Primary Update – Term 1 Week 4

Jenni Vile on 28/02/2025

Year 1 Red Assembly

Our Year 1 Red class were the first to share their learning with us in 2025, presenting their class assembly this morning. 1 Red started their assembly with a beautiful song, reminding us all to ‘let our light shine’. The focus of the assembly was on highlighting how we are all special in our own individual ways. Year 1 Red students shared the different ways they are ‘clever’ and let their light shine each and every day. To finish the assembly, the class shared a wonderful song about being special. Thank you 1 Red!

Primary Swimming Carnival (Y3-6)

Our Years 3-6 Swimming Carnival was a huge success today! We were blessed with beautiful weather for what was a sensational day of sportsmanship, athleticism and joy! A huge congratulations to all of our students for trying their best in their races and events! Our Guild shirts looked brilliant throughout the day at our first-ever Primary ‘Guild Carnival’ and a huge congratulations to Thomas More for winning the Swimming Championship Shield, and Brigid for winning the Spirit Shield. Thank you to all Primary staff involved in the day, with special mention to Mrs Tash Richards for her planning, coordination and running of this huge event!

Year 6 Camp

Our Year 6’s spent a wonderful three days at Forrest Edge Campsite in Waroona. Over the three days they participated in activities such as flying fox, pamper pole, kayaking, rafting, crate climbing, screen printing and so much more! It was so wonderful to see our students engaged with the activities and pushing themselves to try new things and forge new relationships with their peers. A huge thanks to our Year 6 teachers for their work in preparing the camp, and our supporting staff who also attended. The camp ran smoothly thanks to the collective efforts of our staff and a heartfelt thanks for the time they gave up away from their own families to be able to provide our Year 6 students with a camp they will always remember.

Community Mass

It has been wonderful to see so many Lavalla students at our first two Community Masses in 2025. Catherine Guild had a wonderful turn out at our first Community Mass, with Brigid Guild having smaller numbers yesterday. When your child’s Guild is invited to Community Mass on Thursday mornings at 8:00am, it would be wonderful if they could be there to support. To build Guild spirit, students that attend the Mass are able to wear their Guild sports top for the entire day.

The remainder of the Guild Masses for Term 1 are listed below for Lavalla parents to mark in their calendars:

  • Week 5: Thursday 6 March – Thomas More
  • Week 6: Thursday 13 March – Chisolm
  • Week 7: Thursday 20 March – Marcellin
  • Week 8: Thursday 27 March – MacKillop
  • Week 9: Thursday 3 April – Romero
  • Week 10: Thursday 10 April – Camara

Primary Extension Opportunities

We wanted to share with our families an explanation of the approach to extension within the primary school. We use a three-tiered system, similar to our support structures (outlined in the previous newsletter). At Newman College, we believe in nurturing the unique gifts of each child and providing experiences that encourage growth, curiosity, and critical thinking across all learning areas. The diagrams below outline the key components of each tier of extension and the criteria used for withdrawn small group activities. We hope this gives you a clearer understanding of what extension looks like on a day-to-day basis.

Catherine Young

Leader of Learning Primary

URSTRONG

A reminder that parents continue to have access to a FREE URSTRONG parent membership. We hope that as a URSTRONG Family, you will reinforce the important messages of empowerment, self-compassion, and kindness at home.

Newman Norms / Medals of Marcellin

Our Medals of Marcellin are back in 2025! Each fortnight at each Primary campus, one person will be drawn out of the raffle and receive a small prize for living out our Newman Norms. Congratulations to Niall, Ivy and Leo (Lavalla Campus) who were the winners in Week 2, and Charlotte (Marian Campus) who was the Week 3 winner of our raffle! Each raffle ticket received is swapped for a token and the Guild with the highest number of tokens at the end of the term wins a prize for the whole Guild!

Lavalla Homework Club

A reminder that children attending Homework Club must be collected by a parent/guardian from the bottom floor of the 3-6 Building at the end of Homework Club. If your child will be getting home another way (i.e. walking) then it is essential you email our Library Teacher (Sam Wynne) so we have this on record – samantha.wynne@newman.wa.edu.au

If you completed the form in the previous Newsletter, you are confirmed for Homework Club for the remainder of the year. If you did not complete the form but would like your child to join anytime from now until the remainder of the term, please email samantha.wynne@newman.wa.edu.au

Primary Library News

Congratulations to every single student who is participating in our Library competitions. Miss Hall, Mrs Bailey and Mrs Wynne are very proud of you all. Wait until Mrs Le Dan hears our news too!!!

Our Marian Campus Winners for the “Library Bear Needs A Name” competition were: Lachlan, 1R and Kiana, PPG. Lavalla winners were Emily, 4G and Lucius, 6G.

Student Sporting News

Congratulations to Lilah, who won the CBC Green Busselton Junior Tennis Tournament for singles and doubles in the girls division over the Australia Day weekend. Over the summer holidays she also came second in the Applecross Head Junior Open and the City of Joondalup and XCeed Sorrento Open, and also came first in the doubles in the WA Junior Open! What a sensational achievement Lilah!

If your child has achieved state or national recognition in their sport or extra-curricular activity, please email us at communications@newman.wa.edu.au, so we can celebrate their success.

Newman App

It would be beneficial if parents could ensure they have the Newman App, as this will be utilised more in 2025 as one of the main modes of communication. To download the app in the Apple Store  (Apple Devices) or Google Play (Android Devices), simply type in Newman College.

3D Printer

In the bottom floor of our Years 3-6 building we have received a generous donation of a 3D Printer from the Zafiropoulos family. This will be utilised throughout the year by some classes as part of their Digital Technologies programs. A big thank you to the Zafiropoulos family for their time and donation of the printer.

Wishing you a relaxing long weekend.

Ryan von Bergheim

HEAD OF PRIMARY