17 August 2018

Newsletter Articles

From the Principal

This week, I had the privilege of attending the Mass for the Rite of Perpetual Profession for Sister Mary Immanuel. Many of you would have met Sister Mary Immanuel - a Sister of the Immaculata’s who are part of our Huon Valley Parish community. This special occasion was celebrated by Archbishop Julian Porteous and one of his co-celebrant’s Fr Deva who is our Parish Administrator. Many of clergy members from Tasmania and Interstate. The Sisters of Immaculata with lay helpers are regular visitors here at the College and their work with our students is very much appreciated. Sister Mary Immanuel’s vocation was to commit to a religious order. Vocation is a term which affirms the Christian vocation of every baptised person. We are all called to be committed followers of Jesus, who calls all of us to develop our fullest potential, so that we may be empowered to share our own individual gifts, talents, abilities and blessings as fully as possible, for the sake of others.

Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop

Last week, our wider College community including Sacred Heart School gathered together to celebrate the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop. Thank you to Fr Deva for celebrating our Mass today and Mrs Thomas and Mr Neilson for their organisation.

Mary MacKillop was born in 1842 in Melbourne, she was one of seven siblings. She was a serious child with a strong love for God and a desire to do what she could for people in need.

When Mary was 18, she moved to the township of Penola in South Australia. During this time, Mary taught her nieces and nephews and also did what she could for children in need. In particular, it was the Aboriginal children to whom she gave most of her attention. While in Penola, Mary met Fr Julian Woods. Fr Julian Woods opened a Catholic School in Penola, and invited Mary to become involved. In 1866, Mary took charge of the school. The School was open to any child who wanted to learn and they accepted and educated students whether or not their family could pay for education.

It was at this time that Mary accepted Fr Woods’ offer to become the first Sister of St Joseph. The Sisters of St Joseph have founded many schools across Australia and New Zealand and continue to carry the mission of Mary MacKillop in their works.

St James Catholic College and Sacred Heart Catholic School are two of the many schools founded by the Sisters of St Joseph. We still today share in the Josephite Charism. A Charism is when we look to that person and try to follow their example. She was also recognised as a great role model when she became Australia’s first Saint.

Reconciliation

Congratulations to Heidi Turnbull (Yr 3), Jaeda Direen (Yr 3), Cody Clifford (Yr 4), Luke Clifford (Yr 4), Anikah Jones (Yr 4), Mia Clifford (Yr 5), Alex Sandric (Yr 6), Laura Flakemore (Yr 6), Coral Lovell (Yr 6) and Michael Fyfe (Yr 7) who last week received the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Confirmation

The following students will start preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation over the next few weeks. Please keep them in your prayers: Lucas Polley (Yr 3), Cody Clifford (Yr 4), Luke Clifford (Yr 4), Darcy Direen (Yr 4), Anikah Jones (Yr 4), Mia Clifford (Yr 5), Travis Walter (Yr 5), Charlotte Direen (Yr 6), Alex Sandric (Yr 6), Laura Flakemore (Yr 6), Coral Lovell (Yr 6), Michael Fyfe (Yr 7) and Mia Radnidge (Yr 7).

NAPLAN Online – trial information

St James Catholic College will be participating in the online NAPLAN SRT (School Readiness Test) trial later this term. The trial will allow students to experience the online platform – completing a few practice questions. Most students from Year 2, 4, 6 and 8 will be able to have a go. No information about our students will be collected during the trial. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Staffing

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Maryellen Hargreaves, who will be our LOTE teacher (Indonesian) for the remainder of 2018. Maryellen has worked as an Indonesian teacher at a number of Schools and Colleges including Sacred Heart Newtown. Indonesian has been taught in Australian schools since the 1960’s and now hundreds of schools across Australia teach the language of our nearest neighbour and popular travel destination. The Indonesian-Malay language is the ninth most spoken language in the world. We warmly welcome Maryellen to our College. She will commence next week.

God Bless, Allan Clark- Principal

General Notices

SMS Absence Notification

The College accepts SMS absentee notifications. Please SMS: 0488 863 246 with your child's name, grade and absent reason. Please save this number in your phone for future reference.

School Fees

Thank you to those families who have made fee payment arrangements and/or paid upfront for 2018. School Fees are now due and if you do not have a payment arrangement in place or are experiencing financial difficulty which is impacting your ability to pay, you are required to contact the College Business Manager. The College appreciates the sacrifices our families make for quality education and is here to support our families with these financial commitments, all conversations and payment arrangements are held in the strictest confidence. For a confidential discussion please contact Kelly Du Bois (Business Manager) via 62 951 541 or email: kelly.dubois@catholic.tas.edu.au.

Student medical detail update

Please consider if your child's medical information has changed. If you haven't yet advised the school office, please do so. If you have previously supplied an epi-pen or other medication which may have since expired, please organise a replacement.

Little Lights – Birth to Four Program

College Facebook page

Join our College Facebook page. Just type in: @StJamesCatholicCollege in the Facebook search bar.

We are fundraising four our College Tour

With our St James Catholic College School Tour to New Zealand leaving in September we are putting out the call for volunteers to help us with fundraising on upcoming events with all money raised to help subsidise the cost of the trip.

Grocery Raffle

Request for volunteers for an upcoming sausage sizzle at Huonville Mitre 10

The fundraising team are hosting a fundraising Sausage Sizzle at Huonville Mitre 10 on Sunday 2 September 2018. If you can volunteer for a couple of hours between 10am-2pm on the dates below, it would be greatly appreciated. Students attending the NZ trip are encouraged to help.

New Zealand BBQ Fundraiser – thank you

Thank you to Jordan and Danny Drusetta, Thomas and Kate Reed, Maeghan and Juanita Jernigan, Pauline Dillon, Karen Newbon, Fred Cheney, Allan Clark and Cec Katny and the staff at Mitre 10 Huonville for their assistance at this fundraising event.

Vinnies Winter Appeal

College P&F Father’s Day Stall

When: Tuesday 28 August and Wednesday 29 August 2018
(Primary students will visit the stall in their class and Secondary students can view/purchase at Recess).

Price range: Items are $5 each
There will be limited items for $2, limited family packs available for $10

Students can bring money on the day to purchase items or by prepaid voucher (for K-Year 4 students). If you wish to utilise the voucher system please refer to the letter sent home earlier this week.

GYC Bus Survey

Guilford Young College is in the early stages of planning for a dedicated bus service to and from the suburbs south of Hobart. The starting point and route will be determined by demand. The College are seeking expressions of interest from current Year 10 families in order to determine a likely route for the 2019 service. To help determine the viability of the service, the College has asked for current Year 10 families to complete the attached survey and return to GYC or electronically by visiting the link below. This is merely an expression of interest and is not a commitment to use the service.

Apple for the Teacher competition!

Mr Wigan and Mrs Smets have both been nominated for the Apple for the Teacher competition! This is a fierce competition as many teachers from Southern Tasmania have been nominated and the winning teacher’s class will each receive an iPad! Support Mr Wigan and Mrs Smets by voting via the following link:

Happening at SJCC

Great Maritimes for SJCC VET D&T Students

Upon Captain Damien’s call, it was all aboard the Cygnet Coach off to navigate the technical, the historical, the contemporary form and craft of wooden boat building in Franklin. Met with our most knowledgeable host Peter, as locals of the Huon, we got the grand tour behind the scenes into the wooden machinations of being a shipwright, from design, to process, to construction and completion. Students were riveted by the old tools of trade and hardware that are still being used for the prototypes on display (e.g. Forster Clinker Dinghy that all have stood the test of time).

As wooden boat building is making a renaissance, students were walked and talked through the differing roles of being a shipwright that appealed and captivated them. We were briefed into FWBC’s ‘Cartela’ restoration project that is gathering steam this year for the next, and then had the opportunity to learn new hand skill sets that are in demand and in vogue worldwide.

It was back on the port side of our coach to Princess Wharf. En-route to Hobart, student challenged themselves to some on-board entertainment via an Aurora Australis data quiz, while taking in spectator views of rally car drivers ‘on tow’.

We got a special warm welcome onto the gang plank of the Aurora Australis by our tour host & Antarctic expeditioner & scientist Christine. We got the grand tour through levels 2/3/4 of the ship. We traversed the many steps and decks (in varying states of Alpha and Beta rust formations), to get up to the bridge to meet Naomi, one of the ship’s captains. The mechanical operational capacity to handle sea states of up to 16 metres swell with a dynamic ballast were one of the many anecdotal accounts that made our group swell in angst. Having been tossed to and fro with every wind and wave of the Southern Ocean for the past 150 voyages, we look forward to the opportunities the Nuyina will offer future Antarctic Expeditioners and Researchers… Anyone?

Making sure there were no student stowaways for the next voyage come September/October, we were back on deck, said our thankyou and farewells, travelled back and hydrated in Kingston for our final voyage home. Thanks to the office staff who made it happen behind the scenes, the SJCC VET/D&T students for sustaining positive behaviour and the finesse of our Coach driver to get us back on deck.

Need help in filling the Aurora Australis Quiz? Speak to Oscar Wood - our SJCC VET 9/10 Winner of the Aurora Australis Quiz.

Great Maritimes!

Why not try the quiz for yourself! The answers will be published in our next newsletter!

VET Hospitality

As part of the celebrations for the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop our VET Certificate I Hospitality students catered for the visitors and staff from both Sacred Heart and St James. The students displayed a high level of professionalism and skill in producing food of an exceptional standard.

Special thanks to Ms Cec Katny and her team along with the students for their enthusiasm and contribution to making the day a success. A special thank you to Shelley, Stuart and Riley Griggs who kindly donated apples for the day!

Book Week Celebrations

It's time to get excited about the Book Week celebrations!

This year’s theme is ‘Find Your Treasure'. The main ‘parade’ event will be held on Wednesday, 22 August at 9:15am. This means that students will need to come to school in their costume on that day. It is a good idea to pack their uniform in their bag in case they wish to get changed. Students may dress up as a book character. It is wonderful if they can bring along a copy of the book to show their classmates. Dressing to match the theme is optional. On Friday 24 August, Alyssa Bermudez will be visiting some Primary students to share her story and skills as an artist and an illustrator for children’s books. Students will receive more information about this and other Book Week activities in class.

Book Fair

The College Book Fair will be held 20th-30th August 2018. There is a great variety of books and items available for purchase. Students can view the books and items in Library lessons and at lunchtimes. Parents are welcome to view items either in the mornings or afternoons or by appointment. Contact College office 62 951 541 to arrange this.

For those students who received a voucher on Prize Day last year, the voucher can be spent at this book fair. Vouchers need to be spent in one order and unfortunately change cannot be given.

Connie Thomas - Library Technician.

Digital Technologies

In Digital Technologies, the Year 8 students have been learning about game design.

This includes analysing a simple 'level' game looking at the different elements such as sprites, enemies, rewards and backgrounds. They will use this elements to help create their own game!

RUSTICA

Rustica is the rural health club for the University of Tasmania. The university students travel to schools and other organisations to promote rural health to Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health careers. They visited our Year 7 and 8 students coordinating health-related activities. Photos supplied by Huon Valley News. 

BYOD 2019

The College is currently undertaking planning for 2019, part of this process involves the review of the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program. Students in Years 3-10 will continue to require an iPad to be brought to school, each day, charged and ready for use.

In 2019, the minimum requirement for a student iPad is an iPad Air or newer.

Older devices will not be an acceptable option.

If you do need to purchase a new iPad, the 2018 (9.7inch) iPad is the recommended option.

If an outright purchase of the iPad creates financial hardship for any families, there is an opportunity to pay a device levy of $120 per year to the College. If you wish to access this option, please contact our Business Manager, Mrs Kelly Du Bois on 62951 541 or email: kelly.dubois@catholic.tas.edu.au by Monday 20 August 2018.

Looking to purchase a new iPad?

The College has access to the JB HI-FI Bring Your Own Device Portal. The portal provides parents with discounted Apple products and accessories. This is a private arrangement between JB Hi-Fi and the buyer. Parents/students are under no obligation to use this service and the College receives no commercial gain from JB Hi-Fi. For more information visit the link below and enter the school code: STJCS2018.

From the Sports Desk

Congratulations!

Cameron Walter has been selected in a pre-season cricket team, who will travel to Brisbane from 8th - 13th August 2018 to represent Tasmania!

Congratulations Noah Denny, Will Clifford, Zac Curtain and Harry Wood for being selected to represent Tasmania in the Cricket Tasmania under 14 squad!

Lucy Clifford is co-captain of Kingborough Netball Team U15 White and a 'leader among equals'. She has never missed a training and is always committed to the team, whether at training, on the court, or on the bench. Last week, Lucy was awarded the Patsy Mak Good Sports Award for all her efforts - congratulations, Lucy!

Community Notices