5 July 2017

Newsletter Articles

Principal’s Report

Dear Parents and Guardians

End of Term

As we come to the end of Term 2, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has contributed to the education of our students during the past 10 weeks. We really appreciate your generosity and support.

I hope that everyone is able to have a restful and peaceful break and are able to spend some valuable time with family and friends.

I would like to remind parents that third term resumes on Monday, July 24.

NAIDOC Week

This week we celebrate NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The importance, resilience and richness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages will be the focus of national celebrations marking NAIDOC Week 2017.

The 2017 theme - Our Languages Matter - aims to emphasise and celebrate the unique and essential role that Indigenous languages play in cultural identity, linking people to their land and water and in the transmission of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, spirituality and rites, through story and song.

Some 250 distinct Indigenous language groups covered the continent at first (significant) European contact in the late eighteenth century. Most of these languages would have had several dialects, so that the total number of named varieties would have run to many hundreds.

Today only around 120 of those languages are still spoken and many are at risk of being lost as Elders pass on.

At St Cuthbert’s we will acknowledge and celebrate NAIDOC Week with a special liturgy at our final Assembly for the term on Wednesday at 9.00am.

You are more than welcome to join us.

Confirmation

Congratulations to the following students who were confirmed by Archbishop Julian Porteous at Corpus Christi Church last Wednesday:

Lucinda Coutts
Charlotte Coutts
Lachlan Fitzgerald
Isabelle Potter
Keeley Tanner

We ask you to continue to pray for these students as they make a deeper commitment to their faith. Thank you to Father Peter, Lachlan Marsh, the Parish Sacramental team and our teachers for assisting with the preparation of our students.

Farewell/Thank you

This week we farewell the Kean and Morgan families. Ava (Grade 5/6 Green) and Emme Kean (Grade Prep/1 Green) will be moving to Albury where their father, Matt has been appointed Principal of Holy Spirit, Lavington.

The Morgan family (Grace – Prep/1 Green) will be heading to Canberra where Simon has taken up position as Manager of Data and Analytics at Diabetes Australia.

We thank both the Kean and Morgan families for their contributions to our school and wish them every success with the future.

Reports / Parent Teacher

Mid-year Reports will be sent home on Friday, July 7. Optional Parent Teacher interviews will be held on Wednesday, 26th July. Bookings for interviews can be made online. An information sheet to assist you with making appointments will be sent home with reports.

Marcus Donnelly
Principal

Principal Awards

End of Term Awards

Sacrament of Confirmation

On the evening of Wednesday 28th June, five students from St Cuthbert’s Catholic School received the Sacrament of Confirmation at a liturgy at Corpus Christi Catholic Church, celebrated by Archbishop Julian Porteous. These students had been preparing for several months for this important event in their faith life.

The students who received the Sacrament of Confirmation were: Isabelle Potter, Lachlan Fitzgerald, Keeley Tanner, Lucinda Coutts, and Charlotte Coutts.

These young people should be congratulated for the hard work and dedication they have shown during their preparation.

The students will be presented with a gift from St Cuthbert’s at our next School Mass in Term 3.

During Term 2, each class at St Cuthbert’s has sponsored one of the Sacramental candidates. These students regularly visit the classes to let them know what they have been learning as part of their preparation.

Thank you to the staff and families from the St Cuthbert’s Catholic School community who attended the liturgy and supported our candidates.

Mr Marsh – APRE

Prep/One Social Science Excursion

On Tuesday 20th June, all three Prep/One classes visited Princes’ Park, Battery Point, and Kangaroo Bay, Bellerive as part of our Social Science Unit. Students were asked to think about the different uses for the park and compare the natural, managed, and constructed features of the two locations. The weather was kind and the children had a great day out. Thank you to all the parents who were able to come along and help out. Days such as this are impossible without the support of our parent community.

Mr Marsh, Miss Price and Miss Duggan – Class Teachers

Catholic Mission Water Relay

Thank you to all those who participated in the Water Relay on Wednesday 14th June. It was a fun afternoon for all concerned and a tremendous fundraising effort. At last count, we were on track to raise over $1500. Catholic Mission will use this money to support communities in disadvantaged countries in our region. A representative from Catholic Mission will visit the school next term to accept our donation. Special thanks go to our Grade Six Caritas Leaders (Maeve Jacobs, Oliver Horswill, Stella McKenzie, Holli Shaw, Joshua Direen, Charlie Balzer and Elise Evans) who organised this event and made the day run very smoothly.

Mr Marsh – APRE

HPE News

Primary All School Cross Country

Well done to all students from St Cuthbert’s who participated in the Symmons Plains Primary All School Cross Country. A great day out was had by all. Thank you to Mr Sawyer for driving us. The students ran well and relished the challenge of competing against hundreds of other students. Furthermore, the courses were 2km for the 9 and 10 year olds and 3km for the 11 and 12 year olds - a long way to run!

The team was:

HGA Gymnastics at St Cuthbert’s

Thanks to the great Federal Sporting Schools initiative, our Kindergarten, Prep and Grade 1 students enjoyed three visits from the Hobart Gymnastics Academy (based in Bridgewater). Val, Regina and Bibianna from HGA helped our students to: forward roll down a wedge, backward roll, do handstands against the wall, use a balance beam and work their way through a series of obstacles. The brilliant news is that we have another grant on the way, which means we can buy our own equipment.

Our HGA journey does not end there, as the Kindergarten, Prep and Grade 1 students will visit their premises early next term (parents welcome to attend). Furthermore, HGA will come back next year to keep gymnastics alive at our School.

Enrichment News

Tournament of the Minds

This week we started our Tournament of the Minds preparation. The Tournament of Minds is a problem solving programme for teams of students from both primary and secondary years. They are required to solve demanding, open-ended challenges from one of the following disciplines:

Science Technology
Engineering Mathematics
Social Sciences
Language Literature

The Tournament of Minds is an opportunity for students with a passion for learning and problem solving to demonstrate their skills and talents in an exciting, vibrant and public way. This will be the first time St Cuthbert’s has participated in this competition. It will be a huge challenge for our students, but our students are very worthy and up to the task. From a very strong field, the following students were selected: Tom Marr, Madeline Burnett, Loralei Nesbitt, Sumanth Karunakara, Kaleb Gard-Spaulding, Lachlan Pickersgill and Georgia Malone.

Guilford Young – A Beacon of Light (DVD)

Archbishop Sir Guilford Young KBE DD led the Catholic Church in Tasmania (1955 – 1988) during a time of significant Church renewal and widespread social change.

This DVD is a celebration of the enduring local and international influence of Archbishop Sir Guilford Young KBE DD (1916 – 1988), produced to acknowledge the centennial anniversary of his birth. It contains a short documentary (17 minutes) exploring his legacy, and a longer series of reflections from people who knew or worked with him (1 hour, 27 minutes).

A valuable resource for students and researchers.

Narrated by Fr Brian Nichols.

The DVD is available for families to borrow. Please contact Mr Marsh via the School Office or email lachlan.marsh@catholic.tas.edu.au. A small donation for the use of the DVD would be gratefully received and would be forwarded to the Archbishop’s Samaritan Fund.

Important Dates