Category: Early Childhood

Thank you

The strength, resilience and support that pervades our College community has marked the tenor of the last week. Shock, confusion and uncertainty have been felt by many regarding the passing of Fr Joe Tran and the surrounding circumstances. Over the last few days our students, staff and families have been magnificent in their sensitivity and understanding. Our Years 7- 12 Assembly on Monday morning was as difficult and challenging a moment as I have ever experienced in school leadership. As I spoke to the students and staff, the question of why and how permeated my every thought. We do not have the answers to what has happened, but what we can do is seek to support each other and provide a space, a school, a community where every person is valued, trusted, supported, and protected.

The dignity of each human being is a critical tenet in our Christian story. The respect for the dignity of all people underpins our Marist charism, identified through the characteristics of presence and family spirit. As a College this can been seen in our relationships, in what we say and ultimately what we do. We will continue to develop, grow and nurture our young people to be respectful of each other, to be loving, and to be hope-filled.

Thank you to families for not only your words of encouragement and reflection but also for the questions of uncertainty and clarification. These have been welcomed and acknowledged. Thank you to Fr Mark Baumgarten, Assistant Priest Our Lady of Grace North Beach, for the beautiful way he celebrated our PK-12 Community Mass on Thursday morning. The prayerful nature of the Mass, coupled with the beautiful singing, truly reflected the very best of our College.

I would like to restate that Newman College, as a member of Marist Schools Australia and Catholic Education Western Australia, upholds the highest possible standards in relation to the safety and protection of children. Ms Lisa Fogliani, Vice Principal, outlines the specifics in her newsletter article today.

Our prayer over the last few days – used with our students, staff and at our Newman Parents evening on Monday – was the peace prayer from St Francis of Assisi. I urge you to take the time to reflect on these words:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Newman Parents

We were delighted to have Dr Justin Coulson attend Newman College last Monday to facilitate two parent sessions. Over 70 parents attended the morning session for parents of Early Education students, ‘9 Ways to a Resilient Child’, and 220 parents attended the Newman Parents evening session, ‘Respectful Relationships: Love at Home’.

Newman Parents is part of the College’s commitment to parent partnership and being active participants in the education of their children, in collaboration with the College. Our next event is taking place on Wednesday 12 June – Cybersafety.

ACC Swimming Carnival

Congratulations to all members of the ACC Swimming Team who performed well in the A Division Carnival on Wednesday. The good story is that we were competing in A Division for the first time in five years. Our placement of 5th out of 7 teams ensures we stay in this Division, thus providing a great platform for the future. Thank you to all coaches and staff for supporting our swimmers.

Capital Development

Parents would have received a letter from me yesterday advising of the approval to commence a major Capital Development Project on the Marcellin Campus – The Learning Hub, in Term 3 2019. Please click here to view the architectural ‘Fly Through’ of the proposed development.

Marist Basketball Carnival

The Marist Basketball Carnival commences in Bendigo Victoria on Sunday 7 April.

Our Open Marist Boys and Girls Basketball teams will travel to Bendigo Victoria next week to compete. This elite national competition brings together the very best Marist Schools across Australia for this prestigious Carnival. Our students have spent many months in preparation and we are hopeful of great results. The strength of the Carnival is in the Marist family spirit within each school and the relationships that are formed aside from the fierce competition. We wish them every success!

Over the past couple of weeks, many of our students had the opportunity to participate in the IPSHA Swimming Carnival, ACC Swimming Carnival and other sporting events, teams and seasons. When students are involved, they are committed to rigorous training, they accept feedback from coaches and teachers and challenge themselves to personal excellence. We often see positive levels of engagement in all levels of sport; from class sport to community club sport and onto elite levels. Kids collaborating positively with one another, taking turns, celebrating wins and coming together in times of disappointment. I have no doubt that students achieve their best when they are physically well. I encourage all families and students to support physical wellbeing and to develop their gifts and talents by participating in the many sporting options available at the College.

Code of Conduct

A reminder to all families that the Code of Conduct can be accessed via the College website. The Code is mandated by Catholic Education Western Australia and the application of the code extends to all staff, students, parents, guardians, caregivers and volunteers.

The Code seeks to value the dignity of every person, foster positive relationships, ensuring confidentiality and accountability and supports professional boundaries. Events held during school hours AND outside of school hours that are associated with the College are also supported by the Code of Conduct. Any perceived breaches of the Code can be discussed with any member of the Senior Leadership Team. We thank you in advance for your understanding and support of how we strive to partner positively with one another.

Professional Standards for the Safety and Protection of Children

In addition to writing to the College community about our Code of Conduct, we feel it is also appropriate to communicate the processes, policies and framework the College applies to ensure our school is a safe place for all children and that our staff are informed, assessed and cognisant of their responsibilities to this commitment.

If you would like any further clarity or information regarding professional standards at Newman College, please phone or email me so I can provide further support lisa.fogliani@newman.wa.edu.au or 9204 9482

The College adheres to the following frameworks to inform our policy, practice and procedures. In the next newsletter, I will write to the staff training process and assessment.

Catholic Education Western Australia Child Safe Framework

Catholic Education Western Australia Child Safe Framework supports leaders to develop a child safe culture in our school. The Framework emphasises situational prevention to reduce risk, promotes professional behaviours and healthy, respectful relationships, and is aimed at meeting and exceeding regulatory obligations and standards. At Newman College, staff participate in regular and rigourous training, evaluation and assessment to ensure our knowledge and practice is of the highest standard. Click here to view the Catholic Education Western Australia Child Safe Framework.

Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum

As presented at all Parent Information Evenings this term, the College is committed to delivering the learning outcomes as described by the Keeping Safe framework.

Click here to access information for parents or download the relevant parent fact sheet or please arrange a time to discuss with your child’s teacher.

Download Years R-2 Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum Parent Fact Sheet

Download Years 3-5 Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum Parent Fact Sheet

Download Years 6-9 Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum Parent Fact Sheet

Download Years 10-12 Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum Parent Fact Sheet

Wellbeing and Counselling Team

The College is pleased to announce our newly formed Wellbeing and Counselling Team. The Wellbeing and Counselling team supports teachers, students and families from Kindy to Year 12. Mr Alan Fitzpatrick Deputy Principal Wellbeing Secondary, and Mitch Bristow Head of Primary lead the team which consists of:

• Amber Newsome, Psychologist
• Jessica Bouquet, Counsellor
• Siobhan Quirke, Counsellor and
• Caryl Gioia, Social Worker

Accessing support from this team is done via Leaders of Wellbeing. The Wellbeing program for Years 7-12 can be accessed via the College website. Click here

Program details and support materials from guest speakers will be shared by your child’s Leader of Wellbeing. Resources available to families and students will be shared and published to the College community via the notices and newsletter.

Our Vision for Learning, Shine through Discovery – Let your light shine (Matthew 5:16) challenges our learners to strive for personal excellence. Each student will encounter difficulty, success, failure and achievement. Adopting a growth mindset supports children to accept challenges as opportunities, failing as learning and to value perseverance and determination. By changing our language to support growth instead of grades, and encouraging children to believe they can improve supports resilient, engaged learners. We are honoured to have Dr Justin Coulson work with Newman families on themes of respectful relationships and resilience. I look forward to seeing many families on Monday 25 March.

BUILDING RESILIENT AND RESPECTFUL RELATIONSHIPS PARENT SESSIONS

9 Ways to a Resilient Child (content is most suited for Early Childhood parents)

Parents will learn the psychological secrets that build their child’s sense of identity, strengths and growth mindset in order to perform better, be happier and build resilience. 9 Ways to a Resilient Child is based on Dr Justin Coulson’s best-selling book and shows parents how to help their children cope powerfully and positively with the challenges that life throws at them.
When: Monday 25 March, 9.00am – 10.30am
Where: Marist Auditorium
RSVP: jo.dunn@newman.wa.edu.au

Respectful Relationships; Love at Home – How to get along with your kids and help them get along with you (and their siblings)

We all say we get along just fine at home… but there are those uncomfortable niggles. There’s the eye-rolling, the disrespect, the lack of motivation to help out, and the sibling warfare. If we’re honest, most adults have been known to shout a bit too, and let’s face it, we don’t always listen that well to our kids. Conflict and friction at home cause more trouble than we need, and interfere with everyone’s wellbeing. Wouldn’t it be great if there were some simple, practical things we could do to help everyone get along better – starting right now? Parents will learn the best ‘relationship rules’ for a happier family so home life really does feel loving… most of the time! The presentation will be followed by a Question and Answer session.
When: Monday 25 March, 7.00pm – 8.30pm
Where: Marist Auditorium
RSVP: jo.dunn@newman.wa.edu.au

Updated ICT Policy

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) includes any electronic device or application used to communicate, create, disseminate, store or manage information such as text, images, audio or video.
Students have the right to learn in a safe environment, including when they have access to ICT to enhance their learning. Newman College is committed to the responsible and educational use of ICT and to the protection of students by providing secure access to these services as part of their learning experience.

The College has completed a period of evaluation on the effectiveness of its ICT policy. While this process involved exploring the current use of ICT at the College, it also involved working with other schools in the Metropolitan area as well as direction from Catholic Education Western Australia. The updated policy is now available for parents, staff and students via the College website. Download ICT Policy

Wellbeing and Counselling Team

The College is pleased to announce our newly formed Wellbeing and Counselling Team. The Wellbeing and Counselling team supports teachers, students and families from Kindy to Year 12. Mr Alan Fitzpatrick Deputy Principal Wellbeing Secondary, and Mitch Bristow Head of Primary lead the team which consists of:

• Amber Newsome, Psychologist
• Jessica Bouquet, Counsellor
• Siobhan Quirke, Counsellor and
• Caryl Gioia, Social Worker

Accessing support from this team is done via Leaders of Wellbeing. Wellbeing programs can be accessed via the College website. Click here

Program details and support materials from guest speakers will be shared by your child’s Leader of Wellbeing. Resources available to families and students will be shared and published to the College community via the notices and newsletter.

Student Code of Conduct

Leaders of Wellbeing, supported by Mr Fitzpatrick and Mr Bristow, in collaboration with student leaders, will be developing a Student Code of Conduct which seeks to uphold the same intent as the College Code of Conduct in a way that is meaningful to students. The conduct statements inform our Respect framework which applies to all students. We are committed to ensuring student voice is heard and used to support all relationships between students and staff.

Code of Conduct

A reminder to all families that the Code of Conduct can be accessed via the College website. The Code is mandated by Catholic Education Western Australia and the application of the code extends to all staff, students, parents, guardians, caregivers and volunteers.

The Code seeks to value the dignity of every person, foster positive relationships, ensuring confidentiality and accountability and supports professional boundaries. Events held during school hours AND outside of school hours that are associated with the College are also supported by the Code of Conduct. Any perceived breaches of the Code can be discussed with any member of the Senior Leadership Team. We thank you in advance for your understanding and support of how we strive to partner positively with one another.

“If a school adopts a culture of innovation, then deeper learning is a possibility, plain and simple” [NMC Horizon Report 2017 K-12 edition]

The challenge to equip our students to live in this chaotic and rapidly changing world is the optimum ambition for any school that prioritises an improvement agenda. Leading and managing this vision needs to be developed in a way that builds staff capacity and confidence; engages student agency; and invites parent, industry and community input. Put simply, it needs be authentic where the foundation of literacy and numeracy underpins the critical thinking, innovations and creativity that we seek of our learning environment. The movement of schools is towards project-based learning, challenge-based learning, and competency-based learning; all of these pedagogical trends are in service of creating richer and more hands-on, real-world experiences for students. As schools prioritize active learning over rote learning, students are being viewed in a new light. At our College we have undertaken a major restructure of our learning framework through the development of our Vision for Learning, Shine through Discovery – Let your light shine (Matthew 5:16). Our pedagogical framework (Challenge, Collaborate, Create and Celebrate) now informs and guides teaching practice across the College.

The following is a summary of what has emerged as a result of the development, actioning and now the sustaining of our Vision for Learning:

• A strategic approach to staff professional learning
• Focus on growing innovative cultures for school change
• Engaging student voice in their learning
• Parent collaboration and engagement
• Systematic delivery of curriculum
• New contemporary learning spaces reflective of pedagogical pillars
• Sustaining commitment and energy of whole school community
• Ongoing leadership and management of #shinethroughdiscovery
• Captivating creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship

To optimise future schooling for our students, our College will continue to seek to be proactively and consistently scanning a wide variety of horizons, searching for enablers and alerts to barriers. In developing a contemporary learning experience for our students, we are committed to providing staff with professional learning that will equip them with the relevant skills required. An example of this is the partnership we have formed with Republic Polytechnic in Singapore to provide a learning immersion experience where participants will be introduced to the concept of scaffolding, inquiry path, closure and an overview of holistic assessment in Problem Based Learning (PBL) that will support students’ learning. Later in the year, selected students will also have the opportunity to go to Singapore for a learning immersion.

Perhaps the greatest challenge for schools, moreover society, is the adoption of technology as the dominate paradigm for engagement. We oscillate between varying arguments, being on-screen time for our students and their exposure to the ills that come with the use of technology. Our reality though is that we must prepare our teachers, students, parents/guardians and our community for the future and, ultimately, the imperative of technology in our civic, social and human domains of engagement.

To this end, NMC Horizon Report 2017 K-12 edition outlines the following challenges facing schools: Download NMC Horizon Report 2017 K-12 Edition

• Improving Digital Literacy. To use technology productively and enable intuitive adaptation to new contexts and co-creation of content with others, students must acquire a deep understanding of the digital environment. Schools are charged with developing students’ digital citizenship, ensuring mastery of responsible and appropriate technology use, including online etiquette and digital rights and responsibilities in blended and online learning settings.
• Rethinking the Roles of Teachers. Teachers are increasingly expected to be adept at a variety of technology-based and other approaches for content delivery, learner support, and assessment. In the technology-enabled classroom, educators are moving beyond dispensing information and assessing students’ knowledge, which are tasks that can be increasingly outsourced to machines.
• Teaching Computational Thinking. Teaching computational thinking, synonymous with complex thinking, is still in its ascendancy as definitions continue to evolve and as curricula are built, and it is requiring the development of new forms of pre-service and inservice teacher training to be adequately taught in schools. To succeed in the 21st century, it is essential for young people to learn how to be computational thinkers, defined by the International Society for Technology in Education as the ability for students to “develop and employ strategies for understanding and solving problems in ways that leverage the power of technological methods to develop and test solutions.”
• The Achievement Gap. The achievement gap refers to an observed disparity in academic performance among student groups, especially as defined by socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or gender. This challenge also encompasses geographic inequities in student achievement as well as disparate access to educational opportunities inside and outside school.
• Sustaining Innovation through Leadership Changes. Multiple resources, including funding, time, and personnel, are required to effectively implement the innovative teaching and learning pedagogies highlighted throughout this report. Disruption to any one of these resources leaves organizations scrambling to fill the missing pieces. The process of preparing for the unknown is not always well defined, nor is it currently the norm in K–12 schools.

Our ambition as a College is one that cultivates excellence and recognises achievement. We believe that Shine through Discovery – Let your light shine (Matthew 5:16) has permeated all aspects of our learning environment and given license to our students and staff to be innovative, creative and entrepreneurial. We look forward to what is yet possible and yet to be realised for students and staff. This imperative is best summed up in the words of our Founder, St Marcellin Champagnat – “May their lives be an echo of what you have taught them”.

College Production

We are delighted to be staging Masquerade at Newman College in 2019. Masquerade is a play (with music) written by WA playwright Kate Mulvany. It is a beautiful and whimsical play based on the children’s picture book of the same name, by Kit Williams. In the book Jack Hare embarks on a wild and wonderful journey as he searches for the amulet that symbolises enduring love. Jack’s struggle parallels with the journey of a young boy Joe. Joe who is undergoing cancer treatment, is comforted by the pages of the book, and Jack’s journey. As the celestial and human worlds begin to collide the themes of family love, hope and dreams are explored.

At the heart of this magical musical adventure are the themes of family, courage, morality, dreams and love. The production promises to be a theatrical experience for all members of the family.

Performing Arts at Newman College is a significant learning area and its continued growth is ensured under the leadership of Leader of learning Arts, Mrs Maree Grayden. Our College’s Vision for Learning, Shine through Discovery- Let you light shine (Matthew 5:16) inspires our faith and learning community to Challenge, Collaborate, Create and Celebrate who we are and what we seek to achieve. We are a College that values excellence in the growth and development of our students. This production exemplifies our commitment to the creativity, commitment and hard work of our students and staff.

I applaud the staff for their vision in bringing this incredible story to the stage.