On Thursday 29 August, in the lead-up to Fathers Day, dads, grandads and special men in our student’s lives joined our students on the Marian Campus for a Fathers Day breakfast followed by a Liturgy hosted by the Year 1 cohort at St Cecilia’s Church.
Throughout Week 5, the CBCA National Book Week was celebrated across the College.
On the Marcellin Campus, there were a number of activities and competitions that ran throughout the week to celebrate the important role reading plays in both our lives and education.
On Tuesday 20 August, 22 students from Years 8-10 participated in the ‘Write A Book In A Day Competition’. This competition, which supports the Kids’ Cancer Project, required the students to work in groups and write / illustrate an entire book in a single school day. The students worked from 8.00am until approximately 5.00pm to construct an entirely original story, complete with matching illustrations. This was a massive achievement, in which the students really enjoyed participating.
Throughout the week, there were also a number of competitions and challenges running. Firstly, students were invited to participate in a ‘Shelfie’ quiz. A number of teachers and staff members took a ‘shelfie’ (a picture of their book shelf at home), which were then posted as a quiz, where students had to match the ‘shelfie’ with the teacher to whom it belonged. There were also a number of writing competitions including a limerick competition, a haiku competition and a short story competition, with some very entertaining entries submitted.
In addition, to encourage collaboration between the campuses, a class of Year 11 students visited the Lavalla Campus to read to the students. These students read some of the picture books that were nominated for the CBCA awards and some of their favourite picture books from their own childhoods. Overall, it was a valuable experience for all involved.
Finally, the week concluded on Friday with teachers being invited to come to school dressed up as their favourite character from literature, with 15 staff from a variety of departments, dressing up for the occasion. Although there hadn’t been a Book Week dress up day on the Marcellin Campus for a number of years, it was pleasing to see these staff get involved in promoting the importance of reading in their lives. Friday also saw the Book Quiz run in the Learning Centre, with 18 students from Years 7-11 participating. Overall, it was an eventful and enjoyable Book Week with excellent participation from both students and staff.
The theme for Book Week this year was “Reading is my Secret Power” and the students were challenged with the question, ‘how can reading be a secret power?’ Reading truly is amazingly powerful and all stories have exciting secrets in them. Reading does give children secret powers; the power to walk in the shoes of characters through their stories, the power to escape into other worlds and the power to increase their knowledge and imagination.
During Book Week, the students at both Marian and Lavalla loved their incursions with local award winning authors Meg McKinlay and Glenn Swift. We were very lucky to welcome Meg to our school who discussed the creative process of writing a picture book or chapter book. Glenn Swift, ‘storyteller extraordinaire’ entertained the students and staff with his humorous stories. Some were themed to the Book Week theme ‘Reading is my Secret Power’ and others were based on the social & natural history of Western Australia.
All students were very excited to participate in an exciting Book Week parade on their respective Campus, where they came to school dressed up as one of their favourite book characters.
The students at Lavalla had the opportunity to participate in two fun competitions in the Library. They were challenged to identify photographs of all the teachers who were hiding behind covers of their favourite books and also asked to create a drawing of a superhero who promotes the importance of reading. At the Marian Campus, the students participated in a creative design a bookmark competition.
In Week 7, the Kindy students will take part in the wonderful Better Beginnings incursion by Cambridge Librarian Melissa Payne at the Marian Library. Better Beginnings is a State funded program which aims to further promote literacy and reading. All the children will receive a free Better Beginnings gift bag during this incursion.
I have had the privilege this week to travel to The Hermitage in Mittagong, NSW to deepen my understanding of the Marist charism. My time there taught me the depth of St Marcellin Champagnat’s motivation and dedication to the love and service of children. As members of a Marist community, we are called to be part of a wider family and through this we work together to foster a love and appreciation of learning in our students. In an Early Childhood educational context, it is only through strong relationships between home, school and students that we will succeed in educating the young people in our care. Together the teaching staff, parents and students work together as a ‘family’ united in the common goal of educating the ‘whole’ child.
Newman Parents is honoured to host Paul Dillon at Newman College. Paul is the Director and founder of DARTA and he is passionate about ensuring that the community has access to accurate and up-to-date alcohol and other drug information.
RSVP to Jo Dunn, Marketing and Communications Officer by Wednesday 11 September jo.dunn@newman.wa.edu.au
Our recent Parent Workshop evening was very well attended, and I would like to express my thanks to our very dedicated team of teaching staff who prepared and delivered the workshops around a variety of topics. The aim of the evening was to strengthen the bonds between home and school and enable parents to develop some skills that would support their child’s learning. The feedback from parents has been very positive and we look forward to extending on these opportunities in the future.
There was lots of smiles and laughter as the annual Book Week parade was conducted last Thursday. A very special thank you to our Librarian, Mrs Alison Le Dan who put countless hours into the planning and success of the day. This year’s theme ‘Reading is my Secret Power’ was the perfect tool to illustrate to our students the power that reading can bring to their lives. This year the teachers even showed their commitment to reading with a very special dance-off to a song we titled ‘I Love Reading!’. We have the dance talents of our Pre Primary teacher Mrs Kelly Simpson to thank for the choreography and lyrics. Students have also been engaged in a number of author and storyteller incursions throughout the fortnight, all in further celebration of Book Week. Click here to read more and see more photos from the events.
We extend our warm wishes to all the dads, grandads and special men in our students’ lives as they celebrate Fathers Day this Sunday. On Thursday, Marian Campus hosted our Dads for a special sausage sizzle breakfast. It was fantastic to see the big smiles of the children as they celebrated the deep love that they have for their Dads. The breakfast was followed by a beautiful Liturgy at St Cecilia’s Church, lovingly prepared by our Year 1 students. We wish all fathers a very enjoyable day this Sunday and we hope that you enjoy celebrating with your children. Click here to see more photos from the day.
A reminder that the staff and students at Marian Campus are constantly trying to reduce our environmental footprint via a number of sustainable initiatives. Families are reminded to recycle their batteries via our Battery Recycling Bin, dispose of their bread tags at our Sustainability Station and deposit used (washed) disposable coffee cups in one of our collection boxes. We also have Worm Wizz available for sale for $2.00 at our Sustainability Station, which comes from our campus worm farms. Students recycle their food scraps into the worm farm, and this Worm Wizz is used across the campus on our vegetable gardens, with the excess available for sale to families. Our Sustainability Station is located outside the hall, adjacent to the Kindy Green classroom.
Congratulations to the following students who have received a Marcellin Award in Week 6:
Grace Patterson Year 2 Blue: For being a living example of St Marcellin in our school community.
The Marcellin Award at Marian Campus is drawn from submitted nominations each Wednesday morning at Prayer Assembly.
Thursday 15 August was the Feast Day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This Feast day was chosen for the Marist Brothers at the time of their foundation by Saint Marcellin Champagnat, the founder of the Marist Brothers and Marist Education.
To mark this significant Feast and Day of Holy Obligation in the life of the Church as well as the international Marist Institute, our PK-12 College Community celebrated the Feast of the Assumption across the College. As one of 54 Marist schools across Australia, the Feast Day of the Assumption is an annual opportunity for all members of the Newman College community to gather, give thanks, and to celebrate our shared Marist identity.
The Marian and Lavalla Campus students combined to celebrate Mass, Buddy Day activities and the annual Lapathon to raise money for the work of Australian Marist Solidarity (AMS). All funds raised from the Lapathon will be directed towards the Kuya Centre for Street Children in Manila. The Kuya Centre is one of the College’s partner organisations of the Year 11 Philippines Immersion. In November this year, our Year 11 Immersion students will present our donation to Sister Kate O’Neill, Director of the Kuya Centre, on behalf of the Newman College community.
Students on the Marcellin Campus gathered for Mass in the Gymnasium.
The Newman College Artist in Residence Program for 2019 promises to be another exciting and truly authentic arts experience as our students, teacher, parents and members of our Newman community collaborate with industry professionals to strengthen and deepen their understanding of Arts skills and processes and build their cultural competency, cultural literacy and sensitivity around Aboriginal people; culture oral storytelling traditions, and connection to country.
The students in Year 2 (Marian Campus), Years 5 and 6 Art Extension students (Lavalla Campus) and Visual Arts students in Years 9,10,11 and 12 (Marcellin Campus) will work alongside Andy Quilty (2018 Artist in Residence), and Contemporary Noongar Artists Bradley and Rohin Kickett, to depict through a collaborative mural project the creation story The Carers of Everything written by Dr Noel Nannup. This story, which was also the focus of the Lavalla Campus 2019 PALS Project and Wakakirri competition, tells the creation story of Whadjuk country, the country on which our College rests. Students will use experimental art techniques including monoprint, in combination with acrylic painting techniques, to develop an understanding of contemporary art techniques, processes and further develop their broader understanding and sensitivity around Aboriginal culture and the connection to country.
Student workshops will take place in the Visual Art studio spaces on Friday 30 August and Monday 9 September (Marcellin Campus) and Monday 2 September (Marian Campus).
This mural will be resolved by Andy Quilty, Rohin and Bradley Kickett and presented to the College community at the opening of the Student Art Exhibition on Wednesday 16 October. More details about the Artist in Residence Program, and student, teacher and Community Workshop experiences will be shared on this evening by our Artists in Residence. A short film that will document the process will also be played.
An opportunity for our staff, students and families to come together and work with Andy is also available. The Community Workshop will focus on experimental drawing and monoprint, equipping participants to build confidence as well as technical ability to take a more intuitive and exploratory approach to their work.
All materials provided. No drawing experience necessary.
The event is taking place on Monday 9 September at 6.30pm. Tickets cost $20 for Adults and $15 for Children / Concession. Click here to purchase tickets.
Any queries regarding the program can be directed to Mrs Maree Grayden, Leader of Learning Arts PK-12 maree.grayden@newman.wa.edu.au
