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The Mission and Faith Life of our College continues to shine through the work of our staff who continue to participate in the dream of St Marcellin Champagnat “to make Jesus Christ known and loved” to all the young people in our care. The past two weeks has seen students participating in a range of activities from Retreat Days to Mothers Day Liturgies and Sacramental retreats. All these activities play an important role in helping our students discover who they are and who God is calling them to be.

Australian Marist Solidarity Fundraising

This term, Newman College has been focused on Australian Marist Solidarity (AMS) in its fundraising appeals. This year Australian Marist Solidarity have launched their campaign, Fratelli Tutti: the Spirit of Solidarity. Activities and resources will be shared to raise awareness with students across PK-12 as we continue through Term 2. A big congratulations to Year 5 students who through a Humanities special project has raised close to $1000. This is a great start and our fundraising will continue through our Champagnat Day celebrations later this term.  To learn more about the work AMS does, please click here.

Marist Youth Ministry Regional Gathering

Year 11 and 12 students joined with students from St Joseph’s College Northam to reflect on who is their neighbour and how they can better serve the most vulnerable in our community. These values and idea of service is underpinned by our Marist Spirituality.

Marian Lecture: The Post-Covid Church

Staff and colleagues from around the Archdiocese gathered for the 2021 Marian Lecture, facilitated by the Association of St Marcellin Champagnat, where Mr Christopher Lamb presented on the Post-Covid Church: Crisis or Opportunity?

Mr Lamb is the foreign correspondent for the Tablet to the Vatican and has great insight to the papacy of Francis. Over 50 people attended this event, hosted in our Marist Auditorium where Mr Lamb reflected on the papacy. In his reflection he outlined Pope Francis as a disruptor, who seeks to challenge the Church to rediscover the radical message of Christ. He went on to remind us that the Church today invites all members to become active and involved in shaping the future and we in Australia have an opportunity to do this through the Plenary Council. Lastly to point out that Pope Francis encourages us to live simply and to be empathetic to our brothers and sisters. In a time of uncertainty, a community of people who walk with and support each other, is one that Christ calls us to be and is our hope for our Newman College community.

Thursday morning Community Mass – 8.10am every Thursday

Thank you to Thomas More Guild and Year 5 students and Brigid Guild and Year 6 students who hosted our Thursday morning community Mass in Weeks 3 and 4. Chisholm Guild and Year 4 will be hosting in Week 5 and Camara Guild and Year 3 in Week 6.

Our community Mass is the perfect way to start your day where students can gather with staff and their parents to begin the day. All parents are invited to attend with their students at least once a term.

Student Led Prayer

Faith and Liturgy Captains Lucy Brennan and Sarah Kerr continue to play an important role in our school, offering opportunity for students and staff to gather in the Chapel for 10mins of quiet prayer and reflection. Over the past few week’s students have created Mothers Day cards and reflected on the Anzac spirit. Please encourage your son/daughter to attend Student Led Prayer, which takes place in the Chapel every Friday at 8.25am.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation

Students in Years 7, 8 and 9 will be taking part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation over the next few weeks. This is an opportunity for students to reflect on their relationship with God, with others and with themselves. The sacrament of Reconciliation is about forgiveness, mercy and encountering God’s love.

Through their Pastoral Care program, students will be asked to reflect on their behaviour and places where they need to seek forgiveness. Our students will be supported by the Redemptorist Monastery as they prepare for the sacrament.

This week marked the beginning of NAPLAN with our Years 3 and 5 students taking part in Reading and Writing assessments. There are lots of different ways people choose to view NAPLAN, however our message to students has been really simple. We have encouraged all students this week to see NAPLAN as an opportunity to celebrate. To celebrate their learning, their growth and the great determination and effort they have made in improving their learning not just this year, but over all their years at Newman College.

On Monday we did some story writing in Year 3 to prepare for our Writing assessment. One student in our class had written half a page for their writing and had said they were finished, but when encouraged to go a little further, or to think about ‘is that the best they could give’, they were able to go on and write a further page and a half! This happened for a couple of other students in the group too. This was a great example that often there are different points in our learning or in life where we need to make a choice between what we think we can do and what we can actually do. Often there is a very big difference – especially for young children who are still coming to understand themselves and their capabilities. I shared this message with all of our students at morning assembly – that the mindset we choose to adopt can have such powerful consequences on the results of our work. We hope of course, that all students can adopt this growth mindset and live with a ‘can do’ attitude towards all challenges they encounter.

Highlights from Past Two Weeks

NAPLAN

We have had a good week of NAPLAN testing, with everything going well across the week. The following assessments will take place next week:

• Monday – Language & Grammar Conventions (Year 3)
• Tuesday – Language & Grammar conventions (Year 5)
• Wednesday – Numeracy (Year 3)
• Thursday – Numeracy (Year 5)

It is very important that all students bring headphones, especially for the Language & Grammar Conventions assessment as they will need them to complete their tests. We owe a big thanks to our Leader of Learning K-6, Miss Katya Anderson and our Administration Assistant Mrs Amanda Johnson for all of their support in getting us up and running with everything this year.

SHINE through Challenge

Last term, 16 Years 5 and 6 students competed in their first Da Vinci Decathlon. The Da Vinci Decathlon is an annual academic competition designed to challenge and extend students in a wide range of disciplines in a day full of fun, challenge, and teamwork. The ten disciplines included in the challenges are: engineering, mathematics and chess, code breaking, art and poetry, science, English, ideation, creative producers, cartography, and legacy.

It was wonderful to see the students’ collaboration in solving complex problems, assigning tasks to each other based on their unique strengths and navigating the day independently. It is with much pride that I can report that the Year 5 team received second place for the Cartography category. This team consisted of Deoin Fernando, Joshua Woods, Zac Sindall, Kaydee Van Deventer, Ivy Sawkins, Luke Rombouts, Gabrielle Ferreira-Ballinger and Maxwell Moller. The Year 6 team should be commended for their performance too. They received second place for Science and first place for Cartography. The Year 6 team included Nya Casotti, Benji Davies, Jensen Rutherford, Brayden Lim, Gabriella Mason, Benji Thompson, Anabel Raguseo and Joss Arnold.

Congratulations to all the students involved.

Mrs Lara Ognenis, Gifted and Talented Teacher

Year 3 Reconciliation Retreat

Two weeks ago our Year 3 students gathered together to take part in a retreat centred around the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Students had the chance to explore what it means to show love and forgiveness for others in the same way that God shows love and forgiveness to us, as well as how we are all blessed with the gift of conscience to help us make good choices in life. It was wonderful to see students engaged so positively with the activities and reflections of the day.

Year 4 Eucharist Retreat

This morning our Year 4 students gathered in the Marist Auditorium to take part in their own retreat, as they finalise their preparations for receiving the Sacrament of the Eucharist for the first time. Students reflected on the significance of The Last Supper, as well as examine how Holy Communion unites people with Jesus in a special way. It was great to visit the students this morning and to see them enjoying the day so much.

Uniform

Last week we had our school photo day, and I must say it was a beautiful sight to see so many students looking so sharp in preparation for their picture. Hopefully this is something we can look to adopt every day. We have spoken as a school community about the importance of representing ourselves and each other with pride, and how wearing our uniform correctly shows that we value being a part of the community. Students and teachers will be working together over the coming weeks to really focus on two important aspects of our uniform:

• Wearing our College blazer to and from school each day (for students in Years 4-6)
• Making sure our shirts are tucked in and looking smart when we are in the classroom

We hope that we will continue to enjoy the support of students and families in adhering to these strong standards.

Important Information For The Next Two Weeks

There are a number of important events coming up over the next two weeks in the College calendar. These include:

Week 5

• Wednesday 19 May – Years 5/6 Art extension Artist in Residence Program
• Wednesday 19 May – Year 3 guest speaker (Mr Bailey)
• Thursday 20 May – Year 6 Interschool Sports Afternoon (John XXIII College)
• Friday 21 May – Year 6 Blue Assembly

Week 6

• Wednesday 26 May – Year 5 Unit mass in the Chapel commencing 9.00am (parents welcome to attend)
• Friday 28 May – Lavalla Assembly

Marist Association Marian Lecture

On Tuesday afternoon, we hosted the Marian Lecture which featured Christopher Lamb, a British journalist who is the Rome Correspondent for the Catholic publication, The Tablet. He is a contributor to the Vatican Insider page of La Stampa and a regular commentator for the BBC on Vatican and religious affairs. The presentation was on the post COVID Church – Crisis or Opportunity. Beaming in online from the UK the presentation went to over 199 sites across the country where members of the Marist Association are situated.

Having worked closely with Pope Francis over his papacy, Chris provided a rare insight into the person of Francis, his leadership and his hopes and aspirations for the Church into the future. At the forefront of his presentation was the Pope’s commitment for the option for the poor and the importance of the Church being grounded in the common good, specifically for those most in need. Such an apostolic Church though needs to create the space where each of us can continue to develop our relationship with Jesus Christ underpinned by the notion of faith, hope and love.

A post COVID Church has an opportunity to continually reimagine what is possible to engage people in faith as a means of building more loving and compassionate communities. Within our own College our Vision for Mission highlights the importance for each student and staff member to have an opportunity for formation, so to build a culture that is transformative and based on the common good.

In the weeks ahead we will be celebrating our Founders Day, St Marcellin Champagnat, and his vision of providing opportunity for young people, specifically the marginalised, to receive an education. For our students, it is a time to value the privilege of what we have and being a member of this Marist community. The responsibility that comes with this privilege is to continually challenge ourselves to be people who will in their lives seek to make a difference.

Opening and Blessing of the St John Henry Newman Learning Hub

The formal Opening and Blessing of the St John Henry Newman Learning Hub is scheduled for Tuesday 1 June, from 9.00am. We are delighted to be able to welcome to our College the Most Reverend Timothy Costelloe, Archbishop of Perth, and Dr Frank Malloy, National Director Marist Schools Australia, to perform official duties at this significant event.

Due to the restricted space in the Learning Hub it is not possible to have the entire College community present. However, we will have representation of College staff, students and parents from Early Childhood through to Senior School. Families will be advised closer to the time if their child is involved.

The event will be streamed live into all classrooms so that all students (with the exception of those sitting exams) and staff can view.

The Opening and Blessing of the St John Henry Learning Hub is the culmination of six years of planning which commenced with the development of our Vision for Learning – Shine through Discovery, Let Your Light Shine (Mat 5:16) in 2016. Our environment is a reflection

of our learning intent which is to create spaces where we can collaborate and challenge our students.

The St John Henry Newman Learning Hub sets the tone for our future master planning

Year 7 Camp

I visited the Year 7 Camp last week and celebrated with the students their transition into Secondary School. The vibe and excitement that emanated across every activity exemplified the way the students have come together as a cohort.

Mothers Day

Due to the recent lockdown we were not about to fully celebrate Mothers Day as we had previously intended. However, across the College we marked Mothers Day in a variety of ways and I thank those who were able to attend our liturgies. I hope everyone had a wonderful day last Sunday.

Newman Parents Consultative Committee (NPCC)

On Monday night we held our first NPCC meeting of the year, with the focus being one of the College’s strategic intents for 2021 – “To develop extension learning pathways that enhance the opportunities for gifted and talented students.” Ms Lara Ognenis, Gifted and Talented Teacher K-10 presented her vision of this project, the aim of which is to explore how we can create opportunities to extend our students. You can access Lara’s presentation and the minutes from the meeting below.

Download Term 2 NPCC Meeting Minutes

Download NPCC Gifted and Talented Presentation