Newsletter Week 6, Term 2 2025

Principal's Messages

Catholic Schools Week

This week, we celebrate Catholic Schools Week – a time to reflect on the gift of Catholic education in our lives and community.

Pope Francis reminds us: "Let us thank all those who teach in Catholic schools. Educating is an art of love: it is like giving life."

We are truly blessed at Corpus Christi with dedicated staff who give so much of themselves each day – teaching, guiding, and inspiring our students in faith, learning, and love.

As we also mark 90 years of our current school setting, we give thanks for the generations of educators, families, and students who have shaped our story. This milestone calls us to continue living our mission to educate, celebrate, and inspire in truth and love – forming young people who reflect the face of God in all they do.

We especially thank our parents and carers for choosing Catholic education and entrusting us with the great privilege of partnering with you in your child’s learning and faith journey.

Thank you to all the parents, carers, and families who joined us on Tuesday to celebrate our Catholic Schools Week liturgy and visit our classrooms. It was a joyful day filled with community spirit and creativity as the children embraced our 90th anniversary theme – with some dressing as 90-year-olds, wearing the number 90, or representing the 90s or their favourite decade. The fun continued with a range of ‘olden days’ games, giving students a taste of the past through activities like elastics, hopscotch, marbles, pick-up sticks, jacks, Twister, hula hoops, yoyos, and dominoes. It was a wonderful celebration of learning, tradition, and joy.

90 Celebration Day

Save the Date - Corpus Christi Musical

Preparations have begun! All Corpus Christi students (k-6) will be part of the performance in our biennial school musical. Please mark in your calendars Wednesday September 24th.

All students will be required for a matinee (during normal school time) and an evening performance on this day. The musical will be performed in the school hall.

It will be a fantastic experience for all our students!

90 Years of Catholic Education Celebration

Staff, students and parents gathered together on Tuesday morning to give thanks and celebrate Catholic Schools Week 2025. Catholic Schools Week is celebrated across all schools in  Newcastle Maitland but our CCW celebration was extra special as we reflected on the history, values and community spirit that make our Catholic school such a treasure. The theme for Catholic Schools Week 2025 is Pilgrims of Hope. Hope is what keeps us moving forward, even when the path isn’t clear. Corpus Christi School has been moving forward together in Truth and in Hope for 90 years! With the Dominican Sisters educating students in the area from the late 1880s,  throughout this whole time, our school has stayed true to its Dominican values of prayer, learning, service, and community.

Students and staff enthusiastically dressed up for the day, following a theme of the number '90'. Our open classrooms were buzzing with students and families sharing learning. Students enjoyed time participating in games from the past including, marbles, pick up sticks, hopscotch elastics, twister, and more.

We look forward to our 90th anniversary whole school mass and morning tea on Thursday 19th June beginning at 9:30a.m. If you have not yet had a chance to RSVP, please see the flyer below to send it through. 

Catholic Schools Week Liturgy

Confirmation Congratulations

Congratulations to Harvey, Mia, Cara, Samuel, Tua, Deacon, Kynley and Neve on your Confirmation. These students have been participating in the Sacramental Program in preparation for receiving Confirmation. Bishop Michael presided over Confirmation in a very special ceremony last week. After the ceremony, Bishop Michael commented how joyful and happy the students were to be there. Thank you to the parents and sponsors for supporting these children to grow their faith through the Sacraments. 

Welcome to Our Pre-Service Teachers

For the final four weeks of the term, we are pleased to welcome two university pre-service teachers, Mr Jayden Duff and Mr Luke Young, who will be completing their practicum in Year 1. Both Jayden and Luke will be working alongside Mrs Conserdyne and Mr Deed, gaining valuable experience in the classroom.

At Corpus Christi, we value the opportunity to support future educators by providing them with meaningful learning experiences. We believe it is an important contribution to their professional journey, and we know they will benefit greatly from the expertise of our staff and the enthusiasm of our students.

We also look forward to welcoming pre-service teachers to Kindergarten and Year 5 in Term 3.

Family and Community Engagement (FACE)

We have now transitioned to a FACE (Family and Community Engagement) Forum model at our school, replacing our previous parent engagement structure. A survey has been sent to all families to gather feedback, gauge interest, and invite ideas to help shape the direction and focus of the FACE Forum moving forward.

The FACE Forum is designed to strengthen engagement between families, the school, parish, and wider community, with a shared goal of supporting students’ education and their growth in faith. It aims to:

• Promote Catholic identity and education

• Build a welcoming, inclusive school community

• Foster collaboration between families, staff, clergy, and parishioners

• Provide an educative and consultative space for families to engage with the school on spiritual, social, and academic matters

• Support family involvement in school life through events, discussions, and fundraising initiatives

Each year, the school will consult with families and the Parish Priest to shape FACE activities and priorities. This may include input on meeting formats, topics of interest, community events, and school improvement matters.

In the next week we will circulate a survey to gauge parent interest and engagement in an updated parent engagement forum format and ideas for input and further directioin.

Positive Behaviour for Learning - PB4L

Highway Heroes: Bullying and Straight Talk

This term, classes have been learning how to be a Highway Hero when it comes to experiencing or witnessing bullying. Children usually describe bullying as the obvious behaviours like name calling, putdowns, hitting and kicking. However, it is helpful to distinguish between Psychological and Physical Bullying, identify exactly what is occurring, and then choose the best HIGHWAY TOOL for dealing with it. 

It can be helpful to know that  bullying that occurs amongst girls and boys has some differences, although each are capable of Physical and Psychological Bullying. The following are the chief differences:

                             Help Your Child to Learn the STRAIGHT TALK Strategy
Straight Talk is a HIGHWAY TOOL that enables a child to successfully step up to Psychological Bullying, and also to social exclusion. Teaching your child Straight Talk involves discussing the differences between:
• Being verbally assertive and verbally aggressive.
• ‘Drama Llama’ talking and strong, calm talking.
• A tone of voice that is whiney or firm.
• Words that are blaming or clearly describe the behaviour.
• Delivering the message through the rumour-mill or directly to the bullyer.

Simply, Straight Talk involves directly approaching the bullyer, calmly describing the behaviour they’re engaging in, and assertively stating that it needs to stop. Straight Talk takes a lot of courage. Approaching someone to openly ‘call’ them on their behaviour is no mean feat for anyone – child or adult – and particularly if the bullying has been covert - and therefore unrecognised. Here are specific examples of bullying for which Straight Talk is effective:
Exclusion
• A group of friends who bunch up closely together leaving no space for a child to sit.
• The children who run away after they have said that they will play with the child.
• The child who ‘tells stories’ about another child to embarrass and isolate them.
Verbal
• The child who whispers something about someone, and then denies it was nasty.
• The child who pretends their comments about someone were innocent, and not
intended to be hurtful.

The Straight Talk steps are straight forward. Your child would benefit greatly from role playing them with you during the week. They are:
Step 1: Approach the bullyer.
Step 2: Calmly describe the unwanted behaviour

Step 3: Assertively say it needs to stop.

Sports Update

Congratulations to Ruby (Year 5) and Sam (Year 6) for proudly representing the Diocese this week as part of the Polding teams – Ruby for softball and Sam for AFL. A special mention also to Mr Deed, who coached the Polding AFL team, making it a Corpus Christi event in Blacktown this week! 

Uniform Shop

Uniform Shop is open every Friday from 8:30am-9am.

Online orders via Qkr! close at 8:00am each Friday and will be sent home with your child.

To keep costs low and provide this service to Corpus Christi families, all items are sold close to cost price. If you are available to volunteer on a casual or regular basis, please reach out to admin@waratah.catholic.edu.au.

Dates and Reminders