Category: Future Families

‘We educate above all through being present to young people in ways that show we care for them personally. We make time for them beyond merely professional contacts, getting to know each one individually. Personally and together as a group we seek to establish relationships with them, founded on love, which create a climate for learning and an educational setting, for passing on values, and for personal growth’.
(Article 99 – In the Footsteps of St Marcellin Champagnat)

The ideals shared across the 83 countries around the world in which Marist education in the tradition of Saint Marcellin Champagnat is present, are reflected in the extract above from In the Footsteps of St Marcellin Champagnat. At Newman College, we seek to be a vibrant, local expression of these ideals in our commitment to developing each young person in our care in a holistic way that seeks to invite each to reach the fullness of life socially, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and physically. We do this as an intentional community of faith and learning in which we are unified by our shared appreciation for the place of our Catholic faith and its unique Marist expression. It is within this climate of learning that we seek to establish a nurturing educational setting in which our values may become sign-posts to grow and support each member of our community.

NEW YEARS’ 7–12 SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM

A new opportunity has been extended by the Archdiocese of Perth for Secondary schools to develop age-appropriate preparation programs that support secondary-aged students who may have missed the opportunity to prepare and receive the sacraments in Primary school. This model is a first for secondary schools, and provides an opportunity for the College to provide a school-based preparation program that connects students to local parishes to then receive the sacraments. Here at Newman College, we have had a number of families express the desire for their daughters and sons to have the opportunity to prepare to receive the sacraments in Secondary school. In this Year of Youth, Bishop Donald Sproxton (Auxiliary Bishop – Archdiocese of Perth) has extended this opportunity to all secondary students in our Archdiocese on behalf of Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB.

YEAR 11 PHILIPPINES IMMERSION

On Friday 23 November, 16 Year 11 students and 3 accompanying staff members embarked on the 2018 Year 11 Philippines Immersion. This included two students from our sister school, St Joseph’s College in Northam. The Immersion is another practical way in which our Marist communities seek to build opportunities for solidarity, community engagement, relationships and connections between Western Australia and the Philippines.

Students were taken to key places such as PREDA Foundation, Fatima Centre and Kuya Centre. The group also had the privilege of living in harmony and collaboration with the Aeita Indigenous Village of Alibang, where they develop organic, free trade and sustainable practices for preserving indigenous culture.

ANTI-POVERTY MASS

Catholic school students, staff and Church agencies gathered together on Tuesday 16 October to celebrate the Anti-Poverty Mass, held in recognition of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty and as part the Year of Youth. The Mass was run by Catholic Youth Ministry (CYM) and held at Good Shepherd Church, Lockridge Parish in collaboration with Catholic Mission, Caritas, St Vincent De Paul Society, LifeLink, and the Liturgy Office. Four Year 10 students from Newman College attended the Mass which was designed to inspire, encourage, support, and affirm the actions and efforts of young leaders in schools, parishes and university communities, in working towards ending poverty at home and abroad. For the second year running, Newman College supplied and carried the Anti-poverty Cross bearing positive messages from students who attended the Mass last year. Click here to access the article about the Mass in this month’s ‘The Record’.

REMAR BLUE SOLIDARITY CAMP

The Remar Blue Solidarity Camp took place between 22 August and 28 August in Mullewa, a small country town 500km north east of Perth. This camp was a “live in” experience where we were able to be the ‘hands and feet of Christ’. It gave us the opportunity to experience ‘service’ in a prolonged context, whilst deepening our experience of communal living within a Christian context. Click here to read more and see more photos and a video from the camp.

It is a joy to be constantly immersed in the learning journey of our Primary aged students. Term 3 is a time of activity for our PK-Y6 children. The calendar is full of activities and events that challenge their creativity and promote collaboration.

Ideas Lab

The Ideas Lab at Newman College is the latest edition to our teaching and learning landscape. The Lab was opened in Term 3. Designed to inspire our early learning students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year 2, the Ideas Lab comes from the concept of a ‘Makerspace’. This is a place for children to explore, create and work collaboratively together. It is a community centre with tools that combine equipment, community and education to enable students to design, prototype and create. At Newman College we aspire to grow creative lifelong thinkers. It is not about the teachers having the right methodology to generate an answer, it is about setting up task where there can be multiple pathways to a finishing point. The Ideas Lab is a tangible resource for students to explore these paths for themselves

The Ideas Lab supports the College’s Vision for Learning, addressing it’s four pillars:

1. Challenge – offer further enhancements in our curriculum programming with open ended, inquiry-based questions/projects that challenge all students.
2. Collaborate – work with partners, teams and across classes
3. Create – promote creative thinkers
4. Celebrate – reward in the discovery of new ways of solving problems together

The Ideas Lab will help reinforce learning in the classroom by bringing to life the creative side of the curriculum. Students from Pre-Kindergarten to Year 2 will have the opportunity to work in the Ideas Lab on an inquiry project that connects to a Literature book. The Ideas Lab is further supported by the Ideas Trolley, that allows for continuation of the activities in classroom as and where required.

 

Book Week

In Term 3 we celebrated Book Week with the theme of “Finding Your Treasure”. Our students dressed as characters from their favourite books, bringing them to life. Reading is such an important part of our students learning and we are so lucky to have such wonderful libraries at each campus. A wide range of activities were also organized for students to participate in, such as author visits and even a trip to the Cambridge Library. Book Week bring such joy and excitement to our College community. It is so powerful to see the impact that creative fiction can have on the lives of our children. Click here to see more photos from the day.

Gratitude Project

This term, the College has taken on a Gratitude Project as part of the path toward building resilience to support Wellbeing in our community. On the Primary campuses, staff have focused their projects around ‘daily hits’ of practising gratitude with the students. Throughout the project, activities and reflections are shared through Seesaw as well as prominently in many classrooms and we encourage you to engage in conversation with your children around practising gratitude at home. There are many simple ways that you can support this practise with your children in the family setting, such as:

• Modelling gratitude – stating aloud things that you are grateful for, and thanking each other openly
• Quick gratitude chats – in the car, on a walk, around the dinner table or at bedtime, go around and each mention something you’re grateful for that day
• Gratitude journaling – support your children in keeping a notebook where they can write down what they are grateful for each day
• Find opportunities for your children to identify those less fortunate than themselves and express their gratitude – watching the news, reading the paper, in your local community

Author, Alan Cohen, wrote: “Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows, and the more power you have to use it on your behalf. If you do not practice gratefulness, its benefaction will go unnoticed, and your capacity to draw on its gifts will be diminished. To be grateful is to find blessings in everything; this is the most powerful attitude to adopt, for there are blessings in everything.”