29 September 2017

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

This week marks the end of term 3 and what an exciting term it has been. On Wednesday, many of our parents and students met with teachers to discuss student learning goals and progress. I had an opportunity to meet with a few parents on Wednesday night who shared their views on the College and how we can improve. These meetings are always productive and I welcome insights from the parent’s perspective. This valuable feedback, I will take forward with leadership team in term 4.

Thank you to the wonderful staff at the College, the efforts and the guidance you provide the students in their learning is valued.

This term we have celebrated many significant College events, most notably the Feast of St James and St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, a memorable Science Week attending Festival of Bright Ideas and welcoming young UTAS Scientists, held Year 7-10 student retreats, celebrated Book Week in fabulous style, went sailing on the Lady Nelson, hosted Sean Choolburra’s Live and Deadly performance and had visits from Fireman Barry learning all about fire safety. Thank you to our students for another great term!

I wish you all a happy and safe term break and look forward to what I am sure, will be a productive term 4.

General Information

Congratulations

Over the past few weeks many of our students have participated in many different activities congratulations to them all:

Sacrament of Confirmation and Eucharist

Jack Hunter received the Sacrament of Confirmation and Eucharist on Sunday 24 September at St Mary of the Cross Catholic Church.

Soccer

Bailey Harris played Soccer in the Launceston cup last weekend. Well done!

State Athletics Carnival

Hunter Thorpe, Harry Brereton, Darcy and Charlotte Direen represented Huon and Channel at the State Athletics Carnival today (Friday 29 September). Good luck.

National Wood Chopping Carnival

Will and Owen Lovell participated in the National wood chopping events held in Adelaide, featuring events with wood choppers of all ages, (with the youngest being 14 years and the oldest being 83 years). Will placed in three events: the 275 mm underhand (3rd), the team's event standing block 250mm (2nd) and the standing block 2 man event (3rd). Congratulations!

Netball

The Kingston Blues Netball Club Junior Dinner was held last Friday evening, congratulations to the following students who received awards for their efforts this season:

• Jaclyn Thorp - 13/U Teal Coaches Award
• Keely Brereton - 13/U Blue Coaches Award
• Lucy Clifford - 15/U Aqua Best & Fairest
• Chelsea Long - 15/U Navy Most Valuable Player
• Leah Polley - 15/U Blue Runner Up Best & Fairest

CANA Netball Carnival

The following students are representing Tasmania at the National carnival in Queensland. Good luck:

• Taylah Dillon Year 10
• Keely Brereton Year7
• Lucy Clifford Year 8
• Sarah Turnbull Year 8
• Brielle Gordon Year 8
• Leah Polley Year 8

Fair Information

Office Opening Hours in holidays/Vandals

During the term break, the College Office will be open between 9am-1pm (closed Friday 7 October). Please note that due to technology upgrades the office may be unreachable by phone during the first week. If you happen to witness any vandalism during the holidays please contact our on-call staff member on 0497 515 415.

2017 School Fees and Levies

Thank you to everyone who has settled or has arrangements in place for 2017 School Fees and Levies. There is no doubt that families place a high priority on obtaining a quality education for their children and many families make sacrifices to meet their financial obligations to the College. If you require a confidential conversation with the College Business Manager: Mrs Kelly Du Bois please contact her via the College Office (03) 6295 1541 to arrange an appointment.

Canteen Volunteers

The Canteen needs volunteers! If you can assist, please contact the College office outlining your availability. To work as a volunteer with vulnerable people (including children) anywhere in Tasmania each volunteer requires a current Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) Registration. To apply for registration please visit:

Kindergarten Enrolments

SMS Absence Notification

Is your child unwell? Need to contact the College Office? The College accepts SMS absentee notifications. Please SMS: 0488 863 246 with your child's name, year and reason for absence. Please save this number in your phone for future reference.

Contact/Medical Details Update

If any student contact and/or medical details have changed since the return of the 2017 forms in Term 1, please contact the College office to update. If you have previously supplied the College with an Epi-Pen and/or other medication; which may have since expired, a replacement is required.

College Uniform Shop

The College Uniform Shop has moved and is now located within the College the shop is open (term-time only):

• Monday’s 2.30pm until 3.30pm
• Wednesday’s 2.30pm until 3.30pm

Orders can be placed via phone or email. Ordered items can then be collected from the College Office or sent home with students.

Call for Cardboard!

In term 4, Year 1 and 2 students are taking part in the Cardboard Challenge! If you can donate any cardboard items the students would be very grateful, donations can be left in Year 1 and 2.

What’s been happening at SJCC?

Local Victoria Cross Ceremony

Year 9 classes attended the unveiling of three plaques to memorialise the three local Victoria Cross winners from the First World War, one hundred years after they earned them. Captain P Cherry VC MC, Sergeant JW Whittle VC DMC and Sergeant JJ Dwyer VC were honoured in a ceremony attended by the Governor of Tasmania, numerous politicians and the Director of the Australian War Memorial at the Cygnet Cenotaph. This was particularly meaningful for our school as secondary teacher Cecily Burnett's grandfather JJ Dwyer was remembered. Our students presented themselves well and their respectful behaviour was a credit to the College and the community.

Fire Safety Sessions

This week Fireman Barry Blackwell has visited the College. While here, he delivered the Prep to Year 6 Tasmanian Fire Service Fire Education Program. The program aims to educate students about fire safety through discussions and activities. Our Prep students were engaged in their session asking many questions and even taking the opportunity to dressing in fire gear and demonstrate how to act safely in a fire!

Sean Choolburra

Last Monday, the College offered students the “Live and Deadly” performance run by internationally renowned, Aboriginal man, Sean Choolburra. Sean’s performance focused on the sharing of culture, values and stories and uses traditional and modern dance and music as a medium. The performance explored creation stories of the crocodile, echidna and emu. Sean connected these stories directly to his culture and shared information and stories about his Father’s people the "Girramay" and his Mother’s people the "Kalkadoon, Pitta Pitta and Gugu Yalanji".

Students from Kindergarten to Year 10 thoroughly enjoyed and participated in this educational and interactive performance, with opportunities for discussion the students eagerly asked questions about traditional dress and painting. Year 6, Aboriginal student Caleb Clark assisted Sean in the performance, by playing the didgeridoo!

Rev It Up Event

Year 6 students were all highly engaged in the 2017 REV IT UP day held on Wednesday 20 September. Students had the opportunity to participate in numerous exciting workshops offered on the day. Workshops ranged from testing the PH level of human saliva for healthy teeth, acro yoga, mental wellbeing, movie making and hip-hop dancing. It was fantastic to see students connecting so well with other Year 6 students from the Huon Valley and participating in a very positive and encouraging way. A very big thank you to Karen Tyler for organising the event for the day.

Kitchen Garden

Sophie Duggan, an undergraduate from the University of Tasmania, studying a Bachelor of Health Science has had the opportunity to write an analysis of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program. The following is a summary of what she observed.

After volunteering with the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden program in 2016 at St James Catholic College I was given the opportunity to analyse the program within my Community and Public Nutrition University project. The aim of the University project is to gain practical experience in public/community nutrition and a knowledge of the different organisations currently operating in Tasmania. With an increasing obesity epidemic, programmes such as the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden are integral in ensuring children have the knowledge and practical skills to implement healthy eating choices in order to prevent chronic diseases such as obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Alongside the health benefits that the programme delivers, there is also an important environmental sustainability aspect which is just as beneficial as it well known that our environment has a direct relationship to our overall health status.

From observing and interacting with the children during their garden and kitchen experiences it was evident that not only do they acquire new skills each lesson but they thoroughly enjoy the program. Some of the new skills they have learnt during the garden lessons include; growing foods from seeds, understanding the process of cultivating land and harvesting foods before they arrive in the kitchen, sustainable food practises through composting, mulching and also interaction with the community as they are able to have a bartering system with the local Cygnet fruit and vegetable larder to continue their food production cycle.

Within the kitchen classes the first skill learnt is implementing important kitchen hygiene from there they have been taught safe knife skills, how to correctly read and interpret recipes and also having the ability to adapt particular recipes to accommodate any allergies or intolerance that their classmates may have. Many new foods have been tried such as Jerusalem artichokes, radishes, beetroot, chillies and persimmon all of which were grown in the garden. Measuring correct quantities using different utensils, how to safely use equipment such as blenders, stoves and ovens and most importantly patience when cooking, are just some of the benefits the children mentioned that they have learnt.

The overall consensus of the program was that it is great! They loved getting out of the classroom and working in both the kitchen and the garden. They have a new appreciation for the production food and some of their favourite recipes have included red lentil dahl, Nasi goreng, gnocchi, beetroot risotto and lemon cookies which they enjoy as an occasional treat after all their hard work.

Drama

The Year Nine students have been working on stage combat, practising our combat skills, and more importantly, practising how we tell a story through combat. The students combined their learning and skills presenting in a short scene from Romeo and Juliet on Tuesday.

St Patrick’s College Band visit

On Monday, the College was treated to a performance by the very talented St Patrick’s College Band! With many of our students assisting in the performance, either by singing along or playing instruments it was a great musical afternoon.

Masterclass

Last Tuesday, the Year 9/10 VET Hospitality class participated in a Masterclass offered at Guilford Young College. The students were tasked with creating chocolate tarts under the supervision of Chef and Teacher Mr Stephen Lunn. After the session, students visited Mures Upper Deck for an industry visit, here they had the opportunity to look behind the scenes at how a top restaurant operates.

MS Read-a-thon

This term a number of students from both primary and secondary participated in the MS Read-a-thon. The aim of the read-a-thon is to get students reading and raise awareness about the condition Multiple Sclerosis. Many books were read and the College raised a total of $720.00. An amazing effort. Well done to all the participants and a special commendation for our youngest team member Isabella O'Neill, who was our star fundraiser.

Pirate Day fundraiser update

The following message is from The Kids Cancer Project:

Thanks to you and everyone who participated in Pirate Day Friday 2017, we are pleased to announce that so far we have raised a grand total of $101,115.00 for childhood brain cancer research! Over 83,000 pirates, across 643 pirate teams all over Australia raised a staggering $101,115.00! And St James Catholic College Kindergarten were a part of that- thank you!

A message from Dr Raelene Endersby:

“I think the greatest thing about Pirate Day Friday is how it engages with kids in a fun way to raise awareness about childhood brain cancers. Having an improved awareness also helps raise crucial funding for research, and with research we can find answers to these terrible diseases. Brain cancers kill more children in Australia than any other disease, and we need to find new treatments. At Telethon Kids, our team is working on exactly that, so we can change lives for future patients. Thank you for your support!”

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