Term 3 Week 6: From the Head of Primary
In the last two weeks we have certainly been able to celebrate the learning that occurs at Newman College each day. The primary campuses have been busy exploring their world during the STEM festival which launched Science Week. We then came together as a whole primary school at the Lavalla Campus to celebrate the Assumption of Mother Mary into heaven with our Buddy Day connecting our students. This led us beautifully into the celebration of Book Week and the student parades.
All these learning opportunities occurred outside of the “normal” classroom setup and were wonderful ways to challenge our students. Flexible learning spaces allow our students to create and collaborate and the launch of the IDEAS Lab at Marian is a prime example of this. The multi-purpose space at Lavalla also accommodates a range of learning styles and needs and can be arranged to suit a multitude of learning outcomes.
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 the 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 are grateful for that day
- Gratitude journalling – 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 – in your local community, watching the news, reading the newspaper
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.”
Click here for further information, videos and examples for practising gratitude in the home.
Coffee Van Fathers Day
To thank the dads of Newman College, the Primary Social Committee (PSC) would like to offer all dads and father figures a free coffee. The PSC has organised a coffee van to be at each of the campuses to say thank you for all that you do.
STEM Festival
To celebrate Science Week, the Primary Campuses took part in a STEM festival on Monday 13 August. STEM is the combination of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to engage students, and encourage them to problem solve and collaborate. All students took part in a wide range of activities from building bridges to creating flying machines. There was a range of guest speakers and the Secondary School teachers even set off rockets at the Marian Campus. Thank you to Mrs Zelich and Ms Anderson for making it all happen.
Click here for a full list of activities from the day and more photos.
Book Week
This week we celebrated Book Week with the theme of “Find 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 fortunate to have such wonderful libraries at each campus. Mrs Le Dan also organised a wide range of activities for the students such as author visits and even a trip to the Cambridge Library. Thank you Mrs Le Dan, Mrs Burchfield and Mrs Karagiannis for generating a love of literature. Please click here for more information and photographs from Book Week.
Artist in Residence
Our Year 2 students were lucky enough to attend a workshop with the College’s 2018 Artist in Residence Mr Andy Quilty this week. All Year 2 students came together in the Marian Hall to experience Andy’s approach and drawing techniques that serve to inspire freedom within art making. The wonderful designs will continue on this process during their art classes for the next few weeks. Thank you Mrs Spencer and Mrs Farrell. Click here for information about out 2018 Artist in Residence program.
Speak Up Finals
The following students participated in the Speak Up Finals last week: Harry Klein, Joshua Do and Aadil Thekkayil. Congratulations to all three students who were successful in moving through to the next round. There were topics that were funny and some deeply moving. Their talents are quite remarkable.
Feast of the Assumption of Mary
To celebrate the Assumption of Mother Mary into heaven, our Primary community came together at the Lavalla Campus last Friday. The students were excited to see their buddies again and work with them on activities about Mary and of course take part in the legendary Lapathon.
Thank you to Ms Warchomij, Mrs Rich and Mr Lynch for making this such a great day filled with fun and new friendships.
Click here to read more and to see more photos from the day.
Leadership Camp
Our Year 6 Student Counsellors had the wonderful opportunity to work with student leaders from years 7, 8 and 9 as part of the leadership camp last week. The students camped under the stars and cooked their own meals as well as took part in a wide range of leadership and team building activities to develop their skills and make new friends across the College. Thank you to Mr Van der Heever for making this possible and we look forward to this event growing in the future.
Visual Art Support
We would like to invite you to be part of our exciting and innovative PK-6 Arts program at Newman College. Please kindly consider supporting our exceptional Visual Art program by joining us on roster in Visual Art classes for students in Kindergarten through to Year 6. Your assistance with preparing and organising arts resources, and supporting arts learning by working alongside students, will help us to enrich and strengthen our Arts teaching and learning program. Please contact our specialist Art teachers, Ms Sarah Spencer at Marian Campus and Ms Amy Farrell at Lavalla campus for more information and to register you support. sarah.spencer@newman.wa.edu.au (PK-2) amy.farrell@newman.wa.edu.au (3-6).
Code of Conduct
It is critical that parents always work to provide a positive environment here at Newman College when communicating with one another, either in person, online or over the telephone. Conversations must be dignified and respectful. Parent social events for our families must only be used for positive connection. Anything outside of this is a breach of the code of conduct and will be managed by the College. Please click here to see a copy of the College Code of Conduct and refer to statements 4, 5 and 6.
Family Night at Scitech – Friday 31 August
Only a week to go until the exciting family event of which tickets are selling fast. Please click here for more information.
Angelico Art Exhibition
The following students have had their art work displayed at the CEWA Angelico Art Exhibition for 2018. The students have displayed outstanding commitment to their craft and we are blessed that they are able to share their talents. Thank you to Mrs Amy Farrell for your instruction and support.
Charlotte Laurent, Year 6
Ella Hills, Year 4
Ella Scott, Year 5
Zoe Ehlers, Year 3
Savannah Doyle, Year 6
Harper Gamble, Year 6
Word Mania
Congratulations to the students in Years 4 and 5 who have achieved the top rankings on the Leaderboard for Round Two of Word Mania.
Year 4 – 11th in Australia
Year 5 – 49th in Australia
Past Events
The children at Newman College are continuously engaging in motivating learning experiences that support embedding and enhancing their education. Some highlights from the past two weeks are:
- Angelico Art Exhibition
- Speak Up Finals
- STEM Festival
- Book Week
- LAPs incursion – today we had the privilege of Lenny Hughes from Little Athletics Australia teaching our students some skills to help them with their athletics in preparation for the upcoming carnival on September 7