St Cecilia's Newsletter Week 6

A word from the Principal

Two weeks a ago I attended A celebration of Catholic Educational Leadership” with all Catholic school Principals from around NSW. After the trials of drought, floods, bushfires, the pandemic, and a current, global teacher shortage the conference was themed "New hope. New Growth". The theme invited opportunities to focus on the new ways of thinking about why and how we educate and lead.

It was clear that the solutions for education require both personal and systemic responses as we move into the future to think differently about how to transform learning, assessment, and achievement.  Fortunately, in Catholic Schools Broken Bay we are blessed to be immersed in the systems investment of the Collaborative Coaching model, which allows our teachers time to come together weekly with Subject Matter Experts to analyse, plan, act and review the learning in the school, assessment processes and students' ongoing progress and achievement. The growth and learning that comes from collaborative coaching is invaluable in bringing excellence to education. 

Upon further reflection after the thought-provoking conference, it was quite salient to me that at St Cecilia's we have grown together through many of the obstacles over the past years. The prominence of compassion, forgiveness and kindness have strengthened our community. Our school's 'Let Your Light Shine' motto inspires and often reminds me that no matter what hardships we go through, the powerful, indistinguishable light of God can illuminate through us and others, even in the darkest places and bring hope. We all have the light of the Holy Spirit living inside of us and it's important in challenging times that we notice God's splendour in others or unveil it from within to continue to bring light to our community, which in turn brings hope and sees us shining brightly. 

God Bless 

Marta Chylewska 

Staying Connected

Attendance Matters

If your child is sick, to minimise having an unexplained absence, you must 'Submit an Attendance Note' on Compass within 7 days of the absence (not 7 school days but 7 consecutive days). 

In your Compass app on your phone, you just need to click the + icon to find the 'Submit an Attendance Note' option. Then select the date your child was away and give a reason. 

Debating

Tomorrow our Year 6 debating team are taking on St Mary's at Toukley for their first debate of the 2023 Central Coast Cluster Debating competition. Indie G., Megan A., Pandora M., and Maddi H. will be representing our school and arguing for topic "The internet is becoming more harmful than useful."  We wish the girls the best of luck and we look forward to cheering you on from the sideline. 

Dates have not been finalised as yet for upcoming debates as it's dependent on both schools' availability, which we are still trying to confirm, however below is a draft outline for the remainder topics and round about weeks of the competition:

'ROUND 2' Term 2, Wks 8/9 - Should children under the age of 13 be able to access social media?
The Entrance (AFFIRMATIVE) vs. Wyong (NEGATIVE)

'ROUND 3' Term 3, Wks 4/5 - Sporting heroes are poor role models. 
Lake Munmorah (AFFIRMATIVE) vs. Wyong (NEGATIVE)

'ROUND 4' Term 3, Wks 8/9 - Students should be allowed to have mobile phones in school.
Wyong (AFFIRMATIVE) vs. Tumbi (NEGATIVE)

'ROUND 5' Term 4, Wks 2/3 - Hard copy books are outdated.
Warnervale (AFFIRMATIVE) vs. Wyong (NEGATIVE)
   

Year 6 Canberra Camp

Year 6 will be heading to cold, frosty Canberra from Wednesday 14th June to Friday 16th June. Mr Madigan and myself  will both be attending camp with the Year 6 teachers. During that time Mrs Vicki McCudden, the Assistant Principal from Holy Cross, Kincumber will support and assist Mrs Dowling with the supervision of the school. Mrs McCudden is a past staff member who is very familiar with the school setting, past families and children she's taught. She is really looking forward to returning for a few days and we are grateful to her Principal Mrs Tannous for allowing her to come back to us briefly.  

Staff Development Day

Just a reminder that the last day of school for this term is Thursday 29th June. Friday 30th June is a staff development day. School will be closed. 

Mid-year School Reports

Reports have been finalised by teachers and ready for editing by Mr Madigan and I. The reports will be available via Compass on Friday 16th June and the following week (Monday 19th June - Friday 23rd June) teachers will be conducting the mid year parent/teacher interviews. Bookings for interviews will open on Compass mid next week and it is strongly encouraged all parents attend these meetings. 

St Vincent De Paul Winter Appeal

St Vincent De Paul has reached out to the St Cecilia’s Community and asked for our help and support. We are asking for each stage to collect donations for the following items:

Kindergarten - Shampoo and/or conditioner
Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2) - Soap and/or body wash
Stage 2 (Year 3 and 4) - Toothbrushes and/or toothpaste
Stage 3 (Year 5 and 6) - Deodorant

In addition, they are in need of non-perishable and in date food items such as:

• Pasta sauce
• Dry pasta
• Tinned soup, vegetables, fruit or tuna (all sizes)
• Rice (up to 1kg bags)
• Chicken &/or Beef noodles
• Cup of Soups/Noodles
• Cereals (various sizes)
• Long life milk (1 &/or 2 litre)
• Coffee/Tea/Milo
• Juice (1 litre)
• Vegemite
• Assorted biscuits
• Sao Biscuits/Cruskits/Salada like crackers
• Nut-free muesli bars
  

The donations will be collected by St Vincent De Paul on Friday, the 24th of June.
Your continued support is greatly appreciated.
Mini Vinnies and the Pastoral T.E.A.M

Teaching and Learning Matters

Last week Mrs Tori Jones (1 Gold classroom teacher and Numeracy Instructional Coach), Emily Adcock (Literacy Coach) and myself attended a four day course on a K-2 program called Sounds-Write. The program is an internationally recognised and a well developed synthetic phonics program which teaches reading, spelling and writing utilising a linguistic phonic approach.

The program promotes the use of multi-sensory engagement with materials appropriate to  the level and abilities of the children being taught. Visual, auditory and kinaesthetic activities  are at all times combined simultaneously to promote learning. Sounds-Write also enables teachers to differentiate the challenges placed before the learner in order to meet their individual needs.

The four key concepts children are taught in Sounds-Write, which aligns with the implementation of the new K-2 English syllabus is:

1.  letters are symbols that represent sounds 
2.  sounds can be spelled using 1, 2, 3 or 4 letters e.g. bat, sheep, thing, dough
3.  the same sound can be spelled in different ways e.g. ch (choir), c (cat), ck (pluck)
4. the same spelling can represent different sounds e.g. head, seat, break

The three key skills children need to master reading and spelling are:

1. Blending: this is pushing sounds together to build words.
2. Segmenting: this is being able to pull individual sounds apart in words.
3. Phoneme manipulation: this is being able to insert and delete sounds in words.

Children in Kindy begin with the Initial Code where they practice all 3 key skills whilst learning the 1:1 sound-spelling correspondences and securing their understanding of key concept 1. This builds up confidence and phonic knowledge in a truly reversible system, enabling them to decode and encode a wide range of words and sentences. At first, children  learn to read and write simple one syllable words with a CVC e.g. d-o-g or sh-i-p structure. Complexity of word structure systematically builds up so that children apply their code knowledge to monosyllabic words with up to 6 sounds.

Once the Initial Code has been mastered, children continue to practice all 3 key skills whilst learning Extended Code which explores key concepts 2, 3 and 4. Learning of the Extended Code is a lifelong process – we all continue to develop our understanding of this code whenever we encounter new words. Which is why Sounds-Write can be applied across all grades. Whilst learning the Extended Code, children read and write monosyllabic and polysyllabic words at an age-appropriate level.

Mrs Jones, Mrs Adcock and I came out of the four day course feeling energised by the new learnings but also very affirmed by many aspects of the program that we already have embedded in our daily literacy blocks. Exciting times ahead. 

Religious Education Update

St Peter's Shine Concert

Earlier this month St Peter’s hosted their annual Shine Concert. This event is strongly supported by many schools across the Broken Bay Diocese and our Year 6 Pastoral Team and Mrs Harrison were fortunate to represent St Cecilia’s by attending. Thank you Izabele M and Indie G for writing the following detailed recount.

We waited outside of the school office until our bus driver came and picked us up. We got onto the minibus and headed off to St. Peters. Once we arrived at St Peter’s we went straight to the hall to start off with some iconic music. The band that was singing and performing was a three-person band, two of them were priests and the other wasn’t just yet. The theme of the Shine Concert was ‘Stepping into the light’. Several MacKillop College students performed a re-enactment of examples of stepping into the light by having an imaginative box to share with others as it showed the feeling if you did or didn’t share it. This was a very well done and meaningful act. After that Fr Rob Galea, the singer from the band, presented and was singing songs about God.

After recess we headed back to the hall and two captains from the Youth Ministry team told us about the workshop groups and what options we had. Lucky for us they were colour coded with balloons. The three colour categories for the unique and fun workshops were blue, red and green. In each of the colours they held four different workshops in each. Some of our Pastoral Team went to dance while others went to music. As we had to do two different workshops the last one was integrity. These workshops were great. As this event was hosted by St Peter’s we met some previous St Cecilia’s students. There were a variety of different high schools, and we were the only primary school that attended. We were so lucky! After lunch we headed back to the hall where a St Peter’s teacher shared her relationship with God. 

We regrouped after lunch and headed back to the hall where we finished off with some more iconic music. Some of the youth ministry students shared their story of how they encountered God within their life and how God helped guide them to ‘Step into the Light’ and how it helped them be a spectacular person today. Soon after Bishop Anthony and Simon answered some interesting questions asked from different students across the diocese. Calming and relaxing music was played while Bishop Anthony discussed some inspiring things about God. The Youth Ministry team passed around a small jar of holy water that was blessed by the bishop earlier that same day. Once that was finished more music played as we left the hall. Overall, the day was fun, exciting and enjoyable for everyone who attended.

Staff Spotlight

I'd like to introduce Mrs Lianna Jones and Mrs Michelle Garraway, our two Learner Diversity teachers. We are fortunate enough to have Mrs Jones at school five days a week as head of the Learner Diversity team and Mrs Garraway came to us last year from ASPECT and she works every Monday, Wednesday (half day) and Thursday. 

These two incredible teachers work relentlessly with our teaching and support staff, children and families to help develop inclusive teaching and learning programs that build on childrens' strengths, goals and learning needs to enable them to achieve their potential.

The Learner Diversity Team, also includes five learning support assistants who we will introduce in the newsletter next fortnight. We are truly blessed with all the additional Learner Diversity support the school has been able to provide for the children thanks to the leadership and nurturing gifts and talents of Mrs Jones and Mrs Garraway. 

PEC Update

Bright Beginnings Playgroup!

This week we held our first Bright Beginnings session for the year. We aligned the session with Reconcilation Week. Mrs Chylewska read two stories, How the Birds got their Colours and How the Kangaroos got their Tales.

We then engaged in some stone art. We welcomed many families and also some of our friends from Bundilla Daycare and Wyong Preschool. A wonderful start to this years playgroups and we look forwards to our next session.

Bright Beginnings is suitable for children aged 3-5 and  a great way to help your child’s social and emotional development as they begin to prepare for Kindergarten! You can register for our session's here.

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PBL - Positive Behaviours For Learning

Classroom Connections

K Gold

Throughout week 5, Kindergarten Gold have been discovering how to measure the volume of an assortment of containers. As a class, we explored this concept by using our school sandpit. The children were able to compare and discuss the different size and shapes of various containers. Students can identify when a container is nearly empty, about halfway, full and overflowing. 
This lesson developed their mathematical thinking and fine motor skills by pouring into different containers. It was a highlight of our week and the children showed great enthusiasm and active participation throughout the lesson.

Awards & Acknowledgements

Congratulations to the following children for their achievements! The listed award recipients will receive their award at Friday morning's assembly at 8:45am in the hall just for this week, followed by the Sports Award ceremony. 

Academic Achievement Award

PBL Award

Personal Best Award

Sporting News

A reminder that this Friday 2nd June we will be hosting the Sports Award Ceremony to acknowledge our AFL team that has made it through to regional level and presentations for age champions will be awared for swimming and athletics. The proposed order of of the sports award ceremony will be:

9:05 - Introduction
9:10 – Congratulate the Paul Kelly Cup team for making it to the regional finals (photo opportunity) 
9:15 - Swimming Awards from 2022/2023
9:30 – Athletics Awards from 2023
9:40 - Thank you 

All parents welcome to celebrate the children's sporting achievements. 

Thanks

Patrick Murton

Upcoming Events

Week 6 

Thursday 1st June ~ Year 6 Debating vs St Mary's Toukely

Friday 2nd June ~ Whole School Awards and Sports Awards Assembly at 8.45am

Saturday 3rd June ~ Confirmation: Enrolment Presentation Weekend at all weekend Masses

~ Year 1 & 3 Weekend Mass at St Cecilia's Church at 5pm

Week 7

Monday 5th June ~ Year 2 Parish Mass at St Cecilia's Church at 9.15am

Tuesday 6th June ~ Year 6 Presentations in the Hall (Australian Significant Individuals)

Wednesday 7th June ~ Techmatics Day

Week 8

Monday 12th June ~ King's B'day Public Holiday

Wednesday 14th June ~ Year 6 Canberra Excursion