Newman News Term 3 Week 10: From the Deputy Principal Primary

Marian Assembly 

Year 2 Blue took us through their wonderful narrative about the gingerbread man, that had been co-authored by the class. Their dramatic retelling of the story was certainly an indication of the wonderful talents of the class and their enthusiasm for bringing the story to life. Well done Miss Ferris and 2 Blue on a wonderful assembly.  

STEM Festival / St John Henry Newman Buddy Day 

As part of the celebration of St Joh Henry Newman, Kindy to Year 6 students will be involved in a day of STEM activities on Friday 14 October

The STEM activities will be designed to complement the National Curriculum in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths by demonstrating the link between what’s taught in the classroom with the wider world. 

Students will be given the opportunity to put their creative thinking into action, learn how to collaborate effectively, challenge their designs and celebrate successes and failures. Across the day, students will live out our Vision for Learning “Shine through Discovery” with hands on STEM challenges.  

This year we have focused on incorporating the following areas into the STEM Festival. 

  • 2022 National Science week theme. “Glass: More than meets the eye.” 
  • 2022 Marist theme “Known and Loved: Dignity for All”. 

Each class will work with a buddy class and complete a design thinking activity throughout the day. The challenges will be focused on the integration of the above areas.  

Information regarding drop-off and pick-up for the Buddy Day, will be distributed on Monday 10 October, 2022.

Grandparents Day

The College is hosting two events to celebrate our Grandparents – Thursday 27 and Friday 28 October. Please click here for details.

Athletics Carnival 

The Athletics carnival was held on Friday 9th September and it was a wonderful day for all of the Pre-Primary to Year 6 students. The winning Faction and the Athletics age champions were announced on Monday. Congratulations to all of the students that received an award. 

The winning faction was Knox, captained by Livia Bogdanov and Roman Vladich. 

The Spirit award went to Brigid, captained by Emersyn Duck and Hamish Macgregor. 

The final placings were: 

1st– Knox 

2nd– Brigid 

3rd– Delany 

4th– Marcellin 

AGE CHAMPIONS:

GirlsYear 3Year 4 Year 5Year 6
1stLila AdaminiAmelie SantoroJessica AvinsLivia Bogdanov
2ndAmelia HeathShylah DaveyLola VoglAnnabelle Adamini
3rdBowie ButtonEvie BryantRose FerraroKaydee Van Deventer
Boys
1stJack McCaghDavid Van Der ValtJordy VladichHamish Macgregor
2ndZechary HuangLachlan AndersonOtis KeaneDylan Hookway
3rdSebastian FleayLewis MacgregorStefan MoschopoulosDeion Fernando

RECORDS:

There were also a number of records broken on the carnival day, many of these records had been held for a number of years so it is an incredible achievement.

Lila AdaminiYear 3Girls35.28 seconds200m
Lila AdaminiYear 3Girls3.62mLong Jump
Lila AdaminiYear 3Girls6.8mTriple Jump
Jessica AvinsYear 5Girls25.02mTurbo Javelin
Rose FerraroYear 5Girls1.2mHigh Jump
Lola VoglYear 5 Girls31.45 seconds200m

IPSHA Athletics Carnival 

On Thursday 15th September, the IPSHA Athletics team competed against other IPSHA schools. The students showed tremendous sportsmanship and athleticism and should be very proud of their efforts. 

Some of the IPSHA records were broken on the day, a remarkable achievement. 

Amelie SantoroYear 4Girls10.94 seconds60m Hurdles
Jessica AvinsYear 5Girls29.32 metresTurbo Javelin
Lola VoglYear 5Girls15.2 seconds100m
Year 5 RelayYear 5Mixed1.03.13100m Relay
Jessica Avins
Otis Keane
Jordy Vladich
Lola Vogl

Student Wellbeing 

A few weeks ago, I attended the first of our Zero2Hero presentation evenings which was on resilience. The seminar discussed a number of topics including skills parents can use to help their children through life’s challenges and develop resilient young minds. The evening was well received with hundreds of our parents in attendance. There were three main things that stood out for me on the evening. 

The first thing that Claire Eaton mentioned in the evening was around ‘The Big 6 questions’ which are the questions young people and adolescents are starting to ask themselves as they grow and develop: 

  • Who am I? 
  • Where do I fit in? 
  • Who am I important to? 
  • What’s important to me? 
  • What am I good at? 
  • What is my purpose? 

It is good to know what is on the minds of our children. These questions can often pop up for kids at bedtime, when the busyness of the day has washed away, and we are finally alone with our thoughts for the day. We are encouraged to normalise these questions, and talk about them with our children to lessen the fear they may have around some of these topics. It is also ok to model to our children that is ok not to now the answer to these questions yet, but that in time, these answers will come. 

We also heard on the night, how critical thinking interrupts resilience building, which in turn can increase feelings of fear and worry. To avoid this, Claire spoke about ‘above the line’ and ‘below the line’ thinking – different ways of approaching an obstacle or difficulty, saying that “the next thought is where the power is”. Sometimes as parents, it is really easy to jump in the pit with our children, but by redirecting their thoughts, or exploring other ways we can look at what’s happening, we can help our kids to develop their resiliency, and the way they could approach problems in the future.  

Finally, and simply, the most important gift we can give our children is our time. This means being present with our children every opportunity we get. Not just physically, present, but emotionally and spiritually present too. Turning off the phone or our own devices, and really spending quality time listening to, speaking with, or simply being with our kids. This time spent now will pay off in the future – much like a bank account every moment we are present to our children now, will pay off for us in the future.  

It was a wonderful, informative, and good humoured evening, and we look forward to hosting the team again soon. 

Stuart McClorey 

Leader of Wellbeing PK-6