Term 1 Week 5

Dear Parent/Carer

It certainly has been a busy start to the year. 

I commend our students and staff on the way the year has commenced and the efforts our students have demonstrated to engage with their academics and involve themselves in the variety of liturgical, sporting and other related extra-curricular activities across the last few weeks. 

I have spent time in our community meeting various people, introducing myself and hopefully develop relationships that will further enhance what we do for our student within College. 

This has included meetings with Council, our friends at Kempsey and Melville High school and the fantastic Macleay Valley Workplace Learning Centre. 

I continue to have gatherings  with a variety of Community Health services around the region to provide the best possible care for our students now and into the future.

We are an amazing school community in a regional area that offers many educational opportunities linked by strong community services.  Together, we seek to develop strong, intelligent young men and women who will inspire others into the future by making a difference as they transition into the World of Work 

I am very fortunate to be walking alongside our staff and students at this time; so many opportunities ahead for us all! 

Please be aware that we have our Meet and Greet on Wednesday, 10 March.  We will provide you with an opportunity to meet the teachers and listen to our College Senior Leadership team’s presentation.  It is an important evening, and I strongly encourage you all to come along and see what we have planned for the students at the College in 2021. 

We continue to forge ahead with our Stage 1- Build (College Hall/Performance Centre).  Over the next few weeks, I will have further information about this exciting project and our Stage 2- Science building refurbishment. 

Stay tuned for more details!

Kind Regards

Mr David JOHNS   B.Ed., Cert. Gifted Ed., Grad. Cert. Adol. Health and Welfare, M.Ed. (Ed Lead), M.Ed. (Theol) 

College Principal

david.johns@lism.catholic.edu.au

Term 1 has indeed begun with many celebrations and time for personal reflection. 

The College introduced our theme for 2021 Support, Encourage Flourish, at our Induction Mass.  We continue to encourage all students in our care to flourish and experience many spiritual and pastoral programs in 2021.  The College community came together to reflect on the significance of Ash Wednesday and commence our Lenten journey in addition to celebrating our very worthy College leaders.  

As part of our Ash Wednesday liturgy, we saw Project Compassion's launch, our annual fundraising initiative to support Caritas.  Caritas is a Catholic organisation committed to tackling poverty and inequality in Australia and overseas since 1964. Students enjoyed pancakes prepared by the SRC on Shrove Tuesday to kick start our campaign.

In addition to these celebrations, we have had many initiatives for students to engage and reflect upon their behaviour and assist others within the College and the wider community, including Cybersafety talk from Steve Jefferies, our Police Liason Officer, Teen Mental Health Training for our Year 10 students and Year 7 Belonging day.  It is lovely to invite the community into our College again, and we look forward to connecting with the wide range of services in the Macleay and Nambucca Valley.

Induction Mass

Thank you to Fr James Foster, who graciously gave his time alongside our College Captains to celebrate the College community's eucharist.  All College leaders were presented with their badges by College Principal David Johns, after a Blessing by Fr James.  Parents/guardians were invited to follow the link on Facebook to join the service.  We know that they were watching with pride as the leaders were presented to the College community and pledged to serve St Paul's College with integrity, honesty, and fairness. 

College Captains

Ministry Leaders

Rebecca Cotter, Jorja Donnelly, Sienna Moore, Chloe Riley,  Maxwell Winn, Carmen Wittich, Jenaya Allen, Emily Brenton, William Butler, Jacob Clout, Kieran Melville, Jack Morgan and Corey Storm

House Captains

Edmund:          Eden Kenny and Cooper Schubert                

Farrelly:           Laura Wakely and Flynn McGoldrick 

MacKillop:        Charlie Brenton and Bryce Pike 

McAuley:         Jessica Terrason and Jack Ramsay

Student Representative Council

Year 8 

Savannah Bechaz-Hatton, Evangelina Gately, Alec Gorline-Singleman, Kayne Richards

Year 9

Isabelle Koivu, Taylah Moffitt, Sophie Osborne

Year 10  

Hunter Crilley, Olivia Dunbar, Blair Hughes,  Jade McLean, Shelby Micthell, Ebony Vella, Brendon Witchard

Year 11 

Rebecca Cotter, Maxwell Winn, Carmen Wittich

Year 12

Corey Storm

Project Compassion

Every year, countless people turn Lent into a demonstration of faith, love and generosity. Our students at St Paul's joined this incredible community, who believe that there are simple actions we can all take to "be more" for our world.

Caritas works hand-in-hand with local communities and churches to bring aid and relief to people whose lives have been devastated by natural disaster or conflict. 

At St Paul's, we are delighted to once again contribute to such a worthy cause.  Students will learn about vulnerable communities in Pastoral Care and how valuable any funds are to the less fortunate's dignity and well-being.  They will be engaged in many fundraising activities throughout this Lent season,  and a running tally will be displayed in the College office.

Mrs Bronwyn Shipton - Assistant Principal - Mission and Wellbeing

Academic Care

The school term is in full swing, with lots of activity occurring in classrooms.  I have been privileged to be in several different learning environments at St Paul’s in the first month of school and have been impressed with our students’ enthusiasm and energy.  During the next few weeks, there will be opportunities for both parents and their sons and daughters to discuss their learning opportunities at the College in our first Meet and Greet gathering with academic goals set and reviewed throughout the year.  St Paul’s College is committed to working within a partnership with our students and their parents to support each other and evaluate improvement. 

The primary goal in Learning and Teaching at St Paul’s in 2021 is the Academic Care of our students, where each student is understood not just as a learner but also as an integral part of the broader Macleay Valley community. We seek to build classroom experiences that develop curriculum and approaches to learning and teaching that are visible and enhance student learning, wellbeing and resilience, and embed these practices each day in the classroom.  Academic Care at St Paul’s aims to build positive self-esteem and connectedness through pedagogies and activating personal growth.  Students are supported to cope with challenges and struggles, encouraged to endure and persist, and flexibly create and develop a range of strategies and skills to achieve goals. 

There is an excellent staff at St Paul’s committed through their professional learning, collegiality and collaborative practices to support students at the centre of everything we do.  We believe that academic success is hard to achieve if a student’s wellbeing is not in balance.  Combining pastoral support with academic growth allows students to embrace their life choices and, importantly, enjoy their time at school and believe in being capable of achieving whatever they set their minds to and developing a sense of connectedness to the school and the broader school community. 

I look forward to speaking with parents, with the opportunity for us to work together to support their child to grow under the guidance of Academic Care.

Mr Geoffrey Melville - Assistant Principal - Learning and Teaching

SMARTER Goals

As part of our ongoing commitment to our learning vision of developing lifelong learners, your child will be setting SMARTER academic goals in each of their subject areas over the next few weeks.  We are building capacity in the students to be able to take ownership and control of their leaning. These goals will be located on Stile, and we encourage you to take some time to discuss with your child the goals they are setting for themselves for the 2021 Academic year.  There will be an opportunity to discuss your child’s learning journey with their teachers at the upcoming Meet and Greet in Week 7. 

The following acronym SMARTER is what we will use to frame these academic goals.  In the next few weeks, the SMART section will be set.  There will be check-ins to see how they are going, and then, in Term 3, they will be evaluated and readjusted or new ones developed.  

Mrs Lesa Morrison - Leader of Pedagogy

10,000 Reasons to Innovate

St Paul’s Catholic Secondary College will receive $10,000 as part of a successful bid for a 2021 ‘Learning and Innovation Grant’.  The grant, funded by the Diocese of Lismore Catholic Schools Office, will further equip the College with state-of-the-art technology used by Year 7 Mandatory Technology students. 

Lee Hancock, the school’s Leader of Innovation and Digital Learning, and Year 7 Technology teachers will collaborate on a year-long project and see students develop their coding capability and apply this knowledge to solve real-world problems.  The College will purchase a range of appropriate equipment, including Microbits, a small scale wind tunnel, climate sensors and more.

The project will centre around the use of Microbits (seen below). These micro-computers have in-built sensors. An LCD screen and various buttons can be programmed via Microsoft’s MakeCode and enable students to build their coding capabilities and confidence and apply this knowledge and use these devices to solve problems.

We look forward to seeing students’ innovative solutions throughout the year.

Mr Lee Hancock - Leader of Innovation and Digital Learning

Year 7 Belonging Day

This week, our new Year 7s attended their first College retreat, the Year 7 Belonging Day.  It was a great day filled with fun, games, team building, get-to-know-you activities and experiences of small groups and prayer as our youngest pupils got the chance to connect and their faith in a relaxed environment.  Our Youth Ministry Officers, Ebaney Cook and Mikayla Greenhalgh, did a superb job facilitating, and our Senior Ministry Team were outstanding in their Christian witness and leadership.  Many thanks go to the staff who helped support the day, both at the retreat and back at school. 

I hope that the Belonging Day is the start or continuation of a great faith journey for our Year 7s.  In Week 9, some students will have the opportunity to attend the Diocesan run Transitus retreat to continue to explore their faith journey.  If your child is keen on something like this, keep your eyes and ears posted for the coming information about this exciting event. 

Year 12 Senior Retreat

The Year 12 Senior Retreat will be taking place next week at Bonny Hills.  We are looking forward to an enjoyable three days of bonding, fun, prayer and reflection with our seniors.  The Passionist Youth Retreat Team will again facilitate this retreat; however, Fr Ray Sanchez cannot come and lead this retreat due to illness.  We wish him a speedy recovery. 

We hope and pray that the fruits of this retreat would last a lifetime. 

LEAD

In Week 7, students in Years 11 and 12 will have the opportunity to attend the Diocesan LEAD Conference from 11 – 12 March at McCauley College in Grafton.  LEAD is a fantastic event that helps train and equip our leaders in discipleship and many other senior students from the Diocese.  The Diocese YMO Band Wildfire, will lead the music, and there will be talks, workshops and fellowship to fill our Ministry Leaders with zeal and vigour for the year ahead. 

Permission notes for LEAD were due this week, however, if there is anyone who would still like to attend LEAD, they need to contact Mr MacAndrews as soon as possible. 

Date Claimer: Year 10 Retreat

We plan our Year 10 cohort to have their overnight retreat in Term 2 this year, from 6 – 7 May.  Please put this date in your diaries now.  More information will come closer to the time. 

Parish Sunday Masses

For those of you who are new (and not so new) to our school community, I would warmly like to invite you to join our Macleay Valley Catholic Parish community for Mass on the weekends.  Our Parish Priest, Father James Foster, has several different Masses celebrated at our South West Rocks and Kempsey churches. 

Peace and blessings,

God Bless!

Mr Dominic MacAndrews - Leader of School Evangelisation

dominic.macandrews@lism.catholic.edu.au

Weekly Sport

Students in Years 7 and 8 will be involved in a swimming program from Week 6, Term 1, and a school sports program for Term 2.  Years 9 and 10 students select a sport from the local facilities eg school grounds, gym, tennis courts, indoor sports, golf, beach and ten-pin bowling. 

Year 11 Sport is held for one period each week, either a Tuesday or a Thursday, where they will sign up for a sport at school. 

If students cannot wear the correct PE uniform on their allocated sports day, they must wear full school uniform to and from school and change into the PE uniform for the sports period only.  Please refer to the Uniform section in this handbook for a more detailed Sport/PE uniform outline, including what to wear during swimming activities.

Swimming Carnival

On Tuesday, Week 3 students attended the annual Swimming Carnival.  Participation rates were high for all students. The quality of swimmers has always impressed staff, with many long-standing records broken by competitors. 

I want to personally thank the parents and spectators that attended for complying with the current COVID regulations.  I cannot wait for things to return to normal, and we can involve you more throughout the day.

House Winners

Edmund – 579

McAuley – 510

Farrelly – 476

MacKillop – 284

Age Champions and Runners Up

Congratulations to all students, particularly those Age Champions and Runners Up, for our 2021 Swimming Carnival.

Coming Events

Lismore Diocesan Touch Football Selections – 2 March

Lismore Diocesan Swimming Carnival – 4 March

Lismore Diocesan Winter Trials (Football and Rugby League) – 9 March

Netball – Schools Cup (Kempsey) – 10 March

Diocesan Open’s Basketball – 25 March

Diocesan Football Gala Day (Open’s) – 31 March

School Cross Country – To Be Advised

Mr Heath Needs - Sports Co-ordinator

Teachers' Meet and Greet

Year 7 to 12

Wednesday 10th March after school

More details to follow next week

P & F AGM

6pm Wednesday 17th March

including a keynote address by the new College Principal, Mr David Johns

BUS SAFETY WEEK

Each year, Bus Safety Week raises awareness for all road users on how to stay safe on and around buses.  There is a 40km/h speed limit for traffic passing a school bus picking up or setting down school children.  The speed limit is for all traffic travelling in the same direction as the bus, whether the bus is stationary or moving.  Motorists must observe the 40km/h speed limit when the rear ‘wig-wag’ lights on the bus are flashing.  Flashing headlights on these buses also alert oncoming motorists that children are close.

We ask families to talk with their child about: 

• Waiting until the bus has gone to cross the road safely.
• Not getting distracted by a mobile device.
• What to do if they get on the wrong bus or off at the wrong bus stop.

Parents will find more Road Safety tips: https://raodsafety.transport.nsw.gov.au/downloads/keeping-our-kids-safe-around-schools.pdf