affirms. And that light, he adds, ‘makes us see things in a different way: it attracts us, it reawakens us, it reignites our desire and strength to pray, to look within ourselves, and to dedicate time to others.’ We might sometimes feel sleepy, in faith as in work, but we can still be witnesses to the Transfiguration if we are open to the light of Christ.

Religious Education
This week’s focus in RE is on Year 1:
Module 1 is ‘Living In Relationship’ - This module focuses on the concept of relationships. It makes connection with our response to God’s love and sharing of God’s love through the ways we live. It begins with the students’ experience of friendship and family, then broadens out to include the Christian way of relating to others. The module contains learning opportunities that help students to discover who they are through right relationships with God and others. Students will generate questions and answers about the people belonging to one human family living in solidarity. Students also examine the season of Lent as a time to help others as part of being in relationship with God and others, especially the poor and those in need. The module concludes with Jesus’ journey in Holy Week from the Last Supper to Holy Saturday. It details how all Christians come together to remember and celebrate his death and resurrection.

Prayer, Celebration & Mission
Lent – Remember we are running a staff/parent Lenten reflection group every Monday morning throughout Lent. They begin each Monday at 8:10am in the 2W classroom (concluding at 8:40am). It would be lovely to have some parents join those staff members who can also make it (even if it is only once or twice – all are most welcome to attend!)
Family / School Masses – The next Family / School Mass will be –this Sunday 23^rd March at 9:15am. Thanks to those families who have already contacted me regarding being involved. It would be wonderful to see as many of you there as possible.
Project Compassion – Last week, Project Compassion mission boxes were sent home with the eldest child in each family. Could you please encourage your children to contribute as part of their Almsgiving throughout Lent. We will ask that these be returned to the school by the last day of term which will also be our out-of-uniform Mission Day.

Secondly, in this modern and largely cashless society, some of you may want to donate online via our school’s Project Compassion fundraising page. We aim to reach our school goal of $1000 for Caritas this Lent..

Luke Smith
Religious Education Coordinator

School Community News

Volunteering
Throughout the year, we welcome all parents/carers to volunteer at the school. To volunteer, you must complete the volunteer's induction. This process can take up to 6 weeks, so you are encouraged to complete this early.

Homework Club
Last week marked the launch of our Year 6 Homework Club. Each week, Year 6 students get an hour to work with a teacher on completing, editing, or revising their homework and assignments.

2025 School Fees
The 2025 fee statements have now been issued. Our preferred method of payment is BPay, direct debit or credit card. A direct debit request form is below.
If you have nominated to pay your fees by regular instalments, these payments should have commenced by the end of March and have the account cleared by 30 November.
If you have nominated to pay your fees in a lump sum, this needs to be done by 30 June.
If you have any questions or require any assistance, please contact Belinda on 4957 4922 or email admin@newlambton.catholic.edu.au

Wellbeing

Authentic Parent Connection Webinar 
We hope that you enjoyed your Authentic Connection for Parents/Carers Webinar with Hugh last Tuesday night 11/3. They were thrilled that so many could join!

Recording
Here is the link to the recording . Please note that this link will expire on the 11th April.  Also, The Resilience Project would be delighted if you could please spare a couple of minutes to fill out their online survey, as they would really appreciate your feedback.

What have children been learning about in their Resilience Project lessons over the past few weeks?

Melissa Pyers
Primary Coordinator 

Harmony Day
Harmony Day is celebrated each year on the 21st March. It is a week-long event that celebrates the many cultures that have contributed to Australia's success as a multicultural nation. Our Year 1 students are on an excursion that day. We will hold Harmony Day on Friday 28^th March so that we can celebrate as a whole school community. In Week 9, students will have a chance to experience a range of art, craft, sport and dance activities through a multicultural perspective. 
We encourage the students to come dressed out of school uniform on Friday 28th March. 
Students are encouraged to wear:

• Orange (the official colour of Harmony Day and mutual respect).
• National costume or cultural attire (folk costume, hat, scarf, jersey).

Harmony Day on the 28th March will begin with a whole school liturgy at 9.30am. There will be a Harmony Day display in the hall for parents to explore after the liturgy. 
We invite parents/carers/grandparents who are from a cultural heritage, other than Australian, to come in to share a story or experience from your culture with your child’s class after the liturgy.  Please contact alina.brymora@mn.catholic.edu.au with your name, your child/children's names and classes.

Sport

Cross Country 2025
Please note that our School Cross Country event will be held on Friday 4th of April (Term 1, Week 10). Further information will be provided within the next week.
If you are interested in volunteering on the day, please contact me at liam.ireson@mn.catholic.edu.au

Thank you

Liam Ireson
Infants Coordinator & Sports Coordinator

Interschool Chess Challenge
On Friday 7 March, 18 of our students attended an interschool chess challenge at Bishop Tyrrell College. A great day was had by all. Below is a photo of some of the Stage 3 students that attended.

Therese Jackman
Primary Coordinator

Canteen

Important Dates

12-24 Mar - NAPLAN
21 Mar - Year 1 Tocal excursion
24 Mar - NAPLAN
26 Mar - Year 4 Cockatoo Island Excursion
28 Mar - Harmony Day
31 Mar - Whole school Assembly 2.30pm
1 Apr - Year 6 ANZAC Civic Theatre
4 Apr - Cross Country
11 Apr  -  Last Day of Term 1
07 May - WHOLE school Athletics Carnival, Fearnley Dawes Athletic Centre, Newcastle
ADVANCE NOTICE
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK 
3 Jun  -  FACE Meeting 8.30am
           -  Liturgy 9.15am followed by Open Classrooms